The Original Banking System
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon — the Knights Templar — were established around 1119 AD in Jerusalem to protect Christian pilgrims. They received a papal charter (Omne Datum Optimum, 1139) exempting them from taxation by any bishop or king — answering only to the Pope. This exemption, combined with their presence in all major Christian kingdoms, made them the ideal financial infrastructure for medieval international commerce. They invented what we would recognise as a banking system: pilgrim deposit money with a local Templar preceptory, receive a letter of credit, travel to the Holy Land, and withdraw equivalent funds from the Jerusalem preceptory without carrying gold that bandits could steal.
By the 13th century, the Templars were the primary bankers to the kings of Europe — managing crown revenues, lending to monarchs, and collecting the revenues that financed the Crusades. They effectively controlled European finance. They were also excavating under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem — what they found there (if anything) is one of history's most persistent mysteries, but their subsequent accumulation of power, wealth, and apparent access to esoteric knowledge was extraordinary.
The Suppression — Friday the 13th, 1307
On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France — deeply indebted to the Templars — issued simultaneous arrest orders across France, seizing hundreds of Templars. The charges: heresy, idol worship (the "Baphomet"), sodomy, and renouncing Christ. Under torture, many confessed. Jacques de Molay, Grand Master, was burned at the stake in 1314. Pope Clement V — whom Philip controlled — dissolved the Order by papal bull in 1312.
The truth about the charges is disputed — many were extracted under torture and recanted. But the operation was effective: the Templar Order was officially dissolved, its assets distributed to the Hospitallers, and its members scattered across Europe. The question GA researchers ask is not whether the Templars were dissolved — they were. The question is what happened to their network, their knowledge, and their banking relationships.
Continuation Through Freemasonry
The Scottish Rite's highest degrees contain rituals directly referencing the Templar suppression and the vengeance sworn against the throne and the papacy. The York Rite contains a specific "Knights Templar" degree. Masonic historians (including Albert Pike) explicitly trace Masonic rituals to Templars who fled to Scotland after the suppression — finding refuge with the Bruce family and fighting at Bannockburn. Whether the transmission is literal or symbolic, the Masonic degrees consciously carry the Templar tradition.
SMOM — The Surviving Templar State
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) — a direct continuation of the Knights Hospitaller, the Templars' Crusader rivals — survives as the world's only nation-state without territory: a sovereign entity recognised by 110+ countries, issuing its own passports and currency, maintaining diplomatic relations, and operating at the highest levels of Western Catholic power networks. SMOM has significant intelligence community connections and is considered by GA researchers as one of the key surviving Templar-tradition institutions.