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For nearly 200 years, they were the most powerful military order in the world. They built castles that still stand to this day. And some say that they helped invent modern banking. And they answered to no king, only the Pope. And then, on a Single Friday the 13th, they were destroyed completely. We're talking about the Knights Templar. The same organization that took vows of poverty, became the wealthiest institution in medieval Europe. The same monks who swore chastity were accused of worshiping a severed head and kissing each other in secret rituals. The same warriors who defended Christian pilgrims were burned at the stake by the Pope himself, cursing him with their dying breath. But here's the thing. When the Knights Templar fell, something vanished with them. Their legendary treasure was never found. Their secret archives completely disappeared. And the accusations against them, demon worship, heresy, blasphemy, were so bizarre that historians still argue about what was real and what was fabricated. What were they hiding? Were they hiding anything? What did they find? And why did the most powerful institution in Christian history need to be erased from existence? Well, I have good news for you, because today we're diving into all of it. We're going through everything that we know about the Knights Templar. So if you are a fan of secrets of ancient Church history and the inner workings of one of the most fascinating secret societies and military orders, well, this is the episode for you. So sit back, relax, and welcome to History Camp. What's up, people? And welcome back to History Camp. My name is Mark Gagnon, and thank you for joining me in my tent, where every single week, we explore the most interesting, fascinating, controversial stories from all time, forever, for always. Yes. That is what I do here in the tent. I'm trying to figure out everything that's ever happened, and there's been a lot of stuff. I only got here in the 90s, so you got to think there's thousands of years. I just found out today there might be 40,000 years that humans have been writing stuff down. We just found a record from 40,000 years ago. For the record, news flash. And there's all that history that I know nothing about. So I'm trying to get to the bottom of it all. All right? And I'm bringing you along for the ride. So I just want to thank you for clicking this video, commenting, liking making this channel possible, because every time you engage with it, you make my dreams come true. You help keep the lights on, and most importantly, you keep the fire burning. Now, at a certain point, I'm almost going to tell you guys to stop subscribing because I feel like it's going to Christos head. Now, if you don't know who Christos is, he's. He's the man with the plan. He's the guy behind the shiny buttons, the ones and twos. And he does all the things, the tricks. Makes me look decent. It makes the show possible. Christos, how are you? What's up? We don't have time because we're talking about the Knights Templar. Do you know anything about that? Embarrassingly, no. You shouldn't be embarrassed by that. You know what I mean? Greeks typically don't know history, and I just. I just want you to know. I don't want you to feel left out, all right? This is a genetic thing. It's just who you people are. We made history, but okay, we made. All right. No, the Greeks loved it. I mean, you guys gave us the Alphabet, right? Among other things. And. What other things? Croesus. Everything. Philosophy, democracy. Any. Anything with philosophers and their students. Anything with that. Well, we're going to get unsubscribed. Okay? We're getting demon. Guys, look, this is improper talk, all right? Let's talk about the Knights Templar. Where does our story begin? I'm glad you asked. We're going back to 1099. Yes. Not the tax form. I'm talking about the year. All right, 1099. This is when the First Crusade captured the Jerusalem. Now, Christos pin that because we need to do an episode on the Crusades. Absolutely. Because I think that is a fascinating historical and religious topic, kind of a crossover with our channels. Now, at this time, what this means is that basically, Christian pilgrims and Christendom, broadly speaking, throughout Europe, finally has access to the holiest sites of Christianity. We're talking the Temple Mount, the Via Delarosa, the holy site sepulcher, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. And there's one issue, is that the roads leading from, you know, mainland Europe and, you know, the surrounding areas to Jerusalem are basically a death trap. I mean, you got to think this is back in the day of bandits and thieves and, you know, these, you know, the remnants of, like, these defeated militia that are still basically just, like, lurking these routes and seizing these pilgrims. You know, many of these people, like, fought in the Crusades that are pissed off and, as it were, travelers were often robbed and murdered, and some were even just kidnapped and sold into slavery. One account from 1119 describes a group of 700 pilgrims getting attacked by bandits, and only 300 of them survived. That's great. 