Knights Templar

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Knights Templar Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici
A Seal of the Knights Templar, with their famous symbol of two knights on a single horse
Active	c. 1118–1312
Allegiance	Papacy
Type	Christian military order
Size	15,000–20,000 members at peak, 10% of whom were knights[1]
Headquarters	Temple Mount, Jerusalem
Nickname	Order of the Temple
Patron	St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Attire	White mantle with a red cross
Battles/wars	The Crusades, including: Siege of Acre, Battle of Montgisard, Battle of Hattin, Battle of Arsuf, Reconquista
Commanders
First Grand Master	Hughes de Payens
Last Grand Master	Jacques de Molay

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici), popularly known as the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple, were among the most famous of the Christian military orders.^[2] The organisation, which existed for approximately two centuries in the Middle Ages, was created in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096 to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed toward Jerusalem after its conquest.

Officially endorsed by the church in 1128, the Order became a favoured charity across Europe, and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, easily recognisable in their white mantle with a distinct red cross, made some of the best equipped, trained, and disciplined fighting units of the Crusades.^[3] Non-warrior members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating many financial techniques that were an early form of banking,^[4] and building numerous fortifications throughout Europe and the Holy Land.

The success of the Templars was tied closely to the success of the Crusades. When the Holy Land was lost and the Templars suffered crushing defeats, support for the Order's existence faltered. Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony caused mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began pressuring Pope Clement V to take action. Things came to a head on Friday, October 13, 1307, when King Philip caused many of the Order's members in France to be arrested, tortured into "confessions", and burned at the stake.^[5] A few years later, Pope Clement, under further pressure from King Philip, forcibly disbanded the entire Order. The sudden disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the name "Templar" alive in modern fiction.

[edit] History

A Knight Templar

See also: History of the Knights Templar

[edit] Rise

The first headquarters of the Knights Templar, Al Aqsa Mosque, on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The Crusaders called it the Temple of Solomon, as it was built on top of the ruins of the original Temple, and it was from this location that the Knights took their name of Templar.

After the First Crusade resulted in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, many European pilgrims headed for the area to visit what they referred to as The Holy Places. But although the city was under relative control, the rest of the Outremer was not. Bandits abounded, and pilgrims were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey from the coastline at Jaffa into the Holy Land.^[6]

Around 1118, French knight Hughes de Payens and his relative Geoffrey de St. Omer, veterans of the First Crusade, proposed the creation of a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims.^[7] King Baldwin II of Jerusalem agreed to their request, and gave them a headquarters in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, in the captured Al Aqsa Mosque. The Temple Mount had a mystique, because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon.^[3][8] The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location that the Order took its name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or "Templar" knights. With few financial resources, the tiny Order of approximately nine knights had to rely on donations to survive. Their emblem displayed two knights riding on a single horse, emphasizing their poverty.

The Templars' impoverished status did not last long. The Order had a powerful patron: Bernard of Clairvaux, a leading church figure and a nephew of one of the founding knights. He spoke and wrote persuasively on their behalf, and in 1128 or 1129 at the Council of Troyes, the Order was officially endorsed by the church. With this formal blessing, the Templars became a favoured charity across Europe, receiving money, land, businesses, and noble-born sons from families who were eager to help with the fight in the Holy Land. Another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent II's papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the Order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, and were exempt from all authority except that of the Pope.^[9]

With its clear mission and ample resources, the Order grew rapidly. Templars were often the advance force in key battles of the Crusades, as the knights on their heavily armed warhorses would set out to gallop full speed at the enemy, in an attempt to break opposition lines. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard, where approximately 500 Templar knights defeated Saladin's army of more than 26,000 soldiers.^[11]

Map of Jerusalem, showing the location of the Templar headquarters on the Temple Mount

Although the primary mission of the Order was military, only a small percentage of its members were actually at the front lines. The rest acted in support positions, both to assist the knights individually and to manage the financial infrastructure. The Templars, though sworn to individual poverty, were given control of wealth beyond direct donations to their cause. A nobleman who was interested in participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management while he was gone. Accumulating wealth in this manner across Europe and the Outremer, the Order in 1150 began generating letters of credit for pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land: pilgrims deposited their valuables with a local Templar preceptory before embarking, received an encrypted document indicating the value of their deposit, then used that document upon arrival in the Holy Land to retrieve their funds. This innovative arrangement may have been the first formal chequing system; it both improved the safety of pilgrims by making them less attractive targets for thieves, and further contributed to the Templar coffers.^[3][12]

