THE SOVEREIGN AND MILITARY ORDER OF THE TEMPLE
The Grand Priory of Belgium had been created as a "tongue" of the Ordre du Temple in 1825 under the charge of Marquis Albert-Francois de Chasteller, and, similar to other units, had soon after split into pro-Catholic and masonic factions with the latter forming the Trinity of the Tower which survived until 1930 when it met for the final time in formal Conclave to dissolve itself.
Two years later, in January of 1932, eleven of the previous members of the Trinity of the Tower came together to form the "L'Ordre Souverain et Militaire du Temple de Jerusalem" or the "Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem" and to which they invited what remnants there were of their parent Order du Temple incuding the Grand Priories of Portugal, Italy and Switzerland. Thus the old Order was to a certain extent re-established and revitalised and immediately began to flourish firstly under the Regent Thoedore Covias and then Emile Isaac Vandenberg who succeeded as Regent on 8th August, 1935, and was afterwards elected Grand Master the following October 1st.
Unfortunately, progress was interupted by the outbreak of the second World War. It was well-known that Adolf Hitler and many of his fellow high-ranking Nazis shared a deep interest in matters esoteric and that they expended energy and finance in various attempts to track down knowledge and items of power to aid them in their work. Early on in the occuption of Belgium it became known that the Nazis were gathering information on the Order and it was agreed that to ensure the safe survival of the Order and its archives it would be passed for safe-keeping to the Grand Prior of Portugal, Antonio Campello Pinto de Sousa Fontes, for which a decree was executed by the Grand Master, Emile Isaac Vandenberg, on 23 December, 1942, with the task of transportation being given to Karel Holemans, a Belgian Painter. Upon the death of Vandenberg in a car accident near Brussells the following year, Antonio Fontes remained as Regent with the prerogatives of Grand Master until his death in February of 1960 when he was succeeded by his son Fernando, the current Grand Master, who received official endorsements from the senior officers of the Order in 1960 ;
Since then the Order has continued its policy to grow internationally and now has several thousand members in over forty-two different countries. The past fifty or so years, however, have not been without their own problems and today there are several bodies wordlwide bearing the name of the Order in one form or another. There are also many others who claim to be part of this Order but who are rouge outfits usually with highly suspect motives and involve members who have been expelled for poor behaviour well beneath the standards expected. We urge all to be cautious and to only have dealings with those units who can produce competent paperwork which proves their connection to this legitimate Order.
__________________________________
Non Nobis Domine, Non Nobis, Sed Nomini Tuo Da Gloriam !
Copyright: The Grand Priory of Scotland OSMTH/SMOTJ 2011
