Knights Templar

The Order of the Temple is a religious and military order descended from the Christian chivalry of the Middle Ages, whose members are called the Knights Templar or Templars.

This order was created on the occasion of the Council of Troyes (opened onJanuary 13, 1129), from a militia called the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (from the name of the temple of Solomon, which the crusaders had assimilated to the al-Aqsa mosque, built on the remains of this temple). He worked during the xii and xiii centuries to the accompaniment and protection of pilgrims to Jerusalem, in the context of the holy war and the crusades. He actively participated in the battles that took place during the Crusades and the Iberian Reconquest. In order to carry out its missions and, in particular, to ensure its financing, it constituted through Catholic Western Europe and from land donations, a network of monasteries called commanderies, provided with numerous privileges, in particular fiscal ones. This sustained activity made the Order a privileged financial interlocutor of the powers of the time, even leading it to carry out non-profit transactions with certain kings, or to have custody of royal treasures.

After the definitive loss of the Holy Land following the siege of Saint-Jean-d'Acre in 1291, the Order was, in France, a victim of the struggle between the Avignon papacy and the King of France Philippe le Bel. It was dissolved by the French Pope Clement V , first of the seven Avignon popes, onMarch 22, 1312, when Clement V fulminated the bull Vox in excelso , formalizing the dissolution of the Order of the Temple, following a trial for heresy. The tragic end of the Order in France feeds many speculations and legends on its account. Elsewhere, Knights Templar were generally not condemned, but transferred (along with their property) to other orders of pontifical right, or else rejoined civilian life.

Birth of the Order of the Temple

Religious and politico-military context

In the 11th and 12th  centuries, the revival of Christian monasticism saw the founding of numerous religious orders, in particular the lay brothers who favored manual work, and the renewal of canonical life which adopted the rule of Saint Augustine, the canons (order of Saint- Lazarus of Jerusalem) or monks (Order of St. John of Jerusalem) engaging in hospital activities or parish life. It is in this religious context that the Catholic Church encouraged the knights of the century to become milites Christi , in other words "knights of Christ" wishing to fight the infidels in the Holy Land.

Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade onNovember 27, 1095, tenth day of the Council of Clermont. The Pope's motivation to see such a military expedition take shape came from the fact that Christian pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem were regularly victims of abuses and even assassinations .

The Pope therefore asked the Catholic people of the West to take up arms in order to come to the aid of the pilgrims and the Christians of the East. This crusade then had as a rallying cry "God wills it!" », and all those who took part in the crusade were marked by the sign of the cross, thus becoming the crusaders (term which only appears at the Council of Lateran IV in 1215: see the vocabulary of the crusades and the Reconquista) . This action results inJuly 15, 1099the capture of Jerusalem by the Christian troops of Godefroy de Bouillon.

Hugues de Payns, future founder and first master of the Order of the Temple, first came to the Holy Land in 1104 to accompany Count Hugues de Champagne, then on pilgrimage . They returned from there in 1107 then left there again in 1114, putting themselves then under the protection and the authority of the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, with their knights who then worked to defend the possessions of these canons and to protect the tomb of Christ. .

Firstfruits of the Order of the Temple

After the capture of Jerusalem, Godefroy de Bouillon was appointed King of Jerusalem by his peers, a title he refused, preferring to wear that of attorney of the Holy Sepulchre. He set up the regular canonical order of the Holy Sepulchre, whose mission was to help the Patriarch of Jerusalem in his various tasks. A certain number of men-at-arms, from the crusade, then put themselves at the service of the patriarch in order to protect the Holy Sepulchre.

A similar institution, consisting of knights called Knights of St. Peter ( milites sancti Petri ), had been created in the West to protect the property of abbeys and churches. These knights were lay people, but they benefited from the benefits of prayers. By analogy, the men in charge of ensuring the protection of the goods of the Holy Sepulcher as well as of the community of canons were called milites sancti Sepulcri (knights of the Holy Sepulchre). It is very likely that Hugues de Payns joined this institution as early as 1115 . All the men responsible for the protection of the Holy Sepulcher lodged with the Hospitallers at the Saint John of Jerusalem Hospital, located nearby.

When the order of the Hospital, recognized in 1113, was charged with taking care of pilgrims coming from the West, an idea was born: to create a militia of Christ ( militia Christi ) which would deal only with the protection of the community of canons of the Holy Sepulcher and pilgrims on the roads of the Holy Land, then prey to local brigands. Thus, the canons would take care of liturgical affairs, the order of the Hospital of the charitable functions and the militia of Christ of the purely military function. This ternary distribution of tasks reproduced the organization of medieval society, composed of priests and monks ( oratores , literally those who pray),

This is how the Order of the Temple, which at that time was called militia Christi , came into being, with the ambiguity that this monastic community united from the start of the oratores and the bellatores .

Foundation of the Order of the Temple

It's theJanuary 23, 1120, during the Council of Nablus, which was born, under the impulse of Hugues de Payns and Godefroy de Saint-Omer, the militia of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (in Latin: pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici ): its mission was to secure the journey of pilgrims arriving from the West since the reconquest of Jerusalem, and to defend the Latin States of the East.

At first, Payns and Saint-Omer concentrated on the defile of Athlit, a particularly dangerous place on the route taken by the pilgrims; Subsequently, one of the largest Templar strongholds in the Holy Land was built here: the Château Pèlerin.

The new order thus created could only survive with the support of influential people. Hugues de Payns succeeded in convincing King Baldwin II of Jerusalem of the usefulness of such a militia, something quite easy given the insecurity reigning in the region at that time. The knights took the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They received from Patriarch Gormond de Picquigny the mission of "guarding ways and paths against brigands, for the salvation of pilgrims" ("  ut vias et itinera, ad salutem peregrinorum contra latrones  " ) for the remission of their sins, a mission considered as a usual fourth vow for military religious orders.

King Baudouin  II granted them a part of his palace in Jerusalem which today corresponds to the al-Aqsa mosque, but which was called at the time "Solomon's temple", because being, according to Jewish tradition, located at the Location of Solomon's Temple. It is this "temple of Solomon", in which they set up their quarters (in particular the former stables of the Temple), which subsequently gave the name of Templars or Knights Templar . Hugues de Payns and Godefroy de Saint-Omer were not the only knights to have been part of the militia before it became the Order of the Temple. Here is the list of these knights, precursors or "founders" of the order  :

• Hugues de Payns, originally from Payns in Champagne;
• Godefroy de Saint-Omer, originally from Saint-Omer in the county of Flanders;
• André de Montbard, originally from Burgundy, uncle of Bernard de Clairvaux;
• Payen de Montdidier, originally from the Somme in Picardy;
• Geoffroy Bisol, (who is said to be from Frameries in the county of Hainaut; assertion contradicted by a Charter signed in 1119, by his brother Petrus Bisol and preserved in the Cartulary of Chartres )
• Rolland, originally from the Marquisate of Provence;
• Archambault of Saint-Amand;
• Arnaldo  (pt)  ;
• Gondemare  (pt) .

The first gift (of thirty Angevin pounds) received by the Order of the Temple came from Foulque, Count of Anjou, who later became King of Jerusalem.

Search for support

The notoriety of the militia did not manage to extend beyond the Holy Land, which is why Hugues de Payns, accompanied by five other knights (Godefroy de Saint-Omer, Payen de Montdidier, Geoffroy Bisol, Archambault de Saint -Amand and Rolland), embarked for the West in 1127 to carry a message intended for Pope Honorius II and Bernard of Clairvaux.

With the support of King Baudouin and the instructions of Patriarch Gormond of Jerusalem, Hugues de Payns had the following three objectives  :

• to have the militia recognized by the Church and to give it a rule: attached to the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, the knights followed like them the rule of Saint Augustine;
• to give legitimacy to the actions of the militia since the denomination of monk-soldier, an amalgam of an absolute novelty, could be in contradiction with the rules of the Church and of society in general;
• recruit new knights and obtain donations that would sustain the militia in the Holy Land.

The western tour of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon began in Anjou and then passed through Poitou, Normandy, England where they received many donations, Flanders and finally Champagne.

This move by Hugues de Payns, accompanied by these five knights and supported by the King of Jerusalem, followed two unsuccessful attempts that had been made by André de Montbard and Gondemare, probably in 1120 and 1125 .

Council of Troyes

Arriving at the end of his tour in the West and after having carried the message of the king of Jerusalem to Bernard of Clairvaux so that he would help the Templars to obtain the agreement and the support of the pope, Hugues de Payns took part in the council of Troyes ( so named because it took place in the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul in Troyes).

theJanuary 13, 1129, the council opened in the presence of many religious personalities whose names are given in the prologue to the primitive rule of the Temple  : Cardinal Mathieu d'Albano, papal legate in France, the archbishops of Reims and Sens, as well as ten of their suffragan bishops, four Cistercian abbots (those of Cîteaux, Clairvaux, Pontigny and Troisfontaines), two Cluniac abbots (those of Molesmes and Vézelay), two canons, two masters and a secretary.

In addition to the religious, there were secular characters: Thibaut IV of Blois, count of Champagne, André de Baudement, seneschal of the county of Champagne, Guillaume II , count of Nevers, Auxerre and Tonnerre.

The council led to the foundation of the Order of the Temple and endowed it with its own rule. This was based on the rule of Saint Benedict (presence of the Cistercians Bernard of Clairvaux and Etienne Harding, founder of Cîteaux) with nevertheless some borrowings from the rule of Saint Augustine, which the Holy Sepulcher followed alongside which the first Templars lived. . Once the rule was adopted, it still had to be submitted to Etienne de Chartres, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Praise of the new militia

The Praise of the New Militia ( De laude novæ militiæ ) is a letter that Saint Bernard of Clairvaux sent to Hugh of Payns, whose full title was Liber ad milites Templi de laude novæ militiæ and written after the defeat of the Frankish army at the siege of Damascus in 1129.

