Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

164."It is well to add here a few details about the Knights Templars, since they are so intimately connected with the Masonic Order; details which will ^[102] serve to show the inner aspect of their traditions. Much has been written about them and their history — from one aspect — is better known than that of almost any other Mystic organization, but the fact of a secret teaching is not sufficiently clear. That there was a secret doctrine amongst the Templars is shown by Neaf, in his ' Becker ches sur les Opinions religieuses des Templliers.' He points out that the Knights considered that the Roman Church had failed in its ideal, and that when the terrible persecutions fell upon them that they divided and joined two different associations, one the body of Freemasons and the other a body named the Johannites. Another writer, Jules Loiseleur, points out the connection between the Templars and the Bogomiles, who were the Manichæans of the Balkan Provinces, and the Gnostics of the early Christian period and their descendants, the Cathari of the mediaeval ages. Dr. Simrock, in his work, suggests a deeply interesting idea with regard to the connection between the tradition of the Holy Grail and the secret teachings of the Templars; he considers that the Grail tradition, which is drawn in some parts from the Apocryphal Gospels, is the basis of the Secret Teachings of the Templars. Some of the early sources of the tradition are given by the author of Sarsena, and also the connection between the Templars and the Essenes (Rosicrucians).

165.All these links are of importance if we wish to understand the close connection between these various organizations, and also how one developed out of the other.