On 27th November 1095, Pope Urban II summoned a council of clergy to Clermont, France. He urged Christians everywhere to rise up against Muslims in the Holy Land. One account of what Urban II said was “Let those who were once robbers rise up and become Knights”. The first Crusade left Europe in 1096. Urban II offered an ‘indulgence’ to anyone who participated in the Crusade. That meant that all crimes they committed or all debts that were owed would be forgiven by the Pope. It is for this reason that a large amount of the 1st Crusaders were criminals.

The Crusades had two goals; firstly to stop the Islamic incursion into Christian realms which was a pre-emptive strike on the Arab encroaching world. Secondly to take back Jerusalem.

The European Christians united with their Byzantine partners, they fought for three years and chased the Arabs back to the Middle East. They captured Jerusalem, and with Jerusalem in Christian hands again record numbers of Europeans began pilgrimages to the ‘Holy’ City. Most of the Crusaders who had taken the city had gone home so there wasn’t that much protection for the pilgrims. Beyond its city walls, it was a dangerous and lawless place.

The Knights Templar were allegedly formed in Jerusalem 1118 by nine French Knights. Hugues de Payens, a wealthy nobleman from the Champagne region of France and William Sinclair, became the co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. With Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, he created the Latin Rule, the code of behaviour for the Order.

Their official mission was to protect pilgrims on their journey to the Holy Lands during the Crusades. Baldwin II of Jerusalem, applied the name Knights Templar to them. Baldwin II gave them lodging in his palace built on the supposed ruins of King Solomon’s temple.

The word assassin has its origin in a group of Shia warriors that controlled Syria during the time of the early Crusades in the 11th Century. Their speciality was that they had perfected the art of killing. The sect was founded by Hassan-i Sabbah called the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’. Hassan-i Sabbah indoctrinated his devotee, telling them that if they fought and died for Allah they would live forever in paradise. He used the power of torture and murder to give his teaching, and to ensure complete discipline and devotion.

Hassan gave hashish to his disciples, to induce a feeling of invincibility into his men, before sending them on suicide missions. Hence the name assassin was derived from the word Hashshashin. By 1100 the assassins were said to number over 70 thousand fanatically dominated members. During the Crusades the Templars had contact, the Assassins, mainly fighting against them. After the Crusades, because of the enemies they had in common, the Assassins took refuge among the Templars. They impressed upon the Christian soldiers much of their fanatical ideas.

French families like the Blanchard’s and St. Bernards’ were interested in finding the treasure and knowledge of Solomon’s Temple. So they conquered Jerusalem and suddenly nine French Knights, representing the Cathars, showed up saying we want to form a new military order called the Knights of the Temple, who became the Knights Templar.

They were supposed to be guarding the roads, however they didn’t, they excavated under the Temple. And so the story goes that they found treasures and sent them back to France. They took it to the Languedoc region of France. The Treasure of Solomon was reunited and hidden away in the Rennes-le-Chateau. Whether or not Bérenger Saunière (1852 – 1917) actually found the treasure is open to debate. However, he did become suddenly wealthy.

It is clear to see that some of Knights Templar story aspects are not true. The notion that it was just nine of them to start with, overcame the Middle Eastern Armies, is preposterous. They were clearly financed by someone with a great deal of wealth and influence. The nine Knights would have been the representatives of the French Cathars.

If they fought in the Crusades there would have been thousands of them. They would have also needed someone powerful in Europe to allow them to set up their banking Empires. It is clear that a large amount of Templars fled to Scotland. Their influence is everywhere there from architecture to the cross on the Scottish Flag. Furthermore William Sinclair is said to have been one of the nine original Knights Templar, returning home to Scotland after the initial ‘great find’.

The temple of Solomon was said to have been built in the 1st century BC, it was built to house the arc of the covenant, the Ten Commandments and the secrets of Solomon known as the wisest of men. Though the original temple is destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC other holy structures continue to be built and rebuilt on the site. Including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Dome of the Rock.

Palestine is said to be a sacred area to Jews because that’s where Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. It’s sacred to Christians because that’s where Christ was crucified and it’s a sacred area to Muslims because that’s where Mohammad ascended to heaven. So three religions are vying for the same spot. The Templars occupied that spot for next 75 years.

Some people believe that Templars had found some great wealth and or knowledge that the Catholic Church would have done anything to have or suppress.

