The modern Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem is an ecumenical international Christian Knighthood founded in 1932 in Belgium. Its roots can be traced back to the medieval military order of the Knights Templar. In 1118 a small band of knights founded the Poor Companions of Christ and the Temple of Jerusalem to protect pilgrims from attack as they traveled to Jerusalem. The two founding documents of the Order were the Rule, known as the "Latin" or "Primitive Rule", approved at the Council of Troyes in 1128/29, and "Liber ad milites de laude novae militae", written by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in which he described the Templars as a new type of order in the Holy Places, joining together the knightly and monastic lives.

The Knights Templar adopted the white mantle of the Cistercians. Pope Honorius II approved the Rule, recognizing the Order. Pope Innocent II (1139) in his bull, omne datum optimum, placed the Templar Order under direct papal authority, making the Order an autonomous corporate body. Exemptions were granted from ecclesiastic authorities and certain tithes. Privileges were conferred upon the Order. Subsequent popes would confirm this bull and add more privileges. In 1146 Pope Eugenius III permitted the Templars to add the red cross to their cloaks, symbolizing their willingness to die in defense of the Faith. Around 1163 the "Retaits" were added to the Rule, determining the hierarchical order, and regulating the conventual life, admission to the Order, and the election and authority of the Master of the Temple. The motto: "Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed Nomine Tuo da Gloriam" was inscribed on the Templars' black and white standard, the Beausant.

As a military order, the Templars became the first Western standing army. Papal grants, donations of land and fiscal contributions provided the economic resources for the defense of Christian interests in the Holy Land. By issuing letters of credit and loaning money to pilgrims, the Templars developed a system of banking, centered on their Temples in London and Paris. Due to their honesty, efficiency, and reliability such temples became depositories used by nobles and rulers. In a sense the Templars pioneered a system of international banking.

After the defeat at Hattin and the loss of Jerusalem the Templars retreated to Cyprus. There they began development of a naval fleet. When Acre was captured during the Third Crusade in 1191, it became the Templar headquarters. The Templars were also supporting the Spanish and Portuguese rulers in the "Reconquista " of the Iberian peninsula. Upon suffering serious losses in the Holy Land at the battles of La Forbie (1244) and Mansurah (1250) the Order weakened as an effective fighting force. With the fall of Acre in 1291 to Egyptian Mamluks, the Templars ended their presence in the Holy Land and reestablished themselves on Cyprus.

Now the challenge for the Knights Templars and the other military orders was to justify their continued existence. With the loss of the Holy Land and no perceived new role for the Templars, there was a lessening of donations and recruitment became difficult. This provided an opportunity for the Order's enemies, particularly the king of France, Philip IV. Heavily in debt he saw his opportunity. Rumors circulating of Templar corruption were turned into "fact". In October of 1307 the King ordered the arrest of all Templars in his kingdom. The weak and compliant pope, Clement V, under pressure from Philip IV, ordered the arrest of all Templars in Christian Europe. To resolve the Templar issue the Pope called the Council of Vienne in 1312. When the Council found that the charges against the Order lacked merit, Pope Clement V, on his own authority, issued the bull: "Vox in excelso" , dissolving the Order. As an Order the Knights Templars ceased to exist.

Historian Hilare Belloc, in THE CRUSADES, points out that the Holy Land and Europe lay in mortal peril from the Turks after the Byzantine defeat at Mazikert in 1071, and it was the Crusades which, in 1099, saved Christian Civilization from Turkish Islam, at least in Europe, and for nearly a century in the Holy Land. Knights Templar were major participants in that clash of cultures; they were the "few good men" who made a military contribution, and earned a lasting reputation, out of all proportion to their numbers. Although inadequate reinforcement of the Crusader states from Europe (with the failure to take Damascus) ultimately resulted in the loss of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, the Crusaders did buy time for Western civilization to develop the strength to withstand further onslaughts from the East.

One of the best recent histories of the first two centuries of the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem is THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR by Stephen Howarth, published in New York by Barnes & Noble. 1993. Another source is THE TEMPLARS by Piers Paul Read, published by St. Martin's Press in 1999. The most reliable historical account is: THE NEW KNIGHTHOOD; A HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLE by Malcolm Barber, published by Cambridge University Press in 1994.