Based on this mix of donations and business dealing, the Templars established financial networks all across Christendom. They acquired large tracts of land both in Europe and the Middle East; bought and managed farms and vineyards; built churches and castles; were involved in manufacturing, import and export; had their own fleet of ships; and at one point even owned the entire island of Cyprus. The Templars arguably qualify as the world's first multinational corporation.^[11]

[edit] Fall

1187's Battle of the Horns of Hattin, the turning point in the Crusades

In the mid-1100s, the tide began turning in the Crusades. The Muslim world had become more united under such effective leaders as Saladin, and dissension arose between the Christian factions. The Knights Templar were often at odds with the two other great Christian orders, the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights, and decades of bickering weakened the Christian positions. After several disastrous battles, including the pivotal Battle of the Horns of Hattin, Jerusalem was lost to Saladin in 1187. The Crusaders retook the city in 1229 (without Templar help), but held it just briefly. In 1244, the Khawarizmi Turks recaptured Jerusalem, and it would never again be under Christian control.^[13]

The Templars were forced to relocate their headquarters to other cities in the north, such as the seaport of Acre. But they lost that too in 1291, followed by their last mainland strongholds, Tortosa (in what is now Syria) and Atlit. This left them with only an offshore headquarters on Cyprus and a garrison on tiny Arwad Island, just off the coast from Tortosa. They attempted to build a new invasion force at Arwad, but in 1302 lost that island as well, their last foothold in the Holy Land.^[11]

Templar building at Saint Martin des Champs, France

With the Order's military mission no longer as important, European support for the organisation began to dwindle. The situation was complex though, as over the two hundred years of their existence, the Templars had become a part of European daily life. The organisation had a widespread presence at the local level, with approximately 15,000 Templar Houses around Europe. The Templars managed many businesses, and many Europeans had daily contact with the Templar network, such as by working at a Templar farm or vineyard, or using the Order as a bank in which to store their personal wealth. But the Order was still subject to no local government, making it a "state within a state"; it had a standing army that could pass freely through all borders, but it no longer had a clear battlefield. This situation heightened tensions with some European nobility, especially as the Templars were indicating an interest in founding their own monastic state, just as the Teutonic Knights had done in Prussia.^[12]

[edit] Arrests and dissolution

King Philip IV of France (1268–1314)

In 1305, the new Pope Clement V, who was now based in France, sent letters to both the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and the Hospitaller Grand Master, Fulk de Villaret, discussing the possibility of a merging of the two Orders. Neither was amenable to the idea, but Pope Clement persisted, and in 1306 he invited both Grand Masters to France to discuss the matter. De Molay arrived first, in early 1307, though de Villaret was delayed for several months. While waiting for him, De Molay and Clement discussed charges that had been made two years earlier by an ousted Templar. It was generally agreed that the charges were false, but Clement wrote to King Philip IV of France to request his help in the investigation. King Philip, however, decided to seize upon the Templar rumours for his own financial needs. He was deeply in debt to the Templars as a result of his war with the English, and he began pressuring the church to take action against the Order in order to free himself from his debts.

On Friday, October 13, 1307 (a date incorrectly linked to the origin of the Friday the 13th legend^[14][15]), Philip had Jacques de Molay and scores of other French Templars simultaneously arrested, charged with numerous heresies, and tortured until they "confessed" various types of blasphemy. Despite the fact that the confessions had been produced under duress, they caused a scandal in Paris, with mobs calling for action against the blaspheming Order. In response to this public pressure, along with more bullying from King Philip, Pope Clement issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.^[16]

Papal hearings were convened to determine the Templars' guilt or innocence. Many Templars recanted the confessions that had been extracted under Inquisitors' torture. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials, but Philip wouldn't allow it, and in 1310 used the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris.^[17][18]

Templars being burned at the stake

With Philip threatening military action unless the Pope agreed to comply with his wishes, Clement finally agreed to disband the Order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, including Vox in excelso, which officially dissolved the Order, and Ad proviendan, which turned over most Templar assets to the Hospitallers.^[19]

