In one of the previous posts () I talked about the so-called. "Curse of Jacques de Molay", pronounced on March 18, 1314. Jacques de Molay was the last Grand Master of the Templars. Where did this mysterious order even come from?
The first mention of the Templars belongs to the archbishop and historian William of Tire. William of Tyre (1130-1186), was archdeacon of the Tyrian metropolitan and tutor of Crown Prince Baldwin, then ambassador to Constantinople and Rome. He entered into an alliance with Emperor Manuel I Komnenos in 1168. In 1174, William was appointed Archbishop of Tire and led the policy of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was fluent in Latin, French, Greek, Arabic, Syriac and German. In general, even by today's standards, he was a very educated person. Not to mention the medieval standards.
In his book "Historia belli sacri a principibus christianis in Palaestina et in Oriente gesti", written between 1175 and 1185, William of Tire outlined the history of the kingdom of the Franks in Palestine from its very foundation. It is worth noting that by the time he began this extensive work, the Templar Order had already existed for half a century and, therefore, he described many events from the words of other people, including from the words of the Templars themselves.
This is probably the first secret - and there will be many such secrets - in the history of the Order. It’s surprising that for the first half century, an organization that so influenced the history of Europe, the first decades of its existence, seemed to go unnoticed. Therefore, by the way, everything that we know explicitly about the history of the creation of the Templar Order, we know exclusively from the book of William of Tire.
Founder and first Grand Master of the Order, Hugo de Payen. Sculptural image
According to William of Tyre, the Order of the “Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” - this is how the Templar Order was officially called - was founded in 1118. A certain knight Hugh de Payen, a vassal of the Count of Champagne, as well as eight of his comrades, decided to protect the pilgrims going to the Holy Land. The goal is undoubtedly noble, considering all the dangers to which the pious travelers were exposed, but it was clearly not designed for the strength of nine people.
Be that as it may, the comrades appeared before the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin I (brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, who took possession of the Holy City nineteen years before the events described). These nine people offered their services for the protection of pilgrims, for the supervision of the roads leading to holy places, as well as for the general protection of the Holy Sepulcher. Considering that the Kingdom of Jerusalem occupied approximately the territory occupied by the modern state of Israel, i.e. with an area of more than 20 thousand sq. km, one can imagine the amount of work that nine fearless knights were going to shoulder on their mighty shoulders. Baldwin I can hardly be called a very exemplary Christian (for example, for selfish purposes, he remarried a rich bride without divorcing his wife), but he sanctioned the godly activities of the new brethren.
Logically, such a field of activity - the protection of pilgrims and all roads of the kingdom, implied the need to maximize the number of the order. However, for the first nine years of the order's existence, not a single new member was accepted into it. That is, strictly speaking, nine people supposedly supervised all the roads of the kingdom, and also guarded the pilgrims. Even if they scattered individually in nine different directions, they would hardly be able to pull off such work. But they could not do this either, because, as William of Tire says, they were so poor that they had one horse between them. Even the official seal of the order depicts two riders sitting on one horse. True, since there were nine of them, and nine cannot be completely divided into two, then apparently either one of them (possibly Hugh de Payens) had a whole horse at his complete disposal, or some horse was forced to carry three knights at once . Poor animal! In any case, it was not the most numerous cavalry.
Seal of the Templars.
True - and this apparently explains a lot - the seal itself dates back to the next century and, most likely, the first Templars were not so strapped for money that they were not able to acquire nine horses. Rather, two knights on one horse are a poetic image that emphasizes both the motto of the Templars - “Poverty and mercy”, and, perhaps, the unusually close friendly ties between members of the order - they say, too friendly, which they will be accused of in 1307.
No matter how many horses the first members of the order had, these animals stood in truly royal stables. In 1118, Baldwin I died, and the new king, Baldwin II, allocated to the brethren an entire wing of his palace, located on the foundation of the ancient Temple of Solomon, exactly on the site of its stables (in the southeastern wing), which, as they say, could accommodate up to two thousand horses. Actually, it was precisely this circumstance that the Order owed its name, which went down in history - the Order of the Temple. Temple in French is temple, hence the Templars. Everything is very simple. However, the Order itself was far from simple.
Although, if you continue to believe William of Tire, there were only nine people, in nine years the Templars covered themselves with such glory that it spread to continental Europe and Bernard of Clairvaux himself (lived in the 12th century, French medieval theologian, mystic, public figure, Cistercian monk , abbot of the Clairvaux monastery; was an active promoter of the reorientation of the vector of the crusades to the East, to the lands of the Slavs) drew attention to the rising luminary of the knightly horizon. Bernard even wrote an entire treatise in which he ardently extolled the virtues of the new chivalry and declared the Templars to be the personification of Christian values. And let me remind you, we were talking about an organization of only nine people.
Fragment of the model of the Jerusalem Temple of Herod the Great (Temple of Solomon). Reconstruction.
In 1127, Hugh de Payens and some of his comrades went to Europe, where they received a triumphal reception (the roads of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, therefore, were left without cover for this period). The following year, the Pope convened a council in Troyes under the spiritual leadership of Bernard of Clairvaux. This was the second important point in the history of the Order. At this council, the Templars were officially recognized as members of a simultaneous military and religious association. Hugo of Paines received the title of “Grand Master” of the community of monastic soldiers, mystical warriors who formed the “Army of Christ.” It is worth noting, by the way, that this term - “the army of Christ” - applied only to the Templars, and not at all to all the crusaders, as they began to imply much later.