In 1867 a British archaeological team excavates under the temple mount. The team discovered tunnels from the al-Aqsa Mosque 25 metres deep then fanning out under the Dome of the Rock thought to be the biblical site of King Solomon’s Temple. Lieutenant Charles Warren of the Royal Engineers excavated the site and found relics thought to belong to the Templars.

The first written record of the Knights Templar founding wasn’t written until 70 years after their alleged good deeds took place. So their true origins are sketchy. For 8 or 9 years after their 1118 arrival in Jerusalem the Templars were not heard from. There was no written account of the Templars guarding the roads.

In 1127 the Knights found support from Bernard of Clairvaux, who had close ties to Templars. He was the nephew of one of the nine founding Knights of the Templars. From the Champagne region in France. Bernard convened the Council of Troyes, and sought out Papal recognition. Saint Bernard help translate the scriptures found in Jerusalem.

The founding families of the Knights Templar all claim descendancy from the high priest of the temple of Jerusalem.

By 1128 the order was given special protection by the Pope Honorius II. As the years wore on the Knights Templar set up offices (banks) in Christian countries. The Knights Templar were a tax exempt organisation and received donations from crusading pilgrims in exchange for protection to and from Jerusalem.

In 1139 Pope Innocent II through a Papal Bull, exempted the order from obey the local laws, this allowed the Templars to freely pass through all borders and avoid paying any taxes, to be exempt from all authority except the Pope.

There are a number of theories as to why the church granted such autonomy to the Knights Templar. One was that the Templars discovered extraordinary treasures and scrolls under the ruins of Solomon’s temple. It is not known what information was contained in the scrolls but the information was valuable enough for the church to want to keep it quiet. It could have been a variation on anything that happened within the approved cannons of the Bible.

While the Templars themselves were sworn to orders of poverty, they were also given control over great wealth. Those people who were interested in participating in the Crusades were given the option of placing all of their wealth under Templar management while they were away. This meant the Templars accumulated great wealth. This went way beyond the donation which they were also receiving.

1150, by the end of the Second Crusade, the Knights Templar discovered it was more lucrative to stay at home creating promissory notes rather than to go out and battle down in the Holy Lands. They devised a system that allowed pilgrims to travel without taking their wealth with them.

They generated letters of credit for people who were travelling to the Holy Land. Pilgrims deposited their possessions with their local Templar constabulary before they left for Jerusalem and in return they received a document indicating the value of their deposits, like a debit card. This letter of credit could then be used upon arrival in the Holy Land. The traveller would then receive their funds from the Jerusalem branch of the Templars. The travellers would then receive amounts of treasure for the same value as their deposits. This was an early form of banking.

Whatever the reason for the Templars huge privilege granted by the church, the Templars become extremely wealthy. They received many donations and by their various money dealings the order acquired large amounts of land in Europe and the Middle East. They began building churches and castles, they bought and managed farms, and vineyards. The worked in manufacturing and the importing and exporting of trade goods. At one point they owned the entire island of Cyprus.

An elaborate hierarchy was formed. Each country has a Templar master, overseeing the masters of each Templar headquarters. Ruling over all is the Templars Grand Master was elected for life. The Grand Master controls both the military movements in the east and oversees the Templar holdings in the west.

The Templar sites in Europe were businesses that helped support the Eastern war efforts. So the Templars in Europe were running farms, vineyards, tile factories, anything to make money. It was been suggested that only five percent of the Templar were actually fighting in the Crusades. The vast majority of Templars were part of the infrastructure that kept the Crusades going.

In 1187 in the Horns of Hattin, near Tiberias, beyond the Sea of Galilee, the Templars entered into a battle with Muslims led by Gerard de Ridefort. The Templars joined together with other Christian armies in all, there were approximately 2000 warrior. Their fight was against Saladin, the great Muslim leader and his armies. The Crusader leaders know they were at a disadvantage, they are outnumbered by Saladin’s armies. Saladin quickly overcomes the crusaders. It was their worst defeat in the Holy Land.

De Ridefort went against the other knight’s wishes who wanted to stay still, in their stronghold and wait for Saladin’s army to attack. Instead they marched toward Saladin’s forces in Tiberias. They marched without food and water all day. When they decided to make camp at Sephoria, Saladin’s army closed in around them. De Ridefort was captured and ransomed. Saladin took back Jerusalem a few months later.

Under Richard I of England ‘The Lionheart’ the Crusaders fought back and retook Jerusalem in 1229. In 1244 the Khwarizmi Turks take back Jerusalem and ended Christian rule over the Holy City. In 1291 the last Christian stronghold in Acre fell to the Muslims. The subsequent Crusades led by Louis the IX of France and Edward I of England were failures.

