Order of the Temple - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Birth about the Temple

The context politico-soldier

The pope Urbain II preached the First crusade the November 27th 1095, tenth day of the Concile of Clermont. The motivation of the pope to see such a military forwarding taking form came owing to the fact that the Christian pilgrims on the way towards Jerusalem were regularly victims of exactions even of assassinations.

The pope thus asked for to the Christian people Occident to take the weapons in order to come to assistance of the Christians of Orient. This crusade had then as rallying cry “God wants it! ” and all those which took share with the crusade were marked by the sign of the cross, becoming thus the cross . This action leads the July 15th 1099 to the catch of Jerusalem by the Christian troops of Godefroy de Bouillon.

Hugues de Payns, future founder and first Master about the Temple, came for the first time in Holy Land in 1104 to accompany the count Hugues de Champagne, then in pilgrimage. They returned from there in 1107.

First steps about the Temple

After the catch of Jerusalem, Godefroy de Bouillon was indicated king de Jérusalem by his pars, titrates that he refused, preferring to carry that of Avoué of the Holy Sepulchre. It set up the order of the canons of the Holy Sepulchre which had the role of helping the patriarch of Jerusalem in his various tasks. A certain number of men-at-arms, resulting from the crusade, are then reflected with the service of the patriarch in order to protect the the Holy Sepulchre.

A similar institution made up knights, called Knights of Saint-Pierre ( militate sancti $petri ), was created in Occident to protect the goods from the abbeys and churches. These knights were Laïc S, but they benefitted from the benefits of the prayers. By extension, the men charged to ensure the protection of the goods of the Holy Sepulchre as of the community of the canons were called militate sancti Sepulcri (knights of the Holy Sepulchre). It is extremely probable that Hugues de Payns integrated this institution as of 1115. All the men in charge of the protection of the Holy Sepulchre placed at the Midsummer's Day hospital of Jerusalem located near.

When the order of the Hospital, recognized in 1113, was charged to deal with the pilgrims coming from Occident, an idea was born: to then create a militia of the Christ ( militia Christi ) who would deal only with the protection of the community of canons of the Holy Sepulchre and the pilgrims on the Holy dirt tracks, in prey with the local brigands. Thus, the canons would deal with the liturgical businesses , the order of the Hospital of the charitable functions and the militia of the Christ of the purely military function of protection of the pilgrims. This ternary distribution of the tasks reproduced the organization of the medieval company, which was made up priests ( oratores ), warriors ( bellatores ) and peasants ( laboratores ).

Thus the order of the Temple, which named at that time militia Christi , occurred.

The foundation about the Temple

It is the January 23rd 1120, at the time of the Concile of Nablus which was born, under the impulse of Hugues de Payns and Geoffroy of St-Omer, the militia of the Poor Knights of the Christ and the Temple of Latin Solomon (: the pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici ), which had the role of making safe the voyage of the pilgrims flowing of Occident since the reconquest of Jerusalem.

Initially, Payns and St-Omer concentrated on the procession of Athlit, a particularly dangerous place on the road borrowed by the pilgrims. Thereafter, one of the greatest fortified towns templières out of Holy Land was built at this place: the Castle Pilgrim. The new order thus created could survive only with the support of influential people. Hugues de Payns succeeds in convincing the king of Jerusalem Baudouin II of the utility of such a militia, rather easy thing within sight of the insecurity reigning in the area at that time. The knights pronounced the three wishes of poverty, chastity and obedience. They accepted patriarch Gormond de Picquigny the mission of to keep ways and ways against the brigands, for the safety of the pilgrims (“ C vias and will itinera, AD salutem peregrinorum countered latronum ”) for the remission of their sins.

The king Baudouin II granted to them part of his palate of Jerusalem, with the site of the Temple of Solomon, who gave thereafter the name of Templiers or knights of the Temple. Hugues de Payns and Geoffroy de Saint-Omer were not the only knights to have belonged to the militia before this one does not become the order of the Temple. Here thus the list of these knights, precursors or " fondateurs" order:

Hugues de Payns, originating in Payns in Champagne;
Geoffroy of St-Omer, originating in Saint-Omer in the County of Flanders;
Andre de Montbard, originating in the Burgundy;
Payen de Montdidier, originating in the Somme in Picardy;
Geoffroy Bisol, originating in Frameries in the County of Hainaut;
Roland, originating in the marquisat of Provence;
Archambault de Saint-Amand;
Gondemare.

The first gift (of thirty books of under angevins) received by the order of the Temple came from Foulque, count of Anjou. Thereafter, Foulque went in pilgrimage to Jerusalem and became the king about it.

The search for support

However, the notoriety of the militia did not manage to extend beyond the Holy Land and this is why Hugues de Payns, accompanied by five other knights (Godefroy of St-Omer, Payen de Montdidier, Geoffroy Bissol, Archambault of St-Amand and Roland), embarked for the Occident in 1127 in order to carry a message intended to the pope Honorius II and for Bernard de Clairvaux.

Extremely support of king Baudouin and instructions of the patriarch Gormond of Jerusalem, Hugues de Payns had the three following objectives:

to make recognize the militia by the Church and give him a rule: attached to the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, the knights followed like them regulates it Saint Augustin;
to give a legitimacy to the actions of the militia since the denomination of monk-knight, an amalgam of an absolute innovation, could be in contradiction with the rules of the Church and the company in general;
to recruit new knights and to obtain gifts which would make live the militia in Holy Land.

The Western round of the Poor Knights of the Christ and the Temple of Solomon started in Anjou and passed then by the Poitou, the Normandy, the England (where they accepted many gifts), the Flanders and finally the Champagne.

It should be noted that this step of Hugues de Payns, accompanied by these five knights and supported by the king of Jerusalem, followed two unfruitful attempts which had been made by André de Montbard and Gondemare, probably in 1120 and 1125.

The council of Troyes

The Praise of the New Militia

The Éloge of the New Militia ( Of laude nouae militiae ) is a letter that holy Bernard de Clairvaux sent to Hugues de Payns, whose complete title was Liber AD militate Templi of laude novae militiae and written after the defeat of the franque army to the seat of Damas in 1129.

Bernard underlines the originality of the new order there: the same man devotes himself as much to the spiritual combat as with the engagements in the world. It is not rare enough to see men fighting a body enemy with the only forces of the body so that I am astonished some; on another side, to make the war with the defect and the demon with the only moral strengthes, it is not either something of as extraordinary as creditable, the world is full monks who deliver these engagements; but what, for me, is as admirable as obviously rare, it is to see the two joined together things. (§1)

Moreover, this text contained an important passage where holy Bernard explained why Templiers had the right to kill an human being: The knight of Christ gives death in full safety and still receives it in a larger safety. At the time thus that it kills a criminal, it is not homicide but malicide. The death which it gives is the profit of Jesus-Christ, and that which it receives, it his clean.

