Neo-Templarism
Neo-Templarism is a term describing groups or people who claim to have revived, to be inspired by, or to be descendants of the Knights Templar.
These orders are very diverse, but typically draw from western esotericism, with other groups incorporating New Age beliefs, or freemasonry.
Other groups are only ceremonial, and attempt to replicate what they view as the chivalric ideals of the original Order without any esoteric elements.
The origins of most neo-Templar groups can be traced to a revivalist Templar order founded by French physician Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat in 1805, widely regarded as the father of neo-Templarism, who claimed to have discovered an unbroken chain of Knights Templar Grand Masters descending from the original group.
[2] Following an unfair trial in 1308 at the behest of Pope Clement V, whose personal goals came into conflict with the Templars, the order was suspended.
Four years later, the final Grand Master, Jacques de Molay and a local leader and several companions were burned at the stake as well.
[7][3] It was officially disbanded in 1312 by Pope Clement V. Following their dissolution, some of the Templars moved to Portugal, where they founded the Military Order of Christ.
[3] In the 18th century, a notion of the Templars secretly continuing their existence and activities began to spread, particularly within freemasonry in France and Germany.
[10] Most neo-Templar groups' origins can be traced to a revivalist Order of the Temple founded by Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat, a physician and former seminarian from Paris.
[1] In 1804, he claimed that he had discovered documents that proved there was an uninterrupted line of secret "Grand Master" Templars from the supposed dissolution to the modern day.
[1] Fabré-Palaprat died in 1838, resulting in a schism between the Johannite Church of Ferdinand-François Châtel and the Templar Order, run by William Sydney Smith and Count Jules de Moreton, respectively.
[17] KVMRIS, surviving into the 1930s,[17][19] eventually incorporated in 1932 as the Sovereign and Military Order of the Temple (French: Ordre souverain et militaire du Temple) under the regency of Théodore Covias (there were too few members to have a Grand Master), succeeded by Emile-Clément Vandenberg who was elected three years later.
[19][20] The Order's archives were given to Antonio Campello Pinto de Sousa Fontes in 1942 during WWII in Portugal; shortly after, he proclaimed himself the Grand Master, resulting in neo-Templarism spreading internationally.
[22] A second branch of neo-Templarism, independent from prior groups, was created by French esotericist and author Jacques Breyer.
[23] In 1970, legate of AMORC Raymond Bernard founded the Renewed Order of the Temple (ORT) at the suggestion of Julien Origas.
[15] These schisms were additionally influenced by the desire of many neo-Templar groups to distance themselves from the Order of the Solar Temple, which became notorious in the 1990s for several mass suicides and murders.
[22][24] Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks who murdered 77 people, was a neo-Templar,[33][34] though his form of it was noted to not "resemble in any substantial way the countless neo-Templar esoteric orders that have formed out of esoteric currents over the last couple of centuries".
[36][37] Some exist to promote arcane and extremist magical-esoteric concepts and agendas, many of which are related to the Ascended Master teachings, as well as belief in aliens.
[22] Other neo-Templar groups, typically "revived" ones that do not claim descent, are reputable and are averse to identification with other more esoteric orders, given their association with perceived cultish and fringe organizations.
