Camp Gagnon - Why The Church Betrayed the Knights Templar

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Today we dive into the history of the Knights Templar, their mystical artifacts, and other interesting topics…WELCOME TO History CAMP! 🏕️Shoutout to our sponsors: Ultra and Hims & Hers Get 15% OFF For New Customers With Code “CAMP” When You Visit http://takeultra.comFor Simple, Online Access to Personalized and Affordable Care for Hair Loss, Visit: http://hims.com/campWant the even WILDER theories?SIGN UP TO THE PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/cw/CampGagnon👕🧢 Shop CAMP Merch: https://camp-rd.com/collections/ufo🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets: https://markgagnonlive.com🎩👽 Daily Dose Of History: https://www.dailytodayinhistory.comTimestamps:0:00 Greeks Made EVERYTHING + Christos YAPPIN1:50 Templars Capture Jerusalem3:25 Creation of Knights Templar5:23 Templars Mystical Artifacts9:13 Papal Blessing + Templar Banking13:45 Knights Templar Military15:04 The Crusades + Philip IV18:12 Friday The 13th + End of Knights Templar21:20 Final Templar Burned at Stake24:19 Lost Treasure of Knights Templar28:55 Baphomet Belief + Head of John the Baptist31:29 Possession of Shroud of Turin32:35 Legend of Knights Templar34:22 The Scholarly Thoughts#camping #history #podcast #ancienthistory #mystery #historyfacts #ancient #war #culture #knight

For nearly 200 years, they were the most powerful military order in the world. They built castles that still stand to this day. And some say that they helped invent modern banking. And they answered to no king, only the Pope. And then on a single Friday the 13th, they were destroyed completely. We're talking about the Knights Templar. The same organization that took vows of poverty became the wealthiest institution in medieval Europe. The same monks who swore chastity were accused of worshipping a severed head in

kissing each other in secret rituals. The same warriors who defended Christian pilgrims were burned at the stake by the Pope himself, cursing him with their dying breath. But here's the thing. When the Knights Templar fell, something vanished with them. Their legendary treasure was never found. Their secret archives completely disappeared, and the accusations against them, demon worship, heresy, blasphemy, were so bizarre that historians still argue about what was real and what was fabricated.

What were they hiding? Were they hiding anything? what did they find and why did the most powerful institution in Christian history need to be erased from existence? Well, I have good news for it because today we're diving into all of it. We're going through everything that we know about the Knights Templar. So if you are a fan of secrets of ancient church history and the inner workings of one of the most fascinating secret societies and military orders, well, this is the episode for you. So sit back, relax, and welcome to History King. What's up people and welcome back to History Camp.

My name is Mark Gagnon and thank you for joining me in my tent where every single week we explore the most interesting, fascinating controversial stories from all time forever for always. Yes, that is what I do here in the tent. I'm trying to figure out everything that's ever happened. And there's been a lot of stuff. I only got here in the 90s. So you've got to think there's thousands of years. I just found out today there might be 40,000 years that humans have been writing stuff down.

We just found a record from 40,000 years ago, for the record, news flash. and there's all that history that I know nothing about. So I'm trying to get to the bottom of it all, all right? And I'm bringing you along for the ride. So I just want to thank you for clicking this video, commenting, liking, making this channel possible because every time you engage with it, you make my dreams come true.

You help keep the lights on. And most importantly, you keep the fire burning. Now, at a certain point, I'm almost going to tell you guys to stop subscribing because I feel like it's going to Christos's head. Now, if you don't know who Chrisos is, he's the man. with the plan. He's the guy behind the shiny buttons, the ones and twos, and he does all the

things, the tricks, makes me look decent and makes the show possible. Cretus, how are you? What's up, everybody? We don't have time because we're talking about the Knights Templar. Do you know anything about that? Embarrassingly, no. You shouldn't be embarrassed by that. You know what I mean? Greeks typically don't know history. That's insulting. I just want you to know. I don't want you to feel left out, All right. This is a genetic thing. It's just who you people are. We made history, but okay. We made it. All right. No, the Greeks loved to, I mean, you guys gave us the alphabet. Right? Among other things. And what other things, Greece does? Everything, philosophy, democracy.

Hmm. Anything with philosophers and their students? Anything with that? Well, we're going to get unsubscribed. Okay. We're getting demas. Guys, look, this is an improper talk. All right. Let's talk about the Knights Templar. Where does our story begin? I'm glad you asked. We're going back to 1099. Yes, not the tax form. I'm talking about the year, all right? 1,099.

