Knights Templar (Freemasonry)
The Knights Templar, full name The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, is a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a regular Masonic Lodge, which (in all Regular Masonic jurisdictions) only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in Christianity. One of the obligations entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect and defend the Christian faith. The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple (Knights Templar), the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.
Sussex in the High Middle Ages
Sussex had strong links with the military orders of the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. Founded in 1119, the Knights Templar established centres in Sussex including a local headquarters, or preceptory, at Shipley from around 1125, with other centres at Sompting from 1154 and at the port of Shoreham by 1170. The church at Shipley is the earliest surviving church of the Templars in England and dates from the 1130s. The Hospitallers established a centre at Poling and another at Shoreham in 1190. Various Sussex magnates went on crusade including Philip de Braose, lord of Bramber, went on crusade probably in 1128. William de Warenne III, lord of the rape of Lewes, made annual gifts from his estate at Lewes to the knights Templar and around 1146 went on crusade where he was killed in battle in 1148.