We note that there are a number of organizations that claim to be Templars, but which have absolutely no lineage as true organizational or spiritual descendants of the Order.  These “Templar” organizations often charge hefty fees for joining, and some do not accept persons of average means, preferring to focus their efforts on recruiting the wealthy and influential.  We decry such practices. When the Knights Templar were founded in 1118 A.D. by Hugh de Payens and eight other knights, they were known as the “Poor Knights of Christ.”  The Order did not allow individual knights to own anything except their mantles and weapons. So strict was the rule concerning “monastic poverty” that if a Knight Templar died and a single penny was found on his body, he was refused a Christian burial.  Today, however, there are “Templar” organizations that will not accept members unless they are very well to do! We believe that setting membership rules that allow only the wealthy to be become members is the antithesis of what our Lord taught.  Some of these so-called Templar organizations would refuse membership to any of the Apostles, as they were not men of wealth, and would turn away a poor carpenter: Jesus Christ himself!