The Legacy of the Knights Templar

England: The Peasants' Rebellion

For several years before the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381, "a group of disgruntled priests of the lower clergy had travelled the towns, preaching against the riches and corruption of the church. During the months before the uprising, secret meetings had been held throughout central England by men weaving a network of communication. After the revolt was put down, rebel leaders confessed to being agents of a great Society, said to be based in London." "Another mystery was the concentrated and especially vicious attacks on the religious order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, now known as the Knights of Malta. Not only did the rebels seek out their properties for vandalism and fire, but their prior was dragged from the Tower of London to have his head struck off [along with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Treasurer] and placed on London Bridge, to the delight of the cheering mob.....One captured rebel leader, when asked the reasons for the revolt, said, 'First, and above all...the destruction of the Hospitallers.'" "Pope Clement V had directed that all of the extensive properties of the Templars should be given to the Hospitallers" almost seventy years before the Peasant's Revolt."

Walter the Tyler "exploded into English history with his mysterious uncontested appointment as the supreme commander of the Peasants' Rebellion on Friday, June 7, 1381, and left it as abruptly when his head was struck off eight days later on Saturday, June 15. Absolutely nothing is known of him before those eight days. That alone suggests that he was not using his real name...In Freemasonry the Tyler, who must be a Master Mason, is the sentry, the sergeant-at-arms..."

"Archbishop Courtenay, who became the leading churchman in England as successor to the archbishop whose head had been lopped off by Wat Tyler, identified the existence of the Lollard group in the spring of 1382, less than a year after the Peasants' Rebellion. He drove them out of Oxford and attempted to crush the entire movement. Lollardy, however, survived his efforts, and those of other civil and church leaders, for the next two centuries by the expedient of going underground. The Lollards conducted business in 'conventicles', or secret meetings, in a network of cells throughout the country, and they somehow gained the support of certain members of the aristocracy, especially the knightly class." - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood

"In the early 1300s John Wycliffe, a professor of Divinity at Oxford University, realized that the major problem with the Church in England was that the Bible could only be read by the educated clergy and nobility because it was written in Latin. Although the common man was generally illiterate, Wycliffe decided that if an English translation of the Bible was available, then general literacy might be stimulated as well. "As Wycliffe translated the Latin text, he organized a group called the Order of Poor Preachers. They began distributing the new Bible through-out England to anyone who could read. For the first time, it was possible for the common man to know what the Bible actually said. Suddenly, peasants flocked to the village greens and country parsonages to hear preachers read aloud from the new English translation. "Opponents of Wycliffe's Order of Poor Preachers called them and their followers 'Lollards', which means 'idle babblers'. The Lollards grew so quickly, not only among the country folk, but even the artisans and noblemen that one opponent wrote: 'Every second man one meets is a Lollard'. "The Lollards made such an impact in Britain that eventually Wycliffe's words were banned and the Pope ordered him to Rome to undergo trial. Although Wycliff died in 1384 of a stroke before he could undertake the journey, Lollardy continued to grow. By 1425, forty-one years after his death, the Roman Church was so infuriated with Wycliffe that they ordered his bones exhumed and buried together with 200 books he had written." - William T. Still, New World Order

Military Orders
The establishment of military orders for the defense of the
Holy Land led to the establishment of houses of the orders
of the Hospital and Temple. Individual houses were often
founded or endowed by crusaders, such as Roger de Mowbray,Mowbray,
founder of the Templar preceptory of Balsall. Templar
activity in England can be dated to the very beginnings of the
order, when Hugh of Payns, the Templars’ founder, visited
England in 1128, and the Temple of London was founded
shortly thereafter. The English Templars were organized into
the Province of England, with its headquarters at the London
Temple, the oldest and greatest of the Templar houses
in England. The Hospitallers for their part came under the
Priory of England, with its headquarters at Clerkenwell.
Each order was governed by a master at provincial or priory
level, while at a local level, each house was headed by a commander
(Lat. preceptor). Many Englishmen joined the military
orders, or helped them by providing them with money
and land. While their houses in the Holy Land played a military
role, those in Europe were responsible for the recruitment
and supply of knights. Donations of land or money to
the military orders were a way for noncrusaders to contribute
directly or indirectly to the defence of Outremer. The
London Temple played an important role as the place for collection
and safekeeping of funds intended for the crusade.
The lesser military Order of St. Lazarus, established to give
succor to leprous knights, was also present in England, with
its chief house at Burton Lazars in Leicestershire. The Order
of St. Thomas of Acre, founded during the Third Crusade,
was the one distinctively English contribution to the military
orders. Named in honor of St. Thomas Becket, archbishop
of Canterbury, some sources attribute its foundation to King
Richard I. It was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538. In addition,
the nonmilitary Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulchre
was another reminder in England of the existence of the Holy
Places. The Templars were suppressed in England, as elsewhere,
on trumped-up charges of heresy in 1312, after which
their English possessions passed to the Hospitallers. King
Edward II at first resisted the order’s suppression, expressing
disbelief at the charges leveled against them, before
acquiescing after the order had been dissolved by papal bull. - The Crusades; An Encyclopedia