Finally, Bernard of Clairvaux approved the charter and rules of the new order, strengthening with his authority the already strengthening positions of the templars, apparently by leaps and bounds. According to the rules, the Templars were supposed to live in poverty, chastity and obedience; they should cut their hair, but not shave their beards. All “Knights of Christ” had to wear uniform clothing - a white cassock or cape, which over time turned into the famous white cloak of the Templars, symbolizing the purity of thoughts of the members of the Order.
The charter described a strict administrative hierarchy, as well as many other details - from the behavior of knights on the battlefield to the use of valuables placed at the disposal of the Templars.
In 1139, Pope Innocent II, by his bull, granted the Templars significant privileges: from that moment on, the order was under the exclusive tutelage of his Holiness and could only be dissolved by the Pope. Thus, the Order of the Templars was removed from the jurisdiction of any secular power of the monarchs of Europe and the Holy Land, turning into a personal order of the papacy, becoming the first, so to speak, international organization of Europe, if you like - the prototype of a united Europe. This is a very important point, which largely influenced the tragic ending of the order.
Knights literally poured into the order from all over Europe. Wealth also increased - the charter required that a knight applying for membership give everything he owned to the order. And since the main wealth of the knights of that time was not chests full of gold, but lands, the Order of the Templars very quickly and very naturally became the owner of impressive territories in France, England, Flanders, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary and, of course, the Holy Land . Moreover, none of the knights was personally rich, since they fulfilled a vow of poverty, but the order as a whole became one of the richest organizations in the Christian world. There was no longer talk of riding along dusty roads together on one horse. In 1130, Hugh de Payens returned to Palestine, accompanied by three hundred new brothers, despite the fact that some of the newly converted Templars remained in Europe to guard the scattered lands of the Order.
In 1146, during the reign of Pope Eugene III, the famous red cross with characteristic “fingered” ends appeared on the white cloak of the Templars. With the new cross, the Templars took part in the Second Crusade. The Second Crusade took place in 1147-1149. It was started in response to the capture of Edessa in 1144 by Muslim troops. Contrary to expectations, the results of the campaign for the crusaders were insignificant. The Muslims not only were not defeated, but won a number of victories. The Second Crusade was led by the French king Louis VII. After this campaign, the cross of scarlet matter located above the heart of each Templar was approved by the Pope as a coat of arms.
Battle of Ashkelon (1153). In this battle, forty Templars, led by their master Bernard de Tremblay, rushed into the city, destroying many Saracens, but in the end they themselves died and were hanged by the Muslims on the walls of the city. (Engraving by Gustave Doré).
During the campaign, the Templars showed themselves to be recklessly brave warriors who never retreat and at the same time are surprisingly disciplined. In the rather careless armies of the crusaders there were no knights equal to the Templars in moral, volitional and fighting qualities. The French king even privately admitted that if such a poorly organized campaign did not turn into a complete collapse, it was only thanks to the Templars. They showed themselves in exactly the same way in all the other crusades in Palestine, which each time became more and more inglorious for European chivalry.
A century after its founding, the Order of the Temple has grown into a powerful international organization. The Templars were the source of a huge number of diplomatic actions, they were in contact with all the monarchs of Europe, while not forgetting about the Holy Land. As an example of the power of the order, it can be mentioned that, for example, in England, the Grand Master was regularly elected to parliament (of course, we are talking about parliament in the rudimentary form in which it existed at that time). In London, the order had a large residence, which was regularly visited by English kings and even, as they say, the Grand Master stood next to John the Landless when he signed the Great Charter (the Magna Carta, let me remind you, is a political and legal document drawn up in June 1215 on based on the demands of the English nobility to King John the Landless (1167-1216) and defended a number of legal rights and privileges of the free population of medieval England).
However, the matter was not limited to Europe. The Templars maintained relations with the Saracen leaders, and it was even rumored that they had relations with the Ismaili order, known in fiction as the Assassins.
Great power gives rise to competitors and enemies. In 1252, Henry III of England (1207-1272) challenged the Templars, threatening to confiscate their property: “You Templars have so many liberties and charters that your limitless possibilities fill you with pride and insolence.” The Grand Master reacted with lightning speed: “What are you saying, oh king!... If you violate justice, you will cease to be a king!” This, of course, was too much - even the Pope did not have the power to depose kings. But the English king, as they say, “swallowed the insult.”
However, while the Templars were becoming more and more powerful in Europe, clouds began to gather at the epicenter of their appearance - in the Holy Land. In 1250, power in Egypt was seized by the Mamluks - a military caste that consisted mainly of Turks - former slave warriors. The Mamluks immediately began expansion and by 1291 only one fortress of Acre remained from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but it also eventually fell. In defending it, the Templars showed enormous heroism, continuing to hold back Mamluk attacks to allow women and children to escape.
Having lost their base in the Holy Land, the Templars found a new headquarters on the island of Cyprus. At the same time, of course, their commanderies continued to be scattered throughout Europe, especially densely located in France. The last Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, undertook a voyage across Europe in order to find support for organizing a new crusade to liberate the Holy Land. But in Europe the situation was somewhat different. Europe no longer wanted to waste energy on deserted Palestine, focusing on internal affairs. The ambitious and ambitious French king Philip IV the Handsome, hatched plans for what his distant descendant Louis XIV completed under the name of “absolutism”. The king's ambitions reached the point that he decided to “pocket” the popes of Rome, moving them from Rome, closer to himself - to Avignon. Having installed his Pope, Clement V, he carried out this idea. True, before this he performed another, much more dangerous event.
A king like Philip IV could not accept the fact that in his kingdom there was a large, powerful, rich, and most importantly, organization completely beyond his control. Many of those who write about the sad end of the Templars put forward mercantile considerations as the main motive of Philip IV, saying that the king coveted the wealth of the Templars. Of course, the wealth of the Templars was a very significant point. However, at a time when any war ended in the robbery of the vanquished, there was nothing particularly remarkable about this. The bourgeois era, which always sees only economic interests in everything, naturally saw exclusively greedy calculation in the intentions of Philip IV. However, it appears that political considerations were more significant. The fact is that the Templars threatened the power of the king himself. Almost from the very beginning, the Templars considered themselves the personal order of the Pope and Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master, was very unpleasant to see how the French king treated Clement V. Moreover, Jacques de Molay demanded that Clement V organize a public investigation into the insinuations that the agents of Philip the Fair began to spread against the Templars.
Be that as it may, and no matter what the actual reasons pushed the French king to take this step, early in the morning on Friday, October 13, 1307, arrests of the Templars began throughout France. Almost all the knights, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, were arrested. The order was dissolved and banned. No unprecedented wealth was discovered in the Paris residence of the Templars. Which once again shows that the treasury of the Templars was not the main concern of the king - after all, having organized such a thorough operation to arrest the Templars throughout the country in one day, he probably could have secured himself in terms of the treasury, preventing it from being taken out of Paris. And the Templar treasury left Paris (if it was there at all) and, it is believed, was taken out in galleys in an unknown direction. After which its traces are lost and speculation begins, which gave rise to one of the most mysterious legends - the legend of the Templar treasures.
Castle of Gisors in Normandy; here from March 1310 to March 1314 Jacques de Molay and a number of other high-ranking Templars were imprisoned. Modern photo.
The trial of Jacques de Molay and other senior leaders of the Order lasted intermittently for seven years. Only in 1314, Jacques de Molay was sentenced to death by burning. It was burned on March 18, 1314. It is believed that before his death, Jacques de Molay cursed the French king Philip IV the Fair and Pope Clement V. Whether this is true or not, both survived the Grand Master by only a few months and died under suspicious circumstances. This gave rise to a second legend - the legend of the curse of Jacques de Molay, which he allegedly addressed to the entire dynasty of the French Carolingians.
Of course, not all Templars died even in France. Many got away with ostentatious renunciations. And those who did not want to renounce and had the opportunity to escape, some hid in Scotland, some in Germany and Italy. In Germany, the Templars even threatened to take up arms if they were not found innocent and were immediately forgiven. Some of the Templars joined the Order of the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order (which had previously been created largely thanks to the Order of the Temple). In Spain and Portugal, the Templars changed their name and began to be called the Knights of Christ, and until the 16th century they participated in sea expeditions under this name. Let us remember, by the way, that the caravels of Christopher Columbus went to look for a way to India, and on their white sails a huge red “finger” cross of the Templars was painted.
Columbus's ships. Modern drawing.
In 1522, the Prussian descendants of the Templars, the Teutonic Knights, who by this time were already a rather secular organization, supported the initiator of the Reformation, Martin Luther, who showed Germany his revolutionary translation of the Bible. In 1525, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order converted to Protestantism, resigned and announced the secularization of the Prussian lands - the territory that belonged to the Teutonic Order, thereby finally breaking all ties with Rome, which once betrayed the Templars.
In the 18th century, many secret brotherhoods, to one degree or another, honored the memory of the Templars as their predecessors. For example, a number of Masonic rites are believed to have come from the Order of Christ. And the very image of the Templars and their last great master was drowned in an abundance of different novels and fantasies. Nowadays, games of the Templars have acquired completely comedic forms. Probably, looking at the fat-bellied rich old men-reenactors, on the weekend after major transactions, wrapped in cloaks with a red cross at some VIP villa, Jacques de Molay would have been quite surprised at the bizarre turns of history. The Templars originated as an order of poor, fearless ascetic warriors, and today, under this name, rich, pampered, bored old men amuse themselves.
Modern "Templars".
And the question involuntarily comes to mind: was Jacques de Molay really avenged on January 21, 1793, as announced throughout the square by a stranger who dipped his hands in the blood of the just executed French king? And won’t there still be those who want to avenge his death?
Who knows. However, one thing is clear - the order of the “Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” was brought to life by the era of the Crusades. His main goal and the whole meaning of his existence was the idea of fighting the infidels for the Holy Sepulcher. But along with the end of the era of the Crusades, the Templars themselves came to naught. And although they gave rise to many related movements, Europe no longer saw the Templars themselves in the second half of the 14th century.
Chapter first. Birth of the Templar Order
How does a legend usually begin?
In the case of the knights of the Jerusalem Temple of Solomon, the beginning of the legend is immersed in darkness. Not a single chronicler writes about them. We only know that by 1125 the Templars already existed, since a charter dated that year and certified by a signature has been preserved Hugo de Paynas, where the latter is called "Master of the Temple".
Subsequent generations will begin to tell the story of the first Templars - each time a little differently:
“At the beginning of the reign of Baldwin II, a certain Frenchman came from Rome to Jerusalem to offer prayers. He vowed not to return to his homeland, but to help the king in the war for three years, after which he became a monk. He and thirty other knights who arrived with him decided to end their days in Jerusalem. When the king and his barons saw how successfully these knights fought... they advised him to remain in military service with his thirty knights and defend the city from robbers, instead of becoming a monk in the hope of finding the salvation of his own soul.
This is what Michael of Syria, Patriarch of Antioch, says about the emergence of the Order of the Templars, around 1190. Around the same time, the Englishman Walter Man gives a slightly different version:
“A knight named Payne, originally from a place of the same name in Burgundy, came to Jerusalem as a pilgrim. Having heard that Christians who water their horses at a well near the gates of Jerusalem are often attacked by pagans lurking in ambush and that many of his fellow believers die, he was filled with pity and... tried to protect them as best he could. He often rushed to their aid from a skillfully chosen hiding place and killed many enemies.”
