Editing Renewed Order of the Temple (section)

== Background ==
[[AMORC]] is the largest contemporary [[Rosicrucian]] organization, structured into lodges which performed initiation rituals into specific degrees.{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=126}} [[Raymond Bernard (esotericist)|Raymond Bernard]] was the legate of AMORC in the Francophone world and the second highest person in the organization's entire hierarchy.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=27}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=141}} [[Julien Origas]] was also a member of AMORC; he had been involved with the [[Gestapo]] during [[World War II]], for which he served three years in prison.{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=126}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=141}} [[Jacques Breyer]] initiated a resurgence of Templar groups, [[neo-Templarism]], in France in 1952. This "Arginy renaissance" was tied to a claimed mystical experience in the [[Castle of Arginy]], where Breyer said he had been initiated into a chain of succession stretching back to the initial [[Knights Templar]]. This resulted in the founding of the [[Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple]] (OSTS), which was formally created in 1966.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=141}}{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=126}} Many of Breyer's ideas were apocalyptic, speaking of the end of the world and how to escape it.{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=127}} During the 1960s, both Bernard and Origas became affiliated with Breyer's Templar revivalist movement.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=141}}

After this, Bernard decided that controlling a parallel neo-Templar order to AMORC would help keep AMORC members also desiring Templar initiation within the milieu of the organization.{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=141}} In 1968, Bernard initiated Origas and Robert Devaux (also an AMORC associate) as Knights Templar, at the [[Chartres Cathedral]].{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=142}} The creation of this group was supposedly validated by a "White Cardinal" apparition that had appeared to Bernard in Rome, who initiated him as a Templar. This was published in a 1969 book by Bernard. Bernard later admitted that this apparition was purely fictional, along with several other of his claimed mystical sightings, but said all were based on "deeply moving personal mystical experiences".{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=142}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=27}}{{sfn|Caillet|1997|p=42}}