400 people just got taken out like a caravan by these raiders. All right, pretty wild. Now this is where we meet a fella named Hugues de Payens. And this guy is a French knight who fought in the First Crusade. And he stayed in the Holy land. And around 11:19, he gathered eight other knights and he made this proposal to King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. He basically says, hey, look, we're going to take monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Now this is pretty typical of like, you know, priests or people within the clergy. But it's very strange for a knight to say, I don't want any money, I don't want any honey and I don't want anything funny. That's crazy. So instead of praying in a monastery or something like that, they are going to patrol the roads and protect the pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. And the king agreed, right? I mean, it makes a ton of sense. You have people come through, they're able to buy stuff, you know, to help your, your kingdom through taxation. You want as many people as you can. So if you have these people that are willing to do it and you're like, yeah, let's, let's do that. So then he gave them something extraordinary. Their headquarters would be the Al Aqsa Mosque, which sat directly on top of the Temple Mount. And this is what is believed to be the ruins of King Solomon's Temple. And of course Jews and you know, people in Israel would say this is the, the location of the Temple. This is the most sacred place in Judaism as well as one of the most sacred places in Islam and tertiarily one of the most significant places in Christianity. All the Abrahamic religions really descending upon this spot. I mean, it's a very significant thing. If you don't know about the Al Aqsa Mosque, maybe we do an episode on that as well. So just think about that, okay? These nine nights were given the holiest site in all of Judaism, the third holiest site in Islam, and one of the holiest sites in Christianity all rolled into one. And they called themselves the poor fellow soldiers of Christ in the Temple of Solomon. But history would call them the Knights Templar. Now this is where things get interesting. Okay, so for the first nine years, the Templars did nothing publicly. Like they didn't recruit new members, they didn't really expand. And according to contemporary accounts, they just kind of like posted up in the Temple Mount. They were just kind of like Boolean, you know, I mean, just like the homies just like doing push ups, just like playing Xbox. Posted. Right. Chilling. But modern historians believe that they were actually digging. So in the 1860s, a British archaeologist expedition led by Lieutenant Charles Warren explored the tunnel systems beneath the Temple Mount that, as the story goes, the Knights Templar constructed. They found Templar artifacts deep underground. We're talking like swords, remnants of a cross, like a random spur. And the tunnels extended far beneath the Al Aqsa Mosque, carved through ancient bedrock. So the question is, what were they doing? Were they looking for something? Were they trying to get more space? Like, theories range from like, very mundane to mind blowing ancient conspiracy. All right, so let's go through a few of them. First, some people say that they were looking for the Ark of the Covenant. Now, Jewish tradition holds that the Ark was hidden beneath the temple before the Babylonian destruction in 586 B.C. some researchers believe that the Templars found it, or at least found records pointing to where it's located. Other theories suggest that the Ark of the Covenant is actually in Ethiopia and that it was moved there with, you know, the, the Church in Ethiopia, and they are the ones that are actually protecting the Ark of the Covenant. Now, another theory, and I just want to be clear here. These, these are stories that people are speculating. This has never been confirmed by the Templars themselves. They didn't write this down. This is just what people have retroactively tried to figure out. Why are they building these tunnels? Some say that maybe they looking for the Holy Grail. Now, I know what you're thinking. Like the Holy Grail. No, this is like an actual thing that people would talk about specifically back in the day. And most people interpreted this as the cup of Christ. This is the cup that Christ drank out of at the Last Supper. This is the Holy Grail. Or maybe this is interpreted as the bloodline of Christ that can somehow pass on divinity as, you know, some type of relic or maybe something else entirely. This Grail legend is, like, intertwined so deeply in Templar mythology, and the first Grail romances appeared just as the Templars are rising to power. And now is that a coincidence? Who knows? But the Holy Grail deserves a whole episode on its own. That's three. So mark that. We're, we're just stacking them up. All right, I'm taking notes. All right, increased it. Come on, don't interrupt. Now, it's also possible they were digging for just like, you know, ancient knowledge. Some theorists have suggested that the Templars were discovering documents like they're trying to find, you know, you got to think like the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi Library. These are ancient texts that were buried Underground. So the Knights Templar, knowing that it's possible that these, you know, that these groups were basically hiding texts in these ancient libraries underneath important places. They might be looking for Essian scrolls from, you know, the Essen Jews that might have left them there, or Gnostic texts or records of early Christianity, something that maybe might explain the accusations of heresy that the Templars will have later. And then, of course, you have the. The skeptical view, the more pragmatic, realistic view, which is that they didn't find any mystical treasure at all and that, you know, they might have found real treasure, like, you know, gold or, like hidden loot, you know, that people might have put there. You got to think this is a, you know, basically one of the most significant places in ancient Judaism. And maybe this is where the Jewish rabbis were keeping their money. Maybe they were putting, you