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The Knights Templar were a medieval chivalric organization within the Roman Catholic Church.

When did they dissolve, and what ultimately led to the dissolution of the Templars?

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Officially the Knights were disbanded in the early 14th century, beginning in France with King Philip IV prosecuting them for multiple reasons (the Templars had lost standing after the Third Crusade, public mistrust, and the King owed money to the order), with other countries to follow. Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312.

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The first day of prosecution was a Friday 13th, from which the superstition about this day started – txwikinger Oct 25 '11 at 20:27
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@txwikinger Do you have a reference for that? That'd be pretty wild and answer two birds with one stone. – canadiancreed Oct 25 '11 at 23:16
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… However, while the day was Friday 13th, historically it does not seem to be possible to prove that the superstition started at this point, since there are no documents until very much later noting the superstition. I guess like a lot of urban legends it is difficult to prove or disprove. I believe the correlation has been made in 'The Da Vinci Code' but it is difficult to discern there fact from fiction (or literal freedom) – txwikinger Oct 26 '11 at 1:29
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After more thought, I believe there is some mentioning in the Canterbury Tales (late 14th century), however, I am not sure how strong the link would be. On the other hand, often in literature common knowledge is often noted without fully explained, so it is also inconclusive. – txwikinger Oct 26 '11 at 1:38

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