Walter describes the founder of the order as a lone ranger who over time rallied other like-minded knights around him. This version is quite suitable for a Western script, but it is unlikely that such a warrior could live long enough to found an order of knighthood.
A later author, a monk from Corby named Bernard, told the story of the early Templars differently. His work was written in 1232, more than a hundred years after the origin of the order, but Bernard relied on the now lost text of a certain Yernul, a man of noble birth who lived in Jerusalem at about the same time as the previous authors. Here's what Bernard writes:
“When the Christians conquered Jerusalem, they camped at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and many others came to them from all over. And they obeyed the abbot of the temple. The good knights consulted among themselves and said: “We left our lands and our friends and came here to magnify and glorify the power of the Lord. If we remain here and eat, drink and spend our time in idleness, then we carry our swords to no avail. Meanwhile, this land needs our weapons... So let’s combine our forces and choose one of us as a leader... so that he will lead us into battle when it happens."
Thus, Bernard believes that these warriors were originally pilgrims who camped at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and obeyed the clergyman, and they united into a fighting detachment solely from idleness.
Finally, we have in our possession a document setting forth the point of view of William, Archbishop of Tire. He is quoted more often than others - this version is considered generally accepted. Since William was born in Jerusalem and educated in Europe, he, on the one hand, had access to local written sources, and on the other, he had the refined style to tell his story properly.
“In the same year (1119), several noble knights, loving the Lord with all their souls, pious and God-fearing, gave themselves into the hands of the patriarch for the service of Jesus Christ, expressing a desire to live until the end of their days, observing chastity, showing humility and obedience and renouncing possession any property. The most prominent of them were the venerable Hugh of Payne and Godefroy of Saint-Omer. Since they had neither a church nor a permanent home, the king gave them temporary shelter in his palace, which was located on the south side of the Temple of the Lord... The service of these knights, entrusted to them by the patriarch and other bishops for the forgiveness of sins, consisted of the best protection of roads and the paths along which pilgrims walked, from attacks by robbers and robbers.”
These versions have something in common. They all assume that Hugo de Payns was the first Templar and that the king of Jerusalem Baldwin II recognized the Templars either as knights who considered it their duty to protect pilgrims, or as a group of religious people who wanted to use their military experience to protect Christian settlements. Versions unanimously claim that the Templars first lived in the place where, according to the crusaders, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was located, that is, where Jesus Christ was buried. Only after uniting into an order did these people occupy part of the royal palace - where Solomon's Temple was supposed to be located. It is possible that at first they shared this room with hospitallers, whose order had existed in the Holy Land since 1070.
The chronicles do not give a clear idea who had the idea to create an order whose members were supposed to live like monks and fight like warriors. Warrior monks? It sounded absurd. Warriors had to shed blood, and bloodshed was a sin. The monks prayed for the salvation of the souls of the warriors, complaining about their forced cruelty. Warriors were seen as a necessary evil, which was allowed to protect society from those who violated the law. Some of them came to religion, abandoned their previous life full of violence and became monks, but no one had ever heard of a monastic order whose purpose was to participate in battles.
This idea was born out of despair. The successes of the first crusaders again made Jerusalem and biblical shrines accessible to Christian pilgrims. And crowds of people began to arrive there from all corners of the Christian world.
However, although cities such as Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch and Acre were captured by the Crusaders, most of the roads connecting them remained in Muslim hands. They also failed to capture some small towns. Pilgrims became easy prey. On Easter 1119, some seven hundred pilgrims were attacked on their way from Jerusalem to the Jordan River. Three hundred people were killed, another sixty were captured and sold into slavery.
It is quite possible that the source of Walter Map's story about how Hugh de Payns guarded the well alone was not the Templars, but a certain Russian named Daniel, the abbot of the monastery. Around 1107, he described a place between Jaffa and Jerusalem where pilgrims could get water. They spent the night there “in great fear,” since nearby was the Muslim city of Ascalon, “from where the Saracens launched their raids and killed the pilgrims.”
However, despite the danger, Christians remained adamant in their desire to travel to the Holy Land. After all, making Jerusalem accessible to pilgrims again was precisely the original goal of the crusaders. Measures should have been taken to protect the people, but King Baldwin and other leaders of the crusader army had neither the people nor the means to guard all the roads to the biblical shrines. It doesn’t matter who came up with the idea to create the Templar Order, in any case, it was greeted with enthusiasm by the local nobility. In the end it was decided that Hugo and his companions could best serve God by ensuring the safety of His pilgrims.
Initially, the Templars were an isolated group with no connection to the papal throne. They received the blessing of Garmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and could well have been among the participants in the church council in Nablus on January 23, 1120.
The council was convened not to approve the creation of the Order of the Knights Templar, but to discuss the problems that had accumulated in the twenty years that had passed since the formation of the Latin kingdoms. The biggest concern was the locusts that have destroyed crops for the past four years. The unanimous opinion was expressed that this misfortune was God's punishment for the decline of morals since the conquest of Jerusalem. Therefore, most of the twenty-five declarations adopted by the council dealt with the sins of the flesh.
It is interesting to note that no fewer representatives of the secular nobility than church hierarchs took part in this church council. This circumstance indicates that concern about the current situation extended to the entire society and all those in power were called upon to solve the problems that arose.
The cathedral in Nablus aroused my interest because a number of scholars studying the history of the Templars consider it essential for the creation of this order. However, having turned to the primary sources, I became convinced that the Templars are not mentioned at all in the documents of the cathedral. The canons adopted in Nablus mainly express the point of view of the clergy and secular nobility on what sins should be considered the most serious. Seven canons prohibit adultery, or bigamy, and four concern sodomy. Another five canons relate to sexual and other relationships between Christians and Saracens - contacts were allowed only after the latter were baptized. It seems that the council participants believed that if people stopped doing all these outrages, the next harvest would be richer.