know, treasures down there, who knows? And maybe the Templars found it and the Babylonians never did. We don't know. Whatever they found or what they didn't find, something changed. In 1128, Hugues de Payens traveled to Europe on a recruitment mission. Lt. Warren attended the Council of Troyes, where he met Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the most influential religious figures in medieval Europe. Now, Bernard became the Templar's greatest advocate. He wrote their rule. This is basically a code of conduct that governed every aspect of Templar life. And he secured them with something that no military order had ever received before. And this is a papal blessing that made the Templars answerable to no one except the Pope. I mean, this is massive at the time. The Pope wields massive power. I mean, truly one of, if not the most powerful person throughout all of Europe. I mean, in some ways, more than a king. And now the King has a very influential military order under his control now. The papal bull omni de tum Optimum in 1139 granted the Templars extraordinary privileges. They were exempt from local laws. They could cross any border freely. They didn't have to pay taxes or tithe. Their church could hold services even in lands under interdict, basically meaning, like, if there was a dispute, they could still be the ones that had religious freedom, effectively. They could grant absolution to excommunicated knights who joined them. I mean, they had so much power, more power than a priest. Like, they're basically just like a step below the Pope. You could think right now. In other words, the Templars became like a. They had, like a law unto themselves, answerable only to God and conveniently his representative in Rome. Now, if you're thinking all Right, well, warrior monks, priests, sound cool, but you know, it's not that powerful. It's just like a couple of dudes, like, patrolling the roads. Let me tell you about Templar banking. Okay? This is fascinating. And truly, when people are like, oh, the Knights Templar was like, created the framework for modern banking. It's, it's obviously embellished and hyperbolic, but there is something interesting in there. So imagine you're a wealthy lord in England in 1180, all right, you want to go on crusade, but you can't carry a fortune in gold across thousands of miles of bandit infested territory. Okay, you, you're a wealthy guy, you wanted to go to Jerusalem, but you're not going to carry all your gold with you. But you need money. So what do you do? You deposit your money with the Templars in London and they give you a letter of credit. This is basically just like a document that has some type of cipher that only Templar officials could decode. So when you arrive in Jerusalem, you present that letter and then the Templars there give you all of your money minus a small fee. I mean, this is revolutionary for the time because before you just had your money. You're not going to give your money to someone else, but because these are strong, powerful men of God. Yeah, you're going to trust them. And so as a result, you give them your money in London, you go all the way down to Jerusalem and you get your money back and you never had to risk getting robbed by bandits. And this is international banking. Truly, this is like one of the first instances of this type of international banking. But it doesn't just stop there because they actually offered a few things. You got to think, if this place in London all of a sudden just getting all this money getting, you know, thrown in there, all of a sudden they're able to operate as a bank. And so now all of a sudden, loans come online. Kings are literally borrowing from the Templars. Louis VII of France financed the Second Crusade with a loan from, from the Templar. And so then the English crown was regularly using them as creditors. And so now you have loans, you have international banking services. And then they offer safe deposit services. Now this is where nobles could basically store valuables. So this, you know, Paris Knights Templar temple just becomes like a royal treasury in France. Think about that. So you have paintings, you have, you know, ancient relics, golden, you know, swords. Like you're just going to put them in there and the Templars will take care of it. And then on top of that, they do property management. So they can actually administer estates for absent Crusaders. And then there's currency exchanges. So they're able to basically help convert currency in the medieval times to whatever the local trade was. And, I mean, I've even heard theories that, you know, when they're able to take in all this money, then they're able to loan it for, you know, like, percentages. And they're basically creating fractional reserve banking in the 1100s. It's crazy. So by the mid-1200s, the Templars owned properties across Europe and across the Holy Land. And according to the stories, they had their own fleet of ships, they were exempt from all taxes, and they basically just operated outside the law of any kingdom and. And answered only to the Pope. Now, their military reputation was equally fearsome because in order to protect all this money and, you know, have the trust of people that their money will be there when they arrive in Jerusalem. You need to have a pretty ferocious, terrifying military presence. And there was. The Templars were forbidden to retreat unless outnumbered at least 3 to 1. They couldn't be held for ransom. If captured, they were expected to die rather than let the Order pay for their freedom. And their white mantles with red crosses became the most recognizable symbol symbol on Crusader battlefields. Muslim commanders considered killing Templars