A brief history of the Order
The modern Masonic Order of Knights Templar derives its name from the original knights from the time of the Crusades set up to protect pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem. Their seal was symbolic of their vow of poverty showing two knights on a single mount.
The Cistercian Abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote a rule of order for the Templars that was based on the Cistercian Order's rule of conduct. It is from this that the knights adopted the white tunic of the Cistercians.
While the Templars were not permitted to own anything personally, there was no restriction on the Order as a whole. Therefore over many years the Templars rose from their humble beginnings to become very wealthy.
However, after two hundred years of defending the Christian faith, the Order met its demise when Philip IV of France infamously had the Templars arrested on October 13, 1307, and in 1312 the Order was officially dissolved by Pope Clement V.
The earliest reference to modern Masonic Knight Templar activity in England can be found in the minutes of the Royal Arch Chapter of Friendship in Portsmouth, dated 1778, where it was worked as an Appendant Degree.
The modern Masonic association with these medieval defenders of the Christian Holy Sites is linked by the ceremony of Installation, in which the Candidate takes the part of a Pilgrim who, by symbolically embarking on a Crusade, is elevated to Knighthood. The ceremony is very realistic and the regalia spectacular, based upon that worn by the Medieval Knights.
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