This is when the first crusade captured Jerusalem. Now, Christos pinned that because we need to do an episode on the Crusades. Absolutely. Because I think that is a fascinating, historical and religious topic, kind of a crossover with our channels. Now, at this time, what this means is that basically Christian pilgrims and Christendom, broadly speaking, throughout Europe, finally has access to the holiest sites of Christianity. We're talking the Temple Mount, the Via de la Rosa, the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And there's one issue is that the roads leading from, you know, mainland Europe and, you know, the surrounding areas to Jerusalem are basically a death trap.

I mean, you got to think, this is back in the day of bandits and thieves and, you know, these, you know, the remnants of like these defeated militia that are. still to base just like lurking these routes and seizing these pilgrims. You know, many of these people like fought in the crusades that are pissed off. And as it were, travelers were often robbed and murdered. And some were even just kidnapped and sold into slavery. One account from 1119 describes a group of 700 pilgrims getting attacked by bandits and only 300 of them survived. That's great. 400 people just got taken out like a caravan by the.

raiders, all right? Pretty wild. Now, this is where we meet a fella named Ugg de Beons, and this guy is a French knight who fought in the First Crusade and he stayed in the Holy Land. And around 1119, he gathered eight other knights, and he made this proposal to King Baldwin the 2nd of Jerusalem. He basically says, hey, look, we're going to take monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Now, this is pretty typical of like, you know, priests or people within the clergy, but it's very strange for a knight to say, I don't want any money, I don't want any honey, and I don't want anything funny. That's crazy. So instead of praying in a monastery or something like that, they are going to patrol the roads and protect the pilgrims coming to the Holy Land.

And the king agreed, right? I mean, it makes a ton of sense. You have people come through, they're able to buy stuff, you know, they help your kingdom through taxation. You want as many people as you can. So if you have these people that are willing to do it, you're like, yeah, let's Let's do that. So then he gave them something extraordinary. Their headquarters would be the Al-Aksa Mosque, which sat directly on top of the temple mount. And this is what is believed to be the ruins of King Solomon's temple. And of course, Jews and people in Israel would say this is the location of the temple.

This is the most sacred place in Judaism, as well as one of the most sacred places in Islam. And tertiarily, one of the most significant places. in Christianity, all the Abrahamic religions really descending upon this spot. I mean, it's a very significant thing. If you don't know about the Alaksa Mosque, maybe we do an episode on that as well. So just think about that, okay? These nine knights were given the holiest site in all of Judaism, the third holiest site in Islam, and one of the holiest sites in Christianity all rolled into one, and they called themselves

the poor fellow soldiers of Christ and the temple of Solomon. But history would call them the Knights Templar. Now, this is where things get interesting. Okay, so for the first nine years, the Templars did nothing publicly. Like, they didn't recruit new members. They didn't really expand. And according to contemporary accounts, they just kind of like posted it up in the Temple Mount. They were just kind of like bowling.

You know what I mean? Just like the homies, just like doing push-ups, just like playing Xbox, posted, right? Chilling. But modern historians believe that they were actually digging. So in the 1860s, a British archaeologist expedition led by lieutenant, Charles Warren explored the tunnel systems beneath the temple mount that, as the story goes, the Knights Templar constructed. They found Templar artifacts deep underground. We're talking like swords, remnants of a cross, like a random spur, and the tunnels extended far beneath the

Al-Oxom mosque, carved through ancient bedrock. So the question is, what were they doing? Were they looking for something? Were they trying to get more space? Like, theories range from like very mundane to mind-blowing ancient conspiracy. All right, so let's go through a few of them. First, some people say that they were looking for the Ark of the Covenant. Now, Jewish tradition holds that the Ark was hidden beneath the Temple before the Babylonian destruction in 586 BC. Some researchers believe that the Templars found it,

or at least found records pointing to where it's located. Other theories suggest that the Ark of the Covenant is actually in Ethiopia and that it was moved there with, you know, the church in Ethiopia, and they are the ones that are actually protecting the Ark of the Covenant. Now, another theory, and I just want to be clear here, these are stories that people are speculating. This has never been confirmed by the Templars themselves. They didn't write this down.

This is just what people have retroactively tried to figure out why are they building these tunnels. Some say that babies are looking for the Holy Grail. Now, I know what you're thinking, like the Holy Grail. No, this is like an actual thing that people would talk about, specifically back in the day. And most people interpreted this as the cup of Christ. This is the cup that Christ drank out of at the last supper. This is the Holy Grail. Or maybe this is interpreted as the bloodline of Christ that can somehow pass on divinity as some type of relic. Or maybe something

else entirely. This Grail legend is like intertwined so deeply in Templar mythology. And the first Grail romances appeared just as the Templars are rising to power. And now is that a coincidence? Who knows? But the Holy Grail deserves a whole episode on its own. That's three. So mark that. We're just stacking them up, all right? I'm taking notes.

