Knights Templar in popular culture

The original historic Knights Templar were a Christian military order, the Order of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, that existed from the 12th to 14th centuries to provide warriors in the Crusades. These men were famous in the high and late Middle Ages, but the Order was disbanded very suddenly by King Philip IV of France, who took action against the Templars in order to avoid repaying his own financial debts. He accused them of heresy, ordered the arrest of all Templars within his realm, and had many of them burned at the stake. The dramatic and rapid end of the organization led to many stories and legends developing about them over the following centuries. The Order and its members increasingly appear in modern fiction, though most of these references portray the medieval organization inaccurately.

In modern works, the Templars generally are portrayed as villains, as misguided zealots, as representatives of an evil secret society, or as the keepers of a long-lost treasure. Several modern organizations also claim heritage from the medieval Templars, as a way of enhancing their own image or mystique.

Modern organizations

The story of the secretive yet powerful medieval Templars, especially their persecution and sudden dissolution, has been a tempting source for many other groups which have used alleged connections with the Templars as a way of enhancing their own image and mystery. There is no clear historical connection between the Knights Templar, which were dismantled in the 14th century, and any of these other organizations, of which the earliest emerged publicly in the 18th century. However, there is often public confusion and many overlook the 400-year gap. It is also worth pointing out that medieval Templars were members of a monastic order and most were required to take vows of celibacy and avoid all contact with women, even members of their own family. Therefore it was not possible, in most cases, for Templars to have any descendants.

The most prominent of the modern NeoTemplar organizations is in Freemasonry. Since at least the 18th century Freemasonry has incorporated Templar symbols and rituals in a number of Masonic bodies. One theory of the origins of Freemasonry claims direct descent from the historical Knights Templar through its final fourteenth-century members who took refuge in Scotland, or other countries where the Templar suppression was not enforced. This theory is usually deprecated on grounds of lack of evidence, by both Masonic authorities and historians. However, there are many modern references to the Templars in Freemasongry, such as the Degree of Knight of the Temple, also known as the "Order of the Temple", the final order joined in "The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta" commonly known as the Knights Templar. Freemasonry is traditionally open to men of all faiths, asking only that they have a belief in a supreme being. But membership in the Templar Masonic body (and others) is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in the Christian religion. The word "United" in this title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual Order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual Orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple (Knights Templar), the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the Masonic York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.

Another Templar-related order, the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, is a charitable organization founded in 1804 which has achieved United Nations NGO special status. They are a part of the larger Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (OSMTH), commonly called Knights Templar International. Some members of the OSMTH claim to be the direct descendants of the original Knights Templar using the Larmenius Charter as proof, however this document is suspected to be a forgery.

In 2011, another NeoTemplar group named PCCTS became prominent in the news when a Norwegian citizen, Anders Behring Breivik, distributed a 1500-page manifesto, claiming that he was committing acts of violence because he was a member of an international Christian military order fighting against Islamic suppression. This order, allegedly called the "Knights Templar" included (according to his manifest) between fifteen and eighty "ordinated knights" besides an unknown number of "civilian members". The order's full name is Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici, or PCCTS, and, according to Breivik's manifesto, is said to have been established in London in April 2002, as a "re-founding" of the twelfth-century crusading order. The new organisation supposedly was established to take political and military control of Western Europe, with its members being armed as an "anti-Jihad crusader-organisation". It reportedly was established by nine men: two Englishmen, a Frenchman, a German, a Dutchman, a Greek, a Russian, a Norwegian (apparently Breivik), and a Serb (not present, but represented by Breivik; the main initiator, whom Breivik claims to have visited in Liberia and whom he referred to as a "war hero"). Breivik was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, and his order is believed by the police to be a product of imagination.

Modern depictions and analysis

Modern scholarly attention to the Knights Templar is often devoted just as much to the conspiracy theories and popular culture depictions of the Templars, as to the actual historical facts of the medieval organization.

At the 2004 Annual Conference of the American Culture Association, their call for papers was specifically about such conspiracy theories relating to the Templars and their association with other legends and mysterious organizations. Literary theorists puzzle over Umberto Eco's use in his novel Foucault's Pendulum, of the Templars as a symbol of postmodernist rewriting of history. Historian Malcolm Barber writes that "Mystic Templars are omnipresent in all good conspiracy theories." On Day to Day, a program on American NPR, host Alex Chadwick discussed "the literary fascination with the Knights Templar." In Poland, the Toruń Museum had an exhibition entitled "The Knights Templar - History and Myth" which offered a description, "Apart from pieces of "high art", the exhibit will grant equal importance to "popular culture" items (literature, film, Internet content) exploring the subject of the Knights Templar." And in 2007, a National Post editorial noted that "the Templars remain a living presence in popular culture. This has happened precisely because the historical record concerning their sudden annihilation in the early-14th century at the hands of Philip IV ("the Fair") of France has been so sparse and ambiguous. Time and revolution have damaged and dispersed the sources, and made the Templars a magnet for speculation and imagination."

