Dictionary of Secret Societies

Entries to date

2010-10-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

Alumbrados ; Assassins ; Bilderberg Group ; Bohemian Club ; Carbonari ; Club of Rome ; Co-Masonry ; Council on Foreign Relations ; Druzes ; Freemasonry (English) ; Freemasonry (French) ; Garduna ; Golden Dawn ; Illuminati ; Illuminés ; Jesuits ; Job's Daughters ; Knights Templar ; Knights Teutonic ; Knights Hospitaller ; Ku Klux Klan ; Luciferians ; Lucis Trust ; Opus Dei ; Order of Christ ; Order of DeMolay ; Order of the Garter ; OTO ; PNAC ; Priory of Sion ; P2 ; Red Cross ; Rosicrucians ; Scientology ; Skull and Bones ; Strict Observance ; Theosophical Society ; Thule Society ; Trilateral Commission ; United Nations ; Vehmgerichts ; Young Italy

Order of DeMolay

2009-11-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

(DeMolay International)
Founded: 1919, Kansas, USA

DeMolay is open for membership to young men between the ages of 12 to 21, and currently has about 18,000 members in the United States and Canada and several thousand more world wide. It uses a model of mentoring; adult men and women called advisors, often past DeMolay members or fathers and mothers of DeMolays, mentor the active DeMolay members. An advisor is referred to as 'Dad Smith' instead of 'Mr. Smith', in respect of Frank Land and his fatherly role to the founding members. The mentoring focuses on the development of civic awareness, leadership skills and personal responsibility.
Founded by a Freemason, DeMolay is closely modeled after Freemasonry. It is not directly connected to Freemasonry, though it normally meets in a Masonic Lodge room. DeMolay is considered to be part of the Masonic Family, along with other youth groups such as Job's Daughters and the Rainbow Girls. Like the Rainbow Girls, a young man does not need to have a family tie or sponsor in a Masonic organization to join DeMolay.

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Scientology

2009-10-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

(Church of Scientology)
Founded: 1952, New Jersey

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986), starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion, and in 1953 incorporated the Church of Scientology in New Jersey.
Scientology teaches that people are immortal spiritual beings who have forgotten their true nature. Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling known as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past, in order to free themselves of their limiting effects. Study materials and auditing courses are made available to members in return for specified donations. Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in the United States and some other countries, and the Church of Scientology emphasizes this as proof that it is a bona fide religion. In other countries such as Germany, France and the UK, Scientology does not have comparable religious status.

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Young Italy

2009-09-18T03:43:00.000-07:00

(La Giovine Italia)
Founded: 1831, Italy

La Giovine Italia (Italian for Young Italy) was a political movement founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini. The goal of this movement was to create a united Italian republic through promoting a general insurrection in the Italian reactionary states and in the lands occupied by the Austrian Empire. Mazzini's belief was that a popular uprising would create a unified Italy.

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Ku Klux Klan

2009-09-18T03:36:00.000-07:00

(The Klan, KKK)
Founded: 1865, Tennessee, USA

Ku Klux Klan, informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in the Southern states and eventually grew to national scope. They developed iconic white costumes consisting of robes, masks, and conical hats. The KKK has a record of using terrorism, violence, and lynching to murder and oppress African Americans, Jews and other minorities and to intimidate and oppose Roman Catholics and labor unions.

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Thule Society

2009-09-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

(Thule-Gesellschaft)
Founded: 1918, Berlin
Dissolved: mid-1920s

The Thule Society, originally the Study Group for Germanic Antiquity (Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum), was a German occultist and völkisch group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country from Greek legend. The Society is notable chiefly as the organization that sponsored the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP), which was later transformed by Adolf Hitler into the Nazi Party. However, there is no evidence that Hitler had ever attended the Thule Society before the DAP's transformation into the Nazi Party.

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Garduna

2009-09-18T03:03:00.000-07:00

(La Santa Garduña)
Founded: Medieval Spain

The Garduna was a secret criminal society in Spain in the late Middle Ages. It was essentially a prison gang that grew into a more organized entity over time, involved with robbery, kidnapping, arson, and murder-for-hire. Some have claimed to have found documentation listing clients, services, and fees charged by the Garduna.

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Luciferians

2009-09-18T02:56:00.001-07:00

(Luciferianism)

Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer. Luciferianism is identified by some people as an auxiliary of Satanism, due to the popular identification of Lucifer with Satan. Some Luciferians accept this identification or consider Lucifer as the light bearer aspect of Satan, and thus could properly be called Satanists. Others reject it, arguing that Lucifer is a more positive ideal than Satan. They are inspired by the ancient myths of Egypt, Rome and Greece, Gnosticism and traditional Western occultism.