like a priority, like, they had huge targets on them. And the Templars considered dying in battle to be a ticket to heaven. So they didn't care. Now, this combination of, like, spiritual immunity, financial genius, and then military strength made them one of the most powerful untouchable groups in all of Europe for centuries. And that's how it was. I mean, for two centuries, no one challenged them until someone did. Now, here is the problem with being the defenders of the Holy Land. Eventually you actually really gotta defend it. So in 1187, Saladin, the legendary Muslim commander, crushed the Crusader army at the Battle of Hatton. Nearly every Templar knight present was, you know, either killed in battle or captured, then executed after the battle. And as a result, Jerusalem fell, and the Templars retreated to Acre, the last major Crusader stronghold in the region. Now, for the next century, the Templars fought a losing war. The Third Crusade recaptured some territory, and then the Fourth Crusade infamously got diverted to sack Constantinople. And the Fifth Crusade, I mean, just a disaster. The Sixth Crusade. I know there's a lot of Crusades like Fast and the Furious. The sixth one briefly regained Jerusalem through some negotiation, and then they lost it again. Again, we'll do a whole episode on that. But all you need to know is that by 1291, Acre fell to The Mamluks and the last Crusaders were dead or fleeing to Cyprus. And officially the Holy Land was not in Christian control. And suddenly Europe had a problem with what do you do with a massively wealthy, powerful military organization that no longer has a purpose. Right, like the Templars. Despite losing a lot of their men and obviously, you know, multiple Crusades that, you know, they were lost. The Templars still had their banks, they had their properties, they had their ships, they had some remaining soldiers and knights, and as a result, they owed allegiance to no one. They paid no taxes, and now they don't even have a war. So this is an issue, this is a power imbalance. And if you are trying to protect power at all costs, like the monarchs, well, this is posing a threat. So to a certain king of France, this looked like a massive issue. And this guy is Philip IV of France. He's known as Philip the Fair. And historically, you know, he's pretty handsome. And he was seen as fairly ruthless. And notoriously, he was a broke boy. Now, he fought expensive wars with England and he devalued the French currency and riots were breaking out and he started to tax, like, clergy and, you know, it was just a massive issue. He even got into a public confrontation with Pope Boniface viii, which basically ended in Philip's agents allegedly slapping the Pope in the face. And then the Pope died shortly thereafter. Some said, you know, that he died of shock. Others think that he was poisoned or assassinated. We don't know exactly. But what we do know is that by 1307, this guy, Philip the Fair, who has all these financial problems, owes the Templars a fortune. So the Paris Temple where the Knights Templar was basically set up in Paris was the French treasury, like, just. It was like a private treasury because they were just taking in all the most valuable items from all the nobles and lords of France. And the Templars were essentially his landlords. Meanwhile, rumors about the Order were circulating. Strange rituals, secret meetings, and all of this wealth and power. And Philip sees this as an opportunity. So on Friday, October 13, 1307, royal agents across France simultaneously arrest every Templar they could find. This is over 600 knights. 600 of these soldiers of these fierce warriors are captured and seized in a single evening. And of course, the charges that are brought against the Knights Templar are shocking. And they're said to have denied Christ during initiation, spitting on the crucifix, worshiping a demonic idol called Baphomet, described as. You know, you've seen the picture. I'm sure some people said that it was you know, there's these obscene kisses, you know, that initiates allegedly had to, like, kiss or, like, make out with, like, the senior Templars on the mouth and, you know, the base of their spine, homosexual behavior and, of course, financial corruption. Now, under torture, many of the Templars confessed to these crimes. Some recanted, some just maintained their innocence until they were tortured to death. And as it were, some have even suggested that this day is why we get the term Friday the 13th and why it's associated with bad luck, because this is the day that the Templars fell. Now, of course, that is an urban legend, but it is debated amongst historians as to where this comes from and. And many people point to this moment. Now, here's the thing. The charges were almost certainly fabricated. Now, we don't know for certain because there was no proper trial, but modern historians have noted that the accusations against the Templars are nearly identical to charges that Philip had previously used against Pope Boniface VIII and against French Jews. Now, they were the standard accusations of the era. Okay? The medieval equivalent of just like, oh, they're Satanists, or like, oh, they're all pitos. You know, it's like, this is what we say now. And at the time, they had their same thing that they would always go for. And he used it against the Jews to expel the Jews from France, and then he used it against the Pope. So in 1308, Pope Clement V sent his own investigators, and when questioned without torture by papal commissioners, many Templars retracted their confessions and then proclaimed their innocence. And some who recanted were then burned as relapsed heretics, giving others an incentive to