Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici Hierosolymitanis

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, better known as Templars were a Catholic military order founded in 1119 AD. Their history is a thin line between mystery and the historical facts. To this day Knights Templars arouse the curiosity of every truth seeker out there. Noting is certain about them, except the fact that they existed and grew so powerful that the Pope and the French King had to ban them in order to secure their own authority.

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Their story begins in the 1119 AD when the French knight Hugues de Payens asked for permission from King of Jerusalem (Baldwin II) to create an order for the protection of the pilgrims. Along with the 8 other knights he founded the order and set up the headquarters in Temple Mount that they believed was build on the ruins of the Solomons Temple. After the Council of Troyes (read this as the Vatican) formally blessed them in 1129, they started to receive charity throughout Christendom. Money, lands, businesses, noble-born sons...

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It is believed that the Templars are the founders of the first banks. As they build their fortifications in many Holy Land cities, pilgrims could leave their treasure in one of them, they would receive a piece of paper with the insignia of the order and treasure worth. Upon arrival at the other city, they would be paid back the exact amount. There are also many
other things to mention about Templars, but one of them is the most important one, one of them is a true mystery.

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Temple Mount would be the headquarters of the Templar order for the next sixty-seven years until Jerusalem was captured by Saladin in 1187. During that time they carried out excavations in secret. It is believed that they did found something, something that made them powerful and rich to the unimaginable scales for that age. What did they found?
The Holy Grail? The Turin Shroud? The Spear of Destiny? The location of the last resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, believed to be buried somewhere in modern-day Ethiopia? Nobody will ever know for sure, but the fact is that after their return to Europe they were the most powerful organization in the world.

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We will continue this search for the Templar secret in the other parts of this story where I will talk about their golden days and the series of events that led to their downfall. Stay tuned.