Knights Templar (Freemason degree)

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This page is about a Masonic organization. For the medieval Knights Templar, see Knights Templar, and for other uses, please see Templar.

The full title of this order is The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta.

Knights Templar is an international philanthropic Masonic order affiliated with Freemasonry. In the mid 1700s the Freemasons began to incorporate symbols and traditions of the medieval Knights Templar. The original medieval Order of Knights Templar was established after the First Crusade, and existed from approximately 1118 to 1312. There is no known historical evidence to link the medieval Knights Templar and Masonic Templarism. Masonic Knights Templar organizations also claim no direct link to the original medieval organization.^[1]

1 Description
2 Templar traditions
3 See also
4 References
5 Notes
6 External links
- 6.1 Masonic Knights Templar organizations

[edit] Description

Knights Templars meet in Preceptories or commanderies and dependant on the masonic jurisdication may be attached to craft lodges or other appendant bodies.

Membership in the Order is open to Master Masons of Christian faith (in some jurisdictions, the order is also open to those of other faiths who are willing to swear to defend the Christian faith) and who have been exalted into a Holy Royal Arch Chapter. Some jurisdications also require membership in a Cryptic Masons Council, although this is optional in others.^[1]

As in all Masonic organizations, membership requires that the candidate be of sound moral character, have an exemplary reputation, and believe in a Supreme Being. The Knights Templar have the additional requirement that the candidate be a professing Christian.

A commonly used test is as follows:

1) Do you solemnly declare, upon your honor, that in seeking admission to this Valiant and Magnificent Order of Christian Knighthood you are actuated by no mercenary or other unworthy motive?

2) If called upon to draw your sword in a religious cause, will you give preference to the Christian Religion?

3) Does your conscience accuse you of any crime, unrepented of, which would render you unworthy of becoming member of an Institution founded upon the Christian Religion and the practice of the Christian Virtues?

[edit] Templar traditions

Despite Freemasonry's general disclaimer that no one Masonic organization claims a direct heritage to the medieval Knights Templar, certain degrees and orders are obviously patterned after the medieval Order. These are best described as "commemorative orders" or degrees. Nevertheless, in spite of the fraternity's official disclaimers, some Masons, non-Masons and even anti-Masons insist that certain Masonic rites or degrees originally had direct Templar influence.

American Masonic youth organizations such as the Order of DeMolay for young men are named after the last Grand Master Templar Jacques de Molay who was executed in the final suppression of the Templar order in the early 1300s.
The Knight of Rose-Croix Degree in the "Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite", and honorary Orders like the Royal Order of Scotland are interpreted as evidence of a historical Templar-Masonic connection, though there is no factual basis for this belief.
Legends in certain degrees pertain to the involvement of Knights Under the command of Sir John De Bermingham, First and Last Earl of Louth aiding the excommunicated 14th Century Scottish King Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn; however this is based on 18th century romance and is not supported by any evidence. This story is the basis for the degrees in the Royal Order of Scotland an invitational Masonic honorary organization.
Templar connections have also been suggested through the Earls of Rosslyn (St. Clair, or Sinclair) a family with well documented connections with Scottish Freemasonry, one being a Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
Many other old and new organizations are called "Knights Templar". However, organizations like the Order of the Solar Temple, Militi Templi Scotia,or the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem are in no way related to Masonic Knights Templar, and share no relationship in either history, hierarchy, nor ritual.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

The History Channel, Decoding the Past: The Templar Code, 2005, video documentary
The History Channel, Mysteries of the Freemasons, 2006 video documentary
Sean Martin, The Knights Templar: History & Myths, 2005. ISBN 1-56025-645-1