10/04/2024
Unique among all modern Templar-themed groups, the Order of the Temple of Solomon possesses fully documented legal legitimacy as a genuine Order of Chivalry [12] [13] [14] [15] [16], in strict accordance with all applicable historical rules of chivalric, nobiliary and sovereign institutions [17]. Those rules, which remain in full force as the doctrines of customary international law [18] [19] [20] [21], and are binding upon all countries [22], formed the backbone of the complete restoration of the original Templar Order. That legitimacy was fully restored by the historical legal doctrines of Juridical Continuity, Historical Continuity, Doctrinal Succession and Magistral Succession [23], all ensuring the proper sovereign reestablishment of the Grand Mastery [24] [25]. The Order was thereby reconnected with all three sources of its original authorities: Ecclesiastical, Royal and Sovereign. The resulting official legitimacy was based upon, and entirely facilitated by, possessing the full depth, scope and detail of the original substance of the historical Order of the Temple of Solomon. That restoration of official status legally reconnected the Templar Order with its most important 12th century source of authority: The little known (and much overlooked) Papal Bull Omne Datum Optimum of 1139 AD, by which the Vatican granted the Templar Order full Sovereign Protection of independent sovereignty as a non-territorial Principality: This Papal Bull is explicitly permanent and irrevocable, granting “in perpetuity… the Protection and Tutelage of the Holy See for all time to come”, such that its independent authority “may not be infringed nor diminished by any ecclesiastical or secular person.” It describes the Order specifically as a “Princely house [principali domo]… [with] dependencies”, meaning a sovereign Principality of statehood, regardless of territory. Strongly emphasizing that it is unconditionally irrevocable, the Papal Bull further declared that “If anyone, with the knowledge of this our decree, rashly attempts to act against it… he shall lose the dignity of his power and honor”, making any attempt to revoke it legally null and void. [26] The resulting diplomatic privileges and immunities were reconfirmed by two other supporting Papal Bulls, Milites Templi of 1144 AD [27] and Militia Dei of 1145 AD [28]. Vatican scholars documented that the Templar Order did in fact possess and exercise that independent authority, as non-territorial sovereign Principality, although it did so quietly and privately, only in its relations with other historical institutions [29] [30]. Evidencing that the Order also possessed its own inherent ecclesiastical sovereignty from the Ancient Priesthood of Solomon, Vatican records confirm that autonomous Templar Chaplains had exclusive authority to perform all sacraments within the Order [31]. As a non-territorial sovereign Principality of independent statehood in its own right, the modern Templar Order legally holds the status of a “sovereign subject of international law” [32] [33], based upon its legal legitimacy, authentic substance, and institutional capabilities to advance its historical purposes internationally [34]. The Order thereby inherently possesses full Diplomatic status for official international relations [35] [36]. The Templar Order is recognized as a government with statehood as a “non-territorial Principality and sovereign subject of international law” in diplomatic relations, as a founding Member State of the “Order of the Temple of Solomon Foundation” (since 2014), which is recognized as an “Inter-Governmental Organization” (IGO) by United Nations Registration No. 646065. By its legalized official status as a sovereign Principality of statehood, the Order of the Temple of Solomon fully possesses its own inherent Fons Honourum of Crown authority, which is vested in the institution itself, in its own right [37] [38] [39]. This gives the Templar Order legal capacity to officially grant titled knighthood and damehood in nobility, and to create titled nobility of peerage, with full legitimacy under customary international law. On these legal bases, the Templar Order holds sovereign legitimacy of its own constitutional parliamentary Government, which consists of the Grand Mastery supplemented by Ministers as Crown Officers. Maintaining strict historical continuity, the Temple Rule of 1129 AD remains the primary Charter of the chivalric aspect of the Order [40] [41]. The Constitution is enacted as the statutes of the Government for the sovereign aspect of the Order in international law, and is thus secondary to the basic doctrines of the Temple Rule.
