Are the Masons descendents of the Knights Templar?
No, the Masons may think they are descendants of the Knights Templar, but so do the Rosicrucians and many other groups. It suits them to try to obtain a thread of continuity and antiquity for their beliefs, which are much more modern. Concerning the Templars, we know very little of them. They were very much a secretive group, and what information we do have is mostly from hostile sources (those in the pay of monarchs like Philip The Fair who annihilated them). Most Templars did not reveal anything under torture, and those who “confessed” mostly recanted as they were burned to death. What we can see is that the Templars were probably much maligned. Their faith seems to have been orthodox, even though their rituals were strange and secretive. They had begun as protectors of the Sepulchre in Jerusalem in the Crusades, but developed into the Crusade bankers. Dealing with so many nobles and with so much wealth turned them inwards, and demanded, of the order’s members, great honesty and stre