Bernard underlines the originality of the new order: the same man devotes himself as much to the spiritual combat as to the combats in the world.

“It is not rare enough to see men fight a bodily enemy with bodily strength alone for me to be surprised; on the other hand, to wage war against vice and the demon with the only forces of the soul, it is not something as extraordinary as laudable either, the world is full of monks who deliver these fights; but what, for me, is as admirable as it is obviously rare, is to see the two things united. ( §  1 )”

Moreover, this text contained an important passage where Saint Bernard explained why the Templars had the right to kill a human being:

“The knight of Christ gives death in complete security and receives it in still greater security. […] So when he kills a malefactor, he is not a homicide but Malicide. […] The death he gives is the profit of Jesus Christ, and that which he receives, his own . »

But for that, the war had to be “just”. This is the subject of §  2 of The Praise of the New Militia . Bernard is aware of the difficulty of such a concept in practice, because if the war is not just, wanting to kill kills the soul of the assassin:

“Every time you march towards the enemy, you who fight in the ranks of the secular militia, you have to fear killing your soul with the same blow with which you kill your adversary, or receiving it from his hand. , in body and soul at the same time. […] victory cannot be good when the cause of the war is not good and the intention of those who wage it is not right. ( §  2 )”

Bernard therefore praises the New Militia well, but not without nuances and precautions… All his §  7 & 8 (in chap.  IV ) trace a deliberately ideal portrait of the soldier of Christ, in order to give him as a model who will always be to be achieved. The first to criticize Saint Bernard is the Cistercian monk Isaac de Stella who sees in the confusion of Indo-European tripartite functions (“those who pray” ( oratores ), “those who fight” ( bellatores ) and “those who work” ( laboratores )) a "monstrosity  " , but the opponents remain in the minority .

This praise allowed the Templars to meet with great fervor and general recognition: thanks to Saint Bernard, the Order of the Temple experienced a significant increase: a good number of knights committed themselves for the salvation of their souls or, quite simply, to lend strong hand by making a name for themselves on the battlefields.

Papal recognition

Several papal bulls formalized the status of the Order of the Temple.

The Bull Omne datum optimum was issued by Pope Innocent II onMarch 29, 1139under the control of Robert de Craon, second Master of the Order of the Temple. It was of capital importance for the Order since it was the basis of all the privileges enjoyed by the Templars. Indeed, thanks to her, the brothers of the Temple had the right to benefit from apostolic protection and to have their own priests.

We therefore saw a new category emerge in the community, that of the brother chaplains who would officiate for the Templars. Moreover, this bull confirmed the fact that the order of the Temple was subject only to the authority of the pope. The bull also created competition for the secular clergy (which the latter often saw unfavorably). Many conflicts of interest broke out between the Templars and the bishops or the priests.

The privileges it granted being often called into question, the bull Omne datum optimum was confirmed twelve times between 1154 and 1194, and it is for this reason that it was not easy to find the original .

The Bull Milites Templi ( Knights of the Temple ) was published onJanuary 9, 1144by Pope Celestine II . It allowed the chaplains of the Temple to pronounce the office once a year in prohibited regions or cities, "for the honor and reverence of their chivalry", without authorizing the presence of excommunicated persons in the church. But this is really only a confirmation of the Omne datum optimum bubble .

The Bull Militia Dei ( Chivalry of God ) was issued by Pope Eugene III , theApril 7, 1145. This bubble allowed the Templars to build their own oratories, but also to have complete independence vis-à-vis the secular clergy thanks to the right to collect tithes and bury their dead in their own cemeteries. In addition, the apostolic protection was extended to those familiar with the Temple (their peasants, herds, property, etc.).

Complaints were lodged by the Templars with the pope concerning the fact that the clergy took a third of the bequest made by people wishing to be buried in the cemeteries of the Order. The bull Dilecti filii accordingly ordered the clergy to be content with only a quarter of the legacies .

Organization and mission of the order

Rules and statutes

After the Council of Troyes, where the idea of ​​a rule specific to the order of the Temple was accepted, the task of writing it was entrusted to Bernard of Clairvaux, who himself had it written by a cleric who was surely part of the entourage of the papal legate present at the council, Jean Michel (Jehan Michiel) , on proposals made by Hugues de Payns.

The rule of the Order of the Temple made some borrowings from the rule of Saint Augustine but was mainly inspired by the rule of Saint Benedict followed by the Benedictine monks. However, it was adapted to the kind of active life, mainly military, led by the Templar brothers. For example, the fasts were less severe than for the Benedictine monks, so as not to weaken the Templars called upon to fight. Moreover, the rule was adapted to the bipolarity of the order, thus certain articles concerned both life in the West (convent) and life in the East (military).

The primitive rule (or Latin because written in Latin), written in 1128, was appended to the minutes of the Council of Troyes in 1129 and contained seventy-two articles. However, around 1138, under the mastery of Robert de Craon, second master of the order (1136-1149), the original rule was translated into French and modified. Subsequently, at different dates, the rule was expanded by the addition of six hundred and nine withdrawals or statutory articles, in particular concerning the hierarchy and justice within the Order.

Neither at its foundation nor at any time in its existence did the Order adopt a motto.

Receipt in order

The commanderies had, among other things, the role of permanently recruiting the brothers. This recruitment had to be as broad as possible. Thus, lay men of the nobility and the free peasantry could claim to be received if they met the criteria required by the Order.

First of all, entry into the Order was free and voluntary. The candidate could be poor. Above all, he gave of himself. It was necessary that he be motivated because there was no trial period in the novitiate. Entry was direct (pronunciation of vows) and final (for life).

The main criteria were:

• be over 18 (the age of majority for boys was set at 16) (article 58 of the rule);
• not be engaged (article 669);
• not be part of another order (article 670);
• not be in debt (article 671);
• be in perfect mental and physical health (not be crippled) (article 672);
• not having bribed anyone to be received into the Order (article 673);
• to be a free man ( the serf of no man ) (article 673):
• not to be excommunicated (article 674).

The candidate was warned that in the event of a proven lie, he would be immediately fired:

"...if you lie about it, you would be perjured by it and might lose the house, which God forbid you from." »

— (excerpt from article 668)

Territorial organization

Possessions of the Templar order in Europe around 1300.

Like any religious order, the Templars were endowed with their own rule and this rule evolved in the form of withdrawals (statutory articles) on the occasion of general chapters . It is article 87 of the withdrawals from the rule which indicates to us the initial territorial distribution of the provinces. The master of the order designated a commander for the following provinces  :

• Western Provinces, with the provinces of:
  • Germany, formed in the 13th  century, divided into bailiwicks of:
    • Bohemia, Moravia and Austria
    • Brabant and Hesbaye
    • Lorraine
    • Poland, Pomerania and New March
  • England, divided into bailiwicks of:
    • Scotland
    • Ireland
  • Aquitaine
    • Brittany
    • Perigord
  • Auvergne
  • Castile and Leon
  • France
  • Hungary
  • Italy
  • Portugal
  • Provence and part of Spain, divided in 1239 into:
    • Aragon and Catalonia
    • Provence
  • Sicily

• Provinces of the East, of which only the province of Cyprus remains after the capture of Saint-Jean d'Acre in 1291.

Hierarchy

The Templars were organized as a monastic order, following the rule created for them by Bernard of Clairvaux. In each country a master was appointed who directed all the commanderies and dependencies and all were subjects of the master of the Order, appointed for life, who supervised both the military efforts of the Order in the East and its financial possessions in West.

With the great demand for knights, some among them also pledged themselves to command for a predetermined period before being returned to secular life, such as the Fratres conjugati , who were married brothers. They wore the black or brown coat with the red cross to distinguish them from the brothers who had chosen celibacy and who did not have the same status as the latter.

The serving brothers (brothers casaliers and brothers of trades) were chosen among the sergeants who were skilled merchants or otherwise unable to fight because of their age or infirmity.

At any one time, each knight had around ten people in support positions. Only a few brothers devoted themselves to banking (especially those who were educated), as the Order often had the confidence of participants in the crusades for the safekeeping of precious goods. However, the primary mission of the Knights Templar remained the military protection of pilgrims to the Holy Land.

Masters of the Order of the Temple

The expression "grand master" to designate the supreme head of the Order appeared at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th  century in late charters and in the acts of the trial of the Templars. Then, it was taken up and popularized by certain historians of the 19th and 20th  centuries. It is now widespread.

However, this rank did not exist in the Order and the Templars themselves did not seem to use it . However, in late texts appear the qualifiers of “sovereign master” or “master general” of the Order. In the rule and withdrawals of the Order, he is called Li Maistreand a large number of dignitaries of the hierarchy could be called thus without the addition of a particular qualifier. The preceptors of the commanderies could be designated in the same way. We must therefore refer to the context of the manuscript to know who we are talking about. In the West as in the East, high dignitaries were called masters of countries or provinces: there was therefore a master in France, a master in England, a master in Spain, etc. No confusion was possible since the Order was directed by only one master at a time, this one residing in Jerusalem. To designate the supreme head of the Order, it is appropriate to say simply the master of the Order and not grand master.

During its period of existence, spanning from 1129 to 1312 , when Pope Clement V fulminated the bull Vox in excelso , formalizing the dissolution of the Order of the Temple, i.e. 183 years, the Order of the Temple was led by twenty-three masters.

Pope's Cubicles

The term cubicular ( cubicularius ) designated in the Middle Ages the one who was also called the "chamberer", that is to say the person in charge of the bedroom ( cubiculum ) of the pope. He should not be confused with the camerlengo ( camerius ), who at the time had the direction of the finances and temporal resources of the papacy. These functions, which were originally distinct, were grouped together at the beginning of the Modern Age under the term cubicular, before being divided again into several categories of cameramen.