Even as the Templars businesses flourished in the west, the loss of the Holy Lands was devastating to Europe. The Templars lost their founding purpose.

Sixteen years pass and the new Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay (born 1243, Molay, Fr.—died March 19, 1314, Paris) tries to sure up support for another crusade. He went around to all the Crowned Heads of Europe in an effort to raise support, however, no-one was willing to send their armies. After nearly two hundred years of wars the Crusades were over.

In 1290, after Little Saint Hugh was discovered in a well having been a victim of Kabbalistic ritual sacrifice the Jews were expelled from England. They moved to France and loaned their money lending skills to the Knights Templar.

At their peak the Templars had about 1500 offices and churches spreading across England to Europe. With its centre of power located in France which was the heart of the medieval world.

In 1307 King Philip IV of France, who deeply in debt to the Templars, decided to denounce them as heretics. So with the consent of the Pope, Clement V, he started arresting the Knights.

On Friday 13th October 1307, hence the superstition of the day, Templar headquarter throughout France come under attack. Templars were arrested all over France. Jacques de Molay and twelve of his Knights were arrested after being lured to Paris. Templar leaders all over France were rounded up and charged with high crimes: Denying Christ, Spiting on the Cross, homosexuality and devil worship were some of the charges.

These charges were not uncommon. Philip had levelled the same charges on Pope Boniface VIII eight years earlier. Philip sought a Pope more in line with his agenda. Philip surrounded himself with the best civil lawyers and expelled the clergy from all participation in the administration of the law. With the clergy beginning to be taxed in France and England to finance their ongoing wars against each other, Boniface took a hard stand against it. In return Philip laid the charges against him.

De Molay, partitioned the Pope, Clement V, however he was headquartered in France, under the protection of Philip and was in no position to help. Bertrand de Got (Clement V) and Philip were childhood friends. Clement had been elected because Philip wanted him elected. He wasn’t allowed to be a Pope in Rome, under Philip’s orders, so he had to be a Pope in France. In 1309, he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. Clement V wrote a letter to Philip questioning the arrests but took no further action.

The Knights were put in the hands of the Inquisition. The Templars were tortured for five years. The tortures worked. Of 138 Templars tortured 105 denied Christ. A lot of the questioning was about what went on in a Templar initiation ceremony. The Templars were persecuted for performing rituals that were only allowed to be done by the church.

The Inquisitors extracted a confession of guilt by Jacques de Molay through torture. Two months later de Molay recanted the confession. The Inquisitor demanded that he confess again, this time in public, he refused. Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake.

Before he died de Molay, cursed the Pope and Philip saying may you both die within the year, they both did.

What is very significant about Philip’s raids was how little was found during them. Very little treasure or knowledge was actually taken by the King. It was as if the Templars were expecting something to happen so they made plans ahead of time. There were Templar offices all across Europe which Philip could not attack. While some French Templars were executed most of them fled to Spain, Scotland, and Switzerland where they were safe.

Any place in Europe that has the name Temple in it, is a former location of the Knights Templar.

The Templars operated a fleet of ships, a personal trade route for goods and passengers between the East and the West. Escape on these ships is very likely. They were the first multi-national company and the first western banking group. One thing is for certain, that when the Templars fell their entire shipping fleet vanished.

Of the hundred charges levelled against the Templars most were generic however there was one charge that was make exclusive against them. The Templars were accused of worshipping a head. Rumours persist as to what this meant; a bearded head, a three sided head, a talking head. That was an accusation unique to the Templars.

What was this mysterious head? Description differ as to whether it was a painting, a carving or a real human head. If it was a human head, that ties in with the belief that the saints bones carried sacred powers. Likewise anything used by the a saint, a challis, a piece of ‘the real cross’, the head of John the Baptist have all been suggested as artefacts owned by the Knights Templar.

A 12th century painting found on the wall of a Templar temple in Templecombe, England is said to depict the relic. The painting is of a disembodied head. The painting looks a lot like the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud as it is traditionally folded leaves only the head visible. The Shroud may have been just one of the many relics bought back from the Holy Land. They might have discovered it during the sacking of Constantinople in 1204 during the 4th Crusade.

