Why Did The Knights Templar Disappear?

Are you familiar with the Knights Templar? Did you know that there is another category of Christians? The reason for their disappearance. Did you know that?

We have taken our curiosity a step further in order to find answers to these questions and satisfy your curiosity. For a preview, here is a brief overview. Remember this:

The Knights Templar were the Pope's army and represented an important center of power due to their military strength, their strategic domination in Europe, particularly in France, and above all their enormous wealth, which made them the most important banking system in the world. This is why a king determined to assert his absolute authority had to put an end to the Order of the Temple.

Discover in this article:

• The reason for the creation of the order
  
• The initial role of the Knights Templar
  
• The reasons for the disappearance of the Knights Templar
  
• The Knights Templar of America
  

If you want to deepen your knowledge and learn more about the Knights Templar, here are several articles that might interest you:

• The meaning of the Templar cross
• Do the Knights Templar still exist?
• Discover Templar jewelry

The sudden end of the Knights Templar

It was not the holy war that put an end to the Knights Templar, but a more earthly war. The order fell victim to the power struggle between Philip IV of France and the papacy. The monarch's ambition and fanaticism triggered a dark process that led to the dissolution of the Temple. The disaster of Acre and the withdrawal of the Christians from Cyprus, completed in August 1291, were a shock to Rome.

Pope Nicholas IV was forced to act and put on the table the recovery of the Holy Land, but also the unification of the military orders. The failure to defend the Holy Places finally convinced the pontiff that the rivalry between the Templars and the Hospitallers had to end and that their resources had to be used more effectively in the military mission in the Latin East.

A convulsed panorama

When the Mamluks dealt the final blow to the last Christian strongholds in the Holy Land, the military orders did not expect anyone to come to their rescue. At that time, Europe had other priorities. England and France were at war in Aquitaine, Germany had no emperor and the papacy feared losing its influence in Sicily. For the same reason, Molay did not obtain the firm commitment of the European monarchs and Pope Boniface VIII to the crusade cause.

His chances were further reduced when the pontiff was beset by problems after becoming embroiled in a bitter dispute with the French king, Philip IV the Fair. What was initially a dispute over the collection of taxes from the French clergy became one of the greatest conflicts between the temporal and spiritual powers of the Middle Ages.

The crown and the papacy engaged in a war of slander and bulls that lasted seven years and culminated in the threat of excommunication of the French sovereign and the forced captivity of the pontiff at his court in Anagni, Italy. Boniface VIII was finally released, but he was so distraught that he died shortly afterwards, at the beginning of the 14th century.

A truncated reform

Neglected, the Knights Templar fought alone in an attempt to reconquer the Holy Land. They occupied the island of Aruad, off the Syrian coast, but the Mamluks expelled them again two years later. This setback prompted Molay to focus his efforts on trying once again to convince England and France to launch the crusade. But Edward I had to quell a revolt in Scotland, and Philip IV made it a condition that France be given priority in the expedition and that he himself play the leading role.

The demands of the French monarch backed the other European kingdoms into a corner and the venture was put on the back burner. The Templars were also unlucky in Cyprus, where King Henry II regarded with suspicion the order's claim to use his estates as a center of operations.

Clement V reopened the debate on the reform of the military orders and the organization of the crusade.

Having regained a degree of calm, Clement V was able to reopen the debate on the reform of the military orders and the organization of the crusade. Jacques de Molay opposed the idea of unification, arguing that the rivalry between the orders had been beneficial to Christianity, since both competed to defend it better. He also warned that unification would lead to quarrels within the orders, as many officers would lose their posts.

In reality, the grand master's refusal was due to other fears. The identity of the Temple would be diluted in the new order and, even worse, it could be exploited by the civil authorities, a more than likely risk given the vehement position of Philip IV regarding the crusade. Molay could not have known it at the time, but if he had accepted and accelerated the merger of the orders, perhaps he and his brothers would have been saved from their tragic fate.