We do not have official evidence whether the decisions of the council were implemented and whether the next year's harvest was preserved. But from various sources it becomes clear that the sins of the flesh were committed on the same scale.
The only canon that can be associated with the Templars, a community that had just emerged, was canon number twenty: “If a clergyman takes up a weapon for defense, then he does not commit a sin.” The canon says nothing about knights who became military clergy.
Nevertheless, this mention also meant a significant departure from the generally accepted point of view. Despite some relaxation of the strict rules for those who fight for the Lord, priests and monks have always been prohibited from participating in battles.
However, a year before the cathedral in Nablus, a battle took place near the walls of Antioch, in a place that is still known as the Bloody Field, in which Count Roger and most of his soldiers fell. In order to save the city, Patriarch Bernard ordered the distribution of weapons to everyone who was able to fight, including monks and priests. Luckily, they didn't have to fight, but a precedent had been set.
Such was the atmosphere in which the Templar Order was born.
One of the legends about the origin of the order, which was spread by the templars themselves, says that during the first nine years of the order’s existence there were only nine knights in it. This number was first mentioned by William of Tyre, and then it was repeated several times by later chroniclers.
Were there really only nine of them? Hardly. Although the order did not experience any noticeable growth in the first years of its existence, it still could not have survived if there were so few members in its ranks. Perhaps the number nine was chosen by the creators of the legend because exactly nine years passed from the origin of the order to Cathedral in Troyes, where he received official recognition.
Some historians believe that the Templars were influenced by medieval numerical symbolism. Nine is a “circular number”: when multiplied by any number, it gives a result whose sum of its constituent digits either equals nine or is divisible by nine, “and therefore can be considered incorruptible.” Many years after the founding of the order, Dante suggested that the number nine was chosen because "nine is the holy number of the angelic order, triple the holy number of the Trinity."
I don't think the first Templars were educated enough to use such esoteric knowledge. However, William of Tyre possessed such knowledge, and we first found this idea in his text. It is quite possible that the number nine was William’s invention, and then the Templars borrowed it, added it to their version of the legend, and over time it became inextricably associated with the order. One way or another, the number nine entered the symbolism of the Templars and is present on the ornaments in some chapels of the order.
We have very little information about the early years of the Knights Templar. Several letters written in Jerusalem and Antioch have survived, which bear the signatures of the first Templars. However, they do not reflect any awards to members of the order - we simply have evidence that these people really existed and were in the Holy Land. There is also no information about donations to the order made before 1124.
People tend to want to fill in the blanks, whether they are blank spots on a map or gaps that leave a story or legend incomplete. This is exactly what happened with the history of the emergence of the Order of the Knights Templar. Chroniclers did not consider this event worthy of mention, but a little over sixty years later, when the order was already playing a prominent role in society, people began to want to know how it all began.
This is how legends began to be born and multiply. And this process continues today.
The story of the birth, rise and fall of the Knights Templar, or “Knights Templar,” is perhaps one of the most romantic legends of the world in which we live.
No matter how much time has passed, no matter how many centuries have covered the bas-reliefs on the graves of the martyrs of the Order with gray dust, no matter how many books have been read and no matter how many times history buffs have uttered the name of the great Jacques de Molay, they are still romantics and dreamers, Scientists and hoaxers in different countries are still packing their backpacks to go on a campaign for the “Templar gold.” Some people seriously study maps of mines and mines, search the ruins of castles and outline the paths of the Templars in Europe, others look for their “treasure” on the pages of bestsellers, trying to find it through literary fame.
And none of us - neither dreamers nor scientists - can find out “how it was” in reality. We are left with only historical chronicles and memoirs of contemporaries, documents of the Inquisition and, to this day, sometimes pop-up letters and ancient scrolls from the personal archives of noble families of Europe.
Some give the history of the Templars a religious connotation, others a secular one. We will try to discover the truth for ourselves - as much as possible through the thick of centuries.
Francois Marius Granier. "Pope Honorius II granting official recognition to the Knights Templar."
"Knights of the Temple"
Soon after the successful outcome of the First Crusade and the establishment of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem on the land of Palestine, the first military state populated mainly by European knights, a stream of pilgrims poured into the Holy Land, attracted by the utopian idea of a safe life among Christian shrines. The hordes of people wandering “through the land of Jesus” naturally attracted not only the attention of Muslims, angry at the seizure of their original territories and cities, but also their revenge – terrible and uncompromising. The area along which the pilgrims' routes passed was overrun with robbers and murderers. The road to the Holy City became deadly for pilgrims.
European monarchs were pleased with the outcome of the Crusade - the mission was completed, the Holy Land was practically cleared. They considered the remaining Muslim settlements to be just an annoying obstacle on the path of the bright Christian world, and they hoped that the knights, who were promised generous land plots, would gradually eliminate this obstacle. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Jerusalem began to slowly empty out - the knights were rushing home, to their families and ancestral nests, and no rewards could stop most of them. What to do in this case with the pilgrims, who are daily subjected to violence, plunder, and murder?.. They needed protection.
The first, in the history of the Order of the Templars, Grand Master - Hugh de Payens Here is what Bishop William of Tyre, who for some time headed the Church of the State of Jerusalem, writes about this in 1119: “Some noble people of knightly origin, devoted to God, religious and God-fearing, declared their desire spend your whole life in chastity, obedience and without property, devoting yourself to the Lord Patriarch for service following the example of regular canons.” Several knights of high birth, having asked for the blessing of the King and the Church, volunteered to take charge of the protection of pilgrims and all Christians who moved in large numbers throughout the Holy Land. For this, they founded the spiritual-knightly order of the “Beggar Knights”, the secular basis of which was equalized and harmonized with the church foundations. That is, the templar brothers, when joining the order, did not take on monastic rank, but spiritually and physically, in essence, became one.