But for that, it was necessary that the war is " just ". It is the object of the §2 of the Éloge of the New Militia . Bernard is conscious of the difficulty of such a concept in practice, because if the war is not right, to want to kill keep silent the heart of the assassin: all the times that you walk to the enemy, you who fight in the rows of the secular militia, you have to fear at the same time to kill your heart whose you give death to your adversary, or to receive it its hand, in the body and the heart at the same time. the victory could not be good when the cause of the war is not it and that the intention of those which make it is not right. (§2)

Bernard thus makes well the praise of the Nouvelle Militia , but not without nuances and precautions… All its §7 & 8 (= CH. IV) trace a voluntarily ideal portrait of the soldier of Christ, in order to give it as a model which will be always to reach.

This praise made it possible Templiers to meet a great enthusiasm and a general recognition: thanks to saint Bernard, the order of the Temple knew a significant increase: good number of knights began for safety of their heart or, quite simply, to lend strong hand while being illustrated on the battle fields.

Pontifical recognition

Several pontifical bubbles officialized the statute about the Temple.

The optimum bubble Omne datum was fulminated (made public) by the Pape Innocent II the March 29th 1139 under the control of Robert de Craon, second main about the Temple. It was of an major importance for the order since it was at the base of all the privileges which enjoyed Templiers. Indeed, thanks to it, the brothers of the Temple were entitled to apostolic protection like having their own priests.

One thus saw a new category emerging in the community, that of the brothers chaplains who would officiate for Templiers. Moreover, this bubble confirmed the fact that the order of the Temple was subjected only to the authority of the pope. The bubble created also a competition for the secular clergy (what the latter often saw of an evil eye). Many conflicts of interest burst between Templiers and the bishops or the priests.

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

Organization and mission of the order

Regulate and statutes

See also: Rule and statutes about the Temple

After the Council of Troyes, where the idea of a rule suitable for the order of the Temple was accepted, the task to write it was entrusted to Bernard de Clairvaux, which itself made it write by a clerk which formed surely part of the entourage of the legate pontifical present at the council, Jean Michel (Jehan Michiel), on proposals made by Hugues de Payns.

The Règle about the Temple made some loans with the rule of Augustin saint but was inspired in major part of the Règle of saint Benoît followed by the monks Benedictines. It was however adapted to the kind of working life, mainly military, which carried out the Templiers brothers. For example, the fasts were less severe than for the monks Benedictines, so as not to weaken Templiers called to fight. In addition, the rule was adapted to the bipolarity of the order, thus certain articles related to the life in Occident as well (conventual) that life in the East (military).

The rule primitive (or Latin because written in Latin), written in 1128, was annexed to the official report of the council of Troyes in 1129 and contained soixante-douze articles. However, into 1138, under the control of Robert de Craon, second Master of the order (1136 - 1149), the primitive rule was translated into French and was modified. Thereafter, on various dates, the rule was packed by the addition of six hundred and nine withdrawals or statutory articles, in particular in connection with the hierarchy and of justice within the order.

Let us note that with its foundation and during all its existence, the order did not obtain a currency.

Reception in the order

The commanderies had, inter alia, for role to ensure in a permanent way recruitment of the brothers. This recruitment was to be broadest possible. Thus, the laic men of the nobility and the free farming community could claim with being received if they answered the criteria required by the order.

First of all, the entry in the order was free and voluntary. The candidate could be poor. First of all, it made gift of itself. It was necessary that it was justified because a trial period ago by the Noviciat. The entry was direct (pronunciation of the wishes) and final (with life). The principal criteria were the following:

to be old of more than 18 years (the majority for the boys was fixed at 16 years) (article 58)
not to be promised in marriage (article 669)
not to belong to another order (article 670)
not to be involved in debt (article 671)
to be in perfect mental health and physics (not to be estropié) (article 672)
to have bribed anybody to be received in the order (article 673)
to be free man ( the serf of no man ) (article 673)
not to be excommunicated (article 674)

The candidate was warned that in the event of proven lie, it would be immediately returned. “… if you lie about it, you would be perjury and could about it lose the house, that whose God keeps you. ” (Extracted article 668)

Hierarchy

Templiers were organized like a monastic order, according to the rule created for them by Bernard de Clairvaux. In each country a Master was named who directed the whole of the commanderies and dependences all and were prone of the Master of the order, indicated with life, which supervised at the same time the military efforts of the order in the East and its financial possessions in Occident. With the strong demand of knights, some among them also engaged with the order for one period predetermined before being returned to the secular life, like the Fratres conjugati , which were married brothers. They carried the black coat or brown with the Red Cross to distinguish them from the brothers having chosen the celibacy and who did not have the same statute as the latter.

The being useful brothers (brothers casaliers and brothers of trades) were selected among the sergeants who were skilful merchants or then incompetents to fight because of their age or an infirmity. The great majority of Templiers, including the knights and the Masters of the order, were uncultivated and illiterate, not resulting from the nobility but more obscure families.

Constantly, each knight had approximately ten people in positions of support. Some brothers only devoted themselves to the bank transactions (especially those which were educated), because the order often had the confidence of the participants in the crusades for the good guard of invaluable goods. However, the mission first of the Knights of the Temple remained the military protection of the Holy Land pilgrims.

Masters about the Temple

The expression “large Master” to appoint the supreme leader of the order appeared at the end of the 13th century and at the beginning of the 14th century in late charters and the acts of the lawsuit of Templiers. Then, it was taken again and popularized by certain historians Des. It is largely widespread today. However, this rank did not exist in the order and Templiers themselves did not seem to use it. However, in late texts the qualifiers of “sovereign Master appear” or “main general” of the order. In the rule and the withdrawals of the order, it is called fro Li Maistre and a great number of dignitaries of the hierarchy could be called thus without the addition of a particular qualifier. The tutors of the commanderies could be indicated in the same way. It is thus necessary to refer to the context of the manuscript to know of which one speaks. In Occident as in the East, the dignitaries were called Masters of the countries or provinces: there were thus a Master in France, a Master in England, a Master in Spain, etc No confusion was not possible since the order was directed only by one Master at the same time, this one remaining with Jerusalem. To appoint the supreme leader of the order, it is advisable to simply say the Master of the order and nonlarge Master.

During its period of existence, being spread out 1129 with 1312, is 183 years, the order of the Temple was directed by twenty-three Masters.