Convent of Christ in Castle Tomar, Portugal. Built in 1160 as a stronghold for the Knights Templar, it became the headquarters of the renamed Order of Christ. In 1983, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[20]

As for the last remaining leaders of the Order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his statement. His associate Geoffrey de Charney, Preceptor of Normandy, followed de Molay's example and did the same, insisting on his innocence. Both men were declared guilty of being relapsed heretics, and sentenced to death by being burned alive at the stake in Paris on March 18, 1314. Jacques de Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, asking to be tied in such a way that he could face the Notre Dame cathedral, and hold his hands together in prayer.^[21] His request was granted, and according to legend, he called out from the flames that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God. Pope Clement died only a month later, and King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year.^[22]

With the last of the Order's leaders gone, the remaining Templars around Europe were either arrested and tried under the Papal investigation (with virtually none convicted), absorbed into other military orders such as the Knights Hospitaller, or pensioned and returned to secular life. Some may have fled to other territories outside of Papal control, such as excommunicated Scotland. Templar organisations in Portugal simply changed their name, from Knights Templar to Knights of Christ.^[23]

In modern times, it is the Roman Catholic Church's position that the persecution was unjust; that there was nothing inherently wrong with the Order or its Rule; and that Pope Clement was pressured into his actions by the magnitude of the public scandal and the dominating influence of King Philip IV.^[24]

[edit] Organisation

This article is part of or related to the Knights Templar series

Knights Templar History of the Knights Templar Knights Templar legends Knights Templar Seal Grand Masters of the Knights Templar Knights Templar in England Knights Templar in Scotland List of Knights Templar List of places associated with the Knights Templar Modern associations Knights Templar and popular culture Knights Templar (Freemason degree) Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem

The Templars were organised as a monastic order, similar to Bernard's Cistercian Order, which was considered the first effective international organisation in Europe.^[25] The organisational structure had a strong chain of authority. Each country with a major Templar presence (France, England, Aragon, Portugal, Poitou, Apulia, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, Anjou, and Hungary^[26]) had a Master of the Order for the Templars in that region. All of them were subject to the Grand Master, appointed for life, who oversaw both the Order's military efforts in the East and their financial holdings in the West. No precise numbers exist, but it is estimated that at the Order's peak there were between 15,000 and 20,000 Templars, of whom about a tenth were actual knights.^[27]

It was Bernard de Clairvaux and founder Hugh de Payens who devised the specific code of behaviour for the Templar Order, known as the Latin Rule. Its 72 articles defined the ideal behaviour for the Knights, such as the types of robes they were to wear and how many horses they could have. Knights were to take their meals in silence, eat meat no more than three times per week, and have no physical contact of any kind with women, even members of their own family. A Master of the Order was assigned "4 horses, and one chaplain-brother and one clerk with three horses, and one sergeant brother with two horses, and one gentleman valet to carry his shield and lance, with one horse."^[28] As the Order grew, more guidelines were added, and the original list of 72 articles expanded to several hundred in its final form.^[29][30]

Knights were required to be of knightly descent, wore white mantles, and were equipped as heavy cavalry, with three or four horses, and one or two squires. Squires were generally not members of the Order, but were instead outsiders who were hired for a set period of time.^[31] Beneath the knights in the Order and drawn from lower social strata were the sergeants.^[32] They were either equipped as light cavalry with a single horse,^[33] or served in other ways such as administering the property of the Order or performing menial tasks and trades. Chaplains, constituting a third Templar class, were ordained priests who saw to the Templars' spiritual needs.^[34]

The knights wore white robes with a red cross, and a white mantle; the sergeants wore a black tunic with a red cross on front and back, and a black or brown mantle.^[35][36] The white mantle was assigned to the Templars at the Council of Troyes in 1128/1129, and the cross was most likely added to their robes at the launch of the Second Crusade in 1147, when Pope Eugenius III, King Louis VII of France, and many other notables attended a meeting of the French Templars at their headquarters near Paris.^[37][38][39] According to their Rule, the knights were to wear the white mantle at all times, even being forbidden to eat or drink unless they were wearing it.^[40]

Temple Church, London. Built as a fortress, it was used as a treasury, and was the location for Templar initiation ceremonies. In modern times it is a tourist attraction and base of operations for England's legal Inns of Court.

