Neo-Templarism
Neo-Templarism comprises groups or people who claim to have revived or to be descendants of the Knights Templar. These orders are very diverse, but typically draw from western esotericism, with some groups incorporating New Age beliefs, or Freemasonry. Many neo-Templar groups are secret initiatory societies. Other groups are only ceremonial, and attempt to replicate what they view as the chivalric ideals of the original Knights Templar without any esoteric elements.
Following the dissolution of the Templars by Pope Clement V at the start of the 14th century, several organizations have claimed to be secret continuations of the original Templars. This idea has been criticized by scholars of Templar history and is widely regarded as dubious. The notion of the Templars secretly surviving within Freemasonry resulted in the creation of several Templar grades in Freemason organizations, which evolved into independent neo-Templarism in the early 19th century. 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.
Background
The Knights Templar were a military-religious and monastic order, that was created by a few knights, among them Hugh de Payens and Geoffrey de Saint-Omer in 1119 in Jerusalem. At the 1128 Council of Troyes in France, led by Bernard of Clairvaux, it was officially approved. They were founded with the goal to protect pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem from Europe, but became well known for their participation in the Crusades. The Templars began to acquire wealth and power, from which they made several enemies. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, they began to face accusations of witchcraft and heresy. They were persecuted by the French king Philip IV. 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.In 1310, fifty-four Templar knights were burned at the stake. Four years later, the final Grand Master, Jacques de Molay and a local leader and several companions were burned at the stake as well. 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. Though they survived outside of Europe in this way for some decades, by the early 15th century they were completely defunct. The Templars had been well known and prominent to that point, so their sudden disappearance resulted in many legends and fantastical stories. There grew various theories about the Templars themselves having had a secret, initiatory circle within it, which the official Templars were only the outside shell of. This theory is disputed by historians, though they do not dispute that some esoteric elements may have been involved in the order.
History
Freemasonic rites
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. This idea was based on previous legends of the Templars embedding themselves in Freemason guilds to continue their activities; this idea led to the creation of several Templar grades in Freemason organizations. This was particularly prominent within Illuminist freemasonry, which was unrelated to the Templars. Out of such was formed the masonic rites of the Strict Templar Observance created by Baron Karl von Hund, which Jean-Baptiste Willermoz turned into the Rectified Scottish Rite; through this change it gave up the claimed connection to the Templars.19th-century revival
The French Revolutionary period was a period of upheaval for Freemasons; some at the time disagreed with the idea of these Templar grades as being only a part of freemasonry, subservient to the masonic order. 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. Fabré-Palaprat is widely regarded as the father of neo-Templarism. 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. This document, the Larmenius Charter, displayed the signatures of all the supposed grand masters since the dissolution of the Templars. Modern scholars have concluded that the document is a forgery.Fabré-Palaprat proclaimed himself the Grand Master of the Templars in 1805, reestablishing the Templars independent from Freemasonry. This new movement attracted various people, including Napoleon, who approved an 1808 ceremony. As the Catholic Church, having disbanded the Templars, was opposed to their reconstitution, it was at least officially opposed to any revival moments; in response, Fabré-Palaprat declared Catholicism a "fallen church" and founded the Johannite Church. Fabré-Palaprat linked the neo-Templars to his new Christian denomination. The Johannite Church consecreated several bishops, resulting in an association of neo-Templarism with Liberal Catholic "irregular bishops" as well. 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. These two groups reconciled three years later, with Jean-Marie Raoul as leader; however, the concept of the Templar order became less fashionable, and a successive leader, A.M. Vernois, ceased the group's activity in 1871.