What was it that Philip was looking for when he invade the Templars offices; was it the contents of the Templar banks, the treasure from the Temple of Solomon, or the priceless sacred relics like the Shroud of Turin, that they might have bought back from the Holy Lands? Whatever it was Philip never found it. There is little evidence the King gained anything from the arrests. While his debt to the Templars was wiped out, he didn’t solve Frances financial problems.

In an edict issued by Pope Clement V in 1312 he wrote that the Knights Templar was dissolved. The Pope decreed that most of the Templar land holdings be given to other religious orders, not to the King. Philip received some of the Templars wealth but only enough to cover the cost of his imprisonment and torture of the Templars.

When Philip broke into the Templar holdings he found very little. Not just in the way of personal but also goods. They found virtually no money, the records of the order seemed to have disappeared.

The Shroud of Turin showed up forty years after King Philip’s death in Lirey, in the Champagne region of France. It is said be owned by a French family, the de Charny family. Who were descendants of the original family of nine French Knights, of which the legend of the Templars began. Geoffroi de Charny, the Preceptor of Normandy, was burnt at the stake alongside with Jacques de Molay.

The orders were given on the 12th October 1307, which the Templars were to be raided and arrested on the 13th however word leaked out before so that and the majority of the Templars escaped. The prison tower of Chinon, in the Loire Valley of France was where the Jacques de Molay and the captured Templars languished for years.

On the walls prison are carved many symbols; hearts, Star of David, geometric patterns, grids have all been documented. There is no doubt they are connected to the Knights Templar. To this day they have never been deciphered by the common man. Many people have theorised about what they meant, were they instructions for the Templars who escaped? Do they discloses the location of their treasure?

Only an incredibly small number of Knights were captured in 1307, it has been speculated that it was not even a tenth of their membership. Most other countries besides France and England were not interested in trying the Templars and most that were tried were found innocent.

Of the thousands of Templars who remained free there is little record. In Portugal where the Templars remained free, they just changed their name to the Knights of Christ. In France where the majority of high ranking Templars were. Only 600 out of 3000 members were captured.

In the 1300’s, the Alps, were only sparely populated with farmers and shepherds. The Templars knew the area of what is now Switzerland very well. They had been using its trade routes for over a hundred years. Because of its hilly terrain and isolation it would have been an ideal safe place hide great treasures.

At about the same time the Templar order fell in France, three small regions in what is now known as Switzerland were gathering together to fight against their overload. Duke Leopold I of Austria wanted control of the St Gotthard Pass as a path to Italy. He sent 5000 heavily armed knights to secure the region. However an ambush was waiting, some 1500 peasants blocked the route and attacked from above. They beat the far larger force.

They became the most feared fighting force in Europe but before then there was no evidence there was anyone in the mountains other than farmers. The Swiss had no military experience until that point. Though the villagers obviously used their knowledge of the terrain to their advantage, some suggest they had another advantage. There are folk tales from the period saying armed white knights came to help them in the battles they fought.

Switzerland from that point on turned from a primitive rural area into seasoned soldiers and they forged communities. These communities involved banking, and engineering taking place.

The Swiss Flag and the Templars flag are the same with the colours reversed. One thing that sets Switzerland apart, and has from its inception, is just how secret it is. The banking systems that were set up in Switzerland are not like those in the rest of the world. This sort of secrecy makes them very similar to the Templars. Switzerland also supply the Swiss Guard for the Vatican and turn Swiss banks guard the Vatican’s wealth.

The Templars ships had docks all around Europe starting from the Holy Land. Documents from 1207 shows that the Templars were building their own fleet of ships. One report from 12th October 1307 has a fleet of eighteen ships anchored in La Rochelle off the coast of France. The next day they were gone. The Templars could have taken the fleet and their treasures almost anywhere.

A lot of Templars would have escaped to Scotland. There was little chance that the Scots would have honoured the order disbanding the Templars.

Is the flag of Scotland also a Templar symbol? It is commonly believed that The Knights Templar took to the seas and became pirates eventually settling in Scotland and then they emerged as Templars / Rosicrucian / Freemasons years later.

On 10th February 1306, Robert the Bruce killed John Comyn before the high altar of the Greyfriars Church in Dumfries. There are many reasons given for the killing but simplified it was to do with the ongoing claims to the Scottish throne. In 1306, Robert the Bruce was excommunicated by Pope Clement V who further decreed, that Scotland were no longer part of the Catholic Church, because the country didn’t rise up against Bruce.