Initiation into the Order was a profound commitment, and involved a secret ceremony. Few details of the rituals were known at the time, fueling the suspicions of medieval inquisitors, but initiates had to be willing to sign over all of their wealth and goods to the Order, which required vows of poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience.^[41] Most brothers joined for life, though some were allowed to join for a set period. Sometimes a married man was allowed to join if he had his wife's permission,^[42] but he was not allowed to wear the white mantle.^[43]

For the warriors of the Order, there was a cardinal rule of never surrendering unless the Templar flag had fallen, and even in that case they were first to try and regroup with another of the Christian orders, such as that of the Hospitallers. Only after all flags had fallen were they allowed to leave the battlefield.^[44] The red cross that the Templars wore on their robes was a symbol of martyrdom, and to die in combat was considered a great honour assuring a place in heaven. This uncompromising principle, along with a reputation for courage, excellent training, and heavy armament, made the Templars one of the most feared combat forces in medieval times.^[45]

[edit] Grand Masters

Main article: Grand Masters of the Knights Templar

Seal of Grand Master Bertrand de Blanchefort (1109–1169)

Starting with founder Hughes de Payens in 1118–19, the Order's highest office was that of Grand Master, a position which was held for life; considering the warrior nature of the Order, this could mean a very short tenure. All but two of the Grand Masters died in office, and several died in military campaigns: During the Siege of Ascalon in 1153, Grand Master Bernard de Tremelay led a group of 40 Templars through a breach in the city walls. When the rest of the Crusader army did not follow, the Templars, including their Grand Master, were surrounded and beheaded.^[46] Grand Master Gérard de Ridefort was beheaded by Saladin in 1189 at the Siege of Acre.

The Grand Master oversaw all of the operations of the Order, including both the military operations in the Holy Land and Eastern Europe, and the Templars' financial and business dealings in Western Europe. Some Grand Masters also served as battlefield commanders, though this was not always a wise choice: several blunders in Gerard de Ridefort's leadership were the cause of the devastating loss at the Battle of Hattin. The last Grand Master was Jacques de Molay, who by order of King Philip IV was burned at the stake in Paris in 1314.^[18]

[edit] Legacy

See also: List of places associated with the Knights Templar

With their military mission and extensive financial resources, the Knights Templar funded a large number of building projects around Europe and the Holy Land. Many of these structures remain standing today. Many sites also maintain the name "Temple" due to centuries-old association with the Templars.^[47] For example, some of the Templars' lands in London were later rented to lawyers, which led to the names of the Temple Bar gateway, the Temple tube station, and many others.

Distinctive architectural elements of Templar buildings included images of the "two knights on a single horse," representing the Knights' poverty, and round buildings which were built to resemble the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

[edit] Modern Templar organisations

The story of the secretive yet powerful medieval Templars, especially their persecution and sudden dissolution, has been exploited by various organisations to enhance their supposed dignity, history, and mystery. Many groups claim traditions from the original Order. The Freemasons began incorporating Templar symbols and rituals in the 1700s,^[3] and have a modern title called "Order of the Knights Templar" to which members can aspire. The Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, founded in 1804, has achieved United Nations NGO status as a charitable organisation.^[48]

Though there is no verifiable historical link between the Templars, which were dismantled in the early 1300s, and any of these organisations, the oldest of which emerged in the 1700s, there is public confusion and many overlook the 400-year gap.

[edit] Legends and relics

Main articles: Knights Templar legends and Knights Templar and popular culture

The Knights Templar have become associated with legends concerning secrets and mysteries handed down to the select from ancient times. Rumours circulated even during the time of the Templars themselves, Freemasonic writers added their own speculations in the 19th century, and further fictional embellishments have been added in modern movies and best-selling novels such as Ivanhoe, Foucault's Pendulum, and The Da Vinci Code.^[3]