Protection of the pilgrims and guard of relics

The vocation about the Temple was the protection of the Christian pilgrims for the Holy Land. This Pèlerinage counted among three more important of the Christendom of the Moyen-âge. It lasted several years and the pilgrims were to traverse nearly twelve thousand kilometers return ticket with foot, like in boat for the crossing of the sea the Mediterranean. The convoys left twice a year, in spring and in autumn. Generally, the pilgrims were unloaded with Acre, also called Saint-Jean-in Acre, then were to go to foot on the holy spot. As men-at-arms (gendarme), Templiers made safe the roads, in particular that of Jaffa to Jerusalem and that of Jerusalem to the the Jordan. They also had the guard of certain holy places: Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Mount of Olives, the Valley of Josaphat, the Jordan, the hill of the Martyrdom and the the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

All the pilgrims were entitled to protection of Templiers. Thus, the latter took part in the armed Croisades, pilgrimages, to carry out the close guard of the sovereigns of Occident. Also, in 1147, Templiers lent strong hand to the army of the king Louis VII attacked in the mountains of Asia Mineure during the Second crusade (1147 - 1149). This action allowed the continuation of forwarding and the king of France was very grateful to them. At the time of the Third crusade (1189 - 1192), Templiers and the Hospital ones respectively ensured the avant-garde and the rear-guard of the army of Richard Lion-hearted in the combat moving. At the time of the Fifth crusade, the participation of the military orders, and thus Templiers, was decisive in the protection of the royal armies of Louis IX in front of Damiette.

The order of the Temple helped exceptionally the kings in prey with financial problems. On several occasions in the history of the crusades, Templiers reinflated the temporarily empty royal cases (crusade of Louis VII), or paid the ransoms of kings made captive (crusade of Louis IX).

In the East as in Occident, the order of the Temple was in possession of Reliques. It was sometimes brought to transport them for its own account or convoyait relics for others. The vaults templières sheltered the relics of the saints to which they were dedicated. Among the most important relics of the order were the coat of Bernard saint, of the pieces of the crown of spines, of the fragments of the Vraie Cross.

The seals templiers

The word Sceau comes from Latin the sigillum meaning mark. It is a personal seal which authenticates an act and attests of a signature. There exists a score of seals known templiers. They belonged to Masters, dignitaries, commanders or knights of the order at the 13th century. Their diameters vary between fifteen and fifty millimetres. The seals French templiers are preserved at the service of the seals of the Public records of France. The seal the most known templier is that of the Masters of the order the sigilum militum xristi which represents two armed knights overlapping the same horse.

There is no consensus established on the symbolism of the two knights on the same horse. Contrary to an often repeated idea, it would not be a question of proposing the ideal of poverty since the order provided at least three horses to its knights. The historian Georges Bordonove expresses an assumption which can be prevailed of a document of time with Bernard in his Of laude nouae militiae .

Their size is undoubtedly due to this quasi institutional duality: monk, but soldier Duality whom perhaps their most known seal expresses which shows two knights, heaumes in heads, lances lowered, on the same horse: the spiritual one and the temporal one overlapping same mounting, driving at the bottom the same combat, but with different means.)

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

Behaviors of the chapters

A chapter (Latin: capitulum , diminutive of caput , direction first: “head”) is part of a book which gave its name to the meeting of monk in a monastery during which were read passages of the texts crowned as well as articles of the rule. The use comes from the rule of Benoît saint who requested the frequent reading of a passage of the rule from all the joined together community (RB §66, 8). By extension, the community of a monastery is called the chapter. The room specifically built to receive the meetings of chapter is also called " room capitulaire" , " room of the chapitre" , or quite simply " chapitre". The behavior proceeds behind closed doors and it is strictly interdict with the participants to repeat or outside comment on what was said during the chapter.

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

The maritime transport

The bond between the the East and the Occident was primarily maritime. For Templiers, the expression " in addition to-mer" the Europe indicated while “it in-on this side seas” and more precisely of the Mediterranean, the East represented. In order to ensure the transport of the goods, of the weapons, the brothers of the order, the pilgrims and the horses, the order of the Temple had made build its own boats. They were not an important fleet, comparable with those of, but of some ships which left the ports of Marseilles, Saint-Raphaël, Collioure or of Acute-Dead in France and other Italian ports. These boats went in the Eastern ports after many stopovers.

Rather than to finance the maintenance of ships, the order practiced the hiring of merchant ships called “nolis”. Conversely, the hiring of naves templières to Western merchants was practiced. It was besides financially more advantageous to reach the ports exonerated of taxes on the goods than to have boats. The commanderies located in the ports thus played a big role in the marketing activities of the order. Templiers establishments were installed with Genoa, Pisa or Venice, but it was in the south of Italy, more particularly with Brindisi, than the naves Mediterranean templières spent the winter.

Let us note that Templiers of England were provided out of wine of Poitou starting from the port of La Rochelle.

One distinguished two kinds of boats, the naves and the galère S. It is not proven that ushers, i.e. the boats provided with a door (in other words of a door) and reserved for the transport of the horses, belonged to the Temple.

Article 119 of the withdrawals of the Rule indicates that all the vessels of sea which are house of Acre are with the command of the commander of the ground. 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 which the vessels bring must be returned to the commander of the ground.

The wearing of Acre was most important of the order. The vault of Acre was the name of one of the establishments had by Templiers in the city, this one being close to the port. Between the street of Pisans and the street Holy-Anne, the vault of Acre included/understood a conventual keep and buildings.

Here names of ships of the Temple:

Templère, Buscart, Buszarde of the Temple towards 1230 connecting England to the continent

the Good Adventure in 1248, the Pink of the Temple in 1288 - 1290 in Marseilles

Angellica in Italy of the south

the Falcon in 1291 and 1301 like Santa Anna in 1302 in Cyprus.

Templiers

Men of any origines and all conditions constituted the body of the people templier on each level of the hierarchy. Various texts make it possible today to determine the appearance of the brothers knights and sergeants.

The dress

The recognition about the Temple did not pass only by the development of a rule and a name, but also by the attribution of a particular vestimentary code suitable for the order of the Temple.

The coat of Templiers referred to that of the monks cistercians.

Only the knights, the brothers resulting from the nobility, had the right to carry the white coat, symbol of purity of body and chastity. The brothers sergeants, resulting from the farming community, carried as for them a coat of bore-hole, without for all this last has a negative connotation. It was the order which put on again the dress and it is also him which had the capacity to take it again. The dress belonged to him, and in the spirit of the rule, the coat was not to be an object of vanity. It is known as there that if a brother asked for a more beautiful dress, one was to give him “the cheapper”.

The loss of the dress was pronounced by the justice of the chapter for the brothers who had enfreint seriously the payment. It meant temporary or final reference of the order.

In his bubble Vox in excelso of abolition about the Temple, the pope Clément V indicated that it removed “says it order of the Temple and its state, its dress and its name”, which shows the importance well that the dress had in the existence of the order.

The Red Cross

It seems that the Red Cross was granted only tardily to Templiers, in 1147, by the Pape Eugene III. It would have given the right to carry 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, the papal bubble optimum Omne datum named it by twice. As it is allowed to say as Templiers carried already the Red Cross in 1139. It is thus under the control of Robert de Craon, second Master of the order, that the “cross of mouth” became officially a badge templier. He is extremely probable which the cross of Templiers resulted from the cross of the Ordre of the Holy Sepulchre of which part Hugues de Payns and its comrades in arms had formed. This Red Cross was potencée, confined of four small crosses called small crosses.