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Job's Daughters

2009-09-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

(Job's Daughters International)
Founded: 1920, Nebraska by Ethel T. Wead Mick

Job's Daughters International is a Masonic sponsored youth organization for girls aged 10 to 20. The organization is commonly referred to as simply Job's Daughters, and sometimes abbreviated as JDI (or IOJD, referring to its longtime former name). Job's Daughters focuses on the Holy Bible but celebrates and welcomes many religions and cultures.The individual chapter is called a Bethel, and each is numbered sequentially, according to when they were instituted in their jurisdiction. They usually meet at a Masonic Lodge building and when they are in session they refer to the meeting place as the Bethel room.

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P2

2008-08-03T04:06:00.003-07:00

(Propaganda Due)
Founded: 1966, Italy by Licio Gelli
(relaunch of an older group founded in 1877, Turin, called Propaganda Massonica)

Propaganda Due, or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 (when its charter was withdrawn), and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally (in contravention of Italian constitutional laws banning secret lodges, and membership of government officials in secret membership organizations) from 1976 to 1981. During the years that the lodge was headed by Licio Gelli, P2 was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries, including the nationwide bribe scandal Tangentopoli, the collapse of the Vatican-affiliated Banco Ambrosiano, and the murders of journalist Mino Pecorelli and banker Roberto Calvi. P2 came to light through the investigations into the collapse of Michele Sindona's financial empire.

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Strict Observance

2008-08-03T04:06:00.001-07:00

(Rite of Strict Observance)
Founded: 1764, Germany by Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund

The Rite of Strict Observance was a Rite of Freemasonry, a series of progressive degrees that were conferred by the Order of Strict Observance, a Masonic body of the 18th century.

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Vehmgerichts

2008-08-03T04:05:00.004-07:00

(League of the Holy Court, Vehm)

The Vehmic courts, Vehmgericht, holy vehme, or just the Vehm, also spelt Feme, are names given to a tribunal system of Westphalia active during the later Middle Ages, based on a fraternal organisation of lay judges called francs-juges or Freischöffen ("free judges"). The principal seat of the courts was in Dortmund. The proceedings were sometimes secret, leading to the alternative titles of secret courts, silent courts, or forbidden courts. The courts took jurisdiction over all crimes during the Late Middle Ages, and those condemned by the tribunal were done away with by secret means. After the execution of the death sentence, the corpse was hung on a tree to advertise the fact and deter others.

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Theosophical Society

2008-08-03T04:04:00.003-07:00

(Theosophy)
Founded: New York, 1875 by Helena Blavatsky

Theosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics originating with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–91). In this context, theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the "Spiritual Hierarchy" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth. Together with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge, and others, Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in 1875.

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Carbonari

2008-08-03T04:04:00.001-07:00

(Charcoal Burners)
Founded: 1820's, Naples

The Carbonari ("charcoal burners") were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. Their goals were patriotic and liberal and they played an important role in the Risorgimento and the early years of Italian nationalism.

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Druze

2008-08-03T04:03:00.000-07:00

(Druz, Druse)
Founded: 1016, Egypt by Hamza ibn ‘Alī ibn Ahmad

The Druze are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an offshoot of Islam, but is unique in its incorporation of Gnostic, neo-Platonic and other philosophies, similar to other followers of Ismaili Shi'a Islam.
Theologically, Druze consider themselves "an Islamic Unist, reformatory sect". The Druze call themselves Ahl al-Tawhid "People of Unitarianism or Monotheism" or al-Muwaḥḥidūn "Unitarians, Monotheists."

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OTO

2008-08-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

(Ordo Templi Orientis)
Founded: 1895, Germany

Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) (Order of the Temple of the East, or the Order of Oriental Templars) is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century.
Originally it was intended to be modelled after and associated with Freemasonry, but under the leadership of Aleister Crowley, O.T.O. was reorganized around the Law of Thelema as its central religious principle. This Law—expressed as “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and "Love is the law, love under will” —was promulgated in 1904 with the dictation of The Book of the Law.
Similar to many secret societies, O.T.O. membership is based on an initiatory system with a series of degree ceremonies that use ritual drama to establish fraternal bonds and impart spiritual and philosophical teachings.
O.T.O. also includes the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC) or Gnostic Catholic Church, which is the ecclesiastical arm of the Order. Its central rite, which is public, is called Liber XV, or the Gnostic Mass.

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Co-Masonry

2008-07-10T05:45:00.002-07:00

(International Order of Mixed Freemasonry - Le Droit Humain)
Founded: Late 19th Century, France

Co-Freemasonry is a form of Freemasonry which admits both men and women. It began in France in the mid-nineteenth century with the forming of Le Droit Humain, and is now an international movement represented by several Co-Masonic administrations throughout the world. Most Masonic Lodges do not admit women, and do not officially recognise Co-Freemasonry, holding it to be irregular or clandestine.