Notable examples

Novels and comics

A brief list of some works which have featured the Knights Templar:

• Ivanhoe, an 1820 novel by Sir Walter Scott, has as its villain Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert, a "Templar Knight."
• The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids, an 1855 short story by Herman Melville treats the Templars with great irony.
• Mumbo-Jumbo (1972) has a Templar Knight Hinkle Von Vampton who serves as the main villain in Ishmael Reed's postmodernist satire
• Les Rois Maudits or The Accursed Kings (1973 et seq) by Maurice Druon depicts the death of the last Grand Master of the Order, and plays with the legend of the curse he laid on the pope, Philip the Fair, and Guillaume de Nogaret.
• Foucault's Pendulum, a 1988 novel by Umberto Eco, which features the mythos of the Knights Templar as keepers and defenders of the Holy Grail.
• Swedish author Jan Guillou has written a trilogy about Arn Magnusson (1998 et seq), a fictional Swedish character from the Middle Ages who was forced to become a Knight Templar, went to Jerusalem and after returning to Sweden, was a leading military figure shortly before the time of Birger Jarl.
• Katherine Kurtz has written many books with Templar characters and themes, and edited the Crusade of Fire (2002) anthology
• The Da Vinci Code, bestselling 2003 novel by Dan Brown. This was also adapted into a film version in 2006.
• The Last Templar (2005), by Raymond Khoury is a Da Vinci Code-style thriller.
• The Revenge of the Shadow King (2006), by Derek Benz and J.S. Lewis, relates an alternate history of the Knights Templar, aligning them with an age-old order whose primary role is to defend the world from the powers of darkness. In this book, the Templars still exist and operate today from the shadows of an underground organization.
• The Templar Legacy (2006) by Steve Berry is a story which revolves around the possibility that the Templar Treasure is close to being discovered, and that it may fall into the wrong hands. In this book, the treasure is closely connected to the question of Christ as the Savior, and Christ's Resurrection. The book also brings into question the contents and significance of the treasure.

Films

• A series of horror films (Tombs of the Blind Dead, Return of the Blind Dead, The Ghost Galleon, Night of the Seagulls) by Spanish director Amando de Ossorio depict the Knights Templar as resurrected mummies in search of human blood.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).
• The mythos of the Knights Templar (presented as the fictional "Knights of the Cruciform Sword") as keepers and defenders of the Holy Grail is also a central plot point in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
• Dolph Lundgren plays the role of a modern day member of the Knights Templar in the 1998 movie The Minion.
• The film Revelation (2001), in which the order tries to clone Jesus Christ for evil purposes.
• The Templar Knights are featured in the 2001 French film Le Pacte des loups, in which the symbol of the Templar Knights is seen upon the walls of an old Templar stronghold and upon the Beast's armor. The cult seen in the movie is also supposedly a rogue Templar organization, originally sent by the Pope to teach the King of France a lesson.
• National Treasure, 2004
• Kingdom of Heaven, 2005 shows the incompetent last King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan(who was never a Templar), and his bloodthirsty henchman, Reynald de Châtillon (not a Templar himself), as Templars.
• Arn – The Knight Templar (2007).
• Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End (2008).
• The Last Templar (2009) An adaptation of Raymond Khoury's novel about a New York archaeologist researching the lost secrets of the medieval Knights Templar.
• Ironclad (film) (2011)

Music

• Richard Wagner's 19th century great opera Parsifal, loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.
• Knights of the Cross is a concept album about the Templars by German metal band Grave Digger.
• The Templars (band) a NYC Oi! band is inspired by the Knights Templar. Similarly, their record label, Templecombe Records, is named after a Knights Templar site in Somerset, England.
• HammerFall, a Swedish Power metal band, refer to themselves as "The Templars of Heavy Metal", making frequent reference to the Templars on many of their albums.

Games

• Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (1996) was the first video game to reference the Knights Templar. Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon (2003) and Broken Sword: The Angel of Death (2006) involve the Templars as well.
• Time Gate: Knight's Chase (1996)
• Utilizing material from the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail the third Gabriel Knight game, Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (1999), posits both an alternative history of Christ and the suggestion that the Templar treasure, buried in France's Languedoc, is Christ's remains.
• Templars feature in Deus Ex (2000). As with Broken Sword the plot is derived from the Illuminatus trilogy.
• In Medieval II: Total War (2002), most Catholic factions can train Templar units into their armies or hire them as mercenaries while on a crusade.
• In Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (2003), a fictionalised version of the Knights Templar appear as a playable faction and play a major role in the game.
• Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade (2004) by TDK and Starbreeze.
• Knights of the Temple II (2005), the sequel to the Starbreeze-developed game by Cauldron, published by Playlogic.
• The Assassin's Creed series features the Templars as the main antagonists, with Robert de Sablé as its leader in 1191, Rodrigo Borgia in the sequel, and his son in Brotherhood on Rodrigo's death in 1503 until his death in 1507.
• Aion's (2008) tanking role warriors are called Templars.
• Dragon Age series features a mage- and demonhunting inquisition called Templars.
• The Black Templars Chapter of the Space Marines from the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame are based directly on the historical Knights Templar.
• The First Templar (2011), The plot resolves around templars and the Holy Grail.