The cubicularii , at first mere servants of the pope, also had ceremonial functions, stewardship and close personal guard. They enjoyed increasingly important functions over the centuries.

The first knights of the order of the Temple to occupy this function are mentioned by Malcolm Barber near the pope Alexandre III , without their name being quoted however .

It is especially from the middle of the 13th  century that the Templars will succeed one another in this function, for some several times, like Giacomo de Pocapalea, or Hugues de Vercelli, and sometimes in duplicate as under Benedict XI . The last cubicular Templars of Clement V were Giacomo da Montecucco, master of the province of Lombardy, arrested and then imprisoned in Poitiers in 1307 , from where he escaped inFebruary 1308, to take refuge in the North of Italy , and finally, Olivier de Penne from 1307 to 1308, also arrested and sometimes confused with Giacomo da Montecucco by certain historians . We find the latter became hospital commander of La Capelle-Livron after the dissolution of the order.

Pope	Name of Cubicularii	Further information	Pope	Name of Cubicularii	Further information
Alexander III (1159-1181)	??	Knights of the Order of the Temple	Nicholas III (1277-1280)	Hugh of Verceil (Uguccione di Vercelli, 1278-1282) , Giacomo de Pocapalea (or Jacques (fr) , Jacobo or sometimes Jacopo (la) , 1277-1280)	both knights of the Order of the Temple Giacomo of Pocapalea being from Pocapaglia in Piedmont
Innocent III (1198-1216)	Francone	Knight of the Order of the Temple	Martin IV (1281-1285)	Giacomo of Pocapalea (1282)
Gregory IX (1227-1241)	Bonvicino ( c. 1240)	Knight of the Order of the Temple	Honorius IV (1285-1287)	Renaud d'Angerville/d'Argéville ( c. 1285/86)	Still alive in 1301
Innocent IV (1243-1254)	Bonvicino	Administrator of the goods of the Church of Rome in Tuscany and Ancona. Participated in the first Council of Lyon (1245)	Nicholas IV (1288-1292)	Giacomo de Pocapalea (1288-1289) , Brother Nicolas, cubicular and notary (1290-1292)	both knights of the Order of the Temple Giacomo de Pocapalea receives as a reward a fief and a castle in Orte
Alexander IV (1254-1261)	Bonvicino	† 1262	Boniface VIII (1294-1303)	Juan Fernandez (1296) , Giacomo de Pocapalea (1294-1297) , Giovanni Fernandi (1297-1300) , Hugh of Vercelli (1300-1302)	Knights of the Order of the Temple, Juan Fernandez, present at the general chapter of the order in Arles in 1296 Hugues de Verceil being also master of the province of Lombardy Giacomo de Pocapalea receives Acquapendente in 1297 .
Urban IV (1261-1264)	Nicola, Paolo, Martino	Knights of the Order of the Temple	Benedict XI (1303-1304) then Clement V (1305-1314)	in 1303: there were two cubicularii  : a Hospitaller and a Templar (Giacomo de Pocapalea?) , Giacomo da Montecucco (or Jacopo da Montecucco ) from 1304 to 1307	+   Giacomo da Montecucco, Master of the Province of Lombardy
Clement IV (1265-1268)	bernardo	Knight of the Order of the Temple	Clement V (1305-1314)	Oliver de Penne ( Oliverius de Penna , 1307-1308)  ?	Olivier de Penne then became hospital commander of La Capelle-Livron.

Protection of pilgrims and custody of relics

The vocation of the Order of the Temple was the protection of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. This pilgrimage was one of the three most important in medieval Christianity. It lasted several years and the pilgrims had to travel almost twelve thousand kilometers round trip on foot, as well as by boat to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The convoys left twice a year, in spring and autumn. Generally, the pilgrims were disembarked at Acre, also called Saint-Jean-d'Acre, then had to walk to the holy places. As gens d'armes (gendarme), the Templars secured the roads, in particular that from Jaffa to Jerusalem and that from Jerusalem to the Jordan. They also had custody of certain holy places: Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Mount of Olives, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Jordan, the hill of Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

All pilgrims were entitled to the protection of the Templars. Thus, the latter participated in the crusades, armed pilgrimages, to carry out the close guard of the sovereigns of the West. Also, in 1147, the Templars lent a hand to the army of King Louis VIIattacked in the mountains of Asia Minor during the second crusade (1147-1149). This action allowed the continuation of the expedition and the King of France was very grateful to them. During the Third Crusade (1189-1192), the Templars and the Hospitallers provided the vanguard and rearguard respectively of the army of Richard the Lionheart in the fighting on the march. During the fifth crusade, the participation of the military orders, and therefore the Templars, was decisive in the protection of the royal armies of Saint Louis before Damietta.

The Order of the Temple exceptionally helped kings in financial difficulties. On several occasions in the history of the Crusades, the Templars replenished the momentarily empty royal coffers ( Louis VII 's crusade ), or paid the ransoms of kings taken prisoner (Saint Louis's crusade).

In the East as in the West, the order of the Temple was in possession of relics. He was sometimes brought to transport them for his own account or conveyed relics for others. The Templar chapels housed the relics of the saints to whom they were dedicated. Among the most important relics of the order were the mantle of Saint Bernard, pieces of the crown of thorns, fragments of the True Cross.

Templar seals

The word seal comes from the Latin sigillum meaning mark. It is a personal stamp that authenticates an act and certifies a signature. There are about twenty known Templar seals. They belonged to masters, high dignitaries, commanders or knights of the order in the 13th  century. Their diameters vary between fifteen and fifty millimetres. The French Templar seals are kept in the service of the seals of the National Archives of France. The best-known Templar seal is that of the masters of the order sigilum militum xristi which depicts two armed knights riding the same horse.

There is no established consensus on the symbolism of two knights on one horse. Contrary to an idea often repeated, it would not be a question of putting forward the ideal of poverty since the order provided at least three horses to each of its knights. The historian Georges Bordonove expresses a hypothesis which can take advantage of a period document with Saint Bernard in his De laude novæ militiæ .

“Their greatness is undoubtedly due to this quasi-institutional duality: monk, but soldier […] A duality expressed perhaps by their best-known seal, which shows two knights, helmets on their heads, lances lowered, on the same horse: the spiritual and the temporal […] riding the same mount, fighting basically the same fight, but with different means” .

Alain Demurger explains for his part that certain historians believed to recognize there the two founders of the order, Hughes de Payns and Godefroy de Saint-Omer. He retains, however, another explanation: the seal would symbolize the common life, the union and the devotion .

Chapter outfits

A chapter (Latin: capitulum , diminutive of caput , first meaning: "head") is a part of a book which gave its name to the meeting of religious in a monastery during which passages of sacred texts were read as well as articles of the rule. The custom comes from the rule of Saint Benedict which required the frequent reading of a passage of the rule to the whole community gathered (RB §  66, 8). By extension, the community of a monastery is called the chapter. The room specifically built to receive chapter meetings is also called “chapter room”, “chapter room”, or simply “chapter”. The meeting takes place behind closed doors and it is strictly forbidden for participants to repeat or comment outside what was said during the chapter.

In the order of the Temple, there were two types of chapter meeting: the general chapter and the weekly chapter.

Maritime transport

The link between East and West was essentially maritime. For the Templars, the expression "overseas" meant Europe while "below the seas" and more precisely the Mediterranean Sea, represented the East. In order to ensure the transport of goods, arms, brothers of the Order, pilgrims and horses, the Order of the Temple had its own boats built. It was not a large fleet, comparable to those of the 14th and 15th  centuries, but a few ships which left from the ports of Marseilles, Nice (county of Nice), Saint-Raphaël, Collioure or Aigues-Mortes in France and other Italian ports. These boats went to the eastern ports after many stopovers.

Rather than finance the maintenance of ships, the Order practiced the rental of commercial boats called “charters”. Conversely, the rental of Templar naves to Western merchants was practiced. It was also financially more advantageous to access ports exempt from taxes on goods than to own boats. The commanderies located in the ports therefore played an important role in the commercial activities of the Order. Templar establishments were installed in Genoa, Pisa or Venice, but it was in the South of Italy, more particularly in Brindisi, that the Mediterranean Templar naves spent the winter.

The Templars of England were supplied with Poitou wine from the port of La Rochelle.

There were two kinds of boats, the galleys, and the naves. Some wide naves were nicknamed ushers because they had rear or side doors (huis), which allowed up to a hundred horses to be carried, suspended by straps to ensure the stability of the whole during the trip .

Article 119 of the withdrawals of the Rule indicates that “all the sea vessels which are of the house of Acre are under the command of the commander of the land. And the commander of the vault of Acre, and all the brothers who are under his orders are in his command and all the things that the ships bring must be returned to the commander of the earth. »

The port of Acre was the most important of the Order. The Vault of Acre was the name of one of the establishments owned by the Templars in the city, this one being near the port. Between rue des Pisans and rue Sainte-Anne, the vault of Acre included a keep and conventual buildings .

Here are the names of the Temple ships  :

• The Templer, the Buscart, the Buszarde du Temple around 1230 linking England to the continent;
• The Good Adventure in 1248, the Rose of the Temple in 1288-1290 in Marseilles;
• Angellica in southern Italy;
• The Falcon in 1291 and 1301 as well as La Santa Anna in 1302 in Cyprus.

Templars

Men of all origins and all conditions constituted the body of the Templar people at each level of the hierarchy. Different texts today make it possible to determine the appearance of brother knights and sergeants.

Habit

Recognition of the Order of the Temple did not only pass through the development of a rule and a name, but also through the attribution of a particular dress code specific to the Order of the Temple.

The coat of the Templars referred to that of the Cistercian monks.