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Trilateral Commission

2008-07-10T05:45:00.001-07:00

(International Commission of Peace and Prosperity)
Founded: 1972, Bilderberg meeting in Belgium

The Trilateral Commission is a private organization, established to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan. It was founded in July 1973 at the initiative of David Rockefeller, who was Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations at that time. The Trilateral Commission is widely seen as a counterpart to the Council on Foreign Relations.

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United Nations

2008-07-10T05:44:00.001-07:00

(UN)
Founded: 1945, San Fransisco

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions.

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Council on Foreign Relations

2008-07-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

(CFR)
Founded: 1921, New York

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American bipartisan foreign policy membership organization founded in 1921. Located at 58 East 68th Street (Park Avenue) in New York City, with an office in Washington, D.C. Some international journalists believe it to be 'the most influential foreign-policy think tank.' It publishes a bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs. It has an extensive website, featuring links to its think tank, The David Rockefeller Studies Program, a new geoeconomic center, Emmy award-winning multimedia Crisis Guides Foreign Affairs, and many other projects, publications, history, biographies of notable directors and other board members, corporate members, and press releases.

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PNAC

2008-04-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

(Project for the New American Century)
Founded: 1997, USA

Another think-tank, this one is of enormous influence on the Bush administration and Neo-conservative thought. Their most infamous report stated before 9-11 that the US needed some Pearl Harbor style event as an excuse to begin perpetual war.
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Club of Rome

2008-04-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

Founded: 1968, Rome

A global think-tank used by many governments to decide policy, it is linked in with the New World Order because of it’s report on the unsustainable size of the earth’s population and the need to take steps to reduce it. All of NATO’s policies were set by this group.
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Lucis Trust

2008-04-14T12:35:00.001-07:00

(Lucifer Publishing Company)
Founded: 1923, New York

Originally founded as the ‘Lucifer Publishing Company’, this organisation was founded to offer a correspondence course in meditation techniques, although it’s links with the occultist Madam Blavatsky, and the fact that it has had Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller as members is enough to raise even the tightest of eyebrows!
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Golden Dawn

2007-11-28T04:06:00.000-08:00

(Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn)
Founded: 1887, London (Dr. Westcott)

Most famous for being the magical and mystical group in which Aleister Crowley cut his teeth, Crowley nearly tore the group apart when his friendship with it’s head, Mathers, disintegrated. The order was able to continue after Crowley left, and disappeared into the shadows. It continues today.

Bilderberg Group

2007-11-25T14:48:00.001-08:00

Founded: 1954, Netherlands (Henry Kissinger)

The group is named after the hotel at which the first meeting was held. Similar to the Bohemian Club, but with a much more global membership; meetings bring together the heads of nations with news media chiefs and the like to meet behind closed doors and discuss the direction of future politics.
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Bohemian Club

2007-11-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

(Bohemian Grove)
Founded: 1872, California

Founded by a group of journalists in San Francisco, this group is famous today for it’s meetings at the Bohemian Grove, including the mock human sacrifice in front of a giant owl sculpture. Members include nearly every president of the US, CEO’s, bankers and other’s of the business elite.
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The Red Cross

2007-11-25T14:14:00.000-08:00

(International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement)
Founded: 1863, Geneva (Henry Dunant)

The Red Cross, a secret society? Can it be so? The Red Cross was founded by Henry Dunant in Switzerland, supposedly in response to the Austro-Sardinian war. He witnessed the war first-hand on… you guessed it 24th June – St John the Baptist’s Day. Remember in part 1, we saw that the Templars’ sister order, The Knight’s Hospitaler, were also known as the Knights of St John.
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Illuminés

2007-11-21T16:24:00.000-08:00

(French Illuminati)
Founded: 1623, France
Disbanded: 1794, France (Napoleon)

The Alumbrados moved into France (possibly to avoid the Inquisitions), disappearing underground around the time that Napoleon began dissolving secret societies.
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Alumbrados

2007-11-21T16:20:00.000-08:00

(Spanish Illuminati)
Founded: 1492, Spain

The earliest recorded form of The Illuminati. The founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola was brought before ecclesiastical commission in 1527 for charge of sympathy with the Alumbrados, but escaped with admonition. This is worth remembering, when you realise that Adam Weishopt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati, was a Jesuit.
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Order of the Garter

2007-11-20T08:32:00.000-08:00

(The Most Noble Order of the Garter)
Founded: 1348, London (King Edward III)

The oldest existing national order of knights, membership includes the monarch of the United Kingdom, the Prince of Wales, not more than 25 companion members, and various supernumerary members. The monarch alone can grant membership. He or she is known as the "Sovereign of the Garter", and the Prince of Wales is known as a "Knight Companion of the Garter."
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The Hashashin

2007-11-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

(Assassins)
Founded: 1090, Iran (Hasan-i Sabbah)