All right, I increased it. Come on. Don't interrupt. Now, it's also possible they were digging for just like, you know, ancient knowledge. Some theorists have suggested that the Templars were discovering documents. Like, they're trying to find, you know, you got to think like the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi Library. These are ancient texts that were buried underground. So the Knights Templar, knowing that it.

it's possible that these, you know, that these groups were basically hiding texts in these ancient libraries underneath important places. They might be looking for Essian scrolls from, you know, the Essian Jews that might have left them there, or Gnostic texts or records of early Christianity, something that maybe might explain the accusations of heresy that the Templars will have later. And then, of course, you have the skeptical view, the more pragmatic, realistic view, which is that they didn't find any mystical treasure at all and that, you know, they might, have found real treasure, like, you know, gold or like hidden loot, you know, that people might have put there. You got to think this is a, you know, basically one of the most significant places in ancient

Judaism. And maybe this is where the Jewish rabbis were keeping their money. Maybe they were putting, you know, treasures down there. Who knows? And maybe the Templars found it. And the Babylonians never did. We don't know. Whatever they found or what they didn't find, something changed in 1128. Yuug de Paons traveled to Europe on a recruitment mission. Lieutenant Warren attended the Council of Trois, where he met Bernard of Clervaux, one of the most influential religious figures in medieval Europe. Now, Bernard became the Templar's greatest advocate. He wrote their rule.

This is basically a code of conduct that governed every aspect of Templar life, and he secured them with something that no military order had ever received before. And this is a papal blessing that made the temple blessing. Templars answerable to no one except the Pope. I mean, this is massive. At the time, the Pope wields massive power. I mean, truly one of, if not the most powerful person throughout all of Europe. I mean, in some ways, more than a king. And now the king has a very influential military order under his control. Now, the papal bull Omni de Tomb Optimum in 1139, granted the Templars extraordinary privileges. They were exempt from

local laws. They could cross any border freely. They didn't have to pay taxes or tie. Their church could hold services even in lands under-interdict. Basically meaning like if there was a dispute, they could still be the ones that had religious freedom effectively.

They could grant absolution to excommunicated knights who joined them. I mean, they had so much power, more power than a priest. They're basically just like a step below the pope, you could think, right? Now, in other words, the Templars became like a, they had like a law unto themselves, answerable only to God and conveniently his representative in Rome.

Now, if you're thinking, all right, well, warrior monks, priests sound cool, but, you know, it's not that powerful. It's just like a couple of dudes, like patrol on the roads. Let me tell you about Templar banking, okay? This is fascinating and truly when people are like, oh, the Knights Templar was like created the framework for modern banking. it's obviously embellished and hyperbolic, but there is something interesting in there.

So imagine you're a wealthy lord in England in 1180, all right? You want to go on crusade, but you can't carry a fortune in gold across thousands of miles of bandit infested territory, okay? You're a wealthy guy, you want to go to Jerusalem, but you're not going to carry all your gold with you, but you need money. So what do you do?

You deposit your money with the Templars in London, and they give you a letter of credit, This is basically just like a document that has some type of cipher that only Templar officials could decode. So when you arrive in Jerusalem, you present that letter and then the Templars there give you all of your money minus a small fee. I mean, this is revolutionary for the time because before you just had your money, you're not going to give your money to someone else. But because these are strong, powerful men of God, yeah, you're going to trust them. And so as a result, you give them your money in London, you go all the way down to Jerusalem. and you get your money back and you never had to risk getting robbed by bandits.

And this is international banking. Truly, this is like one of the first instances of this type of international banking. But it doesn't just stop there because they actually offered a few things. You got to think if this place in London all of a sudden just getting all this money, getting thrown in there, all of a sudden, they're able to operate as a bank. And so now all of a sudden loans come online. Kings are literally borrowing from the Templars. Louis the 7th of France financed the Second Crusade with a loan from the Templar.