stick with their forced confessions. However, in 2001, a document called the Chinon Parchment was discovered in the Vatican archives, and it showed that Pope Clement V had actually absolved the Templars of heresy in August of 1308, before the Council of Vienna in 1312 that officially dissolved the order. Now, he disbanded them not because they were guilty, but because Philip's smear campaign had made them just a lost cause. They were impossible to save politically because people saw them as this morally corrupt, evil, satanic, heretical power, like financial system. And so they said, you know what, it's not even worth saving them. Like, we know that what you did, you guys are probably innocent. But they also weren't of, like, a ton of use to the Pope at that time either. Right? They didn't really have a place to defend. Hey, we're going to take a break really quick because I need to talk to the Fellas all right, if you're a woman, you can skip forward. I don't really care. 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But there's another side of the Templars that is much more legendary. It is the. The urban legends, the myths that surround this group and everything that they got into. Now, again, this is difficult to substantiate, but it exists within the lore. And one of the most infamous people is of course, Jacques de Molay. This is the 23rd and last grand Master of the Knights Templar. And he was arrested in Paris on that Same Friday the 13th. He was around 70 years old and was just a proper OG. He was a vet and spent decades basically in warfare in the Holy Land. And for seven years he was imprisoned and interrogated and tortured and eventually confessed under this torture. And then was one of these people that retracted his confession. But as we know, those retractions didn't really make a huge difference. And on March 18, 1314, Jacques de Molay was brought to a scaffold outside Notre Dame in Paris to publicly confess his sins and receive a life sentence in prison. Instead, he came out and he declared that the Templars were innocent and that the confessions that they made, he himself included, were completely false and that he lied in order to save his own life. And now he chooses truth over survival. And Philip is pissed. That same evening, Jacques de Molay and another Templar leader Geoffrey de Chaunay were burned alive on an island in the Seine. This is the main river that goes through Paris. Now, here's the crazy part. According to multiple accounts, as the flame rose around him, Jacques de Molay issued a curse. He summoned Pope Clement V and King Philip IV to meet him before God's tribunal within a year. Now, to, you know, translate that, he literally is getting burned alive, and he says that the Pope and the King will meet me in heaven within one year, they're going to die. And the crazy thing, again, this is a myth. But what's crazy is that if it happened, he's right. Because 33 days later, on April 20, 1314, Pope Clement V dies of a sudden illness. And then eight months later, on November 29, 1314, King Philip IV dies, officially from a stroke, although some accounts describe a hunting accident, but a stroke is the most commonly agreed upon one. But isn't that crazy? Within one year from the day that Jacques de Molay dies, both the King and the Pope, the people that put him to death, are also dead, exactly as he prophesied, allegedly. Now, imagine telling the medieval chroniclers that watched this guy's curse come true. They'd obviously be like, oh, this is obviously the. The act of God again, if this happened at all. Now, the Templar story doesn't end with the dissolution or, you know, Jacques de Molay getting burned to the stake. You know, there's something else that's in this story that I'm sure you're wondering about, and that is the treasure. You see, they were one of the most wealthy groups in all of Europe. They literally were giving loans to the government. And on the night of their arrest, no one knows where that money goes. Now, multiple accounts suggest that the Templars were warned that they were going to be captured, possibly by a noble or someone within Philip's court. And as a result, several ships from the Templars fleet at La Rochelle sailed before dawn and were never seen again. Now, the legendary Templar treasure, this accumulated wealth of literally two centuries, whatever they found beneath the Temple Mount, maybe if they found anything at all, things that they collected while they were in the Holy Land, they never told anyone about. And then, of course, the money that they were holding for these nobles is just gone. And the theories go a long way. So let's go through some of the theories and I'll let you guys decide. Okay? First theory, we're going to go to Scotland. So King Robert the Bruce was excommunicated at the time, and he had no reason to cooperate. With the Pope. Some historians suggest that the Templar Knights fought alongside the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. And some suggest that maybe they brokered some type of deal and that the treasure maybe sailed away from France and went straight to Scotland. Now, another theory is that it went to Portugal. Now, King Dennis I refused to persecute the Templars. Instead, he simply just renamed them the Order of Christ. And this order later funded Portuguese exploration, including the voyages of Vasco de Gama and Henry the Navigator, who literally sailed under the Templar Crosses. Now, another theory, maybe the craziest one, is that the money went to Switzerland. Now, this theory, again, I think is probably not true, but it's really. It's awesome. It's a fun one. All right? And this theory basically states that the Templars fled and some