Secret brotherhood of Ismaili Shia Muslims famous for the influence they had on the Knights Templar. Both the Templars and the Hasashin operated outside of their religious divides, and the dealings between these two groups was mutually beneficial. The name derives from the Arabic for ‘Hashish Eater’ as the drug was reputedly used to inspire loyalty among members. The modern word ‘Assassin’ derives from this name.
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Priory of Sion

2007-11-17T01:11:00.000-08:00

(Prieure de Sion)
Founded: 1956, Paris (Pierre Plantard)

Famous for protecting the bloodline of Christ since the days of the Templars, the documents listing the previous Grand Masters (including Da Vinci) were proved to be fake, and Plantard later released a completely unrelated list of former Grand Masters (without Da Vinci!). Of course, this doesn’t prove that the group doesn’t exist, but no other provable evidence is available.
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Opus Dei

2007-11-17T01:10:00.000-08:00

(The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei)
Founded: 1928, Spain (Josemaría Escrivá)

Received official approval from Pope Pius XII in 1950, and in 1982 was made into a ‘personal prelature’ – the only group to receive this title (meaning they have jurisdiction over people rather than geographical areas).
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Skull and Bones

2007-11-17T01:09:00.000-08:00

(The Order of the Skull and Bones, The Brotherhood of Death)
Founded: 1832, Connecticut (Russell & Taft)

Despite only allowing 15 new members per year, George Bush’s opponent in the 2004 election, John Kerry, was a former ‘Bonesman’, and so was George. His dad was too.
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Illuminati

2007-11-17T01:07:00.000-08:00

(The Bavarian Illuminati)
Founded: 1776, Bavaria (Adam Weishopt)
Disbanded: 1785, Bavaria

Officially, the Illuminati were disbanded by edict of the Bavarian Government. Some evidence shows that it continued in other forms, including Skull and Bones and the broader concept of The New World Order.
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Freemasonry (French)

2007-11-17T01:06:00.000-08:00

(Grand Orient de France)
Founded: 1733, Paris

Independent from the English Freemasons, the French Masons developed different traditions, and is no longer recognised as a Masonic order.
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Freemasonry (English)

2007-11-17T01:04:00.000-08:00

(The Grand Lodge of England)
Founded: 1717, London

Many different forms of Freemasonry, but all stem from this origin. In 1813, the Ancient and the Modern branches were united, and the group was renamed as The United Grand Lodge of England.
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Rosicrucians

2007-11-17T01:03:00.000-08:00

(Brethren of the Rose Cross)
Founded: 1614, Germany

The three Rosicrucian Manifesto’s have as their central character ‘Christian Rosenkruetz’ – but the author of the works remains anonymous. Within the second work, the birth of Christian Rosenkreutz (referred to as “Our Christian Father”) is stated to be 1378. This implies that the Order was established in 1407.
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Jesuits

2007-11-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

(Society of Jesus)
Founded: 1534, Spain (Ignatius Loyola)

Another St John connection here: The Company of Jesus (as they then called themselves) were officially ordained in Venice by the Bishop of Arbe on June 24th 1537 – St John’s Day.
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Order of Christ

2007-11-17T00:37:00.000-08:00

(Military Order of Christ)
Founded: 1318, Portugal (King Denis)
Disbanded: 1834, Portugal

Portugal and Galicia (Northwest Spain) were the second front in the crusades, as southern Spain was under Moorish rule. By the 1830’s, the civil government of Portugal was strongly anti-catholic, and so after the defeat of King Miguel in the civil war, the order lost its properties. It continues to this day, as an order of merit.
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The Teutonic Knights

2007-11-16T16:54:00.000-08:00

(Order of the Teutonic House of St. Mary in Jerusalem)
Founded: 1190, Acre
Disbanded: 1410, Poland

Defeat by Lithuanian/Polish army at the Battle of Grunwald. Steady decline until 1809 when Napoleon ordered its dissolution. The order continued under the rulership of the Habsburgs, and exists today as a charitable organisation.
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The Knights Hopitaller

2007-11-16T16:49:00.001-08:00

(Knights of St John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta)
Founded: 1080, Jerusalem (Blessed Gerard)
Disbanded: 1798, Malta

When the Templars were disbanded, many of their assets were handed over to the Hospitallers. After the loss of the Holy Land, their headquarters were moved to Malta, where they continued until the arrival of Napoleon. The order continues to this day in the guise of “The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta”.

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The Knights Templar

2007-11-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

(Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon)
Founded: 1118, Jerusalem (Hugh de Payens)
Disbanded: 1307, Paris

Headquarters on the Temple Mount – 19th Century excavations showed extensive tunnelling under the original Temple of Solomon. After French King Philip the Fair had them tried for blasphemy, the Pope officially disbanded them in 1312, many either joining the Hospitallers, or the Portugese Order of Christ.
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