The shape of the cross of Templiers fixed forever. The iconography templière presented it Greek simple, anchored, blossomed or pattée. Whatever was its form, it indicated the membership of Templiers to Christendom and the red color pointed out the blood poured by Christ. This cross expressed also the permanent wish of Croisade in which Templiers were committed taking part constantly. It should however be specified that all Templiers did not take part in a crusade.

The face templier

In its Homélie (1130 - 1136), called Of laude nouae militae ( Praise of the new militia ), Bernard de Clairvaux presents a physical and especially moral portrait of Templiers, which was opposed to that of the knights of the century:

“They cut the close-cropped hair, knowing from the Apostle that it is a ignominie for a man to look after his hairstyle. They are never seen combed, seldom washed, the beard hirsute, puant dust, mackled by the harnesses and heat… ”.

Although contemporary of Templiers, this description was allegorical than realistic, Saint Bernard being never returned in the East. In addition, the iconography templière is thin. In rare paintings the representative at their time, their faces, covers of a Heaume, a Hat of iron or of a camail, are not visible or appear only partially.

In article 28, the Latin rule specified that “the brothers must have the close-cropped hair”, this for at the same time practical reasons and of hygiene about which holy Bernard did not speak, but especially “in order to regard itself as recognizing the rule permanently”. Moreover, “in order to comply with the rule without deviating, they should not have any impropriety in the port of the beard and the moustache. ” Let us note that the brothers chaplains were tonsures and beardless. Many a Miniatures, which represents Templiers on roughing-hew it, is neither contemporary, nor realistic. At this time, some were even shaven to show their disengagement of the order. Lastly, the official painters of the 19th century imagined Templiers with their manner, mixing idealism and romanticism, with long chevelures and large beards.

Daily life

Templiers and the war

The horse

An order of knighthood does not go without Cheval. Thus, the history about the Temple was closely related to this animal. To start, noble which was received in the order could make gift of sound Destrier, a horse of combat that the riders held with dextral, i.e. on the right. After 1140, one counted many givers of the large nobility bequeathing to Templiers of the weapons and the horses.

To equip its army, the order of the Temple provided three horses to each one of its knights whose maintenance was ensured by a rider (articles 30 & 31 of the rule). The rule specifies that the brothers could have more than three horses, when the Master authorized there. This measurement undoubtedly aimed at preventing the loss of the horses, so that the brothers always had three horses at disposal.

These horses were to be harnessed simpler manner expressing the wish of poverty. According to the rule (article 37) “We defend completely that the brothers have gold and money with their supports, with their clamps and their spurs”. Among these horses a destrier was who was trained with the combat and was reserved for the war. The other horses were diagrids or beasts of burden of race comtoise or Percheron. It could be also mules called “animals mulaces”. They ensured the transport of the knight and the material. There was also the palfrey, more especially used for long displacements.

According to the withdrawals, the hierarchy of the order was expressed through the lawful attribution of mountings. The withdrawals start as follows: “The Master must have four animals…” 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 to the horses. One learns thus that the horses were nourished in measurements of Orge (expensive cereal and giving much more energy to the horses than the simple ration of hay) and than a Marshal-shoeing was in the entourage of the Master.

Among the horses of the Master was a turcoman, thoroughbred Arab which was a horse of war of elite and great very fast value because.

Four horses were provided to all the dignitaries: seneshal, marshal, commander of the ground and the kingdom of Jerusalem, commander of the city of Jerusalem, commanders of Tripoli and Antioche, clothier, commanders of the houses (commanderies), turcopolier. The brothers sergeants such as the under-marshal, the gonfanonier, the cook, it marshal-shoeing and the commander of the wearing of Acre were entitled to two horses. The other brothers sergeants had only one mounting. The Turcopoles, soldiers Arab with the service about the Temple, were to provide themselves their horses.

It was the marshal of the order which took care of the maintenance of all the horses and the material, weapons, armours and harness, without which the war was not possible. It was responsible for the purchase of the horses (article 103) and it was to make sure of their perfect quality. A restive horse was to be to him shown (article 154) before being isolated service.

The destriers were equipped with a saddle with " croce" (with stick), also called saddle with arçonnière, who was a rising saddle for the war and which made it possible to maintain the rider at the time of the load. The commanderies of the south of the France, but also those of Castille, Aragon and Gascogne, were specialized in the breeding of the horses. Those were then conveyed in the Latin States of the East by sea route. For that, they were transported in the holds of the naves templières and were delivered to the caravan of the marshal of the order which supervised the distribution of the animals according to the needs. When Templier died or was sent in another State, its horses returned to the constabulary (article 107).

Rare are the representations of Templiers. He however reached us a mural of a knight of the Temple charging on his destrier. It is about a fresco of the vault of Cressac in Charente, going back to 1170 or 1180.

Military equipment

The noble one of was to be made make complete equipment (clothing and weapons) to be adoubé knight. This material, requiring metals primarily, was worth a fortune and weighed approximately fifty kilos. The knights and sergeants templiers were to have such a equipment.

The protection of the body was ensured by one ecu, a coat of mail and a heaume.

the ecu (or shield) of triangular form, points in bottom, was made of wood and was covered with a leather or metal sheeting. It was used to protect the body, but its size was reduced in the current it 12th century to be reduced and thus more handy.

the Coat of mail consisted of thousands of rings out of iron one centimetre in diameter interlaced and sometimes riveted. This coat consisted of four parts: fit meshs attached to the belt by leather thin straps, the Haubert protected the body and the arms and the camail or caps meshs. A leather mortar or cap was posed on the head to support the Heaume. The hands were protected by gloves in meshs called gloves from weapon (article 325 of the Rule). It should be noted that the haubert was shortened with the knee during the 13th century to be lighter.

the Heaume was without mobile visor, or took the shape of an iron hat not protecting the face.

The undergarment was composed of a shirt of flax and with Braie S. the protection of the body was reinforced by the port of fit leather attached by thin straps, and a Gambison or leather gambeson. To finish, the surcot, related to the coat, is also called underskirt of weapon or coat of arms. It was bent of a Red Cross, badge of the order, in front like behind. It made it possible to recognize the Templiers combatants on the battle field as in any place. The Cross-belt, carried around the kidneys, was a special belt which made it possible to hang the sword and to maintain the surcot close to the body.

According to Georges Bordonove, Templier received a sword, a lance, a mass and a knife at the time of its reception in the order.

Handled with two hands, the sword had a double edge and a round end. Indeed, it was to be handled in order to strike " taille" , i.e. with the edge. It was practically employed as a mass of weapon insofar as it could not transpierce a coat of mail. However, against an enemy who did not have this protection, the sword appeared more effective and more elegant than the mass.

