This is our title, and you will notice that the word Masonic is included. This is because we are not directly descended from the original Knights Templar, but we came into being (in a wide variety of ritual forms, and at first worked under Warrants of Royal Arch Chapters) in the British Isles in and around the 1760’s. The present day Templar ritual was introduced in the 1850’s, and a few years’ later, the same occurred to the Mediterranean Pass and Malta degrees.
A direct link with the original Templars is that they were granted their encampment in Jerusalem, on the site of King Solomon’s Temple. On 15th July 1099 the city walls of Jerusalem were breached, and the city captured by the Crusader army of the 1st crusade. In 1118 nine knights under the leadership of Hughes de Payen approached the patriarch of Jerusalem (King Baldwin II); having decided to dedicate their lives to the service of the Holy land. The patriarch subsequently assigned them a portion of the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount (said to have been built on the original Temple of Solomon). This group of knights subsequently took their name from this: Pauperes commiltones Christi Templi Salomonis (the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon). Thus becoming known as the Knights of the Temple, and later, Knights Templar.
In Hertfordshire we presently have 16 Preceptories, and approximately 400 members (called Brother Knights). Who operate under the direction of the Provincial Prior, presently Right Eminent Knight Brian Blanchard. We pride ourselves on our happy and friendly meetings, and it is often said amongst members that this is their favourite Order.
A newly Installed Knight will go through an extremely interesting ceremony; taking him through a pilgrimage and then knighthood as a Templar. There is also a Mediterranean Pass and Malta degree; which is usually conferred at a meeting each September, by the Provincial Sub-Prior, presently, Very Eminent Knight Tony King, PGtReg.
If you are interested in joining us (you must have been raised to the third degree, and be a Royal Arch mason) and would like some more information, please contact any Registrar of a Preceptory (found in the Herts year book), or myself on: 07764 293154 or email me at provincialvicechancellorherts@yahoo.co.uk
Eminent Knight John Linley, PDepGtSwdB, Provincial Vice-Chancellor
