Any source on the Knights Templar would tell you that in all likelihood, the Knights Templar possessed some secret the magnitude of which was terrifying both to the Church and to Kings. There is no historical record of the existence of this "secret", but if you read between the lines of history, a secret plainly existed. The mere fact that they were permitted to operate outside of Papal jurisdcition ought to be enough to indicate that they had some powerful hold over the Church, but they were made exempt from all interdicts and their properties and revenues were made exempt from taxation.Of course, historians could suggest that because of the order's noble cause and intentions, such entitlements could be explained. However, no other order ever received the generous accords handed to the Knights Templar, and the origins of the Knight Templar are most mysterious. The original 9 members of the order all held family connections with each other and spent several years camped out in what was formerly King Solomon's stables. There is a great deal to suggest that these men were directly descended from Jesus and that their families had waited a long time for their chance to return to Jerusalem. They may well have been looking for a specific item there. Much of the treasure (both types: of monetary value, and of sacred value) of the Jews had been hidden under the Temple Mount after the failure of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans. That the Knights excavated there is beyond question, what they found is a mystery.
However, after this initial period, as the Order decided to expand, they gained wealth and power at a phenomenal rate. Their prestige was enormous, but in real terms, they hadn't actually done anything visibly worthwhile up to that point. The Knights would go on to fight many valiant battles, although eventually losing the Holy Land, but I suspect that the later feats of the order were of little importance, as the order was only ever created as a front to gain access to the Temple Mount.
So what might the Knights have discovered? We can only speculate (and hundreds of books have), but whatever it was, had the power to rock Christianity to the core. We could assume, that they had been looking for conclusive proof that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and had children with her (there is plenty evidence to support that idea, The Da Vinci Code is just the tip of the Iceberg). It is wuite possible, that the men who formed the initial group of knights were all directly descended from Jesus, and they knew it. Their families had been waiting hundreds of years to be able to return to Jerusalem and collect the evidence. They knew what the evidence consisted of and they knew fairly accurately where it was to be found.
But the story of the Knights Templar is just mystery upon mystery. If they then acquired this item or items, they must surely have threatened the church with it, in order to obtain the gratuitous liberties, which they did. But, I don't for one minute believe that the expansion of the order was their ultimate goal. Either they had a secondary goal dependant on achieving the first, or the discovery that they had made, had created this new goal. And this goal, whatever it was, required the powers granted by the church. This is a subject I may very well return to in the future!
