History of Nights Templar: Part II

The Templar Centuries The TaIn 1129, after his recruiting tour of France and the British Isles, the Templars' founder Hugues de Payens returned to the Holy Land - or Outremer ('Beyond the Sea') as it was known in Europe - with about 300 newly-enlisted knights. With them travelled Fulk, Count of Anjou, one of the Order's earliest supporters who would later become King of Jerusalem. The Templar army saw its first action later that year, when they …

…h the mysterious Priory of Sion linked to the break-up of the Temple at Gisors? It is hard to say. But it sheds light for us on the existence of an interior circle using the symbols of the gnostics. Lamy also cites a study of Templar seals by historian Paul de Saint-Hilaire, which found that some 10% of surviving seals bore gnostic images, including several bearing the figure of Abraxas, all from the period 1210-1290.