Only the knights, brothers from the nobility, had the right to wear the white coat, a symbol of purity of body and chastity. The sergeant brothers, from the peasantry, wore a homespun coat, without this having a negative connotation. It was the Order that gave the habit back and it was also the Order that had the power to take it back. The coat belonged to him, and in the spirit of the rule, the coat should not be an object of vanity. It is said there that if a brother asked for a more beautiful habit, he was to be given the "vilest".

The loss of the habit was pronounced by the justice of the chapter for the brothers who had seriously infringed the regulations. It signified a temporary or permanent dismissal from the Order.

In his bull Vox in excelso for the abolition of the Order of the Temple, Pope Clement V indicated that he was suppressing "the said Order of the Temple and its state, its habit and its name" , which clearly shows the importance that the habit had in the existence of the Order.

Red Cross

Templar iconography presented it simple Greek, anchored, flowered or patted. Whatever its form, it indicated the membership of the Templars to Christianity and the red color recalled the blood shed by Christ. This cross also expressed the permanent vow of crusade in which the Templars pledged to participate at all times. However, it should be noted that not all the Templars took part in a crusade. There were many kinds of crosses for the Templars. It seems that the red cross pattée was granted only late to the Templars, in 1147, by Pope Eugene III . He would have given the right to wear it on the left shoulder, on the side of the heart. The rule of the Order and its withdrawals did not refer to this cross. However,Omne datum optimum named it twice. It is therefore permissible to say that the Templars already wore the red cross in 1139 . It was therefore under the control of Robert de Craon, second master of the order, that the "cross of gules" officially became a Templar insignia. It is very likely that the cross of the Templars was derived from the cross of the order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of which Hugues de Payns and his comrades in arms had belonged.

Templar face

In his homily (1130-1136), called De laude novæ militiæ ( Praise of the new militia ), Bernard of Clairvaux presents a physical and especially moral portrait of the Templars, which was opposed to that of the knights of the century:

“They cut their hair short, knowing from the Apostle that it is a disgrace for a man to take care of his hairstyle. You never see them combed, rarely washed, their beards shaggy, reeking of dust, stained by harnesses and by the heat…”

Although contemporary with the Templars, this description was more allegorical than realistic, Saint Bernard never having visited the East. Moreover, the Templar iconography is thin. In the rare paintings representing them at their time, their faces, covered with a helmet, a gossan or a camail, are not visible or appear only partially.

In article 28, the Latin rule specified that "the brothers must have their hair shaved" , this for both practical and hygienic reasons of which Saint Bernard did not speak, but above all "in order to consider themselves as recognizing the rule permanently” . Moreover, “in order to respect the rule without deviating, they must have no impropriety in the wearing of beards and mustaches. The chaplain brothers were tonsured and shaved. Many miniatures, which represent Templars at the stake, are neither contemporary nor realistic. By this time, some had even shaved to show their disengagement from the Order.

Finally, the official painters of the 19th  century imagined the Templars in their own way, mixing idealism and romanticism, with long hair and large beards.

Everyday life

“because of our life you only see the bark that is outside. Because the bark is such that you see us having beautiful horses and beautiful dresses, and so it seems to you that you will be at your ease. But you don't know the strong commandments that are within. For it is a great thing that you, who are lord of yourself, should become a serf of others. »

— Extract from article 661 of the rule.

The rule of the Order and its withdrawals inform us in a precise way about what was the daily life of the Templars in the West as in the East.

This life was divided between times of prayer, collective life (meals, meetings), military training, support and protection of pilgrims, management of household goods, trade, collection of taxes and levies. due to the Order, the control of the work of the peasants on the lands of the Order, diplomacy, war and the fight against the infidels.

Templars and war

Horse

An order of chivalry does not go without a horse. Thus, the history of the Order of the Temple was intimately linked to this animal. To begin with, a noble who was received into the Order could donate his destrier, a fighting horse that the squires held dexter, that is to say with the right hand (thus on the left). After 1140, there were many donors from the great nobility bequeathing weapons and horses to the Templars.

To equip its army, the Order of the Temple provided three horses to each of its knights, the upkeep of which was provided by a squire (articles 30 & 31 of the rule). The rule specifies that the brothers could have more than three horses, when the master authorized them. This measure was probably intended to prevent the loss of the horses, so that the brothers always had three horses at their disposal.

These horses had to be harnessed in the simplest way expressing the vow of poverty. According to the rule (article 37) “We totally forbid that the brothers have gold and silver on their bridles, their stirrups and their spurs” . Among these horses was a steed that was trained in combat and reserved for war. The other horses were sommeliers or beasts of burden of the Comtoise or Percheron breed. They could also be mules called "mulaceous beasts". They ensured the transport of the knight and the equipment. There was also the palfrey, more especially used for long journeys.

According to the withdrawals, the hierarchy of the Order was expressed through the regulatory attribution of mounts. The withdrawals begin thus: “The master must have four beasts…” indicating the importance of the subject. Moreover, the first three articles of the master of the Order (articles 77, 78 and 79) related to his entourage and the care of horses. We thus learn that the horses were fed in measures of barley (expensive cereal and giving much more energy to the horses than the simple ration of hay) and that a farrier was in the entourage of the master.

Among the master's horses was a Turcoman, a thoroughbred Arab who was an elite war horse and of great value because it was very fast.

Four horses were provided to all high dignitaries: seneschal, marshal, commander of the land and kingdom of Jerusalem, commander of the city of Jerusalem, commanders of Tripoli and Antioch, draper, commanders of houses (commanders), turcopolier. Sergeant brothers such as the sub-marshal, the gonfanonier, the cook, the farrier and the commander of the port of Acre were entitled to two horses. The other sergeant brothers only had one mount. The Turcopoles, Arab soldiers in the service of the Order of the Temple, had to provide their own horses.

It was the Marshal of the Order who saw to the maintenance of all the horses and the equipment, arms, armor and bridles, without which war was not possible. He was responsible for the purchase of horses (article 103) and he had to ensure their perfect quality. A wayward horse had to be shown to him (article 154) before being removed from service.

The steeds were equipped with a “croce” saddle (with a butt), also called saddle with saddle, which was a rising saddle for the war and which made it possible to maintain the rider during the charge. The commanderies of the South of France, but also those of Castile, Aragon and Gascony, were specialized in the breeding of horses . These were then transported to the Latin States of the East by sea. For this, they were transported in the holds of the Templar ships and delivered to the caravan of the Marshal of the Order who supervised the distribution of animals as needed. When a Templar died or was sent to another state, his horses reverted to the Constabulary (Article 107).

Rare are the representations of the Templars. However, a wall painting of a Knight of the Temple charging on his steed has come down to us. This is a fresco from the chapel of Cressac in Charente, dating from 1170 or 1180.

Military equipment

The nobleman of the 12th  –  13th  centuries had to have complete equipment (clothing and weapons) made to be dubbed a knight. This equipment, essentially requiring metals, was worth a large sum which could involve taking out credit or benefiting from a loan. Templar knights and sergeants had to have such equipment.

The protection of the body was ensured by a shield, a hauberk (chainmail) as well as a helmet or an iron hat.

• The shield (or shield) of triangular shape, point down, was made of wood and covered with a sheet of metal or leather. It was used to protect the body, but its size was reduced in the course of the 12th  century to be lighter and therefore more manageable.
• The coat of mail was made up of thousands of iron rings a few millimeters in diameter, intertwined and riveted. This coat was made up of four parts:
  • The mail breeches attached to the belt by leather straps.
  • The hauberk protected the body and arms. It should be noted that the hauberk was shortened at the knee during the 13th  century to be lighter, after which it was called "haubergeon". It was distinguished by short sleeves and the absence of integral head protection.
  • The camail or chainmail headdress. A "mortar" or quilted fabric cap was placed on the head to support the camail as well as the helmet.
  • The hands were protected by chainmail gloves called weapon gloves (section 325 of the rule).
• The helmet was then an iron cap possibly including a fixed face protection. The iron hat owed its name to its shape very close to the wide-brimmed straw hat that does not protect the face. Later, the "helm" appeared. It covered the whole head down to the bottom of the neck.

The undergarment consisted of a linen shirt and breeches. The protection of the body was reinforced by the wearing of stockings possibly quilted in fabric or leather and attached by straps, as well as by a "gambeson" or "gambeson" in quilted fabric and covered with silk. Finally, the overcoat, worn over the coat, is also called weapon petticoat, coat of arms or "tabard". It was sewn with a red cross, insignia of the order, in front as well as behind. It made it possible to recognize the Templar fighters on the battlefield as in any place. The baldric, worn around the loins, was a special belt that allowed the sword to be hung and the overcoat to be kept close to the body.

According to the rule (see among others the works of Georges Bordonove), the Templar received as armament a sword, a spear, a mace and three knives when he was received into the Order .

The swords followed Western fashions of the time. They were therefore with straight double-edged blades, wielded with one hand at the creation of the Order since the models wielded with two hands will only appear later (at the very end of the 12th  century). The spear is a horseman's weapon, intended to charge "with the spear lying down" on the enemy. The mace consists of a short shaft (depending on the model, from 40 to 80  cm ) and a head made of iron or entirely made of iron with any protuberances. The sword was accompanied, according to the fashion of the time, by a knife which was aesthetically matched to it by 30 to 40  cmin total length. The other two knives were tools for general use, used for small jobs, for the maintenance of the body, the horse and for nutrition.

Flag

The flag of the order of the Temple was called the gonfanon baucent. Baucent, which means two-tone, had several spellings: baussant , baucent or balcent . It was a vertical rectangle made up of two strips, one white and the other black, cut off at the upper third. It was the rallying sign of Templar fighters on the battlefield, protected in combat by a dozen knights. The person responsible for it was called the gonfanonier. Depending on the circumstances, the gonfanonier designated a porter who could be a squire, a Turcopole soldier or a sentry. The gonfanonier rode in front and led his squadron under the command of the Marshal of the Order.

