Templars Story

The Templar Order was founded in 1119 after 300 pilgrims were killed the previous year at Madeley. It was a white robe with red cross mantle, a monastic order under Cistercian monastic rule with dedicated contemplation and prayer, and with additional responsibilities to protect religious tourism to holy sites, handle the pilgrims’ valuables, and fight for possession of the Holy Land, and to bring back relics for the new cathedrals! 

Templar monks were the elite fighting groups of the Crusades, that involved many fighting Orders of monks. Monks were the lowest ranks in the hierarchy of the Church. They were often lacking education, but were highly principled, ascetics who made money fir the. Hutch, but were allowed no personal wealth. 

On the long and arduous route, by land and sometimes sea, and whilst at their destinations, many pilgrims were in poor health, so caring for the disabled, their animals and often their own Templar band, was part of their many serious responsibilities. Israel, Syria, Turkey, and Jordan, and cities such as Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and Tyre were in their sights. Jerusalem was the main destination, and source of revenue. King Baldwin I of Jerusalem was the Christian head of the city under an Egyptian authority who gave permission for pilgrimages. The Hospitallers, with white crosses on their black robes and under Benedictine monastic rule, were already established in the region on a site previously owned by the seventh century bishop of Alexandria, St John the Almsgiver. 

From the Champagne region of France, Hughes of Payens developed a small coterie of knights under oaths of poverty, chastity and obedience, and they were invited by King Baldwin II and were installed in a wing of the Kings Palace in the Temple area. In 1120 Fulk, the Count of Anjou, and future King of Jerusalem (and also the grandfather of King Henry II of England) stayed with the knights. In 1126, Hugh and Andrew of Montbard and a small number of others, travelled back to Champagne. This was an important visit. There they met with Count Thibault and Cistercian Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux.

The Order offered a career structure even for those knights who had been excommunicated from the Church. A Knight accused of murder could expiate his sin by joining the Templars (the Foreign Legion of its day). The penance for the knights who murdered Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral was 14 years service with the Templars! Their reputation of honesty and good judgement made them counsellors to Popes and Kings.  

Matilda, Queen of England and Countess of Boulogne, donated to the new Order. Her husband, King Stephen, was the son of Stephen of Blois who had died fighting in Palestine. In 1128, the London Temple was established but burned down and was rebuilt in 1185. Many other preceptories were built, in England, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, especially in the South of France, in Aragon and Castile. (The chronicler, Michael the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch stated in 1150 that 30 Templars were the first to arrive in Jerusalem.) 

In 1129, Bernard was a powerful intellectual and met with his nephew, Count Thibault to establish a rule for the Templars. Bernard had, in previous years, convicted Peter Abelard of heresy at the Council of Soissons. The Council of Troyes in Champagne decided the formal rules of the Order in 1129. Calixtus II was the Pope and he sent his legate, Matthew of Remois and with Counts from Champagne and Nevers to produce the rigid Latin rule. Poverty, humility, chastity and obedience, four rather than three vows were decided upon, to dress simply, no hunting or hawking (only lion hunting was allowed). They were permitted squires and grooms. They had to attend canonical prayer hours 8 times throughout day and night, and say many Our Fathers instead of psalms. They were allowed no contact with women, even their mothers and sisters. They had to bear the expense of armour, three horses, and weaponry, and were praised for their bravery in battle: ‘first to charge and last to retreat’, and were prepared to die for the cause - sometimes 90% of these soldiers for Christ died in horrendous battle. The Papacy agreed the rule and wrote to praise the new knights in a letter to Hughes de Payens. To die in battle washed away all sin, and they were exonerated from any sin in killing their enemy to gain The Holy Land for Christianity. 

While winning battles, the Crusader monks, that included the Templars, were very popular, but when they began to lose battles, they fell out of favour. Fewer joined, fewer made pilgrimage, fewer supported the cathedrals and the Church in general. 

In 1187 Jerusalem was lost and they relocated to Acre. Richard the Lionheart mounted a crusade that resulted in failure and his capture as a hostage. The Fall of Acre was in 1291 and the knights retreated to Cyprus where the Hospitallers were also situated. The original reason for the Templars ended in failure. Jacques de Molay travelled to Paris in 1307 to resist amalgamation with the older Hospitallers Order and to attempt to raise an initiative to regain Temple Mount. 

In Spain and Portugal, the Iberian peninsula was under threat of Moslem rule and these countries remained loyal to the Templars for their protection and support and after the dissolution of the Order by King Philip IV the Fair of France in 1312, King Jaime II of Aragon founded the Order of Montesa, and King Dinaz of Portugal founded the Order of Christ to protect Templar property and many knights, sergeants, squires and servants were transferred. 

Templars were not priests who were initiated into the priesthood by a long seminary period of literacy, knowledge of the scriptures and prayers, the ability to forgive sin, etc. Templars had already received baptism into the Roman Catholic Church, and Confirmation, so needed no further ceremonial rites, either as a knight or as a Templar. However, their vow of commitment was sufficient. 

The Vatican archives hold top secret letters dated 1146 between the pope and emperor of Byzantium regarding the protection of Crusaders. 

* Bernard of Clairvaux was born in 1090 into an aristocratic family of Fontaines les Dijons in Champagne. The Count of Champagne had fought in the Holy Land and in 1120 became a full member of the Templars, leaving his lands in the supervision of his nephew Thibault. Bernard was the nephew of Andrew of Montbard. 

Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk