Knights Templar (Freemasonry)
The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system.
He claimed, without supporting historical evidence, that European Freemasonry came about from an interaction between 'crusader masons' and the Knights Hospitaller.
[4] Ramsay was initiated as a Templar by his mentor François Fénelon into the non-Masonic French Ordre du Temple with his friend Philippe II, Duke of Orleans as Grandmaster around 1710.
[5] In 1751 Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund und Altengrotkau began the Rite of Strict Observance, which ritual he claimed to have received from the reconstituted Templar Order in 1743 in Paris.
He also claimed to have met two of the "unknown superiors" who directed all of masonry, one of whom was Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
Stasis then followed, until in 1805 their Royal Patron, Duke of Kent, became Grand Master himself, re-energising the society and launching it into an era of growth and development.
Dunckerley laid the foundation for this not only by promoting the order, but by standardising the ritual and insisting on proper record keeping.
[12] The Grand Conclave went into a period of decline between 1872 and 1895, when it was re-founded as the present day Great Priory of England and Wales.
[13] Depending upon the geographical jurisdiction, the Knights Templar exist either as part of the York Rite or as an independent organization.
Within the British Federation of Le Droit Humain, candidates must be a Holy Royal Arch Mason for at least twelve months.
Crucially, they do not have to profess the Doctrine of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, as this goes against the principles of the wider international Order.
The Order of the Red Cross continues or reverts to the period of the Royal Arch Degree when the Israelites were returning from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.
[citation needed] The ceremony for conferring the degree (which is always worked in full) contains a mixture of masonic tradition, historical accounts of the Order of St John, moral teaching, and the communication of modes of recognition between members.
A series of banners is employed in the ceremony, each representing one of the great battles of the historic medieval Order of St John, whose story is the basis of the moral teachings of the degree.
"[17] The official motto of the Knights Templar in the American York Rite is In Hoc Signo Vinces, the rendition in Latin of the Greek phrase "εν τούτῳ νίκα", en toutōi nika, meaning "in this [sign] you will conquer".
The Knight Templar degree is associated with elaborate regalia (costume) the precise detail of which varies between nations.
The various symbols used allude to the orders of the body, though the cross and crown is often used alone as well.
