Dan Brown, and his fiction, "Da Vinci Code", which has perterbed many a Christian believer, is based on the history of this movement.    Christians are at fault, if because of the ignorance, and apathy, have allowed others to undermine them.    Information can diffuse Misinformation.    First person to be informed is "Me", followed by "My Family" - after that "My Friends".   If I do not care about these three, then it is no use blaming Dan Brown.   Poor fellow, at least he became rich, because we allowed him to do so.    Good luck for those who discover this truth.   

The present Wall Street crisis, is another example of the same,even though it relates to finances, and not Faith.   Both are precious, and the value is realized when it is lost.

 The Knights Templars were the earliest founders of the military orders, and are the type on which the others are modelled. They are marked in history (1) by their humble beginning, (2) by their marvellous growth, and (3) by their tragic end.

Immediately after the deliverance of Jerusalem, the Crusaders, considering their vow fulfilled, returned in a body to their homes. The defense of this precarious conquest, surrounded as it was by Mohammedan neighbours, remained. In 1118, during the reign of Baldwin II, Hugues de Payens, a knight of Champagne, and eight companions bound themselves by a perpetual vow, taken in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to defend the Christian kingdom.

 Baldwin accepted their services and assigned them a portion of his palace, adjoining the temple of the city; hence their title "pauvres chevaliers du temple" (Poor Knights of the Temple). Poor indeed they were, being reduced to living on alms, and, so long as they were only nine, they were hardly prepared to render important services, unless it were as escorts to the pilgrims on their way from Jerusalem to the banks of the Jordan, then frequented as a place of devotion.   More

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