I found this. -"The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years." - Well geez, a little late lol.

They're still out there. Don't worry. I like this little conspiracy theory.

On Friday the 13th, 1307 King Phillip the IV of France massively indebted to the Order pressured and got direction from the Pope and arrested Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar along with 60 of his senior knights. That day thousands of Templars were arrested and subsequently tortured. They then 'confessed' and were executed. Pretty much ending the order completely. They were officially disbanded in 1312, by Pope Clement. This is also were Friday the 13th, drew its evil/unlucky reputation from.

Good history accounts in these answers. I really believe there are still some vestages of the order out there. As I remember, the huge treasure they were supposed to have was never found.

They are still with us being far more careful then ever.

As noted already, the order was officially disbanded in 1312. While most of the French Templars had been executed, killed during "interrogation" by torture, or imprisoned for life (all part of Philip IV's evil plan to sieze their lands and treasury in France), the Templars outside of France were absorbed into other orders, mostly the Hospitallars and the Knights Tomar. The 8 English Templars, however, spent the rest of their lives going around England doing penance for high ranking bishops and abbots who were just too busy to do their own penance. The order, however, had many lay brothers and associates (not under the vow of chastity, poverty and obedience) and they simply remained, like the one-time constituency of an outlawed political party. The claim that some of these in Scotland eventually morphed into the Freemasons (after more than 350 years) is as yet an unsubstantiated claim, and appears to be just part of the grandiose mythology some early Freemasons concieved for themselves, including origins in ancient Egypt -- founded by Hermes Trismagisthus, no less -- and in Imperial Rome at the architectural school of Vitruvius. As for "the Templar treasure", it never existed in one place, but had been distributed across Europe in the commandaries of the order in every city and town of note - installations that functioned much like modern banks, issueing and accepting letters of credit, taking moneys on deposit, lending money and granting credit, etc. Since the loss of their last outpost in the Holy Land actual donations had all but dried up and the Templars drained their reserves to support the Order and invest further in land and borrowers, so by the night of Philip IV's putsch, there was little actual "treasure" left, just land and promisory notes from borrowers -- most of which became fell to other Church institutions, despite the efforts of Philip IV to get it for himself.

Yales Bone and Skull Society which has had influence in every presdential adminastration is a direct off-shoot(one of many) of scottish freemassonry, the offshoot of the knights templar. just try good and read a few parapraphs instead of just posting such simple questions

re. darcyknox>>Yales Bone and Skull Society which has had influence in every presdential adminastration is a direct off-shoot(one of many) of scottish freemassonry, the offshoot of the knights templar.<< Scottish rite Freemasonry is about as much "an offshoot" of the Kinghts Templar as PETA is an offshoot of the Franciscans. There is NO evidence of any connection ... except that some Masons (Blue Lodge NOT Scottish Rite) claimed the Templars along with various other exotic, illustrious, and mysterious ancient institutions, none of which had anything to do with each other. In philosophy, ideology, purpose, and structure, there is no similarity between the Masons (be they Blue Lodge (only), Scottish Rite, York Rite, etc.) and the Templars at all. In fact, there's a gap of over 200 years between the abolition of the Templars and the first appearances of anything resembling Masonic lodges. As for Skull and Bones, it's an elitist club for the elite of Yale's senior class: all legacies, star athletes, captains of the debating team, and various other leading students are inducted at the end of their Junior year. What has been leaked about their meetings and rituals have no resemblance to what is known of Scottish Rite rituals. Skull & Bones was formed in 1832 after a dispute between Yale's three debating societies over the Phi Beta Kappa awards. Some of its symbols and rites were concieved as a parody of Masonry (Blue Lodge, not Scottish Rite) which had come under wide and wild attacks throughout America in the 1820s and 1830s - even in 1832, it was "cool" for college boys to be "bad" and counter-cultural. And it was founded by students. Finally, that many of the sons of America's richest and most prominent and influential families should go on to become rich, prominent and influential themselves is hardly evidence of a grand conspiracy.