And so then the English crown was regularly using them as creditors. And so now you have loans, you have international banking services, and then they offer safe deposit services. Now this is where nobles could basically store valuables. So this, you know, Paris Knights Templar temple just becomes like a royal treasury in France. think about that. So you have paintings, you have ancient relics, golden swords, like you're just going to put them in there and the Templars will take care of it. And then on top of that, they do property management so they can actually administer estates for absent crusaders. And then there's currency exchanges. So they're able to basically help convert currency in the medieval

times to whatever the local trade was. And I mean, I've even heard theories that, you know, when they're able to take in all this money, then they're able to loan it for, you know, like, percentages, and they're basically creating fractional reserve banking in the 1100s. It's crazy. So by the mid-1200s, the Templar's owned properties across Europe and across the Holy Land, and according to the stories, they had their own fleet of ships. They were exempt from all taxes, and they basically just operated outside the law of any kingdom and answered only to the Pope. Now, their military reputation was equally fearsome because in order to protect all this money

and have the trust of people that their money will be there when they arrive in Jerusalem, you need to have a pretty ferocious, terrifying military presence. And there was. The Templars were forbidden to retreat unless outnumbered at least three to one. They couldn't be held for ransom. If captured, they were expected to die

rather than let the order pay for their freedom. And their white mantles with red crosses became the most recognizable symbol on crusader battlefields. Muslim commanders considered killing Templars like a priority. Like they had huge targets on them. And the Templars considered dying in battle to be a ticket to heaven. So they didn't care. Now this combination of like spiritual immunity, financial genius, and then military strength

made them one of the most like powerful, untouchable groups in all of Europe for centuries. And that's how it was. I mean, for two centuries, no one challenged them until someone did. Now, here is the problem with being the defenders of the Holy Land. Eventually, you actually really got to defend it. So, in 1187, Saladin, the legendary Muslim commander, crushed the crusader army at the Battle of Hatan. Nearly every Templar knight present was either killed in battle

or captured, then executed after the battle. and as a result, Jerusalem fell. And the Templars retreated to Acre, the last major crusader stronghold in the region. Now, for the next century, the Templars fought a losing war. The Third Crusade recaptured some territory, and then the Fourth Crusade infamously got diverted

to sack Constantinople. And the Fifth Crusade, I mean, just a disaster. The Sixth Crusade, I know, there's a lot of Crusades. It's like Fast and the Furious. The Sixth one briefly regained Jerusalem through some negotiation, and then they lost it again. Again, we'll do a whole episode on that. But all you need to know is that by 1291,

Acre fell to the Mamluks and the last crusaders were dead or fleeing to Cyprus. And officially, the Holy Land was not in Christian control. And suddenly, Europe had a problem. What do you do with a massively wealthy, powerful military organization that no longer has a purpose, right? Like the Templars, despite losing a lot of their men and obviously, you know, multiple crusades that, you know, they were lost. The Templars still had their banks. They had their properties.

They had their ships. They had some remaining soldiers and knights. And as a result, they owed allegiance to no one. They paid no taxes. And now they don't even have a war. So this is an issue. This is a power imbalance. And if you are trying to protect power at all costs, like the monarchs, well, this is posing a threat.

So to a certain king of France, this looked like a mass. massive issue. And this guy is Philip the fourth of France. He's known as Philip the Fair. And historically, you know, he's pretty handsome. And he was seen as fairly ruthless. And notoriously, he was a broke boy. Now, he fought expensive wars with England and he devalued the French currency and riots were breaking out and he started to tax like clergy. And, you know, it was just a massive issue. He even got into a public confrontation with Pope Bonifist, the eighth, which basically ended in Phillips agents allegedly slapping the Pope in the face. And then the Pope died shortly thereafter. Some said, you know, that he died of shock. Others think that he was poisoned or assassinated.

We don't know exactly. But what we do know is that by 1307, this guy, Philip the Fair, who has all these financial problems, owes the Templars a fortune. So the Paris Temple, where the Knights Templar was basically set up in Paris, was the French treasury. Like just, it was like a private treasury because they were just taken in all the most valuable items from all the nobles and lords of France. And the Templars were essentially his landlords. Meanwhile, rumors about the order were circulating, strange rituals, secret meetings, and all of this wealth and power. And Philip sees this as an opportunity. So on Friday, October 13th, 1307, royal agents across France simultaneously arrest every Templar they could find. This is over 600 knights. 600 of these soldiers of these fierce warriors are

captured and seized in a single evening. And of course, the charges that are brought against the knights Templar are shocking. And they're said to have denied Christ during initiation, spitting on the crucifix, worshipping a demonic idol called Baphomet described as, you know, you've seen the picture, I'm sure. Some people said that it was, you know, there's these obscene kisses, you know, that initiates allegedly had to like kiss or like make out with like the senior Templars on the mouth and, you know, the base of their spine, homosexual behavior, and of course, financial corruption. Now, under torture, many of the Templars confessed to these crimes. Some recanted. Some just maintained their innocence until they were tortured to death. And as it were, some have even suggested that this day is why we get the tortures.

