The Knights Templar is a Roman Catholic Order ? ? ?
WIKEPEDIA:
The Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power.
. . .
The Templars were closely tied to the
Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the order faded.
[12] Rumours about the Templars' secret
initiation ceremony created distrust, and King
Philip IV of France – deeply in debt to the order – took advantage of this distrust to destroy them and erase his debt. In 1307, he had many of the order's members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and burned at the stake.
[13] Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip. The abrupt reduction in power of a significant group in European society gave rise to speculation, legend, and legacy through the ages.