To understand anti-Masonic claims surrounding the Knights Templar, one must first understand that there are two separate matters in discussion:
 | the first involves Freemasonry's connection with the Knights Templar of the Crusades; |
| the second surrounds the Masonic organization which today is known as the Knights Templar. |
The Templars - A VERY Brief Synopsis
The theory that Freemasonry originated in the Holy Land during the crusades and was instituted by the Knights Templar was initially advanced by one person!
Chevalier Ramsey was an extraordinary figure of his day (born about 1680). A man with a great literary reputation, he was a tutor to royalty and ostensibly a Freemason although the details of his membership are somewhat obscure. In 1737, Ramsay, identified as 'Grand Orator' (although there was no such position in that Grand Lodge at that time), delivered a discourse before the Grand Lodge of France in which he set forth his theory in explicit terms. Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia says this: "Rejecting all references to the Traveling Architects from Como, to the Stone Masons of Germany, and the Operative Freemasons of England, he had sought a noble and chivalric origin for Freemasonry, which with him was not a confraternity founded on a system of architecture, but solely on the military prowess and religious enthusiasm of knighthood." Other writers, both Masons and non, have continued to attempt to make the same connection through this very day. It is one, however, with no provable basis, save conjecture." (Masonicinfo Note: A popular book is one by John J. Robinson "Born in Blood" on this very topic. Robinson was not a Freemason when he wrote but later became one based on what he had found after examining the claims of anti-Masons! You can find more information about this in our 'Books' area. It's a good read although certainly not definitive!)
Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia also adds, "This theory of Templar origin which, mythical as it is and wholly unsubstantiated by the authority of history, has exercised a vast influence in the fabrication of advanced Degrees and the invention of Continental Rites."
It should be understood that in the 17th through 19th centuries, proof of
antiquity generated credibility. In this climate, it was only natural that Freemasonry -
like many, many other organizations of its time - sought to 'create' such links,
tenacious as they were. (A common claim of the day was that an organization
could be linked to early Egypt, for example, and some went so far as to claim
descent from the Garden of Eden!)
It was the mindset of the time and the further back a linkage was established (even if unsubstantiated by actual fact), the better. For this reason, all entities at that time sought connections to Biblical days (or earlier!!!) so as to provide credibility for themselves and their members. This simple fact is often overlooked as anti-Masons today ignore the reality and use the convenient. The claims of antiquity were quite common at the time Freemasonry began - and, in fact, the earliest 'exposures' of Freemasonry and many other organizations sought to discredit such claims as a way of undermining the group itself.
In our current politically-correct climate, the Knights Templar - both of old and new stripe - are sometimes demonized by anti-Masons for several things including (but not limited to):
| the death and destruction they caused in the Crusades (which of course ignores the fact that they fought to keep alive the Christianity which those anti-Masons now enjoy in a free society); |
| supposedly occult or pagan rituals (based either on hearsay from other anti-Masons or from anti-Templar material promulgated as the Catholic Church as it sought to bring the Templars 'to heel', fearing that their power and the respect in which they were held by the populace would ultimately bring down the Papacy); |
| "confessions" made by Templars, given while being tortured (or the later 'revealed' confessions made public by the Inquisition); |
| the complete and total disappearance without a trace of the medieval organization (fueling speculation of conspiracy theories still rampant some 600+ years later and assuming that the organization had a huge membership unlike the reality of barely a couple of hundred!) |
| the requirement in the current Knights Templar organization that a member shall defend the Christian faith which, in a delicious irony is criticized by anti-Masons as wrong since Freemasonry is not a religious organization - although they often portray it as such! |
The true nature of the ancient Knights Templar may never be fully understood and the connection to Freemasonry will likely always remain unsubstantiated. Because of Chevalier Ramsay, however, it is now a part of Masonic heritage.
If you're really fascinated by the Templars 'stuff', you really should check out Steven Dafoe's web site. Click on the graphic below to head there. You'll be pleased you did! (And while you're there, you may want to head to his Templars Bookstore as well: excellent reading!)
And be sure to watch for Dafoe's upcoming book (2008) - "Nobly Born". We think it'll be just terrific!
For some other "Tall Tales", you can also read these:
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