Annotated Edition (complete dynamic footnotes >600).The Knights Templars or simply the Templars, were a Catholic military order founded in 1119. Seven hundred years after their dissolution, their military prowess and their work on behalf of Christianity during the Crusades still fascinate. They were among the most wealthy and powerful of the Western Christian military orders. However, in the mid-14th century, support for the order of the Knights Templars faded. The first part of this book relates the foundation of this holy order. Addison explains step-by-step the immoral scheme of the French King Philip IV and the Pope Clement V to arrest and try for heresy the Knights Templars. The last part describes the architecture in England of the Temple Church. Excerpt: "e;For the first nine years after their institution, the Templars lived in poverty and humility, and no new members joined their society, which was eclipsed by that of St. John. Their clothing consisted of such garments as were bestowed on them by the charity of the faithful, and so rigorously were the gifts of pious princes applied by them to their destination-the benefit of pilgrims and of the Holy Land in general-that in consequence of their poverty, Hugo de Payens and Godfrey de St. Omer had but one war-horse between them. When the Order had arrived at wealth and splendour, its seal, representing two Knights mounted on one charger, commemorated this original poverty of its pious founders."e;