[goldstategop]

There is a lot of fascination with Gnoticism. Its always been suspected The Templars brought back non-Catholic currents of Christianity with them from the Middle East during the Crusades and the suspicion they were harboring heresy along with their enormous wealth left them open to their enemies. The French King moved on them and shut down their order in 1314. If you really want a look at this stuff read Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. People never get tired of hearing about conspiracies, historical mysteries, secret societies, and mysticism.

[Cronos]

There is a lot of fascination with Gnoticism. Its always been suspected The Templars brought back non-Catholic currents of Christianity with them from the Middle East during the Crusades and the suspicion they were harboring heresy along with their enormous wealth left them open to their enemies.

Gnosticism was reflected in the Albigensian heresy, not anything the Knight's Templar did.

They were disbandded because they were too powerful -- they were the predecessars of NATO and their order was reknowned for it's high discipline -- remember they were able to hold the Island fortress of Malta against the Sultan's army and navy even though they were outnumbered at 100 to 1 or more.

Furthermore, Gnosticism died out in the East -- no Eastern church had or has Gnostic tendencies -- the Ethiopian is Monophysite as is the Coptic while the Nestorian church is well, Nestorian. the Eastern Orthodox churches didn't and dont' differ substantially from the Latin church (except for the filioque). They were disbanded and destroyed on trumped up charges.