About the Order

The Order of the Temple

Order of the Temple
(click image to enlarge)There is no known historical evidence to link the medieval Knights Templar to the Masonic Knights Templar organisations, but the Regalia and the Precepts follow closely those of the original Order of Knights.

The Masonic ceremony follows the journey of a pilgrim seeking to join the Order and contains many historical references to the Crusading Knights.

Further historical information is available after the Regalia section below.

The Order of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta

Order of Malta
(click image to enlarge)Once a Knight is a member of the KT Order he is eligible to join the Masonic Order of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, and thereby become a member of the United Orders. Prior to receiving 'the Malta degree', a short introductory degree of Knight of St Paul is conferred, based on the history of St Paul and his journey to the island of Malta. Candidates for the Knights of Malta are then given 'the Mediterranean pass' so that pilgrims might distinguish one another from those who tried to bar their passage to the Holy Land. The main Malta ceremony takes place in a Chapter House of the Order, and during the ceremony, the history of the Order is explained, including the merger with the Order of the Knights Templar and their arrival at Malta in 1530.

Maltese Cross
(click image to enlarge)The Order of the Knights of St John was originally founded in Jerusalem during the first Crusade by the association of Knights with St John's Hospital, an establishment founded in 1048 for the relief of Pilgrims visiting the Holy Lands. They later founded what is perhaps their most well known memorial, The Hospital of St John at Valetta in Malta, which is still able to be visited and viewed today.

Each KT Preceptory has a Knights of Malta Priory attached to it, but not all Priories carry out the full Malta ceremony themselves. All Knights are eligible to take their Malta degree at the annual Provincial Priory meeting held in September. There are separate meetings of Great Priory each year, currently held in Birmingham, for the Knights Templar and the Malta Orders in May and November respectively.

Regalia of the Order

The somewhat elaborate regalia is based on the dress worn by the Crusaders. The Knights Templar wear a white tunic faced with a red Cross Pattée, together with a white mantle and a red cap, each also bearing a cross, and also wear a jewel, star, and sash.

In the Order of Malta a red tunic, black mantle, and a black cap is worn, each bearing a white Maltese Cross, also together with a separate Malta jewel. A Knight of Malta can generally use KT Regalia, minus the KT specific items of the sash, star, and KT jewel.

The common items of regalia shared between the two Orders are plain black cotton gloves (or black leather gauntlets), a belt and frog, and a lightweight ceremonial sword, not a two-handed arming sword as was in general use among the Crusaders. The badges and jewels indicate the rank of the Knight wearing them.

History of the Knights Templar

Templar Seal
Pauperes Commilitones Christi
et Templi Salomonis
Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ
and the Temple of Solomon
(click image to enlarge) The original medieval Order of Knights Templar was established after the First Crusade, and existed from approximately 1118 to 1312, to protect the pilgrims travelling between Europe and the Holy Land. They took a vow of poverty (which was rare for knights) and had to supply themselves with a horse, armour and weapons. Their seal shows two knights on one horse to show how poor they were.

The Order became a favoured charity throughout Christendom, and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. Due to their unselfish defence of the Holy Land and their monastic vows, they amassed great wealth through gifts from their grateful benefactors. Since the Knights had taken a vow of poverty, they re-invested the money and non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building many fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land. They soon had an army and a fleet of ships as well as surplus money.

The Templar's existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumours about the Templar's secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philippe IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure from King Philippe, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the "Templar" name alive into the modern day.

In 2002, a document known as the "Chinon Parchment" was found in the Vatican Secret Archives. It is a 700-year old record of the trial of the Templars and shows that Pope Clement V absolved the Templars of all heresies in 1308 before formally disbanding the Order in 1312. It is currently the Roman Catholic Church's position that the medieval persecution of the Knights Templar was unjust; that there was nothing inherently wrong with the Order or its Rule; and that Pope Clement was pressured into his actions by the magnitude of the public scandal and the dominating influence of King Philippe IV.

History of the Masonic Order of the Temple

The earliest Speculative Freemasons were probably all Christians as a matter of course. Although the 'Constitutions' of 1723 and 1738 opened the door of English Freemasonry to "all Good Men and True" who were not "stupid atheists", in the 1740's specifically Christian Masonic Rites began to appear in France, and possibly in England also.

For the most part these Rites were 'chivalric', and by the 1770's vestiges of the Templar-Malta ceremonies had reached England. These were originally worked as a single Degree, possibly in association with others with which we are familiar today, and the ceremonies took place in 'Encampments' derived from Royal Arch Chapters under the Grand Lodge of the 'Antients'. In 1791, probably seven (there is some doubt about the precise number) of these Encampments joined together to form a Grand Conclave under the rule of Thomas Dunckerley.

After the union of the 'Antients' and the 'Moderns' in 1813, the Duke of Sussex became Grand Master, but it was only after his death in 1843 that the Orders flourished with renewed vigour. Although 'Encampments' later became known as 'Preceptories', and the 'Grand Conclave' changed its name to 'Great Priory', the latter is, after the Grand Lodge of the Craft itself, the longest established English Masonic authority. It presides over more than 600 Preceptories at home and abroad, each of which (with the exception of 'Baldwyn' at Bristol and 'Antiquity' at Bath) works the 'Official' ritual, and which are grouped into 39 Provincial Priories.

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