The Masse of weapon templière was mainly a mass known as Turkish with the projecting points. The sword and the masses were used to strike the enemy so as to break the bones to him. The casualties would die then of internal bleeding. The lance was a pole out of wooden finished by a called wrought iron point head of iron. Each brother held three knives of which a knife of weapon, another " of bread taillé" who was used to eat and a narrow blade penknife.

The flag

Patron saint

Patron saint and guard of Templiers were holy Georges, the saint knight. He was also the owner of the teutonic Ordre and more generally of all the Christian knights. Its tomb is venerated with Lydda in Israel.

Templiers seen by their enemies

The crusaders as a whole were perceived by the Arabs like true barbarians, ignoramuses and puerile. At the beginning of the 12th century, Templiers proved to be the most fanatic combatants whom the Arabs had to face. However, apart from the battle field, one notes that a certain religious tolerance animated them. In 1140, the emir and chronicler Usama Ibn Mounqidh, in addition ambassador near the Francs, went to Jerusalem. It was accustomed to going to the old mosque Al-Aqsa, “place of residence of my friends Templiers” . The emir reported an anecdote during which Templiers openly took its defense at the time of the prayer. Whereas the way of requesting Moslems was at the same time unknown and misunderstood Francs lately arrived in the East, Templiers, they, found their interest by making respect this worship, even if this one were described as infidel.

A few years later, in 1187, at the time of the Battle of Hattin, the Moslem chief Saladin made decapitate with the saber, on the spot and in its presence, nearly two hundred and thirty Templiers prisoners. The private secretary of Saladin concluded while speaking about his Master: “That evils he cures while putting at dead Templier”. On the other hand, the Arab military chiefs saved the captive Masters of the order because they knew that as soon as a Master died, it was immediately replaced.

Principal battles

In the military action, Templiers were soldiers of elite. They showed courage and proved to be fine strategists. They were present on all the battle fields where was the franque army and integrated the royal armies as of 1129.

; Second head office of Ascalon (August 16th, 1153)

Templiers and money

The loan

Templiers were to carry on an economic activity, commercial and financial to pay the expenses inherent in the operation of the order and the expenditure of their military activities in the East. However, one should not confuse this activity with that of the bank. Wear, i.e. a negociation comprising the payment of an interest, was prohibited by the Church with the Christians and in addition with the monks.

Like the Old Testament says it: You will require of your brother any interest neither for the money, neither for vivres, nor for any thing which lends itself to intérêt.

Templiers lent money to all kinds of people or institutions: monastic pilgrims, crusaders, merchants, congregations, clergy, kings and princes… The amount of refunding was sometimes higher than the initial sum when it could be camouflaged by an act of change of currency. It was a current way to circumvent the interdict.

At the time of the crusade of Louis VII, the king of France while arriving at Antioche required an financial aid of Templiers. The Master of the order, Evrard of the Bars, did what is necessary. The king of France wrote with his intendant while speaking about Templiers, “we cannot imagine us how we could have remained in these countries without their assistance and their assistance. (...) We notify to you that they lent and borrowed on their behalf a considerable sum to us. This sum must be to them returned (...). ” The sum in question represented two thousand money marcs.

The bill of exchange

The financial activity of the order provided that the private individuals could deposit their goods at the time of a departure in pilgrimage towards Jerusalem, Saint-Jacob de Compostelle or Rome. Templiers invented the good of deposit thus. When a pilgrim entrusted to Templiers the sum necessary to his pilgrimage, the brother treasurer gave a letter to him on which the sum deposited was registered. This handwritten and authenticated letter took the name of bill of exchange. The pilgrim could thus travel without money on him and was more in safety. Arrived at destination, it recovered at other Templiers the integrality of its money in local currency. Templiers developed and institutionalized the service of the exchange of the currencies for the pilgrims.

The treasure of the Order

It was about a trunk locked in which were kept money, jewels, but also of the files. This safe was called bin. The Master of the order in Jerusalem carried out accountancy of it before this one was not transferred at the end of the 13th century to the treasurer from the order. Three articles of the withdrawals of the rule inform us about the financial operation 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. The incomes coming from the commanderies of Occident were given to the treasure of the seat of the order in Jerusalem.

All the cash donations of more than one hundred Besant S were concentrated in the treasure of the order. The commanderies of Paris or London were used as centers of deposits for the France and the England. Each commandery could function thanks to a treasury preserved in a trunk. At the time of the arrest of Templiers in 1307, it was found only one important trunk, that of the visitor of France, Hugues de Pairaud. The money which it contained was confiscated by the king and immediately joined the royal cases.

Guard of the royal treasure

The inheritance of Templiers

The order of the Temple had mainly two types of built inheritances: monasteries called commanderies located in Occident and fortresses located at the Middle East and in the Iberian peninsula.

The house of the Temple of Jerusalem

The house of the Temple in Jerusalem was the central seat of the order since its foundation in 1129 until in 1187, date of the fall of the Holy City taken again by Saladin. The central seat was then transferred to Acre, port city of the kingdom of Jerusalem. To the loss of the city by the Christians in 1291, the seat of the order was again transferred in the Christian ground nearest, the island of Cyprus. It is in Cyprus that lived Jacques de Molay, the last Master of the order before his return in France to be stopped there. The seat of the order installed forever in Occident.

Eastern fortresses

See also: List of the fortresses Eastern templières

To mitigate the weakness of their manpower, the crusaders undertook the construction of fortresses in the Latin States of the East. Templiers took part in this dash while making build for their need for new strong castles. They also undertook to rebuild those which had been destroyed by Saladin towards 1187 and agreed to occupy those that the lords of the East (or Spain) gave them fault of being able to maintain them. Some of them made it possible to make safe the roads attended by the Christian pilgrims around Jerusalem. Being used as at the same time military, economic establishment and policy of the order, the fortified town represented for the Muslim populations a center of Christian domination. Templiers occupied a more significant number of fortified towns in the Iberian peninsula in order to take part in the Reconquista.

At the 12th century, after the fall of the town of Jerusalem in front of the forces of Saladin in 1187, Templiers managed to resist a few months in some their fortified towns but, little by little, lost some the greatest part.

It was necessary to await the exit of the Third crusade, carried out by the kings of France, England and the emperor of Germany, so that Templiers reconstituted their military Holy Land device.

At the 13th century, in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Templiers had four fortresses: the Château Pilgrim builds in 1217 - 1218, the fortress of Safed rebuilt in 1240 - 1243, the castle of Sidon and the fortress of Beaufort both yielded by Julien, lord of Sidon in 1260.

In the County of Tripoli, they had the Château of Tortose rebuilds in 1212, of Arima and the Chastel Blanc.

In north, in the Principality of Antioche, the fortified towns templières were Baghras (Gaston) recovered in 1216, like Roche of Roissel and Rock-Guillaume which they always held, Saladin having given up conquering them in 1188.

