Templars

Military religious order founded in Jerusalem 1119–20 to protect pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land. They played an important part in the Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries. Innocent II placed them under direct papal authority in 1139, and their international links allowed them to adapt to the 13th-century decline of the Crusader states by becoming Europe's bankers. The Templars' independence, power, and wealth, rather than their alleged heresy, probably motivated Philip IV of France, helped by the Avignon pope Clement V, to suppress the order in 1307–14.

The order began as a group of French knights, led by Hugues de Payens. The ‘Temple of Solomon’ in their full name refers to the site of the Temple of Jerusalem, where they were given their original headquarters by King Baldwin II. Living under vows of poverty and chastity according to the rule of St Bernard of Clairvaux, the order comprised four ranks: servants, chaplains, sergeants, and knights, who wore white surcoats with red crosses. In the 13th century there were as many as 20,000 knights. The order's great wealth derived initially from pious gifts by European kings and nobles, later supplemented by their business activities. After suppression, their property was divided between their great rivals the Hospitallers and various secular rulers.