The Order was headed by one of its founders, the noble champagne knight Hugues de Payens, who became the first Grand Master in the history of the Order. And so, before the King and Patriarch of Jerusalem, Hugh and his eight loyal commanders - Godfrey de Saint-Omer, André de Montbard, Gundomar, Godfront, Roral, Geoffroy Bitol, Nivart de Mondesir, and Archambault de Saint-Aignan - took an oath to protect Christians, wandering or in need of help, to the last drop of blood, and also took three monastic vows.
For the sake of absolute historical justice, the author of the article would like to note that, in fact, the founding of such an order became an absolutely unprecedented phenomenon, many centuries ahead of its time. In this case, this association of knights was not another monastic order, it was not some kind of spiritual organization - in fact, they organized the first of the “non-governmental non-profit organizations” familiar to us today, for the sake of promoting ideas and raising funds. The propaganda of the idea - the need for the existence of such an order - consisted of the already ongoing successful protection of pilgrims, and the collection of funds - what could we do without this?.. After all, the Templars themselves were unusually poor - to the point that there was one horse for every two knights. Subsequently, when the influence of the Templars spread very widely, they created a seal, in memory of the former days of the Order - this seal depicts two riders on one horse.
For ten long years, the Templars led a completely miserable existence, observing the charter of the Order of St. Augustine the Blessed, in the absence of their own. This would have continued if the King of Jerusalem Baldwin II “Leper”, to some extent, personally offended by such a disastrous state of affairs of the order under his charge, had not sent Hugh de Payen to Pope Honorius II with a demand to initiate the Second Crusade, motivating its necessity with impudence Muslim warriors who continued to make forays into the territory of the newly formed state.
Baldwin was generally very favorable towards the order of the “poor knights” - he even provided them, who did not have any property of their own, with a church in his palace south of the ruins of Solomon’s Temple so that they could gather there for prayer. It was this fact that served as the starting point for the formation of the order, which is familiar to us from descriptions today: “Temple” (French temple), which gave people a reason to call the knights “those at the Temple”, “templars”. No one ever remembered the official name - “Beggar Knights”.
De Payens, accompanied by a small number of comrades, traveled throughout almost all of Europe, not only persuading the sovereigns to gather troops for the Crusade, but also along the way collecting small and reluctant donations. The culmination of this trip was the presence of Hugh de Payens and the Knights Templar at the Great Church Council in the French city of Troyes - and this presence was due to the personal request of the Pope.
This was useful, and De Payen, as the head of the Order, understood the importance of speaking at the Council - a good speech could provide support for the Church, and support for the Church could provide support for the heads of different countries. De Payen spoke long and eloquently, captivating this spoiled and blinkered church audience with pictures of a wonderful new Christian world that would take its source from the throne of Jerusalem. The Fathers of the Council, conquered by his speech, turned to Bernard of Clairvaux, who was also present there, who did not hide his obvious sympathy for the Templars, with a request to write a Charter for the new order, with which everyone would be happy. Also, the Fathers of the Church also showed great honor to the knights, commanding them to always wear white and black clothes, decorated with a red cross. At the same time, the prototype of the first battle banner of the Templars, called Bosseant, was created.
The abbot of Clairvaux, belonging to the Cistercian order, introduced this warlike spirit into the Templar Rule, later called the Latin Rule. Bernard wrote: “The soldiers of Christ are not in the least afraid of the sin of killing their enemies, nor of the danger that threatens their own lives. After all, to kill someone for Christ’s sake or to be willing to accept death for His sake is not only completely free from sin, but also very commendable and worthy.”
In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a bull, according to which the Templars, who by that time had already become a fairly large, wealthy order, gave them significant privileges, such as the establishment of the post of chaplain, exemption from paying tithes and permission to build chapels and have their own cemeteries. But most importantly, wanting to have his own defenders, the Pope subordinated the Order to a single person, himself, placing full responsibility for the policy and management of the Order on the Master and his Chapter. This meant absolute freedom for the Templars. And absolute freedom brings absolute power.
This event opened all the paths of the world to the Beggar Knights and became a new chapter in their history - a chapter of unprecedented prosperity.
Golden Age of the Order
Manash clothing of the Order of the Templars Initially, all the brethren of the Order were divided, according to the Charter, into two categories: “knights” - or “chevalier brothers”, and “ministers” - or “brother sergeants”. These titles themselves indicate that only knights of noble birth were accepted into the first category, while any man of non-noble origin could enter the second category, without any hope of eventually becoming a “chevalier brother.” The Grand Master, who was not an elected figure - each Master had to choose his successor during his lifetime - had practically unlimited power to govern the Order, which was granted by the Pope. Initially, the Templars were categorically against joining the ranks of the priestly brothers, but, nevertheless, after a certain number of decades, from the moment of its formation, even a certain special class of brother-monks appeared in the ranks of the Templars, which was very convenient and even expedient: the monks did not they could shed blood, and besides, they held services in the Order’s own churches.
Since women were not allowed to join the Order, married knights were also reluctantly accepted into the Order, limiting their choice of colors for clothing. For example, married knights were deprived of the right to wear white robes, as a symbol of physical purity and “sinlessness.”
The family of married Templars, after its head joined the Order, faced an unenviable fate in the line of succession. In the event that a married brother departed to another world, all his property, according to the “Accession Agreement,” came into the common possession of the Order, and the wife had to leave the estate in a short time so as not to tempt the knights and novices of the Order with her appearance. But since the Templars were famous philanthropists, the widow and close family members of the deceased always received full financial support from the treasurers of the Order (usually secular, “hired” figures) until the end of their lives.