Robert the Bruce declared war on England. In England at a time the Templars were being hunted down. In 1314 the Templars joined Bruce in his fight for independence. There is a long standing rumour about the battle of Bannockburn, the battle that saved the day for Bruce, involved a charge from the Knights Templar. The English army outnumbered the Scots three to one but lost the battle.

In Roslyn Castle, Scotland, on the estate of one of the world’s most powerful families, the Sinclairs (St Clairs) there are Templar like engravings. The Sinclair family were one of the first families to give land grants to the Templars after they came back from the Holy Land. Today many Sinclair descendants claim Templar ancestry.

Built in 1100’s, for two hundred years the Castle served as a repository for medieval knowledge. Roslyn was called a scriptorium where books were copied and translated, it was a centre of learning, and today it would be called a college.

In 1546 Mary of Guise, the Queen regent and mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, wrote a letter to William Sinclair of Roslyn. In the letter she makes reference to a great secret within Roslyn. This has been interrupted by some to mean great treasures and religious relic from the Holy Land, owed by the Knights Templar.

Most of the speculation surrounds an adjoining structure to Roslyn, the Sinclair family commissioned in 1446. Built by skilled stonemasons who are believed to be the forerunners to the Freemasons. Roslyn Chapel is covered in carvings, etchings, symbols and pictures. There are Templar symbols, Masonic symbols, pagan symbols and Christian symbols in the chapel. It is believe that the chapel marks a crypt were secret Templar and Masonic writings and treasures are buried.

It is known that the Templars had the navigational skills to take the treasure and escape anywhere. They travelled the length of the Mediterranean Sea, from there they travelled up to the Baltic Sea, they sailed up into the Black Sea. They sailed in the Arabian Sea, they sailed around Britain and Ireland. There is a fair chance they also sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.

One theory has the Templars turning their ships toward the New World. Following the Viking routes into the North Atlantic where island hopping would have always kept them within two hundred miles of land. From Scotland to Iceland to Greenland to North America.

They were drawn in part from the Normans. The Normans are always thought about as being French however the word Norman comes from Norseman. They were Vikings who had conquered parts of France centuries earlier.

Christopher Columbus’ voyages were funded Pope Innocent VIII.

The name America was bestowed on the Country in honour of Amerigo Vespucci. Deriving its name from Americus, the Latin version of Vespucci's first name. Amerigo Vespucci was born and raised in Florence. Vespucci’s was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts.

Columbus, appeared to have some Knights Templar maps, probably obtained through the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. It is likely that when the library of Alexandria was destroyed some its knowledge was transferred to Constantinople.

Columbus’ father-in-law was a knight, he was a sailor in some groups that had come down from the Knights Templar. This could be how Columbus got his hands on the ancient maps. Columbus’ writing contained symbols that were similar to the writings of the Knights Templars.

Christopher Columbus was related to Henry Sinclair. Columbus’ family through his wife’s family, were related through a couple of marriages to John Drummond who married Prince Henry Sinclairs Granddaughter. In Ruggero Marino’s book ‘Christopher Columbus, the Last Templar’ Marino explains that Columbus may have been the son of Pope Innocent VIII. The Pope funded more of Columbus’ trip to the New World than the King and Queen of Spain.

Columbus studied a collection of writings and maps from the Vatican, access of which was granted Pope Innocent VII who was Columbus’s true father. Innocent VII whose own father was Jewish and his grandmother was Muslim, was the perfect individual to further the Templars plan to create a universal religion combining the spiritual religion of the three faiths.

The idea that Columbus accidentally stumbled onto the New World were part of a calculated cover up. While King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella are heralded with Columbus discovering of America it was Innocent VIII who was the main sponsor and mastermind of the expedition. To obscure the purpose of the voyage and give Spain the credit for the New World discovery, Ferdinand hid the information. Pope Alexander VI initiated the disinformation, which has lasted for over five hundred years.

On Pope Innocent’s tomb in St Peter Basilica there is an inscription the translated means during his Pontificate “the glory of the discovery of the New World” took place. Pope Innocent died in July 1942, this three months before Columbus set sail. So why is this inception on his tomb? It is believed that many people of the Old World knew about the New World but they didn’t want to give up the big secret.

On 29th May 1453, the Old World changed when the Ottoman Turks blocked the road to the East. Enterprising Venetians decided to travel West in hopes of discovering another route. This led to the powers at the time, The Pope deciding that it was time the New World was discovered. This is why the story of Christopher Columbus was put into place.