term Friday the 13th and why it's associated with bad luck because this is the day that the Templars fell. Now, of course, that is an urban legend, but it is debated amongst historians as to where this comes from and many people point to this moment. Now, here's the thing. The charges were almost certainly fabricated. Now, we don't know for certain because there was no proper trial, but modern historians have noted that the accusations against the Templars are nearly identical to charges that Philip had previously used against Pope Boniface the 8th and against French Jews. Now they were the standard accusations of the era, okay, the medieval

equivalent of just like, oh, they're Satanists. They're like, oh, they're all petos. You know, it's like, this is what we say now. And at the time, they had their same thing that they would always go for. And he used it against the Jews to expel the Jews from France. And then he used it against the Pope. So in 1308, Pope Clement V sent his own invest. And when questioned without torture by papal commissioners, many Templars retracted their confessions and then proclaimed their innocence. And some who recanted were then burned as relapsed heretics, giving others an incentive to stick with their forced confessions. However, in 2001, a document called the Chinon parchment was discovered in the Vatican archives.

And it showed that Pope Clement V had actually absolved the Templars of heresy in August of 13. before the Council of Vienna and 1312 that officially dissolved the order. Now, he disbanded them not because they were guilty, but because Phillips Smear campaign had made them just a lost cause. They were impossible to save politically because people saw them as this morally corrupt, evil, satanic, heretical power, like financial system. And so they said, you know what, it's not even worse saving them. Like, we know that what you did, you guys are probably innocent,

but they also weren't of like a ton of use to the Pope at that time either, right? They didn't really have a place to defend. Hey, we're going to take a break really quick because I need to talk to the fellows. All right, if you're a woman, you can skip forward. I don't really care. But guys, I want to talk about one of the most probably demoralizing things that can ever happen to you, all right? You're in the bathroom, you're brushing your teeth. You look up in the mirror and suddenly you realize my forehead looks bigger than it did before.

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they're going to ask where you heard about Ultra. Just please tell them that we sent you over at Camp Cag. It really helps us out a lot. Thank you guys so much. Feel better, sleep better, get less anxious, but stay locked in. Now let's get back to the show. Now, everything we've talked about is more or less the historical side of the Templars. Of course, there were some myths thrown in, but this is more or less what we know from the records of who they were and what they did. But there's another side of the Templars. That is much more legendary. It is the urban legends, the myths that surround this group and everything that they got into. Now again, this is difficult to substantiate, but it exists within the lore. And one of the most infamous people is, of course, Jacques de Molet. This is the 23rd

and last grandmaster of the Knights Templar. And he was arrested in Paris on that same Friday the 13th. He was around 70 years old and was just a proper OG. He was a vet. and spent decades basically in warfare in the Holy Land. And for seven years, he was imprisoned and interrogated and tortured and eventually confessed under this torture, and then was one of these people that retracted his confession. But as we know, those retractions didn't really make a huge difference. And on March 18, 1314, Jacques de Molet was brought to a scaffold outside Notre Dame

in Paris to publicly confess his sins and receive a life sentence in prison. Instead, he came out and he declared, that the Templars were innocent, and that the confessions that they made, he himself included, were completely false and that he lied in order to save his own life and now he chooses truth over survival. And Philip is pissed. That same evening, Jacques de Molet and another Templar leader, Geoffrey de Chene, were burned alive on an island in the same. This is the main river that goes through Paris. Now here's the crazy part. According to multiple accounts, as the flame rose around him, Jacques de Mollay issued a curse. He summoned Pope Clement the 5th and King

Philip the 4th to meet him before God's tribunal within a year. Now, to, you know, translate that, he literally is getting burned alive and he says that the Pope and the king will meet me in heaven within one year. They're going to die. And the crazy thing, again, this is a myth. But what's crazy is that if it happened, he's right. Because 33 days later, on April 20th, 1314, Pope Clement V dies of a sudden illness. And then eight months later, on November 29th, 1314, King Philip the 4th dies officially from a stroke, although some accounts describe a hunting accident. But a stroke is the most commonly, the most commonly agreed upon one. But isn't that crazy? Within one year, From the day that Jacques de Molet dies, both the king and the pope, the people that put him to death are also dead, exactly as he prophesied, allegedly.

Now, imagine telling the medieval chroniclers that watch this guy's curse come true, they'd obviously be like, oh, this is obviously the act of God, again, if this happened at all. Now, the Templar story doesn't end with the dissolution or, you know, Jacques de Molle getting burned to the stake. you know, there's something else that's in this story that I'm sure you're wondering about. And that is the treasure. You see, they were one of the most wealthy groups in all of Europe. They literally were giving loans to the government. And on the night of their arrest, no one knows where that money goes. Now, multiple accounts suggest that the Templars were warned that they were going to be captured, possibly by a noble or someone within Phillips' court. And as a result, several ships from the Templar's fleet at Lavruchel sailed before dawn and were never seen again.