On the king's tail

Clement V protested to Philip IV and reprimanded the inquisitor for acting without his consent. He claimed that he had heard the rumors against the order and that he intended to launch his own investigation, a dubious allegation, since he had done nothing about it. Feeling powerless, the pope tried to take control of the situation. He ordered all the Catholic kings to arrest and interrogate the Templars, but his request was met with some delay in England and Aragon.

Distrustful of Philip IV's intentions, the monarchs Henry I and James II did not believe the accusations against the Templars, an order to which they entrusted a large part of the administration of their kingdoms. Meanwhile, in France, Clement sent a delegation to Paris. Jacques de Molay and the other high officials of the order took the opportunity to retract their statements, claiming that they had made them out of fear of being tortured.

The pontiff was not convinced of the order's guilt and suspended the inquisitorial process in order to personally question the Knights Templar.

Philip IV did not back down and launched a campaign of misinformation against the Temple and the pope, as he had done in his time with Boniface VIII. He obtained the legal support of the University of Paris and of the public of the three estates of his kingdom at the Estates General, meeting in Tours.

The necessary victims

The papal investigation extended throughout Europe and even to the East. In Portugal, Castile, Aragon, Germany, Italy and Cyprus, the Templars were declared innocent. In France, on the other hand, many diocesan commissions were led by bishops who were loyal to Philip IV and considered the previous confessions valid.

However, they limited themselves to condemning the repentant culprits to various canonical punishments, including life imprisonment. Those who tried to defend the order before the pontifical commission were less fortunate, as they retracted their statements. Philip IV's ministers could not consent to the discovery of the iniquity of the first interrogations of the Knights Templar, conducted by the inquisitor under the dictates of Nogaret.

They told the Archbishop of Sens, brother of the king's chamberlain and highest authority in the diocese of Paris, that he should accuse the Templars of being recidivist heretics. As the penalty for recidivism was death by fire, the archbishop had 54 of them burned. The result was as expected: the other Knights Templar refused to speak in favor of the order or decided to plead guilty.

The pope made a Solomonic decision in his bull: he did not condemn the order, but dissolved it. In October 1311, the council convened by Clement V began in Vienna to decide the future of the order. It was explained that the guilt of certain Templars, even if it was obvious, did not imply that of the order as a whole. It was also not possible to prove that the Temple professed any heretical doctrine or that its rules were secret or different from the official rules.

The history of the Order of the Knights Templar

Jacques de Molay was a French nobleman and the last Grand Master of the Order of the Temple since its foundation in 1118. He was the great reformer of the order, governing it from 1292 to 1314. The Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, also known as the Order of the Temple, was a powerful Christian military order of the Middle Ages. It operated for over two centuries.

Although its original mission was to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land during the Crusades, it quickly became a new army in the service of the Church, being the advance force in key battles of the Crusades. In 1177, at the Battle of Montgisard, 500 Knights Templar helped defeat Saladin's army of more than 25,000 soldiers.

Officially approved by the Catholic Church in 1129, it quickly grew in power and membership to become an equally revered and hated institution. The order was one of the first forms of money lending that existed, creating financial networks and a lending system that quickly made them rich. In addition, they were entrusted with the safekeeping of many sacred objects in order to protect them from enemy incursions. The economic aspect of the Knights Templar was one of the main causes that led to their disappearance.

Jacques de Molay joined the Knights Templar in 1265. After almost 30 years of turmoil, he became the Grand Master. During his term of office, the power of the Knights Templar grew even stronger, which marked the beginning of the end. During his first years at the head of the Order, he organized multiple expeditions against the Muslims and managed to enter Jerusalem by defeating the Sultan of Egypt, Malej Nace. His great personal defeat came in 1300 when he was defeated while trying to recapture the city of Tartus on the Syrian coast.

The Order: an army of kings

The Order's archives have also disappeared. The treasure was probably hidden away in a secret place and never left France, as it was an important legacy of the Templar tradition, an essential witness when the heretical brotherhood within the Temple had managed to reorganize itself into a new secret society. But where was the fleet? The 18 galleys?