The Dome of the Rock, one of the structures at the Temple Mount

The best known of the Templar legends are connected with the Order's early occupation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and speculation about what relics the Templars may have found there, such as the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant.^[3][12][45] That the Templars were known to be in possession of some relics is certain. Even today, many churches display relics such as the bones of a saint, a scrap of cloth that a holy man once wore, perhaps even the skull of a martyr. The Templars did the same. They were documented as having a piece of the True Cross, which the Bishop of Acre carried into battle with them at the disastrous Horns of Hattin.^[49] When the battle was lost, Saladin captured the relic, which was then ransomed back to the Crusaders when the Muslims surrendered the city of Acre in 1191.^[50] They were also known to possess the head of Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon.^[51] The subject of relics came up during the Inquisition of the Templars, as several trial documents refer to the worship of a severed head, possibly Euphemia's.^[3][52]

There was particular interest during the Crusader era in the Holy Grail myth, which was linked to the Templars not long after their founding. The first Grail romance, the fantasy story Le Conte du Graal, was written in 1180 by Chretien de Troyes, who came from the same area where the Council of Troyes had officially sanctioned the Templar's Order. In Arthurian legend, the hero of the Grail quest, Sir Galahad (a 13th-century literary invention of monks from St. Bernard's Cistercian Order), was depicted bearing a shield with the cross of Saint George, similar to the Templars' insignia. In a chivalric epic of the period, Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach refers to Templars guarding the Grail Kingdom.^[53] A legend developed that since the Templars had their headquarters at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, they must have excavated in search of relics, found the Grail, and then proceeded to keep it in secret and guard it with their lives. However, there is no historical record of the Templars ever having the Holy Grail in their possession. In the extensive documents of the Templar inquisition, there was never a single mention of anything like a Grail relic,^[11] and most scholars agree that the story of the Grail was just that—a fiction that began circulating in medieval times.^[3][12]

One legendary artifact that does have a tenuous historical connection with the Templars is the Shroud of Turin. In 1357, the shroud was first publicly displayed by the family of the grandson of Templar Geoffrey de Charney, burned at the stake with the Order's last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, in 1314. The artifact's origins are still a matter of controversy, but carbon dating indicates that the shroud was created between 1260 and 1390, a span that includes the last half-century of the Templars.^[54]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Barber, Malcolm. The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple. Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-521-42041-5.
• Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars. Cambridge University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-521-45727-0.
• Burman, Edward. The Templars: Knights of God. Destiny Books, 1986. ISBN 0-89281-221-4.
• Frale, Barbara. "The Chinon chart — Papal absolution to the last Templar, Master Jacques de Molay". 2004. Journal of Medieval History 30 (2): 109–134. DOI:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2004.03.004.
• Hietala, Heikki. The Knights Templar: Serving God with the Sword, 1996, Renaissance Magazine.
• The History Channel, Decoding the Past: The Templar Code, November 7, 2005, video documentary written by Marcy Marzuni
• The History Channel, Lost Worlds: Knights Templar, July 10, 2006, video documentary written and directed by Stuart Elliott
• Martin, Sean, The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order, 2005. ISBN 1-56025-645-1.
• The Mission. "Science and the Shroud: Microbiology meets archaeology in a renewed quest for answers", Spring 1996.
• Picknett, Lynn and Prince, Clive. The Templar Revelation, 1997, ISBN 0-684-84891-0.
• Read, Piers Paul, The Templars. Da Capo Press, 1999. ISBN 0-306-81071-9.

[edit] Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Knights Templar

• Barber, Malcolm. "Who Were the Knights Templar?". Slate Magazine, 20 April 2006.
• Brighton, Simon (2006-06-15). In Search of the Knights Templar: A Guide to the Sites in Britain (Hardback), London, England: Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 0-297-84433-4. 
• Butler, Alan and Stephen Dafoe, The Warriors and the Bankers: A History of the Knights Templar from 1307 to the present, Templar Books, 1998. ISBN 0-9683567-2-9.
• Partner, Peter. The Knights Templar and their Myth. Destiny Books; Reissue edition (1990). ISBN 0-89281-273-7.
• Ralls, Karen. The Templars and the Grail, Quest Books, 2003. ISBN 0-8356-0807-7.
• Smart, George. The Knights Templar: Chronology, Authorhouse, 2005. ISBN 1-4184-9889-0.
• Upton-Ward, JM. The Rule of the Templars: The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar. The Boydell Press, 1992. ISBN 0-85115-315-1.

[edit] External links

• The History of the Knights Templar, by Charles Addison, 1842.