Now, the legendary Templar treasure, this accumulated wealth of literally two centuries, whatever they found beneath the Temple Mount, maybe if they found anything at all, things that they collected while they were in the Holy Land, they never told anything about. And then, of course, the money that they were holding for these nobles is just gone. And the theories go a long way. So let's go through some of the theories, and I'll let you guys decide, okay? First theory, we're going to go to Scotland. So King Robert the Bruce was excommunicated at the time, and he had no. reason to cooperate with the Pope. Some historians suggest that the Templar knights fought alongside the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. And some suggest that maybe they brokered some type of

deal and that the treasure maybe sailed away from France and went straight to Scotland. Now another theory is that it went to Portugal. Now King Dennis I refused to persecute the Templars. Instead, he simply just renamed them the Order of Christ. And this order later, funded Portuguese exploration, including the voyages of Vasco da Gama and Henry the Navigator, who literally sailed under the Templar crosses. Now, another theory, maybe the craziest one, is that the money went to Switzerland. Now, this theory, again, I think is probably not true, but it's really, it's awesome. It's a fun one, all right?

And this theory basically states that the Templars fled and some of the boats maybe took the money, maybe it was a diversion, and they actually were able to get their treasure up the Swiss Alps and into Switzerland. And this basically helped establish the Switzerland that we know today. What do you know about Switzerland? It is a banking powerhouse. I mean, it's a small country that has so much of the world's wealth. And on top of that, they have this defensive military tradition that still defines Switzerland.

Sounds a lot like the Templars. Other people will point out, and again, I don't think this is true, but it is interesting. The Swiss flag. What is it? It's a white cross on a red flag. What is the Knights Templars? flag. What is that? White cross, red flag. It's a, no, it's, you said it wrong.

Christos is, but I can't go to you. Sorry, dyslexic. It's a white flag with a red cross. It's the inversion of the Swiss. Now, tell me this, Gristos, who protects the Vatican? What military force is the ones that actually defend the Pope? What are they called? I don't know. The Swiss Guard. And they wear like those jester outfits. Now, I think this is just a lot of coincidences. I was looking into where the Swiss flag actually came from, and there's no credible theory that says that it was developed by the Templars. But regardless, it's a fun theory. Okay. Now, another theory says that it's hidden in France somewhere, that the treasure of the

Knights Templars is in France, and that the treasure is never left. It's buried somewhere beneath a church and a cave and a mountain may be given to a rich noble that then used it. The village of René Chateau became the center of treasure hunting legends in the 20th century, because people truly believed that the Knights Templar treasure was there. Now, of course, there's a skeptical view, and this is much more pragmatic and grounded and way less fun, but I'll share it. It's the idea that the treasure never existed. That Philip basically just came in and got most of the Templar wealth when he seized all their properties, and that most of their wealth was actually in, like, you know, land and homes and castles,

and that when the state basically comes in and sees all those things, they get all the stuff and all that treasure just goes to the monarch. And that's not actually like gold and jewels in some chess somewhere. It's probably the most likely, but that one's boring. I think it went to America. I think it's in Fort Knox. That's what I think. Do you have a theory?

Area 51. Oh, now we're talking. Now, the Templar archives, which would, you know, have answered a lot of these questions, are gone. And maybe they're destroyed intentionally or maybe they were just lost a time. but to this day, it's not really known where exactly it is. Now, what did the Templars actually believe? This is a really interesting ripple in this whole thing. Because remember when I told you that they were basically seized and tortured

and some of them confessed to these insane claims that we think are likely fabricated? Well, let's just unpack that a little bit, okay? And let's talk about this guy, Baphomet, all right? If you don't know Baphomet, we can put an image of them on the screen here. It's basically Satan, you could say. I mean, this is like an idol. It's like an incarnation of the devil. And he's got like this goat head of the horns or like the devilish head, you know, like the hands.

You see what you see. You see the picture. And now this is a sometimes bearded, sometimes with multiple faces and sometimes described as, you know, a cat or a goat. And the name Baphimit appears in several these confessions. But what exactly is it? Okay. Now, there was this other claim that they had this severed head that they worshipped and that they were into this weird mystical worship thing with this head. and this is the rumor that went around.

