The Order of the Temple after the 18th century

With the public position taken by the Duke of Orléans, the modern restoration of the Order began which, with alternating and often confusing events, continues its life to this day. The succession of Grand Masters (Philippe d’Orléans died in 1723) was interrupted, fortunately, during the French Revolution.

​Claude-Mathieu Radix de Chevillon, Regent during the Revolution, refuses to assume the role of Grand Master and is replaced by Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat, the last to sign the Charta Transmissionis using ciphered letters.

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This restoration has the approval of the new Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte , who gives rise to a new aristocracy.

​Distrustful of the anti-monarchist Freemason principles, the Emperor probably sees in the reconstituted Order of the Temple a favorable alternative for himself and his faithful.

​Starting from 1804 , the Order developed its structures and organized itself as a chivalric, charitable, tolerant, traditional and universal institution.

​Between 1804 and 1808, in fact, the success of the membership of the newly reconstituted Order resulted from the multiplication of Priories and Commanderies throughout the Napoleonic Empire. Aspirants who do not possess the required nobility requirements are ennobled. To further differentiate itself from its Masonic origins, the Order “professes the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion” and rejects requests for investiture made by Protestants.

​Once the Bourbons were restored, Louis XVIII placed the Templars under his royal protection, fearing the possible political influence of some groups, opponents of the restored monarchy. Later, the French Templars supported the insurrectional uprisings of 1830 against Charles.

​On 18 February 1838 Fabré-Palaprat died and on 29 May of the same year the Regency of the Order was entrusted to the Catholic Count de Morèton and the General Chapter appointed a new Executive Commission. Since the Statutes of 1705 were “corrupted” in the period of Fabré-Palaprat, a new document was approved which “renewed the traditions of chivalry and obedience to the Catholic Church”.

​On 11 February 1841, in Paris, the Templars made a very important decision: Christians of any confession could be part of the Order whose official religion, however, remained the apostolic, Roman Catholic one.

​With the law of 28 July 1848 the French Constituent Assembly prohibited the activity of all Orders and all associations but, once the political climate changed again, with the Second Empire, Napoleon III, in 1850, granted his recognition to the Templars. With a Decree of 13 June 1853 the Emperor authorized them to wear the insignia of the Order in public and, in 1857, the Regent de Valleray restored the use of the patriarchal cross.

​In France, the Grand Mastership was assumed, in 1892, by the decadent poet and writer Joseph Aimé Péladan, considered, among other things, the founder of Rosicrucian kabbalistics and magism. On 11 November 1894, a General Convent was held in Brussels during which the establishment of an International Secretariat of the Templars was decided.

​The English Templars did not participate and, in the meantime, on 24 January of that year, they confirmed Edward VII, King of England and Emperor of the Indies, as Grand Master. But the transfer of the Templar seat to England did not please the Templars as a whole.

​When Edward VII died in 1910, he was succeeded as Grand Master by William II, Emperor of Germany.

At the outbreak of the First World War, William II resigned from the position of Grand Master for reasons of expediency.