The gonfanon had to be permanently visible on the battlefield and that is why it was forbidden to lower it. This serious breach of the rules could be punished by the most severe sanction, that is to say the loss of the habit which meant dismissal from the Order.

According to historian Georges Bordonove, when the main gonfanon fell because his bearer and his guard had been killed, the commander of the knights unrolled a relief standard and resumed the charge. If this one were to disappear in turn, a squadron commander had to raise his black and white pennon and rally all the Templars present.

If the Templar colors were no longer visible, the surviving Templars were to join the Hospitaller banner. If it had fallen, the Templars had to rally the first Christian banner they saw.

The gonfanon baucent is depicted in the frescoes of the San Bevignate Templar Chapel in Perugia, Italy. The white band is at the top. It is also drawn in the chronica majorum , the Chronicles of Matthew Paris in 1245. In this case, the white band is in the lower part .

Patron saint

Saint George was a saint highly venerated by military and religious orders , but the Templars considered Mary their patron saint .

Templars seen by their enemies

The crusaders as a whole were perceived by the Arabs as ignorant barbarians sometimes even accused of cannibalism, as during the capture of the city of Ma'arrat al-Numan, during the first crusade, and were then sometimes referred to as the cannibals of Maara . At the beginning of the twelfth  century, the Templars proved to be the most formidable fighters that the Arabs had to face. However, outside the battlefield, we note that a certain religious tolerance animated them. In 1140, the emir and chronicler Osama Ibn Mounqidh, who was also ambassador to the Franks, went to Jerusalem. He used to go to the old al-Aqsa mosque, "the residence of my friends the Templars". The emir related an anecdote during which the Templars openly took his defense during the prayer. While the way Muslims pray was both unknown and misunderstood by the Franks newly arrived in the East, the Templars enforced this worship, even if it was described as infidel.

A few years later, in 1187, during the Battle of Hattin, the Muslim leader Saladin had nearly two hundred and thirty Templar prisoners beheaded with a sabre, on the spot and in his presence. Saladin's private secretary concluded by speaking of his master: "How many evils he cured by putting a Templar to death". In contrast, Arab military leaders spared the masters of the Order as prisoners because they knew that as soon as a master died, he was immediately replaced .

Main battles

In military action, the Templars were elite soldiers. They showed courage and proved themselves to be clever strategists. They were present on all the battlefields where the Frankish army was and joined the royal armies from 1129 .

Second Siege of Ascalon (August 16, 1153)

The siege of Damascus having been a big defeat for the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin III , he decided to launch an attack on Ascalon.

The master of the order, Bernard de Tramelay, supported the king's advice and the attack was launched onAugust 16, 1153. It was a hecatomb for the Templars who entered the city in number forty behind their master. Indeed, they were all killed by the Egyptian defenders of the city and their bodies suspended from the ramparts .

This episode raised many controversies because some claimed that the Templars wanted to enter the city alone in order to appropriate all the goods and treasures while others thought that they wanted, on the contrary, to mark the Order with a feat of arms.

However, the city of Ascalon fell onAugust 22, 1153and the Order of the Temple elected a new master: André de Montbard. He accepted this appointment to counter the election of another Knight of the Temple, Guillaume II de Chanaleilles, son of Guillaume I (one of the heroes of the first crusade alongside the Count of Toulouse Raymond IV , known as Raymond de Saint- Gilles ), a favorite of King Louis VII of France and who is said to have allowed the king to control the order.

Battle of Montgisard (November 25, 1177)

This battle, fought onNovember 25, 1177, was one of the first of the young King of Jerusalem Baldwin IV , then sixteen years old. The king's troops had been reinforced by eighty Templars who had come from Gaza by forced march.

This alliance of forces got the better of Saladin's army at Montgisard, near Ramla.

Battle of Hattin (July 4, 1187)

After the death of King Baudouin V , Guy de Lusignan became King of Jerusalem through his wife Sibylle, sister of King Baudouin IV .

On the advice of the Temple (then commanded by Gérard de Ridefort) and the Hospital, Guy de Lusignan prepared the army. As the weather was particularly arid and the only water point was at Hattin, near Tiberias, the king ordered his troops to head in that direction.

theJuly 4, 1187, Saladin surrounded the Franks. Almost the whole army was taken prisoner (about fifteen thousand men), as well as the king himself. Saladin having a particular aversion for the Templars, they were all executed by beheading (as well as all the Hospitallers). Only one Templar was spared, the master himself: Gérard de Ridefort.

Battle of Arsuf (September 7, 1191)

After the fall of Jerusalem, a third crusade was launched from Europe. Richard Coeur de Lion found himself alone after the withdrawal of the majority of the German troops of Frédéric Barberousse (after the drowning of the latter in a river) and the return of Philippe Auguste to France. The Master Templar Gérard de Ridefort was captured and then executed onOctober 4, 1189in front of Acre, he was replaced in his function two years later by Robert de Sablé, a great friend of King Richard, having spent nineteen years at his court . Richard marched his army along the sea, which enabled him to remain in communication with his fleet and, thus, to ensure the continuous provisioning of his troops. Made up of an immense column, Richard's army had as vanguard the body of the Templars led by the new Master of the Order of the Temple, Robert de Sablé, followed by the Bretons and the Angevins, Guy de Lusignan with his Poitevin compatriots, then the Normans and the English and finally in the rearguard the Hospitallers.

In the early stages of the battle, Richard suffered Saladin's initiative but took the situation in hand to finally rout Saladin's army with two successive charges from the Frankish knights, despite the premature outbreak of the first charge .

Conquest of Majorca (September 5, 1229)

The Knights Templar are particularly active with the sovereign Jacques I of Aragon, both to prepare the battle and to conduct it. They will play a decisive role in the management of the conquered lands, in their settlement and their lasting attachment to the crown of Aragon.

Battle of Mansoura (February 8, 1250)

Count Robert I of Artois, disobeying the orders of his brother King Louis IX , wanted to attack the Egyptian troops despite the protests of the Templars who recommended that he wait for the bulk of the royal army. The Frankish vanguard entered the city of Mansoura, scattering through the streets. Taking advantage of this advantage, the Muslim forces launched a counterattack and harassed the Franks. It was a real disaster. Of all the Templars, 295 perished. Only four or five survived. Robert  I of Artois himself, the instigator of this attack without orders, lost his life there .

Saint Louis regained the advantage the same evening by annihilating the troops who had just exterminated his vanguard. However, the Templars had meanwhile lost almost all of their men. This indecisive battle engendered in April of the same year the heavy defeat of Fariskur and the capture of Louis IX , released against a ransom. The news of this capture was disastrous because no one imagined the defeat of such a pious king.

Templars and money

Funding

The Templars had to exercise an economic, commercial and financial activity to pay the costs inherent in the functioning of the order and the expenses of their military activities in the East. However, this economic and financial activity should not be confused with that of the more sophisticated Italian bankers at the same time. Usury, that is to say a deal involving the payment of interest, was forbidden by the Church to Christians and, moreover, to religious .

As the Old Testament says (Deuteronomy, 23,19):

“Thou shalt not charge thy brother any interest, neither for money, nor for food, nor for anything that lends itself to interest. »

The Templars lent money to all kinds of people or institutions: pilgrims, crusaders, merchants, monastic congregations, clergy, kings and princes... The amount of the repayment could sometimes be higher than the initial sum thanks to a change of cash. It was an accepted way of avoiding the ban on usury.

During Louis VII 's crusade , the king of France on arriving in Antioch requested financial aid from the Templars. The master of the order, Évrard des Barres, did what was necessary. The King of France wrote to his intendant, speaking of the Templars, “we cannot imagine how we could have survived in these [East] countries without their help and assistance. […] We inform you that they lent to us and borrowed in their name a considerable sum. This sum must be returned to them . The sum in question represented two thousand marks of silver .

Bill of exchange

The financial activity of the Order provided that individuals could deposit their goods when leaving on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela or Rome. The Templars thus invented the deposit voucher. When a pilgrim entrusted the Templars with the sum necessary for his pilgrimage, the brother treasurer gave him a letter on which was inscribed the sum deposited. This handwritten and authenticated letter took the name of bill of exchange. The pilgrim could thus travel without money on him and was safer. Arrived at his destination, he recovered from other Templars all of his money in local currency. The Templars developed and institutionalized the currency exchange service for pilgrims.

Order treasury

It was a locked chest in which were kept money, jewelry, but also archives. This safe was called a hutch. The master of the Order in Jerusalem carried out the accounting before it was transferred at the end of the 13th  century to the treasurer of the order. Three sections of the withdrawals from the rule tell us about the financial functioning of the Order. The master could authorize the loan of money (without interest) with or without the agreement of his advisers according to the importance of the sum. Income from the Western commanderies was returned to the treasury of the Order's headquarters in Jerusalem.

All cash donations over one hundred bezants were concentrated in the Order's treasury. The commanderies of Paris or London served as depot centers for France and England. Each commandery could function thanks to cash kept in a safe. When the Templars were arrested in 1307, only one important chest was found, that of the visitor from France, Hugues de Pairaud. The money it contained was confiscated by the king and immediately joined the royal coffers .

That the suppression of the Order by Philippe IV le Bel had the objective of recovering the treasure of the Templars is a hypothesis however disputed, because the treasure of the Temple was much lower than the royal treasure . The king actually alleviated his financial difficulties by trying to establish regular taxes, heavily taxing the Jews and Lombard bankers, sometimes confiscating their property and practicing currency devaluations .

