I'm not ignorant of their later history at all, we did actually study it and I've posted expert knowledge about their downfall in this thread, such as the Baphomet/Muhammed connection. Another detail is that the "kiss of shame" they performed in their initiation ceremony is usually assumed to be a gay sex act, but could be an interpretation of the Islamic prayer where they appear to kiss the ground.
I'm just saying that the focus of my personal study on them to write my essay to pass the course was on their Holy Land years and THAT history was not tained by any Papal/French propaganda since that stuff happened much later.
Now you show that you know very little about them, you don't even know how they made their money.
They started off escorting nobles around the holy sites in the holy land as glorified tour guides, they also guarded the Temple Mount (hence Templar). The Pope was pleased that young men who would typically take holy orders to be a monk, could now do so in a combat role and reinforce Outremer. So they got paid and got patronage.
Where most of the conspiracies come from, as well as their downfall, is that they managed to figure out a loophole in the laws against Christians charging interest. They would take a crusader's money for safekeeping then loan it out during the several years he would be on crusade, the loans didn't do interest but was similar to Islamic banking (another Islam link!) where you just agreed to pay a flat rate extra back as a fee. That is when they got very wealthy and got treated the same ways rich Jews got treated - killed to avoid paying them back.
Now you tell me, what work of fiction did you watch that qualifies you to speak on them?
babylonbee.com
