December 5

About the Templar Knights:

The Templars were tortured and confessions were given. These confessions included:
Trampling and spitting on the cross
Homosexuality and Sodomy
Worshipping of an idol named Baphomet

The Knights Templar first came about in about 1118, and were created by Hugh de Payens. They offered themselves to the Patriarch of Jeruselum and were set to protecting Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. This was after the First Crusade where Jeruselum was taken back from Muslim hands. The Templars thrived only on alms given to them by the pilgrim travelers.

For the first nine years, the Order consisted of only 9 knights, maybe due to their strict rules of chastity, poverty, and obedience. But all this would change after the Cistercian abbott, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a letter entitled "In Praise of the New Knighthood". This letter swept throughout the Christian kingdoms and noblemen of all sorts came to join the Templar Knights. Once they began gaining popularity, the Knights also began receiving gifts from the public which made them incredibly rich and powerful. Since the Templar's were not permitted to own much of anything themselves, they instead turned the gifts and land given to them over to the holdings of the total Order, which made them equally incredbily wealthy.

Little Known Fact:

The Templar's created the modern day banking service

- Each pilgrim turned their money into a post branch on the way to the Holy Land, and was given a password by a Knight. If they needed money on the way, all they had to do was give the password to a Knight and receive the amount of money they desired. (Of course the total amount they could withdraw was equal to that they originally put in at the first post)


The Grand Master

The Grand Master was the supreme authority of the Templar Order and answered to none save the pope. Once elected to the office, the Grand Master served for the remainder of his life. In several cases that lifetime was cut short. Several Grand Masters were killed in battle, showing that the position was far more than an administrative one.
While each country had its own Master, the Grand Master was above each of them. In addition to overseeing military operations, the Grand Master was also responsible for the business dealings of the Order.