Currently reading this: The Rule of the Templars (Studies in the History of Medieval Religion)
The Templars were Cistercian warrior-monks, and that is all. Not the predecessors of the Freemasons or any of that New Age, secret society tommyrot. Faithful Catholic warrior-monks, orthodox Christians who were captive to the faulty theology of the day, but also bound to the chivalric Christian heroism of the day.
Their successors are arising in the Orthodox East and in Catholic and Anglican North Africa as they are forced to defend themselves from ISIS, Boko Haram and other genocidal Islamist armies, while the Christian West, along with well-to-do liberal-left "Orthodox" minimizers such as our friend Stefano living safely in Western enclaves such as the US and Australia, are still fumbling about trying to get a grip on some sort of convincing narrative.