Club Meeting 13th July 2026

President Ted Collett welcomed members and today’s speaker Gill Gibbons.

He asked members to stand in memory of long serving member Russ Holloway.

The President introduced Gill Gibbons and her talk about the Knights Templar.

Gill began by explaining her fascination with this episode in history which had been sparked by her research into the Cistercian Order and helped by academic input from researchers at Reading University.

She explained that the Templars were essentially a monastic order – “The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” – founded in the early 12th century. The council of Troyes in 1159 convened by Abbott Bernard of Clairvaux confirmed their status as defenders of the Holy Lands which were then under the control of the Muslim Caliphate.

The Templars became very rich and powerful thanks to tax exemptions granted by the Pope and they developed a sophisticated early form of credit whereby with a token indicating how much one had deposited in perhaps a monastery in one’s home country, money could be obtained throughout the countries involved in the crusades!

Eventually their wealth caused their downfall as it attracted the jealousy of a heavily in debt Philip IV of France. On Friday 13th October 1307 he ordered the arrest of Templars and their torture to obtain false confessions of heresy and corruption. This is thought to have given rise to the suspicion that still surrounds Friday 13th as an unlucky day. In 1312 Pope Clement V dissolved the order and the last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burnt at the stake.

There are only a few physical reminders of the Knights today, and Gill listed amongst these engravings of symbols in churchyards in Herefordshire, and in Hereford Cathedral the Mappa Mundi and the tomb of Bishop Cantilupe.

Following questions from the floor Ed Gillett thanked Gill for a really well researched and informative talk, and members showed their appreciation with a round of applause.