Now, the Templars may have possessed the skull of John the Baptist. And this sounds weird, but this is not super uncommon for, you know, a specifically religious order to have a relic of a very infamous person in their religious history. So this happens a lot within Catholicism is that you might have a relic. You might have, you know, a piece of a bone of a saint in a church somewhere, or you might have clothing of a saint in a church. And these are things that you kind of go and you venerate. You're not worshiping them.

but you're looking at them and going like, oh, wow, this makes the religious experience and the faith aspect of my life much more real because I can actually see the tangible piece of this person that I respect so much. Now, it's possible that the Templars had the actual skull of John the Baptist, who infamously was beheaded. And so, of course, having a skull would be, you know, a very important relic to Catholics. Now, under torture, it's possible that this possession of this relic that the, you know, the Templars were basically venerating then becomes, oh, this is the, the severed head that they're worshipping and that they're drinking out of a skull and it becomes this crazy thing possible who knows now there's another ripple to this another claim that they have these secret esoteric rituals and now this one's interesting this this gnostic influence some researchers have said that the templars did encounter these esoteric beliefs in the east and

actually incorporated them into rituals and the head might represent sophia this is the basically the goddess of wisdom you could think in Gnosticism or maybe some other type of symbolic concept. And we did a whole thing on Gnostic and there's some theories that suggest that they were under this kind of Gnostic infatuation. Now another interesting little ripple, I guess a fun fact from this entire period

is this basically passing of the shroud of Turin. Now if you don't know the shroud of Turin, this is basically a shroud or a death sheet. This is basically a big sheet. that would be put upon someone they die. And there's a specific one that is displayed in Italy in the town of Turin that shows the image of a bearded man that has been crucified. Now, of course, this is said to be the actual shroud of Jesus Christ.

Now, when the Templars were destroyed, the shroud was basically passed to the Des Charnet family. And to this day, Jafri Des Charnet, is the first person that we really know of being in possession of the shroud of Turin. This is really where it shows up within the history. historical record. Now that name, Geoffrey D. Charnay, where do we know that? We just talked about it a few minutes ago. This is the Templar who was burned at the stake alongside Jacques de Molet. It's pretty interesting, little ripple. This is really the first talk of this relic existing within, you know,

modern history. Now, all of these theories went around and maybe there was some fabrication, maybe there was some embellishment, but, you know, we don't really know. It's possible that Phillips agents just made this stuff up and that the charges were just designed to justify the arrest and the seizure of the Templar's wealth and to get rid of this military threat within France that's not under control of the king. Makes a lot of sense, but we'll never really know for sure. And the mystery has kept the Templars alive in the popular imagination for, I mean, 700 years. I mean, their legacy is massive. They officially ceased to exist in 1312, but this is a legend that you cannot kill. Nine knights in 1119 took vows of pop.

poverty and set up camp on the temple mount, one of the most holy places in all of the Abrahamic religions. And within a generation, they were the most powerful non-governmental organization in the medieval world. Again, it's possible they contributed to the invention of modern banking. They built this empire that answered to no king or monarch, which is unheard of in that time. And they held secrets maybe real or maybe imagined that were so threatening that a pope and a king came together to destroy them. Now, when the last Grandmaster burned, he didn't beg for mercy at all. I mean, again, according to the theory, he prophesied this vengeance and he got it.

Now, whether you believe that these stories are true or that the Templars found the ark or protected the grail or worship demons or maybe they were just victims of a really greedy king, one thing is certain that they built something that refused to be forgotten. because 700 years later, we are still fascinated by the Knights Templar. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an abridge history of who this fascinating military order was and why they are so significant. I mean, truly a fascinating group. I'm, like, just so enthralled every time I learn about the Knights Templar.

If you never heard of them, I mean, they're truly fascinating. Another interesting ripple, their lore, I think, really inspires, um, it has. an interesting history because it exists within church lore for so long and has like really like been a powerful symbol for like Christians you know what I mean like these are like the most badass Catholics but it's also weirdly been co-opted by like Nazi groups I mean like literally the Nazis themselves took some inspiration from the Knights Templar and that there's actually like Nazi imagery in Nazi propaganda during World War II that invoked the Knights Templar in their flags. And part of the reason is that the Knights Templar were seen as like these pure-bred

supreme defenders of Europe against, you know, the Arabs and the Muslims that are coming up from the Middle East and that the Knights Templar just kind of embodied this Aryan vision. And that they basically used the, you know, this kind of like historical record, then manipulated it to fit their own racist, you know, racial supremacist agenda. And to this day, people kind of, I think, romance the Knights Templar because it represents something to them that is probably never their original intention. I mean, the Knights Templar, I don't think saw themselves as, I don't even think they saw themselves as like white. The idea of race didn't really exist. They just saw themselves as like French or European or Catholic. And of course, they were trying to go to battle with

