10.09
Other legends of modern invention say that the Holy Grail, or Sangreal, was found by the Order and taken to Scotland during the suppression of the order in 1307, and that it remains buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel. Other more recent discoveries say the Holy Grail was taken to Northern Spain, and protected by the Knights Templar there.
Some sources claim that the Templars discovered secrets of the Masons, builders of both the original and second temples at the Temple Mount, along with knowledge that the Ark had been moved to Ethiopia before the destruction of the first temple. Allusion to this is made in engravings on the Cathedral at Chartres, great influence over the building of which was had by Bernard of Clairvaux, the Order’s patron. Further links to both the search by the order for the Ark and to its discovery of ancient secrets of building are supposedly suggested by the existence of the monolithic Church of St. George in Lalibela, Ethiopia, which stands to this day but whose construction is incorrectly attributed to the Knights Templar.
Some scholars, such as Hugh J. Schonfield, and fringe researchers argue that the Knights Templar may have found the Copper Scroll treasure of the Qumran Essenes in the tunnels beneath the Temple Mount. They suggest that this might explain one of the charges of heresy which were later brought against the knights by the Medieval Inquisition.