What hid the Gnostic box discovered on the eve of the French Revolution on the territory of the once existing Templar command in Essarua in Burgundy; what secret united the dignitaries of the Order of the Temple, during the arrest of Chinon Castle contained in the Kudra donjon and left their mysterious graffiti on the wall of the donjon in 1308; how the temple workers were associated with the Mandaeans, followers of John the Baptist (Johanan Ha-Matvil). All this and much more is covered in the investigation of the military historian Vladimir Tkachenko-Gildebrandt and the works of three French-speaking authors of the 19th century - Prosper Mignard, Joseph von Gammer-Purgstahl and Jules Loiseler, first translated into Russian. The book is the first part of an anthology devoted to mysticism and religious-mystical movements of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, one way or another conjugated with the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon and its heritage.