of the boats maybe took the money, maybe it was a diversion, and they actually were able to get their treasure up the Swiss Alps and into Switzerland. And this basically helped establish the Switzerland that we know today. What do we know about Switzerland? It is a banking powerhouse. I mean, it's a small country that has so much of the world's wealth. And on top of that, they have this defensive military tradition that still defines Switzerland. Sounds a lot like the Templars, other people point out. And again, I don't think this is true, but it is interesting. The Swiss flag, what is it? It's a white cross on a red flag. What is the Knights Templar flag? What is that? White cross, red flag. It's a. No, it's. No, you said it wrong. Christos is why can't go to you. Sorry, dyslexic. It's a white flag with a red cross. It's the inversion of the Swiss. Now tell me this, Christos, who protects the Vatican? What military force is the ones that actually defend the Pope? What are they called? I don't know. The Swiss Guard. Ah. And they wear like, those gesture outfits. Now, I think this is just a lot of coincidences. I was looking into where the Swiss flag actually came from, and there's no credible theory that says that it was developed by the Templars. But regardless, it's a fun theory. Okay. Now, another theory says that it's hidden in France somewhere, that the treasure of the Knights Templars is in France and that the treasure just never left. It's buried somewhere beneath a church in a cave and a mountain, maybe given to a rich noble that then used it. The village of Reine le Chateau became the center of treasure hunting legends in the 20th century because people truly believed that the Knights Templar treasure was there. Now, of course, there's a skeptical view, and this is much more pragmatic and grounded and way less fun, but I'll share it. It's the idea that the treasure never existed, that Philip basically just came in and got most of the Templar wealth when he seized all their properties, and that most of their wealth is actually in, like, you know, land and homes and castles, and that when the state basically comes in and sees all those things, they get all the stuff, and all that treasure just goes to the monarch. And that's not actually like gold and jewels in some chest somewhere. It's probably the most likely, but that one's boring. I think it went. I think it went to America. I think it's in Fort Knox. That's what I think. Do you have a theory? Area 51. Oh, now we're talking. Now, the Templar. Templar archives, which would, you know, have answered a lot of these questions, are gone. And maybe they were destroyed intentionally, or maybe they were just lost to time. But to this day, it's not really known where exactly it is. Now, what did the Templars actually believe? This is a really interesting ripple in this whole thing, because remember when I told you that they were basically seized and tortured, and some of them confessed to these insane claims that we think are likely fabricated? Well, let's just unpack that a little bit, okay? And let's talk about this guy Baphomet. All right, if you don't know Baphomet, we can put an image of him on the screen here. It's basically Satan, you could say. I mean, this is like an idol. It's like an incarnation of the devil. And he's got, like, this goat head with the horns and. Or, like the devilish head, you know, like the hands. You see what you. You see the picture? And now this is a sometimes bearded, sometimes with multiple faces, and sometimes described as, you know, a cat or a goat. And the name Baphomet appears in several of these confessions. But what exactly is it? Okay, now, there was this other claim that they had this severed head that they worshiped, and that they were into this weird mystical worship thing with this head. And this is the rumor that went around. Now, the Templars may have possessed the skull of John the Baptist. And this sounds weird, but this is not super uncommon for, you know, a specifically religious order to have a relic of a very infamous person in their religious history. So this happens a lot within Catholicism, is that you might have a relic, you might have, you Know, a piece of a bone of a saint in a church somewhere, or you might have clothing of a saint in a church. And these are things that you kind of go and you venerate. You're not worshiping them, but you're looking at them and going like, oh, wow. This makes the religious experience and the faith aspect of my life much more real because I can actually see the tangible piece of this person that I respect so much. Now, it's possible the Templars had the actual skull of John the Baptist, who infamously was beheaded. And so of course, having his skull would be, you know, a very important relic to Catholics now under torture, it's possible that this possession of this relic that the, you know, the Templars were basically venerating then becomes, oh, this is the severed head that they're worshiping, that they're drinking out of a skull. And it becomes this crazy thing possible, who knows? Now there's another ripple to this, another claim that they have these secret esoteric rituals. And now this one's interesting. This, this Gnostic influence. Some researchers have said that the Templars did encounter these esoteric beliefs in the east and actually incorporated them into rituals. And the head might represent Sophia. This is the, basically the Goddess of wisdom, you could think in Gnosticism or maybe some other type of symbolic concept. And we did a whole thing on Gnosticism and there's some theories that suggest that they were under this kind of Gnostic infatuation. Now another interesting little ripple, I guess a