Modern Knights Templar Orders: Who Carries It On

• Templar Uniform Editorial
• October 2, 2026
• Categories: History & Lore
• Tags: Knights Templar, Templar History

Do the Knights Templar still exist? It is among the most common questions about the Order — and the honest answer is layered. The medieval Templars were suppressed by Pope Clement V in 1312, and no organisation today can prove a continuous, documented line of descent from them. Yet several very different bodies carry the Templar name or heritage: one genuine institutional heir in Portugal, a Masonic order, a family of modern chivalric groups, and a scattering of self-styled revivals. This guide sorts the historically grounded from the romantic, so you know exactly who is claiming what.

Start here: there is no proven unbroken line

Any honest discussion of “modern Templars” has to begin with a fact that dispels a great deal of marketing. When the Order was dissolved at the Council of Vienne in 1312, its members were pensioned off, absorbed into other orders, or — in France — imprisoned; Grand Master Jacques de Molay was burned in 1314. No surviving group has ever produced documented, continuous organisational descent from that medieval order. So when a modern body claims to be the Templars restored, treat that as inspiration, not lineage.

With that established, the interesting question becomes sharper: who has the strongest historical claim to the Templar inheritance, and who is simply keeping the ideal alive? The answers fall into a few distinct groups, and it pays to keep them separate.

The closest institutional heir: the Order of Christ

The nearest thing to a real successor sits in Portugal. In 1319, King Dinis secured papal approval to create the Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo), which absorbed the Templars’ Portuguese assets — including the great castle-monastery of Tomar — and effectively continued their work under a new name. Because it took on the property, the personnel, and the mission with the Church’s blessing, it is widely regarded as the closest institutional heir to the Templars anywhere.

A parallel move happened in the Crown of Aragon, where the Order of Montesa was established in 1317 to receive Templar holdings in the Valencia region. These were not secret survivals; they were openly sanctioned reorganisations that redirected Templar wealth and duties into new, crown-friendly orders. That is exactly why they count as history rather than legend.

The Masonic Knights Templar

The Templar name most people actually meet today belongs to Freemasonry. The Knights Templar are an appendant body of the York Rite, a degree structure that a Master Mason (and, in this order, a professing Christian) may join, documented from the eighteenth century onward. Its ceremonies and titles draw romantically on the medieval order, and its charity and fellowship are entirely real.

Within the York Rite the order is organised into local Commanderies, and a candidate typically passes through Christian-themed orders such as the Illustrious Order of the Red Cross and the Order of Malta before reaching the Order of the Temple itself. It is a serious fraternal and charitable tradition in its own right, with its own regalia and ritual — which is precisely why its members rarely pretend it is a literal medieval survival.

But Masonic bodies themselves are generally clear on the point: this is commemorative and fraternal, an homage — not a lineal continuation of the medieval Templars. The popular tale that persecuted Templars fled to Scotland and secretly founded Freemasonry is legend, not documented history: evocative, endlessly repeated, and unproven.

The Larmenius Charter and the neo-Templar revival

The most famous attempt to prove an unbroken line is a document called the Charter of Transmission, or Larmenius Charter. It purports to show that leadership passed secretly from Jacques de Molay to one Johannes Marcus Larmenius in 1324, and then down a hidden chain of grand masters. It surfaced in France in the early nineteenth century, attached to the Order of the Temple revived by Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat around 1804, during the Napoleonic era.

Historians overwhelmingly regard the charter as a later forgery rather than a medieval record. It is a fascinating artefact of Romantic-era enthusiasm for the Templars, but it is evidence of how the myth was manufactured, not proof of survival. Many of today’s self-styled orders trace their genealogy back through this nineteenth-century revival rather than to 1119 — which is precisely why the “unbroken line” claim keeps reappearing.

It is worth adding that Fabré-Palaprat’s revived Order later splintered and spawned rival lineages, each insisting it held the true succession. That branching family tree of nineteenth- and twentieth-century foundations — not any medieval charter — is where most of today’s competing “Grand Masters” actually come from. Once you see the pattern, the crowded modern landscape of Templar orders makes far more sense.

Modern chivalric orders and their claims

A further category is the family of self-styled chivalric orders that appeared largely in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The best known is OSMTH (Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani), an ecumenical, charitable organisation that holds consultative status as a non-governmental organisation at the United Nations. Groups like this typically claim spiritual inspiration from the Templars rather than documented descent — an important distinction they are usually careful to make.

It is also worth separating these from the authentic orders of chivalry that carry real crusading heritage but are not Templar revivals. The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem is a papal order with medieval roots and its own distinct history, while the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is the direct continuation of the Templars’ old rivals, the Hospitallers — related to the crusades, but not to the Temple.

Are any modern orders officially recognised?

A fair question follows from all this: does anyone — the Catholic Church, a government, a reigning monarch — formally recognise a present-day group as the Knights Templar? The short answer is no. The medieval Order was dissolved by the papacy in 1312, and no later body has been reinstated as its legal continuation. When the Vatican published the Chinon Parchment in 2007, showing that the medieval brothers had in fact been absolved of heresy back in 1308, it corrected the historical record — but it conferred nothing whatsoever on any modern organisation.

That leaves today’s self-styled orders spread across a wide spectrum. Some are serious, transparent associations doing genuine humanitarian and ecumenical work. Others are little more than mail-order knighthoods selling titles and regalia. As a rule of thumb, the honest, well-run groups describe themselves plainly as modern chivalric bodies inspired by the Templars; the ones to be wary of are those insisting on a secret, unbroken bloodline and charging a fee to join it.

How to tell grounded from romantic

A quick test when you meet a “Templar” order today:

• Grounded: the Order of Christ and the Order of Montesa — created by kings with papal approval, absorbing actual Templar assets.
• Fraternal homage: the Masonic Knights Templar — historically real as a Masonic body, openly commemorative.
• Modern inspiration: OSMTH and similar groups — genuine charitable organisations claiming spiritual, not organisational, continuity.
• Distinct heritage: the Holy Sepulchre and the Order of Malta — crusading roots, but not Templar successors.

If a group promises secret unbroken descent and hidden treasure, be sceptical. If you are curious whether your own family tree brushes the Order, our guide on tracing possible Templar ancestors sets realistic expectations, while our survey of surviving Templar heritage and relics shows what genuinely endures.

Carry the brotherhood — and how to own it

What truly survives the Templars is not a corporation but an ideal: disciplined brotherhood, faith, and loyalty. That is the spirit behind The Brotherhood mug — a simple everyday piece to keep the bond close over morning coffee or a late-night read, much as the brothers once gathered around their own daily rituals. For a sense of that original rhythm, revisit the original brotherhood’s way of life.

So: the Templars as a medieval institution are gone, dissolved in 1312. But their heritage runs on — most literally in Portugal’s Order of Christ, and more loosely in the Masonic and modern chivalric orders that keep the name alive. Knowing the difference lets you enjoy the legend without ever being fooled by it.