The Spiritual Heritage of the Knights Templar Essay

The Spiritual Heritage of the Knights Templar - Essay Example The spiritual realization that we keep in ourselves is often mediated through strong religious personalities likes Buddha, Jesus, Moses or Mohammad. The awareness that he have about these religious leaders shapes our cultural beliefs. The true spiritual heritage, though, is not contained only in the books, history, monuments of stone or culture, but also in the love and sympathy we share for each other. The Brotherhood of the Knights Templars was precisely a self-conscious group of people who attained spiritual immortality through their great human expressions and protections of the heritage. Their story is so powerful that transformed their order into admirable human temple. The order of the Knights Templar is surrounded by mysteries and legendary stories. The religious crusades in the Middle Ages caused turmoil among the successors to the throne in Europeans countries and created a battlefield of faith too. The order is synonymous with the crusades of the Middle Ages and the emerge nce of the Religious knights. What most people remember about the Knights Templar are not their achievements and accomplishments but their tragic decline on Friday the 13th, in October 1307. The Knights Templars were a military order which was established to defend Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem in 1118. Two decades after the victory of the First Crusade which took place between 1095 and 1099 a group of knights commanded by Hugues de Payens proposed the Patriarch of Jerusalem to serve as a military force (Dafoe 2009). The original group was said to consist of nine people who had to protect Christian pilgrims who were travelling to the Holy Land to visit the temples sacred to their faith. Between 1118 and 1120 King Baldwin II granted the military formation quarters in a wing of the Royal Palace on the Temple Mount (Dafoe 2009). This place was among the holy structures which were presented by the priests of Jerusalem as the Temple of Solomon. "The Poor fellow-soldiers of Jesus Christ" became "The Knights as the Temple of Solomon" and subsequently known as the Knights Templars. Cistercian abbot was the first greatest contributor, who in 1127 issued rules and promoted the Templars. By rule, the Templars were not allowed to own properties personally, however this restriction did not apply to the Order as whole. So, those who were not able to participate in the order gifted land and other valuables as a sign of respect and honor to the group. Over the decades the Templars converted their humble start into the wealthiest of the Crusading Orders. Eventually, they gained the favour of the Church and the majority of the European monarchs (Dafoe 2009). Although the Templars were considered as the most powerful medieval military force the warrior-monks faced their tragic demise in 1307 when King Philip IV of France had the knights arrested and their assets seized. This controversial and unexpected destruction of the order ensured that the history of the Templars would be enveloped in mythical speculations. The legendary group was said to be arrested under the motiva tion of blasphemy, heresy, and sodomy (Dafoe 2009). Jacques de Molay - the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and 60 of his senior knights were captured in Paris. After recanting the confession he made while being tortured, Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake in 1314. Generally, historians agree that the primary motivation of King Philip was greed rather than the genuine belief that the Templars were corrupt. Recent rediscovered Vatican archives showed that the Templars were innocent of the charges they were accused (Dafoe 2009). Over the centuries, the mystique around