fun fact from this entire period is this basically passing of the Shroud of Turin. Now, if you don't know the Shroud of Turin, this is basically a shroud or a death sheet. This is basically a big sheet that would be put upon someone, they die. And there's a specific one that is displayed in Italy in the town of Turin that shows the image of a bearded man that has been crucified. Now, of course, this is said to be the actual Shroud of Jesus Christ. Now, when the Templars were destroyed, the Shroud was basically passed to the Descharnet family. And to this day, Joffrey Descharnet is the first person that we really know of, of being in possession of the Shroud of Turin. This is really where it shows up within the historical record. Now that name, Geoffrey de Charnay, where do we know that? We just talked about it a few minutes ago. This is the Templar who was burned at the stake alongside Jacques de Molay. It's pretty interesting little ripple. This is really the first, the first Talk of this, this relic existing within, you know, modern history. Now all of these theories went around and maybe there was some fabrication, maybe there was some embellishment, but you know, we don't really know. It's possible that Philip's agents just made this stuff up and that the charges were just designed to justify the arrest and the seizure of the Templar's wealth and to get rid of this military threat with the in France that's not under control of the King. Makes a lot of sense, but we'll never really know for sure. And the mystery has kept the Templars alive in the popular imagination for I mean, 700 years. I mean their legacy is massive. They officially ceased to exist in 1312. But this is a legend that you cannot kill. Nine knights in 1119 took vows of poverty and set up camp on the Temple Mount, one of the most holy places in all of the Abrahamic religions. And, and within a generation, they were the most powerful non governmental organization in the medieval world. Again, it's possible that they contributed to the invention of modern banking. They built this empire that answered to no king or monarch, which is unheard of in that time. And they held secrets, maybe real or maybe imagined, that were so threatening that a Pope and a King came together to destroy them. Now, when the last grandmaster burned, he didn't beg for mercy, mercy at all. I mean, again, according to the theory, he prophesied this vengeance and he got it. Now whether you believe that these stories are true or that the Templars found the Ark or protected the Grail or worshiped demons, or maybe they were just victims of a really greedy king, one thing is certain, that they built something that refused to be forgotten because 700 years later, we are still fascinated by the Knights Templar. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an abridged history of who this fascinating military order was and why they are so significant. Significant. I mean, truly a fascinating group. I'm like just so enthralled every time I learn about the Knights Templar. If you never heard of them, I mean, they're truly fascinating. Another interesting ripple. Their lore I think really inspires. It's, it has an interesting history because it, it exists within church lore for so long and has like really like been a powerful symbol for like Christians, you know what I mean? Like these are like the most badass Catholics, but it's also weirdly been co opted by like Nazi groups. I mean like literally the Nazis themselves took some inspiration from the Knights Templar and that there's actually like Nazi imagery in Nazi propaganda. During World War Two that invoked the Knights Templar in their flags. And part of the reason is that the Knights Templar were seen as, like, these purebred supreme defenders of Europe against, you know, the. The Arabs and the Muslims that are coming up from the Middle east. And that the Knights Templar just kind of embodied this Aryan vision and that they basically used the, you know, this kind of, like, historical record, then manipulated it to fit their own racist, you know, racial supremacist agenda. And to this day, people kind of, I think, romance, the. The Knights Templar because it represents something to them that is probably never the original intention. I mean, the Knights Templar, I don't think saw themselves as. I don't even think they saw themselves as, like, white. Like, the idea of race didn't really exist. They just saw themselves as, like, French or European or Catholic. And of course, they were trying to go to battle with anyone that was trying to come up. They're trying to get the Holy Land, duh. But it's just an interesting addendum to their legacy. I mean, they're just a fascinating group. The modern banking thing. I remember hearing that for the first time from this guy Bill Still. They did a whole thing about the Fed, and, oh, it's just fascinating because it makes sense, right? You have all these people traveling with all this money, and if only there was a way that they could travel with something less valuable, and then they could use a key to basically get the money when they get where they're going. And you just invent this thing. And then once you have this building where you're accruing all this wealth, all of a sudden you're like, oh, I can loan out money. And the thing with giving out a loan is that you don't actually have to loan out the money. You can basically just loan out a credit that proves that you have the money. So if you have $1,000, you really only need to keep, like, 2,000, $3,000 in the bank, but you can loan out, you know, $20,000. So all of a sudden, you just turned $1,000 into $20,000 because you're just loaning all these people money, and then