Iberian fortresses

See also: List of the Iberian fortresses templières

In 1143, Raymond Béranger IV, count de Barcelone, required of Templiers to defend the Church of Occident in Spain, to fight the Moors and of exalter the Christian faith. Templiers accepted not without reserve, but were limited to defend and pacify the Christian borders and to colonize Spain and Portugal. A new Christian population indeed had just settled around the castles given to Templiers, the area being pacified. The Reconquista was a royal war. So the orders of knighthood were less autonomous there than in the East. They were to provide to the royal army a variable number combatants, proportional to the extent of military operation in progress. Thus, Templiers Spanish took part in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. In Portugal, Templiers took share with the catch of Alcácer C Sal, in 1217, with the catch of Valencia in 1238, of Tarifa in 1292, with the conquest of the Andalusia and the kingdom of Grenade. The action about the Temple in the Iberian peninsula was thus secondary, because the order made a point of privileging its activities out of Holy Land. However, it had much more fortified towns in the Iberian peninsula than in the East. Indeed, one counts at least soixante-douze sites only for Spain and at least six for Portugal (one counts only one score of fortified towns in the East). It is also in this zone that one finds the buildings which best resisted the time (or which profited from restorations), such as for example the castles of Almourol, Miravet, Tomar and Peniscola.

Fortresses in Eastern Europe

See also: List of the fortresses templières of Eastern Europe

With the difference of the East and Iberian peninsula where Templiers faced the Moslems, Eastern Europe, where the orders monk-soldiers were also established, confronted them with the Paganisme. Indeed, the territories of the Poland, the Bohemia, the Moravie, the Hungary, but also of the Lithuania and the Livonie formed a corridor of wild ground paganism, made up mainly not yet cleared, taken out of clippers between the catholic Occident and the orthodoxe Russia . Borusses (Prussian), Lithuanians, Lives or Coumans, still pagan, had resisted it the advanced one - slow but inexorable - Christianity for several centuries. The catholic christianization, which interests us here, was done on the initiative of papacy but with the support of the converted Germanic princes (who saw the occasion there to increase their terrestrial possessions at the same time as to reinforce the chances of hello for their heart) and with the support of the bishops, in particular that of Riga, who held to some extent of the fortified towns in pagan territory.

After disappearance in 1238 of the Order of Dobrin (officially recognized by the pope Gregoire IX under the name “Knights of the Christ of Prussia”), which had carried out the first conversions, Templiers are transfered formally invited to take foot in Eastern Europe. For this purpose, were granted the order three villages along the river Bug as well as the fortress of Łuków (which they are transfered to entrust in 1258, at the same time as the mission of defending the Christian presence in this area). Throughout the 13th century, the presence of Templiers in Eastern Europe was increasing and one counted to fourteen establishments and two fortresses templières.

However, Templiers (just like the Hospital ones, which was also present in Eastern Europe) quickly yielded the place to the teutonic Ordre in the fight against the Paganisme dominating these moved back areas. The two orders hesitated to open a third face coming to be added to those of the Holy Land and the Iberian peninsula, whereas the idea first of this installation at the borders of Christianity was especially to diversify the sources of revenue in order to finance the continuation of the principal activities of the Holy Land order.

Another area of Europe Eastern, but southernmost, the Hungary had to face just like Poland with the invasions devastators of the Mongolian in the neighborhoods of 1240. Present there too, Templiers sent information to the Western kings without to be able to alert them sufficiently so that a voluntary reaction and effective barrel started.

Commanderies

See also: Description of a commandery templière, List of the commanderies templières

A commandery was a Monastère in which the brothers of the order in Occident lived. It was used as a basis back 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 constituted starting from land and real donations.

The majority of the goods had by the order of the Temple came from Don S or Legs. In the first years of its creation, the land gifts made it possible the order to be established everywhere in Europe. Then, there were three large waves of donations of 1130 with 1140, of 1180 with 1190 and of 1210 with 1220. First of all, one can note that all the men who entered the order could make the gift of part of their goods to the Temple. Then, the gifts could come from all the social categories, of the king to the laic one. For example, the king Henri II of England yielded to the Temple the strong house of Holy-Vaubourg and his right-of-way on the Seine to the the Valley-of-the-Hague, in Normandy. Another example which one can quote is the gift made in 1255 by the canon Etienne Collomb of the Saint-Etienne cathedral of Auxerre of a Cens perceived in the borough of Saint-Amâtre.

Even if the gifts were in majority made up of land goods or incomes relating to grounds, the gifts of revenues or trading incomes were not negligible. For example, Louis VII yielded in 1143 - 1144 a revenue of twenty-seven pounds established on the stalls of the changers to Paris.

The gifts could be of three different nature:

Donation pro animated : it could be a question of an important donation (which was often at the origin of the creation of a commandery) or then of a minor land gift relating only to some pieces. The motivation of the giver was to call upon the safety of its heart or the remission of its fished.

Donation in extremis : this type of donation was carried out in major part by pilgrims acting by precaution. They carried out this gift before leaving out of Holy Land. Not very many, these donations was quickly replaced by the testamentary legacy.

remunerated Donation: the giver acted with an aim of perceiving a counterpresent. It was not exactly of a sale but rather about a remunerated gift, ensuring the giver one to have enabling him to receive what to live. The recipient (on this occasion the order of the Temple) was also gaining in this type of gift, the counterpresent being of a lower value. The goal of this type of donation was to facilitate the process of gift, knowing that the transfer of whole or part of a landed property could seriously start the income of the giver or that of its heirs. It was not rare besides that certain conflicts between the order and of the heirs occurred in similar cases, the litigation being regulated sometimes by the means of justice.

After the reception of these gifts, it remained with the order of the Temple to organize and gather the whole in a coherent unit. With this intention, Templiers proceeded to many exchanges or of sales in order to structure their commanderies and to gather the grounds to optimize the income which could be drawn about it. One can take the process of Remembrement like parallel, at least in connection with the regrouping of the grounds around or dependant on a commandery.

Essentially, one can quote all the countries of the Christian Occident of the Middle Ages like grounds of establishment about the Temple. Thus, there were commanderies templières in the following current countries: France, England, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands. In the same way, there were commanderies in the East.

According to Georges Bordonove, one can estimate the number of commanderies templières in France at 700. The quality of these vestiges is very diverse today. Very little could keep their buildings completely. Certain commanderies were completely destroyed and do not exist any more but in an archaeological state, which is the case for example of the Commanderie de Payns in the Fief of the founder of the order. In France, three commanderies remain intact: for north, the Commanderie de Coulommiers, in area center is the Commanderie d' Arville and in the south the Commanderie of Couvertoirade.

Only the documents of files and in particular the Cartulaire S about the Temple make it possible to attest origin templière of a building.

The fall of the order

The fall about the Temple is also the polemic object. It would be the fact of the king de France Philippe IV Beautiful the which would have acted with a single aim to adapt the treasure of Templiers. However, the reasons for which the order was eliminated are much more complex and those below exposed represent probably only one negligible part of it.

