Warrior monks driven underground

A SHADOWY warrior sect driven underground by accusations of satanism and black magic, the Knights Templar have been shrouded in legend for centuries.

Tracing their origins back to the times of the Crusades, its secretive members have been portrayed as everything from guardians of the Holy Grail to the secret power behind world governments.

The religious order began in the 12th century, when a nobleman gathered knights in Jerusalem

to provide protection to pilgrims, and were given quarters in the former Temple of Solomon.

Their influence soon spread throughout Europe, where the elite ‘warrior monks’ were respected for their bravery in battle against Muslims in the Holy Land.

But in 1307 King Philip IV of France suppressed the order with far-fetched accusations of heretical initiation ceremonies.

While some were burnt at the stake in France, historians say members in England were quietly allowed to join other religious orders.

It is believed that some English followers continued to meet in caves and cellars in the decades that followed – and conspiracy theories abound as to the modern influence of Templars.

Novelist Dan Brown popularised some of the claims in The Da Vinci Code, while the Freemasons have adopted their rituals. The Templars were also behind the evil scheme in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.