Guard of royal treasures

It began in 1146 when Louis VII , leaving for the second crusade, decided to leave the royal treasury in the custody of the Temple of Paris. This practice, which in no way mixed the financial activities of the Temple and those of the Crown, came to an end during the reign of Philippe IV le Bel.

Subsequently, this developed, so that many sovereigns trusted the treasurers of the Order. This is how another great personality, Henry II of England, left the custody of his kingdom's treasure to the Temple. Moreover, many Templars of the House of England were also royal advisers.

Heritage of the Templars

The Order of the Temple had mainly two types of built heritage: monasteries called commanderies located in the West and fortresses located in the Near East and in the Iberian Peninsula.

Jerusalem Temple House

The house of the Temple in Jerusalem was the central seat of the Order from its foundation in 1129 until 1187, the date of the fall of the holy city taken over by Saladin. The head office was then transferred to Saint-Jean-d'Acre, the port city of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Following the loss of the city by the Christians in 1291, the seat of the Order was again transferred to the nearest Christian land, the island of Cyprus. It was in Cyprus that Jacques de Molay, the last master of the Order, lived before his return to France to be arrested there. The seat of the Order has never been set up in the West.

Eastern Fortresses

To overcome the weakness of their numbers, the Crusaders undertook the construction of fortresses in the Latin States of the East. The Templars participated in this momentum by having new castles built for their needs. They also undertook to rebuild those which had been destroyed by Saladin around 1187 and agreed to occupy those which the lords of the East (or Spain) gave them for lack of being able to maintain them. Some of them made it possible to secure the routes frequented by Christian pilgrims around Jerusalem. Serving as a military, economic and political establishment of the Order, the stronghold represented for the Muslim populations a center of Christian domination.. The Templars occupied a greater number of strongholds in the Iberian Peninsula during their participation in the Reconquista .

In the 12th  century, after the fall of the city of Jerusalem before the forces of Saladin in 1187, the Templars managed to resist for a few months in some of their strongholds but, little by little, lost most of them .

It was not until the outcome of the third crusade, led by the kings of France, England and the German emperor, that the Templars reconstituted their military presence in the Holy Land.

In the 13th  century, in the kingdom of Jerusalem, the Templars had four fortresses: the Pèlerin castle built in 1217-1218, the fortress of Safed rebuilt in 1240-1243, the castle of Sidon and the fortress of Beaufort both ceded by Julien, lord of Sidon in 1260.

In the county of Tripoli, they had the castle of Tortose rebuilt in 1212, Arima and Chastel Blanc.

To the north, in the principality of Antioch, the Templar strongholds were Baghras (Gaston) recovered in 1216, as well as Roche de Roissel and Roche-Guillaume which they still held, Saladin having given up trying to conquer them in 1188.

Iberian fortresses

As early as 1128, the Order received its first donation in Portugal, from the hands of the reigning Countess of Portugal, Thérèse de León, widow of Henry of Burgundy: the castle of Soure and its outbuildings. In 1130, the Order received 19 landholdings. Around 1160, Gualdim Pais completed the castle of Tomar, which became the seat of the Temple in Portugal.

In 1143, Raimond-Bérenger IV , Count of Barcelona, ​​asked the Templars to defend the Western Church in Spain, to fight the Moors and to exalt the Christian faith. The Templars accepted not without reluctance, but limited themselves to defending and pacifying the Christian borders and colonizing Spain and Portugal. A new Christian population had indeed just settled around the castles given to the Templars, the region being pacified. The Reconquista was a royal war. As a result, the orders of chivalry were less autonomous there than in the East. They had to provide the royal army with a variable number of fighters, proportional to the scale of the military operation in progress.

Thus, the Spanish Templars took part in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, in the union of Majorca with the kingdom of Aragon in 1229, in the capture of Valencia in 1238, of Tarifa in 1292, in the conquest of Andalusia and the Kingdom of Granada. In Portugal, the Templars took part in the capture of Santarém (1146) and that of Alcácer do Sal (1217).

The action of the Order of the Temple in the Iberian Peninsula was therefore secondary, because the Order wanted to privilege its activities in the Holy Land. However, he had many more strongholds in the Iberian Peninsula than in the East. Indeed, there are at least seventy-two sites just for Spain and at least six for Portugal (there are only about twenty strongholds in the East). It is also in this area that we find the buildings that have best resisted time (or that have benefited from restorations), such as the castles of Almourol, Miravet, Tomar and Peñíscola.

Fortresses in Eastern Europe

Unlike the East and the Iberian Peninsula where the Templars faced the Muslims, Eastern Europe, where the religious-military orders were also established, confronted them with paganism. Indeed, the territories of Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, but also Lithuania and Livonia formed a corridor of paganism, made up of wild lands largely uncleared, caught in pincers between the Catholic West and Orthodox Russia. Borusses (Prussians), Lithuanians, Lives or Cumans, still pagans, resisted the slow but inexorable advance of Christianity there for several centuries. Catholic Christianization, which interests us here, took place in

After the disappearance in 1238 of the order of Dobrin (officially recognized by Pope Gregory IX under the name "Knights of Christ of Prussia"), which had carried out the first conversions, the Templars saw themselves formally invited to establish themselves in Eastern Europe. . For this purpose, the Order was granted three villages along the Bug River as well as the fortress of Łuków (which they were entrusted with in 1257, together with the mission of defending the Christian presence in this region). Throughout the 13th  century, the presence of the Templars in Eastern Europe went on increasing and there were up to fourteen establishments and two Templar fortresses .

However, the Templars (just like the Hospitallers, who were also present in Eastern Europe) quickly gave way to the Teutonic order in the fight against the paganism dominating these remote regions. The two orders hesitated to open a third front in addition to those of the Holy Land and the Iberian Peninsula, while the primary idea of ​​this installation at the borders of Christianity was above all to diversify the sources of income in order to finance the continuation of the main activities of the Order in the Holy Land.

Another region of Eastern Europe, but more southern, Hungary had to face, like Poland, the devastating invasions of the Mongols around 1240. Present there too, the Templars sent information to Western kings without managing to alert them sufficiently. for a voluntary and effective reaction to be triggered .

Commanderies

A commandery was a monastery in which lived the brothers of the order in the West. It served as a rear base in order to finance the activities of the order in the East and to ensure the recruitment and the military and spiritual training of the brothers of the order. It was formed from donations of land and real estate. The term preceptory is used incorrectly: “It is therefore absurd to speak of “preceptory” when the correct French word is “commander”; and it is moreover ridiculous to distinguish two different structures, preceptory and commandery  ” .

In the early years of its creation, land donations enabled the Order to establish itself throughout Europe. Then, there were three great waves of donations from 1130 to 1140, from 1180 to 1190 and from 1210 to 1220 . First of all, we can note that all the men who entered the Order could donate part of their property to the Temple. Then, donations could come from all social categories, from the king to the laity. For example, King Henry II of England ceded to the Temple the stronghold of Sainte-Vaubourg and its right of way over the Seine at Val-de-la-Haye, in Normandy. Another example that can be cited is the gift made in 1255 by Canon Etienne Collomb of the Saint-Etienne cathedral in Auxerre to

Although donations were mostly made up of land or income from land, donations of rents or commercial income were not negligible. For example, Louis VII sold in 1143-1144 an annuity of twenty-seven pounds established on the stalls of money changers in Paris.

Donations could be of three different types:

• donation pro anima  : it could be a major donation (which was often at the origin of the creation of a commandery) or a minor land donation involving only a few plots. The motivation of the donor was to invoke the salvation of his soul or the remission of his sins.
• donation in extremis  : this type of donation was made mostly by pilgrims acting as a precaution. They made this gift before leaving for the Holy Land. Few in number, these donations were quickly replaced by testamentary bequests.
• remunerated donation: the donor acted with the aim of receiving a counter-gift. It was not exactly a sale but rather a remunerated donation, ensuring the donor of an asset allowing him to receive enough to live on. The beneficiary (on this occasion the order of the Temple) was also a winner in this type of gift, the counter-gift being of a lower value. The purpose of this type of donation was to facilitate the donation process, knowing that the transfer of all or part of a property could seriously affect the income of the donor or that of his heirs. It was not rare besides that certain conflicts between the order and the heirs occurred in such cases, the litigation being regulated sometimes by the means of justice.

After receiving these gifts, it remained for the order of the Temple to organize and bring everything together into a coherent whole. To do this, the Templars carried out a number of exchanges or sales in order to structure their commanderies and gather the land to optimize the income that could be drawn from it. We can take the process of land consolidation as a parallel, at least with regard to the regrouping of land around or dependent on a commandery.

In essence, we can cite all the countries of the Christian West of the Middle Ages as lands where the Order of the Temple was established. Thus, there were Templar commanderies in the following current countries: France, England, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands. Similarly, there were commanderies in the East.

According to Georges Bordonove, the number of Templar commanderies in France can be estimated at 700. The quality of these vestiges is very diverse today. Very few have been able to keep their buildings in their entirety. Some commanderies have been completely destroyed and only exist in an archaeological state, which is the case, for example, of the commandery of Payns in the stronghold of the founder of the Order. In France, three commanderies open to the public present a complete set  : for the north, the commandery of Coulommiers, in the center region is the commandery of Arville and in the south the commandery of La Couvertoirade.

Only archival documents and in particular the cartularies of the Order of the Temple can attest to the Templar origin of a building.

Fall of order

The fall of the Order of the Temple is also the subject of controversy. However, the reasons why the Order was eliminated are much more complex and the ones set out below are probably only part of it.

Reasons

theMay 28, 1291, the Crusaders lost Saint-Jean-d'Acre after a bloody siege. Christians were then forced to leave the Holy Land and religious orders such as the Templars and the Hospitallers did not escape this exodus. The mastery of the Order was moved to Cyprus. However, once expelled from the Holy Land, with the virtual impossibility of reconquering it, the question of the usefulness of the order of the Temple arose because it had originally been created to defend the pilgrims going to Jerusalem. on the tomb of Christ. Having lost the Holy Land and therefore the very reason for their existence, part of the Order is perverted.