Reasons

One of the first reasons was the loss of the town of Midsummer's Day d' Acre, which involved that of the Holy Land. Indeed, the May 28th 1291, the crusaders lost Acre at the conclusion of a bloody battle. The Christians were then obliged to leave the Holy Land and the religious orders such as Templiers as well as the Hospitaliers did not escape this exodus. The control of the order was moved with Cyprus. However, once expelled of Holy Land, with the practical impossibility to reconquer it, the question of the utility about the Temple arose because it had been created in the beginning to defend the pilgrims going with Jerusalem on the Tombeau of Christ.

A quarrel also opposed the king of France Philippe IV Beautiful the to the pope Boniface VIII, this last having affirmed the superiority of the pontifical capacity on the temporal power of the kings, by publishing a pontifical Bulle in 1302: Unam Sanctam . The answer of king de France arrived in the form of a request for council for purposes to relieve the pope, which excommunicated in Philippe return the Beautiful one and all his family by the bubble Super Patri Solio . Boniface VIII died the October 11th 1303, shortly after the Attentat of Anagni. Its successor, Benoit XI, had a very short pontificate since he died in his turn the July 7th 1304. Clément V was elected to succeed the June 5th to him 1305.

However, following the fall of Acre, Templiers are withdrawn with Cyprus then returned to Occident to occupy their Commanderie S. Templiers had immense richnesses, increased by the goods resulting from the work of their commanderies (cattle, agriculture…) but (especially?) they had a military power equivalent to fifteen thousand men including thousand five hundred knights trained with the combat, forces entirely devoted with the Pape. Consequently, such a force could only prove awkward to be able it in place. It is to be added that the royal legists, trained with the Roman law, sought with exalter the power of the royal Souveraineté. However, the presence of the Temple as a pontifical Juridiction largely limited the capacity of the king on his clean Territoire. The Attentat of Anagni is one of the reflections of this fight of the legists to ensure a capacity as little limited as possible to the king. The position of the legists, of people like Guillaume de Nogaret, as advisers of the king surely had an influence on Philippe the Beautiful one.

Lastly, certain historians lend a share of responsibility in the loss for the order to Jacques de Molay, Master of the Temple elected in 1293 with Cyprus after the loss of Midsummer's Day d' Acre. Indeed, following the loss of Acre, a project of crusade germinated again in the spirit of certain Christian kings but more especially in that of the Pape Clément V. The pope also wished a fusion of the two military orders most powerful of Holy Land and announced it in a letter that it sent to Jacques de Molay in 1306. The Master answered it by another letter in which he was opposed to this idea, without to be categorical. However, the arguments which it advanced to support its own ideas were quite mean…

Today, the implication of the pope in the arrest of the templiers could be subjected to polemic. Certain historians speak about 3 meetings, between Philippe the Beautiful one and Clement V, spread out of 1306 to 1308, during which the fate of the templiers was ruled. However, these historians are based on the only contemporary source. Indeed, an Italian chronicler of the name of Giovanni Villani is the only one to indicate a meeting between the king and the pope in 1305, supposedly to tackle the question of the suppression of the order. It should be noted that other historians estimate that it is not serious to trust only in Villani, because Italian of the time had a strong resentment against Clément V, pope French. The same historians attest of a meeting between the king of France and the pope in the month of May 1307, a few months thus before the arrest. The royal legists will call upon, one year afterwards, this meeting by affirming that the pope had then given his authorization to the arrest.

The pope will settle in Avignon in 1309, where it remained intermittently since 1305, inaugurating, on a residence which wanted to be temporary, the line of the popes of Avignon until 1403. By the bubble Faciens misericordiam , it names into 1308 of the pontifical commissions charged to inquire into the order, in margin of the secular procedure initiated by Philippe the Beautiful one.

The arrest of Templiers

The idea to destroy the order of the Temple was already present in the spirit of the king Philippe IV Beautiful the, but this last missed evidence and consents in order to set in motion a procedure. It was thing made thanks to a major asset unearthed by Guillaume de Nogaret in the person of old Templier: Esquieu de Floyran. This one acknowledged in 1305 with king de France the practices obscenes of the rites of entry in the order and Philippe the Beautiful one, very pious character, was shocked by such acts. He thus wrote to the Pope to inform him of the contents of these consents.

At the same time, Jacques de Molay, of the current of these rumors, required a pontifical investigation of the pope. This last granted it to him on August 24th 1307. However, Philippe the Beautiful one was in a hurry. He did not await the results of the investigation and dispatched messengers the September 14th 1307 with all his seneshals and baillifs, giving them directives in order to carry out the massive arrest of Templiers in France during the same day, Friday October 13rd 1307. The goal of this action taken over one day was to profit owing to the fact that Templiers were disseminated on all the territory and thus to prevent that the latter, alarmed by the arrest of some their brothers, did not gather and then did not become difficult to stop.

In the morning of October 13rd 1307, Guillaume de Nogaret and men-at-arms penetrated in the enclosure of the Temple of Paris where resided the Master of the order Jacques de Molay. With the sight of the royal decree which justified this raid, Templiers were let take along without any resistance. With Paris, it was made 138 prisoners, in addition to the Master of the order.

An identical scenario proceeded at the same time in all the France. The majority of Templiers present in the commanderies were stopped. They did not oppose any resistance. Some succeeded in escaping before or during the arrests. The prisoners were locked up for the majority with Paris, Caen, Rouen and with the Château of Gisors. All their goods were inventoried and entrusted to the guard of the royal Treasury.

Those which, in 1306, had collected Philippe IV Beautiful the during the riots of Paris found now locked up while waiting for their lawsuit.

The lawsuit

Since all Templiers of the Royaume of France had been stopped, Philippe IV Beautiful the enjoignit European sovereigns (Spain and England) to make in the same way. All refused because they feared the lightnings of the pope. The king of France was not discouraged and thus opened the lawsuit of Templiers by it.

However, the order of the Temple was an religious order and could not undergo laic justice for this reason. Philippe the Beautiful one thus asked his confessor, Guillaume of Paris, also Grand Inquisiteur de France, to proceed to the interrogations of hundred thirty-eight Templiers stopped in Paris. Among these knights, thirty-eight died under torture, but especially the beginning of the “consents” had been engaged. Among the sins generally returning, the Enquiry heard of the disavowal of the Holy-Cross, of the disavowal of the Christ, the sodomy and the worship of an idol (called the Baphomet). Only three Templiers resisted torture and did not acknowledge any behavior obscene.

In order to try to protect the order from the Temple, the Pape Clément V fulminated the bubble Pastoralis praeminentiae which ordered to the European sovereigns to stop Templiers who resided on their premises and to put their goods under the management of the Church. Moreover, the Pope asked to hear itself Templiers with Poitiers. But, the majority of the dignitaries being imprisoned with Chinon, king Philippe the Beautiful one pretexted that the prisoners (soixante-douze in all and sorted by the king himself) were too weak to make the voyage. The pope then delegated two cardinals to go to hear the witnesses with Chinon. He will reach us a document called the manuscript or Parchemin of Chinon which gives the discharge to the persons in charge about the Temple.