Later, the "regency" of the Temple Order was said to have passed on to Joséphin Péladan by remaining members of the order; however, this is disputed and has little evidence or testimony supporting it. Péladan was more interested in a separate order he had founded, the Order of the Catholic Rose-Croix of the Temple and the Grail, and mixed Templar elements with Rosicrucianism. The Temple Order later became amalgamated among other occult groups headed by doctor Papus and Péladan, one of which, the Independent Group of Esoteric Studies, carried on some of its legacy. This occurred in a revivalist period for occultism at the end of the 19th century, and Templar symbolism became popular and prominent in many occult movements, though many of these were not strictly neo-Templar and also incorporated other elements and symbols, as well as a different worldview from that originally had by Fabré-Palaprat. This era had many esoteric and occult elements blending with each other, with neo-Templar elements combining with Martinist, neo-Pythagorean, or Rosicrucian traditions; many groups had the same leaders.
At the end of the 19th century, groups incorporating such elements were founded, including the Ordo Templi Orientis founded by industrialist and mystic Carl Kellner and the racist and pan-Germanic Order of the New Templars founded by Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels, which later had an influence on Nazism. The most direct descendant of Fabré-Palaprat's Templar order was in the Belgian branch, KVMRIS, the only one which had stayed active; KVMRIS was especially interested in sex magic. In 1894, this Belgian branch encouraged the formation of the International Secretariat of Templars in Brussels.
20th century and successors
The Rosicrucian organization AMORC, founded in 1915, also has some neo-Templar elements; while predominantly Rosicrucian, its founder Harvey Spencer Lewis having a particular interest in the 18th century revivalist order of Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat and the Knights Templar and with later degrees having neo-Templar aspects. Lewis had had some contact with neo-Templar figures and related European occultists.KVMRIS, surviving into the 1930s, eventually incorporated in 1932 as the Sovereign and Military Order of the Temple under the regency of Théodore Covias, succeeded by Emile-Clément Vandenberg who was elected three years later. 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.
In 1945, Fontes changed the name to Ordre souverain et militaire du Temple de Jérusalem, OSMTJ. He designated his son Fernando Campello Pinto de Sousa Fontes as his successor, but as several other independent branches refused to recognize Antonio's authority, when he died several groups instead declared their independence. In a 1970 Paris meeting, several Grand Priorates, all who rejected Antonio's rule, instead appointed Antoine Zdrojewski as the grand master. This resulted in two separate primary neo-Templar international groups: the group that recognized Sousa Fontes, the Ordo Supremus Militari Templi Hierosolymitani, and the group that recognized Zdrojewski, the OSMTJ. The OSMTH sometimes uses the French name and acronym of OSMTJ.
Neo-Templar organizations were active in France and Switzerland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. During this period, political conservatives and fascists used these ideas and lodges to appeal to an "old order" and an idea of a master race.
Arginy Renaissance
A second branch of neo-Templarism, independent from prior groups, was created by French esotericist and author Jacques Breyer. Following what he claimed was a mystical experience in the Castle of Arginy in 1952, Breyer met the occultist Maxime de Roquemaure, who claimed that he was part of a branch of an order that descended directly from the original Templars, which had secretly survived in Ethiopia. This began a rebirth of activity of neo-Templar groups in France.Together they founded the Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple, which was officially established 24 June 1966 but was active for some years before that. Breyer claimed that he had founded the OSTS at the suggestion of the "Masters of the Temple", who he said were the spirits of the Knights Templar. Breyer would become greatly influential on subsequent and contemporary neo-Templar groups and was viewed as a spiritual mentor by many in them. Founding members of the OSTS were involved in the founding the National Grand Lodge of France Opéra. Many of the OSTS's ideas were explicitly apocalyptic and involved the idea of the end of the world and the return of the "Solar Christ". Breyer resigned in 1964, resulting in a crisis, but the group reformed in 1966 and 1973.
In 1970, legate of AMORC Raymond Bernard founded the Renewed Order of the Temple at the suggestion of Julien Origas. Bernard quickly let Origas take control, after which it was led solely by Origas. Origas was also known to have a "difficult" personality, which led to several schisms within the order which formed several other organizations. Jean-Louis Marsan later became the grand master of the OSTS; Marsan and Origas were both affiliated with Breyer's revival movement. In 1981, OSTS and ORT attempted to merge, but Origas died in 1983. After his death ORT split in two, one of which was the Order of the Solar Temple.