Not really my brief, per se.
I’ll leave that windmill to others with more facts at their fingertips.
Sorry.
The thought occurred to me that the sources you advert to for reliable information on Freemasonry must have had sources themselves. And I suspect the sources in question have been drawn from the records of the brutal suppression of the Order of the Knights Templar by Philip IV of France in 1307 — in particular, the "testimonies," "evidence" elicited under conditions of horrific torture.... Which of course, were written down by the Dominicans conducting such witness "interrogations."
It is true that many contemporary Masons believe the history and fate of the Knights Templars is firmly within their tradition, which dates back to Hiram, architect of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, who was murdered by an underling....
Anyhoot, the Templars were the only religious order of their day that swore direct allegiance to the Pope. They had fought in the Crusades, and were said to have enriched themselves gloriously thereby. I do not know the truth of that allegation. What is known is the Order pioneered the modern international banking system: They issued loans, letters of credit, secure repositories for client deposits, etc.
Unfortunately, one of their biggest debtors at the turn of the 14th century was Philip the Fair of France: He was up to his eyeballs in debt to the Templars in order to finance his wars and his lavish lifestyle. He literally installed a Pope — Clement V — to help him "get rid of" these overbearing creditors; plus he lusted for the Templar wealth. When Clement — a real toady of a pope — failed to act, Philip did:
Philip had long coveted the wealth of the Knights Templar. In 1305, when his acquaintence, the Spanish mystic and evangelist to Muslims, Ramon Lull published his Liber de fine, he favored the proposal, contained in that text, for the combination of the Templars with the Hospitallers under the authority of a king, or of the son of a king. Philip saw himself in this role, which would give him control of the wealth of both orders. The same year, he applied for membership of the Templars but was refused. Although discussed, Lull's proposal did not attract enough support. Philip then adopted a different strategy and informed Clement that the Templars were guilty of all sorts of heretical beliefs and practices. When Clement did not move against the Order, he did so himself. On Friday, October 13, 1307, hundreds of Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by his agents, to be later tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. (This is one of the reasons why Friday the 13th is seen as unlucky.) The Knights Templar were a 200-year-old military order, supposedly answerable only to the Pope. Philip accused them of defiling the crucifix by urinating on it, calling Jesus a false prophet, of sodomy, of worshipping a cat, as well as of practicing magic. Philip used his influence over Clement V, who was largely his pawn, to disband the order and remove its ecclesiastical status and protection in order to plunder it.Just thought you might appreciate such details, dear brother in Christ!A modern historical view is that Philip seized the considerable Templar treasury and broke up the Templar monastic banking system. In 1314, he had the last Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, burnt at the stake in Paris. According to legend, de Molay cursed both Philip and Clement V from the flames, saying that he would summon them before God's Tribunal within a year; as it turned out, both King and Pope died within the next year.