Spectacular rise and ignominious decline of crusading Templars

The Tragedy of the Templars: The Rise and Fall of the Crusader States

Tortured, they confessed to blasphemy and sometimes sodomy. The pope, Clement V, who lived in France, made some effort to intervene, but, politically weak, ultimately failed them; their final grand master was burned at the stake

Of all the medieval military orders, the Templars are the ones most shrouded in mystique and legend. In the space of two centuries, they rose from being poor knights protecting pilgrims in the Holy Land to an economic power before collapsing in ignominy. Their enduring associations are with things like the Holy Grail, Freemasonry, occultism, and general secrecy.