From this point of view, the king's move is more than understandable. But if Philip thought he could finally get his hands on the Temple's treasure and its fleet, he was wrong. Both had disappeared. Disappeared. In addition to the numerous European mentions, the Order had important ports in the north and south of France, such as the port of Boulogne, Marseille or Sète, which made it possible to maintain contact with England.

These were important places for trade with the Mediterranean regions and for the transportation of pilgrims to the Holy Land. There were also Templar ports in Spain and Italy. The Order's ships were particularly sought after because they were equipped with an armed escort. This was essential at a time when poor pilgrims leaving for the Holy Land were sometimes sold by the ship's captain as slaves to the highest bidder. The Templars' trade in fabrics, porcelain, wine, glass and spices was flourishing.

In the Holy Land, the Templars brought weapons and men and bought oriental products. Their customers settled in the British Isles and in the German cities of the Hanseatic League. And this is where the French port of La Rochelle comes in. La Rochelle was located in a natural bay and, consequently, in an excellent position to defend itself against enemy attacks. In addition, six major roads from the city of La Rochelle crossed France and allowed for the rapid distribution of goods throughout the country. In La Rochelle, there was an important mention of the Order of the Temple, the city was at that time very populated, a major center of commerce.

The lists of Templars who escaped arrest

In 1307, after the arrest of the French Templars, the commander of La Rochelle, Guillaume de Liège, 80 years old, handed over his commandery to the king to escape torture. But not the ships, which were far from port. The dignitaries of the Order were probably warned in good time of the king's imminent arrest. As timely and secret as Philip's maneuver was, the Order had the best informants. We also know of the existence of two lists that bear witness to the escape of several dignitaries of the Order before the arrests.

The Knights Templar knew this and sailed their ships at the most opportune moment, without being noticed. The commander of La Rochelle certainly has no lack of resources. Until 1628, the fateful year when Cardinal Richelieu ordered the destruction of the city to punish the Huguenots, La Rochelle was the richest port in Europe. But the cardinal's siege and the terrible fire that ensued razed the city to the ground and 25,000 inhabitants lost their lives. Today's La Rochelle is the result of the reconstruction ordered by Richelieu after the massacre.

The question is: where did the Templar fleet go? The Templar Jean de Chalon, from the diocese of Troyes, claimed to have seen with his own eyes, on the night of October 12, three hay carts leaving the Parisian citadel of the Temple with horses, crates full of goods, dignitaries, heading for the coast. They were awaited there by ships that would transport men, horses and goods abroad. What was the destination of the 18 galleys? Throughout Europe, the Knights Templar had possessions and commands. The trail of the Knights Templar in Portugal is very heavy.

The Knights Templar in America

Some researchers have even gone further. They note that the port of La Rochelle is a strategic starting point for sailing outside Europe and that the Templar ships may have reached the American continent. Almost two hundred years before Christopher Columbus. This would explain the large amount of money that the Order always had at its disposal. Money that would have come from the mines of Mexico.

The idea is not absurd. It is likely that the Vikings, during their daring voyages, had also reached America, and it cannot be ruled out that other ancient peoples had done so before them.

The question then arises, do the Knights Templar still exist? We invite you to find out in our Blog on the Knights Templar.

The mysterious disappearance of the Templar ships

As you will have gathered, the Knights Templar were the right-hand men of popes and kings alike. But on October 13, 1307, King Philip the Fair, in a spectacular act of police brutality, had all the Knights Templar in France arrested. For some time, his greedy eye had been on the Order's wealth. The refusal to repay a sum of money lent exacerbated his bitterness towards the so-called bankers of Europe. Too powerful, these knights in white cloaks, too influential for an ambitious king, no longer exist.

With the help of the above information, you should have a better understanding of the disappearance of the Knights Templar. If anyone asks you, you will be able to help them on this subject. To expand on what we have said, we have an article that gives a little more information on the existence of the Knights Templar.