The Church wasn’t their only enemy the secrecy of the masons garnered such distrust in early America that it inspired America’s first “third party”: The Anti-Masonic Party. In 1985, Roman Catholic Bishops restated over 200 years’ worth of these strictures in the face of an increased number of Catholics joining the order. The Church first condemned the Freemasons in 1738 and has gone on to issue around 20 decrees against them.
Freemason Beliefsįreemasonry is not a religion, though members are encouraged to believe in a Supreme Being, or "Grand Architect of the Universe.” Masonic temples and secret rituals have brought them into conflict with the Catholic Church. Freemasonry quickly spread across Europe and to the American colonies. The earliest reference to masons is in the Regius Poem, or Halliwell Manuscript, which was published in 1390, but Freemasonry, as we know it today, was founded in 1717, when four London lodges merged to form England’s first Grand Lodge. At the apex of their power, the Knights Templar owned the island of Cyprus, a fleet of ships and lent money to kings. Their influence swelled to a new high in 1139 when Pope Innocent II issued a Papal Bull exempting them from paying taxes… and decreeing that the only authority they had to answer to was the Pope. They became one of the most wealthy and powerful forces in Europe after setting up a bank that allowed pilgrims to deposit money in their home countries and withdraw it in the Holy Land. The Knights Templar were known for more than their military prowess and moral lifestyle. Headquartered at Temple Mount in Jerusalem, members pledged to live a life of chastity, obedience and poverty, abstaining from gambling, alcohol and even swearing. The military order was founded around 1118 when Hugues de Payens, a French knight, created the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon-or The Knights Templar for short.
The Knights Templar were warriors dedicated to protecting Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land during the Crusades. Here are the real stories behind history’s most exclusive secret societies.
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