Thanks to this membership policy, the Order of the Templars soon already possessed huge possessions not only in the Holy Land, but also in European countries: France, England, Scotland, Flanders, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Germany, Hungary.
Information: The medieval castle of the Temple (Tour du Temple) has survived to this day only on the pages of historical documents, in ancient paintings and engravings. The Parisian "temple" of the knightly order was destroyed by decree of Napoleon I in 1810.
The Catholic Order of the Poor Knights of Christ was founded in 1119 in the Holy Land of Palestine. After the capture of Jerusalem by the Egyptians, religious members of the order left Palestine. By that time they possessed enormous wealth and vast lands in Europe. A significant part of the knight monks came from French noble families.
In 1222 the Parisian Temple was built. The castle, surrounded by a deep moat, was considered impregnable. Inside the fortress walls, seven towers rose, and there was a Gothic church with two apses and lancet openings. Along the walls of the spacious cloister were barracks and stables.
In the spring of 1306, the Grand Master of the Templars, the gray-haired Jacques de Molay, arrived in Paris. He was accompanied by sixty knights of the Order. The procession entered the capital on horses and mules. The priests carried the ashes of Molay’s predecessor, Guillaume de Beaujeu. The Templar treasury was also transported to Paris.
The residence of the Master of the Order was the Main Tower of the Temple. This powerful structure could only be reached via a drawbridge from the roof of the barracks. The bridge was driven by complex mechanisms. In a matter of moments, it rose, the heavy gates fell, the forged bars fell, and the Main Tower became inaccessible from the ground. The Grand Master lived in the tower, answerable only to the Chapter.
The Chapter of the Templar Order met in the castle church. In the middle of the main corridor of the temple there was a spiral staircase leading to the crypt. The stone slabs of the crypt hid the tomb of the Masters; The Order's treasury was kept on one of the levels of the secret dungeon.
Also, it is the Templars who are considered to be the founders of banking - it was the treasurers of the Order who came up with the idea of ordinary and “travelers’ checks”. The most interesting thing is that this scheme is still, one might say, a “classic” of modern banking. Appreciate its beauty, simplicity and practicality: the presence of such checks freed travelers from the need to transport gold and precious stones with them, constantly fearing attack by robbers and death. Instead, the owner of the valuables could appear at any “comturia” of the Order and deposit all these things into its treasury, receiving in return a check signed by the Chief Treasurer (!!!) and a print ... of his own finger (!!!), so that after that set off on the road with peace of mind with a small piece of leather. Also, for transactions with a check, the Order took a small tax - when cashing the values indicated in the check!.. Think for a minute, doesn’t this remind you of modern banking transactions?.. If the owner of the check could exhaust his limit, but need in money, the Order issued it to him for subsequent repayment. There was also a highly developed system of what today we would call “accounting”: twice a year, all checks were sent to the main command office of the Order, where they were counted in detail, the government balance was compiled and archived. The knights did not disdain usury, or, if you prefer, “bank lending” - any wealthy person could get a loan at ten percent, while Jewish moneylenders or state treasuries gave at forty percent.
Having such a developed banking structure, the Templars quickly became necessary for the Court. So, for example, for twenty-five years, two treasurers of the Order - Gaimar and de Milly - supervised the treasury of the French monarchy, while performing, at the request of Philip II Augustus, the functions of the Minister of Finance, that is, practically ruling the country. When Saint Louis IX ascended the throne, the French treasury was completely transferred to the Temple, remaining there under his successor.
Thus, the “poor knights” in a relatively short time acquired the status of the largest financiers in Europe and the Eastern Countries. Among their debtors were absolutely all segments of the population - from ordinary townspeople to august persons and the fathers of the Church.
Charity
Rationalization and charitable activities also occupy a special place in the Order’s list of affairs.
Since the Templars were not only the richest of all existing orders, but also the most attractive to new brothers in terms of opportunities, many of the outstanding minds and talents of their time worked under his auspices.
The Templars, without stinting, spent huge sums on the development of sciences and arts, on patronage support for artists, musicians, and poets. But still, soldiers remain soldiers, and the main area of interest of the templars was the development of such areas as geodesy, cartography, mathematics, physical sciences, construction sciences, and navigation. By that time, the Order had long had its own shipyards, ports, not controlled by the kings, and its own modern and super-equipped fleet - suffice it to mention that all its ships had magnetic (!!!) compasses. The “Sea Templars” were actively engaged in commercial cargo and passenger transportation, transporting pilgrims from Europe to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. For this they received generous rewards and church support.
The Templars were no less active in the construction of roads and churches. The quality of travel in the Middle Ages could be described as “complete robbery, multiplied by the lack of roads” - if you are a pilgrim, rest assured that you will be robbed not only by robbers, but also by state tax collectors who have a post at every bridge, on every road. And the Templars, to the displeasure of the authorities, solved this problem - they began actively building beautiful roads and strong bridges, which were guarded by their own troops. This construction is also associated with one “financial phenomenon”, which, according to the Middle Ages, is completely nonsense - the knights did not collect taxes for travel, not a single coin!.. Also, in less than a hundred years, the Order was spread throughout Europe At least 80 large cathedrals and at least 70 churches were built, and the monks who inhabited these churches and cathedrals were entirely supported by the Templars.
The common people were not only disposed towards the templars - people deeply appreciated the nobility of these warriors. In the most difficult times, when there was famine and the price of a measure of wheat amounted to the gigantic sum of thirty-three sous, the Templars fed up to a thousand people in one place alone, not counting daily meals for the needy.
