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The Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of the Temple of Solomon mostly known as the Knights Templar, was one of the most famous of the Christian military orders. It existed for about two centuries in the Middle Ages, created in the aftermath of the First Crusade in 1096 to ensure the safety of the large amount of European pilgrims who went toward Jerusalem after its conquest.
The Templars were an interesting order mostly because they were both monks and soldiers, making them some of the earliest "warrior monks" in the Western world. Members of the Order played a major part in many battles of the Crusades, and the Order's ingenuity improved many financial problems that could be considered the beginning of modern banking. The Order grew in membership and power throughout Europe, until it made an enemy of King Philip IV of France, who caused members in France to be tortured into confessions and burned at the stake. Under the influence from King Philip, Pope Clement V then forcibly disbanded the order on Friday, October 13, 1312.
The High Templars were organized as a monastic order, following a rule created for them by their patron, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a member of the Cistercian Order. Each country had a Master of the Order for the Templars in that region, and all of them had to obey to the Grand Master, appointed for life, who watched over both the Order's military power in the East, and their financial status in the West.
There were four divisions of brothers in the Templars. The knights, equipped as heavy cavalry they wore a white habit with a red cross. The sergeants, equipped as light cavalry and taken from a lower social class than the knights they wore a brown mantle. The serving brothers or the rural brothers, they administered the property of the Order, and the frères de métiers, who performed menial tasks and trades. The chaplains were ordained priests and looked over the spiritual needs of the Order.
With the high demand for knights, there were also knights...