The people had also perceived the knights for several decades as proud and greedy lords leading a disorderly life (the popular expressions "to drink like a Templar" or "to swear like a Templar" are revealing in this respect)  : from 1274 to the second council of Lyon, they had to produce a report to justify their existence .

A quarrel also opposed the King of France Philippe IV le Bel to Pope Boniface VIII , the latter having asserted the superiority of papal power over the temporal power of kings, by issuing a papal bull in 1302, Unam Sanctam . The response from the king of France came in the form of a request for a council for the purposes of deposing the pope, who in return excommunicated Philip the Fair and his entire family by the bull Super Patri Solio . Boniface VIII died onOctober 11, 1303, shortly after the Anagni attack. His successor, Benedict XI , had a very brief pontificate since he in turn died onJuly 7, 1304. Clement V was elected to succeed him onJune 5, 1305.

However, following the fall of Saint-Jean-d'Acre, the Templars withdrew to Cyprus and then returned to the West to occupy their commanderies. The Templars possessed immense wealth (some living in ostentatious luxury despite having taken a vow of poverty), augmented by royalties (grant, tolls, customs, banalities, etc.) and profits from the work of their commanderies (livestock, agriculture, etc.). They also possessed a military power equivalent to fifteen thousand men including one thousand five hundred knightstrained in combat, a force entirely devoted to the pope: such a force could only prove embarrassing for the power in place. It should be added that the royal lawyers, trained in Roman law, sought to exalt the power of royal sovereignty; however, the presence of the Temple as a pontifical jurisdiction greatly limited the power of the king on his own territory.

The Anagni attack is one of the reflections of this fight by the lawyers to ensure that the king has as little limited power as possible. The position of the jurists, in particular Guillaume de Nogaret, as advisers to the king, surely had an influence on Philippe le Bel.

Finally, some historians attribute some responsibility for the loss of the Order to Jacques de Molay, Master of the Temple elected in 1293 in Cyprus after the loss of Saint-Jean-d'Acre. Indeed, following this defeat, a crusade project germinated again in the minds of certain Christian kings, but also and above all in that of Pope Clement V.. The pope also wanted a merger of the two most powerful military orders in the Holy Land and made this known in a letter he sent to Jacques de Molay in 1306. The master replied that he was opposed to this idea, fearing that the order of the Temple is merged into that of the Hospitallers, without being categorical. However, the arguments he put forward to support his own views were very thin. Finally, Jacques de Molay lacked diplomacy in refusing the king to be made an honorary Knight of the Temple .

Today, the Pope's involvement in the arrest of the Templars can be controversial. Some historians speak of three meetings between Philip the Fair and Clement V , spread out from 1306 to 1308, during which the fate of the Templars was discussed .

However, these historians rely on an Italian chronicler named Giovanni Villani, the only contemporary source to indicate a meeting in 1305 between the king and the pope which, according to him, was to address the question of the suppression of the Order. Some other historians consider this source questionable, as the Italians then had a strong resentment against Clement V , French Pope . The same historians attest to a meeting between the King of France and the Pope in the month ofMay 1307, a few months before the arrest. The royal lawyers will invoke this meeting a year later, stating that the pope had then given his authorization to the king to make this arrest .

By the bull Faciens misericordiam , Clement V in 1308 appointed pontifical commissions charged with investigating the Order, on the sidelines of the secular procedure initiated by the king of France, Philippe IV le Bel.

Arrest of the Templars

The idea of ​​destroying the Order of the Temple was already present in the mind of King Philip IV the Fair, but the latter lacked evidence and confessions to initiate proceedings. This was done thanks to a major asset unearthed by Guillaume de Nogaret in the person of a former renegade Templar: Esquieu de Floyran (also called “Sequin de Floyran”, or even “Esquieu de Floyrac”). According to the official thesis, Esquieu de Floyran (bourgeois of Béziers or prior of Montfaucon) was imprisoned for murder and shared his cell with a Templar condemned to death who confessed to him, confessing to him the denial of Christ, the obscene practices of the rites of entry into the Order and sodomy.

Esquieu de Floyran having failed to sell his rumors to Jacques II of Aragon, managed to do so in 1305 with the King of France, Guillaume de Nogaret subsequently paying Esquieu de Floyran in order to spread the ideas of "denial of Christ and spitting on the cross, carnal relations between brothers, obscene kisses exercised by the Knights Templar" . Philippe le Bel wrote to the Pope to inform him of the content of these confessions .

At the same time, Jacques de Molay, aware of these rumours, asked for the opening of a pontifical inquiry. The pope granted it to himAugust 24, 1307. However, Philippe le Bel did not wait for the results of the investigation, preparing the arrest at the Notre-Dame-La-Royale abbey, near Pontoise, on the day of the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross. . He sent messengersSeptember 14, 1307to all its seneschals and bailiffs, giving them directives in order to proceed with the seizure of all the movable and immovable property of the Templars as well as their massive arrest in France during the same day, FridayOctober 13, 1307. The aim of an action carried out in a few hours was to take advantage of the fact that the Templars were scattered throughout the territory and thus to prevent them, alarmed by the arrest of some of their brothers, from regrouping and becoming so hard to stop.

On the morning ofOctober 13, 1307, Guillaume de Nogaret and men-at-arms entered the precincts of the Temple of Paris where the Master of the Order Jacques de Molay resided. At the sight of the royal ordinance which justified this raid, the Templars allowed themselves to be taken away without any resistance. In Paris, there were 138 prisoners, in addition to the Master of the Order.

An identical scenario unfolded at the same time throughout France. Most of the Templars present in the commanderies were arrested. They put up no resistance. A few managed to escape before or during the arrests. The prisoners were locked up for the most part in Paris, Caen, Rouen and at the Château de Gisors. All their property was inventoried and entrusted to the custody of the Royal Treasury.

Those who, in 1306, had taken in Philippe IV le Bel during the riots in Paris now found themselves imprisoned awaiting trial.

Court case

Since all the Templars of the kingdom of France had been arrested, Philippe IV le Bel enjoined the European sovereigns (Spain and England) to do the same. All refused because they feared the wrath of the pope. The King of France was not discouraged and therefore opened the trial of the Templars.

However, the Order of the Temple was a religious order and as such could not be subject to secular justice. Philippe le Bel therefore asked his confessor, Guillaume de Paris, also Grand Inquisitor of France, to carry out the interrogations of the one hundred and thirty-eight Templars arrested in Paris. Among these knights, thirty-eight died under torture, but the process of "confessions" had been set in motion, giving rise to accusations of heresy and idolatry. Among the most frequently confessed sins, the Inquisition recorded the denial of the Holy Cross, the denial of Christ, sodomy, the "unclean kiss" and the worship of an idol (called the Baphomet). Three Templars resisted the torture and did not confess to any lewd behavior.

In an attempt to protect the Order of the Temple, Pope Clement V issued the bull Pastoralis preeminentie which ordered European rulers to arrest Templars residing in their homes and place their property under the management of the Church. The king, in order to derive legitimacy from it in the name of the people and to impress the pope, convened in Tours the States General of 1308 which approved the condemnation of the Order while the Pope had interrupted the royal procedure initiated by Philippe le Bel.. Moreover, the Pope asked to hear the Templars himself at Poitiers. But, most of the dignitaries being imprisoned in Chinon, King Philippe le Bel claimed that the prisoners (seventy-two in all, sorted by the king himself) were too weak to make the trip. The pope then delegated two cardinals to go and hear the witnesses at Chinon. The manuscript or parchment of Chinon which deals with it indicates that Pope Clement V gave absolution to the leaders of the Order on this occasion .

The first pontifical commission was held onNovember 12, 1309in Paris. Its purpose was to judge the order of the Temple as a moral person and not the physical persons. To do this, she sent from theAugust 8a circular to all the bishoprics to bring the arrested Templars to appear before the commission. Only one brother denounced the confessions made under torture: Ponsard de Gisy, preceptor of the commandery of Payns. theFebruary 6, 1310, fifteen out of sixteen Templars proclaimed their innocence. They were soon followed by most of their brothers.

The King of France then wished to save time and appointed to the archbishopric of Sens an archbishop who was totally devoted to him, Philippe de Marigny, half-brother of Enguerrand de Marigny.

He sent to the stake, theMay 12, 1310, fifty-four Templars who had denied their confessions made under torture in 1307 and were therefore backslidden. All interrogations were completed onMay 26, 1311.

Council of Vienna

The Council of Vienna, which was held onOctober 16, 1311within the Saint-Maurice cathedral in Vienna, had three objectives: to decide on the fate of the Order, to discuss the reform of the Church and to organize a new crusade.

However, during the council, some Templars decided to present themselves: they were seven in number and wanted to defend the Order. The king, wanting to put an end to the order of the Temple, left in the direction of Vienna with men-at-arms in order to put pressure on Clement V. He arrived there onMarch 20, 1312. theMarch 22, 1312, the Pope fulminated the bull Vox in excelso which ordered the definitive abolition of the Order. As for the fate of the Templars and their property, the pope fulminated two other bulls:

• Ad provided onMay 2, 1312, concerned the goods of the Temple which were bequeathed in full to the Hospitallers of the order of Saint John of Jerusalem (with the exception of Spain and Portugal, where two orders were born from the ashes of the order of the Temple, the Order of Montesa and the Order of Christ, and sums of money in the tower of the Temple, recovered by Philip the Fair)
• Considerations dudum leMay 6, 1312as for it, determined the fate of men. Those having confessed or having been declared innocent would see themselves allotted an annuity and could live in a house of the Order whereas all those having denied or having recanted, would undergo a severe punishment (the death penalty).