The first pontifical commission took place the November 12th 1309 in Paris. The purpose of it was to judge the order of the Temple as a moral person and not like natural person. With this intention, it sent as of the August 8th a circular to all évêchés in order to make come Templiers stopped so that they appear before the commission. Only one brother denounced the consents made under torture: Ponsard de Gisy, tutor of the Commanderie de Payns. The February 6th 1310, fifteen Templiers out of sixteen protested their innocence and were followed soon by the majority of their brothers.

The king of France then wished to save time and made name with the archiépiscopat Sens an archbishop who was completely devoted for him: Philippe de Marigny (half-brother of Enguerrand de Marigny).

This one sent fifty four Templiers to the Bûcher the May 12th 1310, following their consents extorted under the Torture in 1307. All the interrogations were finished the May 26th 1311.

The council of Vienna

The Concile of Vienna, which was held the October 16th 1311 within the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice of Vienna, had three objectives: to rule on the fate of the order, to discuss the reform of the Church and to organize a news Crusade.

However, at the time of the council, some Templiers decided to be presented: they were seven and wished to defend the order. The king, wanting to finish some with the order of the Temple, left in direction Vienna with men-at-arms in order to make pressure on Clément V. It arrived on the spot the March 20th 1312. The March 22nd 1312, the Pope fulminated the bubble Vox in excelso which ordered the final abolition of the order. As regards the fate Templiers and their goods, the pope fulminated two other bubbles:

AD providam May 2nd 1312, concerned goods of Temple which was bequeathed entirely to the order of the Hôpital (except for the Spain and of the Portugal, where two orders were born from ashes about the Temple, the Ordre of Montesa and the order of Christ)
Considering dudum the May 6th 1312 as for it, determined the fate of the men. Those having acknowledged or having been declared innocent would be seen allotting a revenue and could live in a house of the order whereas all those having denied or being retracted, would undergo a severe punishment (the capital punishment).

However, the fate of the dignitaries about the Temple remained between the hands of the pope.

Fate of the dignitaries

A pontifical commission was named the December 22nd 1313. It consisted of three cardinals and solicitors of king de France and was to rule on the fate of the four dignitaries of the order. Before this commission, they reiterated their consents. The 11 or March 18th 1314, the four Templiers were brought on the square of Notre-Dame de Paris so that the sentence was read to them. It is there that Jacques de Molay, Master about the Temple, Geoffroy de Charnay, tutor of Normandy, Hugues de Pairaud, visitor of France and Geoffroy de Goneville, tutor in Poitou - Aquitaine learned that they were condemned to the life imprisonment.

However, Jacques de Molay and Geoffroy de Charnay protested their innocence. They had thus lied to the judges of the Enquiry, were declared Relaps and were to undergo another sentence. Here description that made some, in its chronic Latin , Guillaume de Nangis, a chronicler of the time: But whereas the cardinals thought of having put a term at this business, here that suddenly and suddenly two among them, the large Master and the Master of Normandy, defended themselves obstinately against the cardinal which had pronounced the sermon and against the archbishop of Direction of Marigny, returning on their confession and all that they had acknowledged.

The following day, Philippe the Beautiful one convened his council and, despizing cardinals, condemned both Templiers to roughing-hew. They were led on the island to the Jews in order to be burned alives there. Geoffroi (or Godefroi) of Paris was an eyewitness of this execution. He wrote in his metric Chronique (1312 - 1316), the words of the Master of the order: I see my judgment here where to die is appropriate to me freely; God knows who wrongly, which sinned. He soon will arrive misfortune at those which condemned us wrongly: God will avenge our death. Proclaiming until fine his innocence and that of the order, Jacques de Molay referred about it thus to divine justice and it is in front of the divine court that it assigned those which on Earth had judged it. Both condemned required to turn their faces towards the cathedral Notre-Dame to request. It is with greatest dignity that they died. Guillaume de Nangis added: It was seen them whether determined to undergo the torment of fire, with such a will, that they raised admiration at all those which witnessed their death… .

The royal decision had been so fast that one realized afterwards that the small island where one had drawn up to rough-hew it did not find under the royal jurisdiction, but under that of the monks of Saint-Germain-of-Meadows. The king thus had to confirm in writing that the execution carried by no means reached to their rights on the island.

Giovanni Villani, contemporary of Templiers, but which did not attend the scene, added in its Nova Cronica that the king of France and his sons tested great shame of this sin , and that the night after the aforementioned Master and his companion was martyrisés, their ashes and their bones were collected like relics crowned by the brothers and other nuns people, and were taken along in devoted places. This testimony is however prone to suspicions, Villani being a Florentin and having written his work between one and two decades after the facts.

Consequences and legends

The dissolution of the Order at the time of the Council of Vienna and then the death of Jacques de Molay marked the final end about the Temple. The goods templiers, in particular the commanderies, were transferred by the papal bubble AD Providam in major part with the Ordre of the Hospital, except in the Royaume of Valence where they passed to new the Ordre of Montesa, founded in 1317, and with the Portugal where they passed to the Ordre of Christ, founded in 1319 (Order of Christ which one will see the cross on the veils of the ships of Christophe Colomb at the time of his crossing of the Atlantique in 1492). These two orders are only the " legitimate successors of Temple".

With regard to Philippe Beautiful the, the fall of the order enabled him to reinflate the cases of the state and the deficit of the Treasury would then have been made up for several years. It was not the first time besides that this kind of process was used. Thus, that had already been the case following the measurements taken against the Lombards in 1307 and 1309 and also after the expulsion of the Juif S and the seizure of their Créance S.

The disappearance of the order was also advantageous with the middle-class, in the direction where the latter provides on behalf of the state many managers in order to manage the goods which belonged formerly to the temple.

The Nationalization of the financial of the kingdom, then desired administration by the king in order to more not depend on foreign (that they are lombards, Jews or templiers, the latter escaping the sphere from the royal capacity) was another consequence of the disappearance of the order. This last consequence returned within the framework it reinforcement of the capacity of the state, process which was a showpiece of the reign of Philippe the Beautiful one.

The fine tragedy of Templiers contributed to generate legends on their subject. Those go from the rumors about their association with the Holy Grail, until the interrogations in connection with their possible links with the freemasons. Moreover, certain groupings or secret societies, such as the Priory of Sion, the Rosicrucian brotherhood or some Sect S, such as the Order of the solar Temple or the Ordo Templi Orientis, will claim order thereafter, affirming their filiation while being based on a pseudo-survival of the order or by usurping the dress templier and by taking again certain rites.

Appendices

External bonds

Beaucéant Project by Christophe STAFFS
Templiers and crusades by Jack BOCAR

Internal bonds

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