you're just hoping that they don't all come back at once, which is called a run on the bank. You took Economics 101. Yeah. All right. So it's just an interesting thing. It's like, yeah, okay, we have all this money. Like, what do we do with it? And all of a sudden you create, literally, fractional reserve banking. This is where that comes from. Why they call it Fractional reserve, because you're only reserving fraction of the money they actually have. But think about how hard it's to track down and get your money back from all these people. No, but that's the beauty that you don't actually have to give them the money. So if you come to My bank in 1100 in France and you say, hey, can I have a hundred dollars? I'm. I don't need to give you a hundred dollars. I could give you a credit. I give you a paper of a hundred dollars, and then you could give that paper to someone else, then they could come back to my bank, and then I'll give them the hundred dollars when they need it. But basically now you've just created like. Like you basically created a currency on top of a currency that the gold itself is the actual currency, but now you created a fiat currency, which is these paper notes. Oh, so they're not bankers. They. They created the Fed. Yeah, like crazy, right? I mean, of course they had a currency, but in that. In that time, the currency was typically of a precious metal that actually had an intrinsic value. So they crawled so Jerome Powell could walk type shit. Well, again, you look at America and the creation of its Federal Reserve that has its own tattered history. You should read the Monster of Jekyll Island, a really interesting book. Have you read that? Of course. My mom put me on this years ago. And then of course, we had our money backed by the gold standard until the 70s. I think it was the 70s. And then that was basically repealed. And now it's just inflation for all. But I digress. You know what I mean? I'm not. We don't need to get. Go down this path, okay? We're getting. We're getting dastardly here. All that to say the Knights Templar. Fascinating. Guys, I'm sorry. To all the Muslims that the Knights Templar killed. That's bad. All right, that was bad that they were doing that. But you know what? I'm glad we're in a better spot now. Okay? We can settle these things civilly. All right? We can just talk about it. We can chat it through. Especially now, during Ramadan. We don't need to bring this up. During Ramadan. It also is lost that these guys were warrior monks. Yeah, I think the monk part, to be honest with you, is a little overstated. Like, yeah, technically they were monks. Like, they had taken a vow of celibacy, they'd taken a vow of poverty. But did they. You think it was marketing so that they could get away with what they were doing. I think. Yeah. I mean, I. I don't think that, like, these knights that were just like wandering around with no wives were just like being good boys all the time. I think you give any person, no matter how pious they are, a lot of money. Arguably the most money in France and a lot of power. Oh, you don't even answer to the king or pay a tithe. And you can basically travel across borders whenever you want. I imagine they're getting to some pretty nasty stuff. Whether all the claims against them are true. I don't know if they're, you know, heretics and they are spitting on the crucifix and they're worshiping a severed head. But I'm sure, you know, you meet a girl along the way, a nice of age woman that likes you, you like her, and who knows what happens? So I don't know. Again, I don't want to slander the Knights Templar because they're pretty sick, but I have a hard time believing that for 200 years, not one knight got into some nasty biz. Maybe we do an episode on that. Sure. What I think the Knights Templar were doing on a Friday night in Oklahoma, right? Oh, France, anyway. Yeah, exactly. That's a small town of France. Oklahoma is how they pronounce it. Anyway, this has been another episode of History Camp. What do you guys think? Please drop a comment. Is there anything that you learned in this episode you didn't know before? Is there anything that I missed? Anything that I skipped over? Anything I just got wrong? Please drop a comment and let me know. I'm not immune to correction. I just want the truth. And I'm doing. I'm willing to do anything to get it, basically. So just drop a comment, let me know if I missed anything. YouTube, Spotify, I read all of them. Just be nice about it, all right? Just relax. And more importantly, I'm on the road, Mark Agnon Live. I'm gonna be posting dates there. You can always check them out. Maybe I'm in your town this weekend. Furthermore, you can also check out Camp R D. Get the drip, get the threads. If you come to the show wearing the merch, I'm gonna hook you up with something. I don't know what it is. We need to get like keychains or something sick. All right? You can only get them if you wear merch to the show. That's a good idea. Write that down. We're just stacking up good ideas today. Look at us. Also, if you like religious topics, which we talked a lot about today, I have great news. We have Religion Camp. That's where I deep dive on every religious topic in the world. All right? And we also have Camp Gagnon, the main channel. That's where I deep dive on just random stuff I'm curious about. Conspiracies, occult stuff, talking to random guys that were in the military, CIA, everything under the sun. And if you just like the history stuff, I mean, you're more than welcome just to hang out my 10 nerd out about history every single week. Make sure you subscribe, comment like all that good stuff, and I'll see you guys in the future to talk about the past. Peace.