However, the fate of the dignitaries of the order of the Temple remained in the hands of the pope .

Fate of dignitaries

A pontifical commission was appointed onDecember 22, 1313. It was made up of three cardinals and lawyers from the King of France and was to decide on the fate of the four dignitaries of the Order. Before this commission, they reiterated their confessions. the11WhereMarch 18, 1314, the four Templars were brought to the forecourt of Notre-Dame de Paris to have the sentence read to them. It was there that Jacques de Molay, Master of the Order of the Temple, Geoffroy de Charnay, tutor from Normandy, Hugues de Pairaud, visitor from France, and Geoffroy de Goneville, tutor in Poitou - Aquitaine, learned that they were condemned. to life imprisonment.

However, Jacques de Molay and Geoffroy de Charnay proclaimed their innocence. They had therefore lied to the judges of the Inquisition, were declared relapsed and handed over to the secular arm (in this case, royal justice). Here is the description given by Guillaume de Nangis, a chronicler of the time , in his Latin Chronicle : "But when the cardinals thought they had put an end to this affair, suddenly and unexpectedly two of they, the Grand Master and the Master of Normandy, stubbornly defended themselves against the cardinal who had delivered the sermon and against the Archbishop of Sens Philippe de Marigny , going back on their confession and on all that they had confessed” .

The next day, Philip the Fair summoned his council and, ignoring the cardinals, condemned the two Templars to the stake. They were taken to Jewish Island to be burned alive. Geoffroi (or Godefroi) of Paris was an eyewitness to this execution. He wrote in his Metric Chronicle (1312-1316), the words of the Master of the Order: “I see here my judgment where to die freely suits me; God knows who's wrong, who's sinned. Misfortune will soon befall those who have wrongly condemned us: God will avenge our death. Proclaiming until the end his innocence and that of the Order, Jacques de Molay therefore referred to divine justice and it was before the divine tribunal that he summoned those who on Earth had judged him."You will all be cursed until the thirteenth generation" launched by esotericists and historians later inspired Les Rois maudits by Maurice Druon. The two condemned asked to turn their faces towards Notre-Dame Cathedral to pray. They died with the greatest dignity. Guillaume de Nangis added: “We saw them so resolved to undergo the torture of fire, with such a will, that they aroused the admiration of all those who witnessed their death…” .

The royal decision had been so quick that it was noticed afterwards that the small island where the stake had been erected was not under royal jurisdiction, but under that of the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. . The king therefore had to confirm in writing that the execution in no way affected their rights to the island .

Giovanni Villani, a contemporary of the Templars, but who did not attend the scene, added in his Nova Cronica that "the King of France and his sons felt great shame at this sin" , and that "the night after the said Master and his companion had been martyred, their ashes and their bones were collected as sacred relics by the brothers and other religious persons, and taken to consecrated places . This testimony is however subject to suspicion, Villani being a Florentine and having written his work between one and two decades after the facts.

Absolved by the Pope

The original of the Chinon parchment was found in 2002 by historian Barbara Frale in the Vatican Apostolic Archives and published in 2007 along with all the documents relating to the trial .

It indicates that Pope Clement V finally secretly absolved the leaders of the Order. Their condemnation and putting to death at the stake is therefore indeed the responsibility of King Philip the Fair and not that of the pope or the Church , contrary to a widely held misconception . The four dignitaries who confessed were all absolved, but only the two who later denied their confessions were executed.

Fate of the brothers

The dissolution of the order at the Council of Vienna and then the death of Jacques de Molay marked the official end of the Order of the Temple. The Templar goods, in particular the commanderies, were donated by the papal bull Ad providam for the most part to the Hospitallers of the order of Saint John of Jerusalem. However, not all Templar knights, brothers and servants were executed, many of them returned to civilian life or were taken in by other religious orders.

Templars in France

The order being declared extinguished in 1312, Pope Clement V ordered that all the Templars of the provinces be summoned and judged by provincial councils. If they are absolved, they may be given a pension taken from the property of the Order. In Catalonia, for example, the final word is given by the Archbishop of Tarragona, Guillem de Rocabertí, who pronounces theNovember 4, 1312, the innocence of all Catalan Templars . The commandery of Mas Deu, which had become a hospital possession, paid pensions to knights, but also to non-nobles and servant brothers .

Indecember 1318, Pope John XXII addresses the bishops of France, to warn them that certain brothers of the former order of the Temple "had resumed lay clothes", and asks them to abolish the pensions of the brothers who do not submit to this warning .

Philippe le Bel wanting to get his hands on some of the property of the Templars, the Hospitallers will never stop enforcing the papal decisions, and will end up obtaining almost everywhere, where the devolution of the property of the Templars was decided .

Templars of the Kingdom of Aragon

In the Kingdom of Aragon, the Templars were divided into different orders, mainly in the order of Montesa, created in 1317 by King James II of Aragon , from the branch of the Templars recognized as innocent during the trial of 1312 in France. The goods of the Temple were transferred there in 1319 , but also in the order of Saint-Georges of Alfama, created in the same period by merger between the order of Calatrava and the Templars of France who took refuge in Spain.

As for the goods of the Templars, in the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona, ​​they will go to the Hospital when the Templars had not already sold them to trusted persons, and in the Kingdom of Valencia, the Templar goods and those of the Hospitallers will be merged into the new order of Montesa.

Templars of Portugal

In Portugal they passed to the Order of Christ. A “legitimate successor to the Temple” , the Militia of Christ was founded in 1319 by King Denis I and Pope John XXII . The goods of the Templars were "reserved" on the initiative of the king, for the Portuguese Crown from 1309, and transferred to the order of Christ in 1323. We find many influences of the order of Christ from the beginning of the Portuguese "Great Discoveries" , the cross of which will be seen on the sails of Vasco da Gama's ships during the passage of the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 (while the sails of Christopher Columbus' ships during his Atlantic crossing in 1492, more likely bear the cross of the order of Calatrava).

Templars of England

In England, King Edward II at first refused to arrest the Templars and seize their property. He summons his seneschal of Guyenne and asks him to report, after which he writes theOctober 30, then theDecember 10, 1307, letters to the pope, as well as to the king of Portugal, Castile, Aragon and Naples. He defends the Knights Templar there, and encourages them to do the same . theDecember 14, he receives confirmation from the Pope to stop the Templars. He orders theJanuary 8, 1308, that we seize all the members of the Order present in his country, and that we put them under house arrest, without resorting to torture .

A tribunal was set up in 1309, which ended up absolving the repentant Templars in 1310. The transfer of Templar property to the Hospitallers, ordered by the papal bull of Clement V in 1312, was also not carried out until 1324. It was on this date that the Temple Church, the seat of the Templars in London , was transferred to the Hospitallers, before returning to the English crown in 1540 when King Henry VIII dissolved the order of the Hospitallers, confiscated their property, and appointed the priest of the Temple Church "the Master of the Temple". .

Knights Templar of Scotland

In Scotland, Clement V 's order to confiscate all Templar property is not fully enforced, especially since Robert I of Scotland was excommunicated and no longer obeys the pope. William de Lamberton, Bishop of St Andrew, in 1311 granted his protection to the Knights Templar in Scotland. In 1312, they were even absolved in England and Scotland by Edward II , and reconciled in the Church . Then in 1314, the Templars would have helped Robert de Bruce to win the battle of Bannockburn against the English but their presence in this battle is hypothetical.. On the other hand, many Templar traces were left in Scotland well after 1307, in the cemetery of Kilmartin for example, or in the village of Kilmory  (en) .

In the Germanic world

In central Europe, the goods of the Order were confiscated then redistributed for some to the Hospitallers, and for others to the Teutonic order. But few arrests took place in this province, and no Templar was executed .

The German princes, secular and ecclesiastical, had for a large number sided with the Templars. The Order, feeling supported by the nobility and the princes, seems to have paid little attention to this judicial apparatus: the synod of the ecclesiastical province of Mainz dismissed all those of its district absolved. The synod of the province of Treves was assembled, and after an inquiry, also pronounced a sentence of absolution. Emboldened by these two judgments, the Templars tried to maintain themselves on the banks of the Rhine, in Luxembourg and the diocese of Treves, and probably also in the duchy of Lorraine.

Remaining under the protection of their family and the local lords, many knights were granted a life annuity, and significant indemnities even had to be paid by the Hospitallers, in compensation for the confiscated goods, so much so that they sometimes lasted resell the property that had just been allocated to them .

Legends about the Templars

The historian and Archbishop William of Tire wrote from 1167 Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum , a work in which he first showed himself favorable to the Templars and then increasingly critical of them as they grew in power. (papal privileges such as exemption from the tithe and excommunication, the right to carry out collections in the churches, accounts to be rendered exclusively to the pope) . Little by little, he says, the members of the Order become arrogant and disrespectful towards the ecclesiastical and secular hierarchy: William of Tire is thus at the origin of the first legends about the Templars, sometimes apologetic (legend of the nine knightsremained alone for nine years), sometimes critical, accusing them in particular on several occasions of betraying Christians for money .

The tragic end of the Knights Templar has helped generate legends about them. Among others, their supposed quest for the Holy Grail, the existence of a hidden treasure (like the one envisaged at Rennes-le-Château for example), their possible discovery of documents hidden under the Temple of Herod, certain hypotheses of their links with the Freemasons. Moreover, certain groupings or secret societies (such as the Rose-Croix) or certain sects, such as the Order of the Solar Temple (and its survivals, such as the Militia Templi or the Ordo Templi Orientis ) will later claim to be the Order, affirming their filiation by relying on the secret survival of the Order, without succeeding in proving it, or sometimes even producing false documents.