Pipes: The Knights Templar were holy at the same time they were engaged in warfare, and because of these two attributes they needed money, they needed money to pay for their warfare. And they had a real ability to raise money because they could call on people’s piety to pay for their expenses.

Narrator: For nearly 200 years, the Knights Templar gained hundreds perhaps thousands of members from the wealthiest of the European elite. Although the total membership remains unknown, we do know the Knights Templar are able to amass a fortune they use to exert tremendous control throughout Europe by in effect controlling its largest private banking system.

Icke: They had the Crown Heads of Europe up to their neck in debt to them.

Narrator: In 1307 the Knights Templar are almost wiped out. The king of France convinces Pope Clement V that they are not the holy defenders of the faith but in fact are seeking to destroy it.

Pipes: I think it was the king of France’s desire for their wealth more than anything else that caused him to turn against them, but the vehicle that he used to turn against them was a conspiracy theory. He found it useful, as have many kings and many other people since then found it useful to adopt a conspiracy theory as a means to attack men.

Narrator: Jacque DeMoley, the last grand master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake in Paris in 1314. But a few surviving Templars are believed to have escaped execution.

Icke: The Templars went north fleeing from France to Scotland and they re-emerged under another name The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is the biggest secret society in the world; its membership pervades world politics, business, banking, the whole shebang. And it’s the Templars under another name.

 Narrator: When we continue, the world’s largest secret society comes to America and its influence is enormous.

Icke: Of the 56 signatures on the American Declaration of Independence, 50 were known Freemasons, only one was known not to be!

Kent: An order calling for the arrest of all Knights Templar in France was enacted on a Friday the 13th. Ever since, many people have considered Friday 13th an unlucky day.

 [Commercial break]

Narrator: According to the conspiracy theorist view of the world, the Knights Templar fleeing persecution by the king of France bring their secret knowledge, whatever that may have been, to Britain and form regional clubs called lodges in a new organization called Freemasonry. Modern Masonry, however, claims no connection to the Knights Templar.

Pipes: Probably the number one secret society in terms of fear and speculation are the Freemasons.

Marrs: The Freemasons are the connective tissue that have carried ancient knowledge all the way through the centuries up into the modern secret societies.

Narrator: Just about the only thing conspiracy advocates and Freemason historians agree on is the date of the first grand lodge meeting of the organization, June 24, 1717 at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House in London, England. The Freemasons were founded as an organization dedicated to the free exchange of ideas.

Pipes: That might sound simple and obvious today but there weren’t many such places where individuals could get together and freely discuss the issues of the day.