anyone that was, you know, trying to come up. You know, they're trying to get the Holy Land, duh. But it's just an interesting, interesting addendum to their legacy. I mean, they're just a fascinating group. The modern banking thing, I remember hearing that for the first time from this guy, Bill Still, they did a whole thing about the Fed. And, uh, oh, it's just fascinating. Because it makes sense, right? Like, you have all these people traveling with all this money and could, if only there's a way that they could travel something less valuable and then they could use a key to basically get the money when they get where they're going. And you just invent this thing. And then once you have this building where you're accruing all this wealth, all of a sudden you're like, oh, I can loan out money. And the thing with

giving out a loan is that you don't actually have to loan out the money. And the thing with giving out a loan is that you don't actually have to loan out the money. You can basically just loan out a credit that proves that you have the money. So if you have $1,000, you really only need to keep like $2,000, $3,000 in the bank. But you can loan out, you know, $20,000. So all of a sudden, you just turned $1,000 into $20,000. Because you're just loaning all these people money and then you're just hoping that they don't all come back at once, which is called a run on the bank. You took economics. 101? Yeah. All right. So it's just an interesting thing. It's like, yeah, okay, we have all this money.

Like, what do we do with it? And all of a sudden, you create literally fractional reserve banking. This is where that comes from, why they call it fractional reserve, because you're only reserving a fraction of the money they actually have. Think about how hard it's to track down and get your money back from all these people. No, but that's the beauty, that you don't actually have to give them the money. So if you come to my bank in 1,100 in France, and you say, hey, can I have $100? I don't need to give you $100.

I can give you a credit. I give you a paper of $100. and then you could give that paper to someone else, then they can come back to my bank, and then I'll give them the $100 when they need it. But basically now you've just created like, like you basically created a currency on top of a currency, that the gold itself is the actual currency,

but now you created a Fiat currency, which is these paper notes. Oh, so they're not bankers. They created a currency. Like crazy, right? I mean, of course they had a currency, but in that time, the currency was typically of a precious metal.

that actually had an intrinsic value. So they crawled so Jerome Powell could walk of the type shit? Well, again, you look at America and the creation of its Federal Reserve. That has its own tattered history. You should read the monster of Jekyll Island, a really interesting book. Have you read that? Of course. My mom put me on this years ago.

And then, of course, we had our money backed by the gold standard until, you know, the 70s. I think it was the 70s. And then that was basically repealed, and now it's just inflation for all. But I digress. You know what I mean? I'm not, we don't need to go down this path.

Okay, we're getting, we're getting dastardly here. All that to say, the Knights Templar are fascinating guys. I'm sorry to all the Muslims that the Knights Templar killed. That's bad. All right,

that was bad that they were doing that. But you know what? I'm glad we're in a better spot now. Okay? We can settle these things civilly. All right, we can just talk about it. We can chat it through,

especially now during Ramadan. We don't need to bring this up during Ramadan. It also is lost that these guys were warrior monks. Yeah, I think the monk part, to be honest these are a little overstated

like yeah technically they were monks like they had taken a vow of celibacy they'd taken a vow of poverty but did they you think it was marketing so that they could get away with what they were doing

I'd think yeah I mean I don't think that like these nights that were just like wandering around with no wives were just like being good boys all the time I think you give any person no matter how pious they are a lot of money arguably the most money

in France and a lot of power, oh, you don't even answer to the king or pay a tithe and you can basically travel across borders whenever you want. I imagine they're getting into some pretty nasty stuff. Whether all the claims against them are true, I don't know if they're, you know, heretics and they are spitting on the crucifix and they're worshipping a severed head, but I'm sure, you know, you meet a girl along the way, a nice of age woman that likes you, that you like her, and who knows what happens. So, I don't know. Again, I don't want to slander to the Knights Templar, right?

Because they're pretty sick, but I have a hard time believing that for 200 years, not one night got into some nasty biz. Maybe we'd do an episode on that. Sure. What I think the Knights Templar were doing on a Friday night in Oklahoma, right? France. Anyway. Exactly, that's a small town of France.

Oklahoma is how they pronounce it. Anyway, this has been another episode of History Camp. What do you guys think? Please drop a comment. Is there anything that you learned in this episode that you didn't know before? Is there anything that I missed? Anything that I skipped over? Anything I just got wrong?

Please drop a comment and let me know. I'm not immune to correction. I just want the truth and I'm willing to do anything to get it, basically. So just drop a comment. Let me know if I missed anything. YouTube, Spotify. I read all of them. Just be nice about it.

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