The Assassin Connection Occult scholar and historian James Wasserman, in his recent book The Templars and the Assassins: The Militia of Heaven (2001), suggests that, through their contact with the Assassins, the Templars has adopted Islamic forms of gnosticism. The spiritual philosophy that underpinned the Order of Assassins was that of the Nizari Ismailis (who survive today under the authority of the Aga Khan). The Ismailis originated in the late 8th century from a schism within …showed first 75 words of 8340 total…

…showed last 75 words of 8340 total…ight. He ordered that the knights be detained while the allegations were investigated, including the confessions of the Paris Templars, to find out whether they were true or false. Clement also suspended the Inquisition from dealing with the affair, and despatched two cardinals to Paris as his personal representatives in the matter of the Templars. When the cardinals questioned the Templar leaders, Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi de Charnay retracted their confessions.