The Piri Reis map was probably a map drawn by the ancient Phoenicians. It was then kept in the Library of Alexandra. From there it was transported to Constantinople where it was found by the Knights Templar. They then handed it over to the Vatican, where Columbus found it in the archives.

The masonic guilds adopted the Templars as their own. They incorporated Templar tradition into their own secret ceremonies. This has blurred the line between Templars and Freemasonry although it’s possible they are one in the same.

The symbol of the Skull and Bones is derived from the Knights Templar, whose symbol was the Skull and Bones. The Skull & Crossbones come from the Chi-Rho, ancient symbol who meaning is more akin to rebirth. The original Templars were Norman’s blood product of Franks and Vikings. The Skull & Crossbones being a Templar symbol, making pirates who flew the Skull & Crossbones most likely Templars.

The Templars who fled to Spain and Portugal, joined new orders, and helped make Spain and Portugal into the vast seafaring nations they became. The Portuguese Infante D. Henrique known as Prince Henry ‘The Grand Navigator’ was a member of the Knights of Christ. The Military Order of Christ, previously the Order of the Knights of Our Lord Jesus Christ, was the former Knights Templar order as it was reconstituted in Portugal after the Templars were abolished on 22 March 1312.

Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan’s ships all flew sales with Knights Templar logo on them. This would partly be because Columbus expected to find Knights Templar members in the New World.

Evident in the numerous masonic lodges that sprung up around the trade roots. The Skull & Cross Bones in piracy also a symbol in freemasonry. Both Masons and pirates received the symbol from the same place; The Knights Templar.

The Rosicrucian’s were an order that combines ancient beliefs with Christianity. It is not known whether they were foundered independently from the Knights Templar, however, evidence is pretty strong that they were an offshoot of the Templars, anyway at some point these two groups were merged and became one. After the Templars were abolished The Rosicrucians became the key vehicle by which occult teachings were spread throughout Europe.

The Freemasons, started when the Rosicrucians merged with the stonemason guilds of Europe. From 1640’s onward as the construction of Grand Cathedrals declined and masons concentrated less on stonework and more on occult teachings.

Columbus did not discover anything, the Vikings arrived in North American 500 years earlier. Manly P Hall the most prolific masonic writer of all time wrote a book in 1944 called ‘The Secret Destiny of America’. In it, he confirms that the ‘Old’ World knew about the ‘New’ World for thousands of years. Columbus sailed to the ‘New’ World sponsored by Rosicrucians. The Ships used by Columbus were adorned with the emblem of the Knights Templar.

The word city refers to the City of London, the independent state within London. It has been the financial capital of the world since the days of the Knights Templars. 800 years ago the Templars built the crown temple church there made it their home and England financial establishment grew up around it. You can find the similar Templar Red Cross on the Cities Coat of Arms. The Cross of St George as it is known also appears on the Union Jack.

The Washington monument was dedicated to George Washington by the Freemasons of the District of Columbia. The Freemasons laid the cornerstone of the Washington monument in 1848. 250 masonic lodges contributed to the cost of the Washington Monument, including The Knights Templar masonic order.

The Council on Foreign Relations was formed in 1921, its creators were Coronel Mandel House and John Foster Dulles. The CFR logo and the emblem of the Knights Templars are strikingly similar.

In 1944 Otto Skorzeny led a battalion of SS Troops into Southern France, working on the known journals and notes of a German named Otto Wilhelm Rahn who had been to Rennes-le-Chateau a number of times during the 1920’s and 30’s. Working close with Heinrich Himmler, Skorzeny felt like they knew where the treasure was and on 16th March 1944, the Germans invade Southern France.

On 16th March Skorzeny’s team send a one-word telegram back to Berlin saying “Eureka”. They’d found it, the greatest secrets of the world were now in the hands of the Nazi’s. They took it back to Berchtesgaden. It was taken out of there during an operation called Eagle Flight. This was instigated in August 1944 by IG Farben, and the head of the German Central Bank and Martin Bormann.

The Templars never really went away, they just went underground. Today you can see their influence in the modern world with their red cross adorning many things. The flag of Switzerland, the catholic Pope and their churches are steeped in their symbolism. The Templar emblem is shown on the City of London crest. It is shown on the Order of the Garter, the Knights Hospitalet and in the International Red Cross organisation. The Knights of Malta are an off shoot of the Templars and display the Templar cross. Their sun bust decorates churches worldwide and is seen in the emblem of the Jesuits who were also a major offshoot of the Templars.