Hi, we're your host's Anthony Delaney and Maddie Pelling.

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Hello and welcome to After Dark. I'm Maddie.

And I'm Anthony.

And today we have got the legend of the Knights Templars.

We're talking warrior monks.

We're potentially talking Western invaders.

Are we talking secret societies that rule the world? Anthony set the scene.

In March 1314, on a scaffold outside Notre Dame in Paris, an old man is listening as a cardinal

condemns him to lifelong imprisonment for heresy. The old man's name is Jacques de Mollet,

and he was, until recently, leader of an order of warrior monks who had battled in the

holy land for centuries, the Knights Templar.

But now his order has been torn apart by the King of France, jealous of their wealth.

Under threat of torture, our old man, Jack de Malay, confessed to every heresy the king desired.

Now it is too late to save the sacred order. Now the hour for resistance has passed.

But to everybody's surprise, suddenly, Jack stands up. He interrupts the Cardinals and announces to the

gathered crowd that he is guilty of nothing except betraying the honor of his beloved Knights Templar,

that he gave false confessions to save his own skin.

Now at this point, the crowd is aghast.

...