Molay, Jacques de. Last Grand Master of the Order
Beginning of the End
The scene of the crusade of the Knights TemplarAnd yet, the main calling of the Templars still remained chivalry, especially the wars with Muslims that continued in the Holy Land. The main funds and resources of the Order were spent on these wars. In these wars, the Templars succeeded - it is known that Muslim warriors were so afraid of the Templars and Hospitallers that Sultan Sallah ad Din even took an oath “to cleanse his land of these filthy orders.”
The French monarch Louis VII, who led the Second Crusade with his army, later wrote in his notes that the Templars provided him with enormous support, and he cannot even imagine what would have awaited his troops if the Templars had not been with them.
However, not all European monarchs had such a high opinion of the reliability and loyalty of the Templars. So, for example, many royal persons insisted that peace should be concluded with the Saracens, and so, in 1228, Frederick II Barbarossa concluded this treaty.
The Templars were furious - according to this agreement, the Saracens pledged to hand over Jerusalem to the Christians. The Grand Master of the Order considered this a huge strategic mistake - after all, Jerusalem was practically in a blockade, surrounded by Muslim territories. But Frederick, who did not like the Templars - for many reasons, and the wealth of the Order was not the least of them - chose to go into open conflict, accusing the knights of treason. The Templars responded with threats, after which Frederick became so frightened that he soon turned down his troops and left the Holy Land. But the departure of Barbarossa did not cancel the concluded agreement, and the situation went from bad to disastrous.
It can be said that the Seventh Campaign, led by the inexperienced King Louis of France in tactical and political matters, Saint Louis, drove the last nail into the coffin of the Christian Kingdom. Louis, who had no experience in eastern regulations, for his part terminated the agreement, which was concluded with difficulty by the Grand Master of the Templars with the Sultan of Damascus, the main stronghold of the Saracens. The consequences of this rash step immediately became very noticeable - the Muslim army, unrestrained by anything, won one victory after another, and the losses among the Jerusalem knights were enormous. Christians lost city after city, and were even forced to surrender Jerusalem in disgrace - after a long siege and fierce battle.
In the spring of 1291, the Saracen Sultan Kilawun and his troops besieged the city of Agra, which at that time was the last stronghold of knighthood in Palestine. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the battle was truly terrible, and numerical superiority was on the side of the Muslims. The Saracens swept away the defenses and burst into the city, committing a brutal massacre in which the Grand Master of the Templars died.
The surviving Templars and Hospitallers hid in the tower of their residence, where they managed to resist the enemy for some time, but the Muslims, who could not “get them out of there,” came up with a way to solve everything at once. They began to simultaneously dig and dismantle the tower, which led to its collapse. She fell, burying both knights and Saracens under her.
All these events at one moment closed this chapter in the history of Christian chivalry, putting an end to the story of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Philip IV the Fair (King of France)
Fall of the Order
With the fall of the Holy Kingdom, the position of the Templars became unenviable. Possessing the same power - both numerical and financial, they lost the main goal, which was the essence of its existence: the protection and defense of Jerusalem.
European monks and the Church, for whom the need for the Order was no longer pressing, held them responsible for the fall of the Christian kingdom - and this despite the fact that it was thanks to the Templars that it managed to exist for so long. The Templars began to be accused of heresy and treason, that they personally gave the Holy Sepulcher to the Saracens and renounced God, and could not preserve the main value of the Christian world - the land on which the feet of Jesus walked.
The position of the Order especially did not suit the French monarch Philip IV the Fair, who ruled the country as an absolute tyrant and did not intend to tolerate anyone’s interference in the affairs of the crown. In addition, Philip was burdened with a huge amount of debt to the Order. At the same time, Philip was smart, and was well aware that the Templars were a powerful, rich military organization, not accountable to anyone except the Pope.
Then Philip decided to act not by force, but by cunning. On his own behalf, he wrote a petition to the Grand Master Jacques de Mola, in which he asked to be accepted as an honorary knight. De Mola, considered one of the wisest politicians and strategists of his time, rejected this request, realizing that Philip sought to eventually take the post of Grand Master in order to make the treasury of the Order his own.
Philip was infuriated by the refusal and vowed to stop the existence of the Order in any way, since he could not conquer it. And such an opportunity soon presented itself to him.
The last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Mola.
A former Templar, “brother-chevalier,” expelled by the Templars for the murder of his own brother, while in state prison for other crimes, hoping for leniency, he confessed to sins against the faith, which he allegedly committed while in the Order, along with other brothers.
The King immediately began an investigation against the Order, putting as aggressive pressure as possible on the Pope to deny the Templars all privileges. He issued an independent decree, sent to all provinces with instructions to “seize all the Templars, arrest them and confiscate their property to the treasury.”
On October 13, 1307, almost all members of the Order, who did not have time to take refuge or were burdened with families, were caught by Philip’s troops and arrested, their property was confiscated.
According to the interrogation protocols of the Inquisition available today, the Templars were accused of renouncing the Lord, insulting the Cross, heresy, sodomy, and worshiping a certain “Bearded Head,” which is one of the incarnations of the demon Baphomet. Subjected to terrible torture, many knights confessed to almost everything, and so the Pope issued a bull that all European monarchs should begin arresting Templars in all countries, as well as confiscate property for the benefit of the treasury and the Church - both their own and the property of the Order , as well as lands. This bull marked the beginning of trials in Germany, Italy, England, the Iberian Peninsula and Cyprus, where the second largest residence of the Grand Master was located after Paris.
After a long, pan-European investigation, torture and humiliation, in 1310, near the monastery of St. Anthony near Paris, 54 knights went to the stake, who found the strength to renounce the testimony they had given under torture. Philip the Fair celebrated his victory - with a papal bull of April 5, 1312, the Order of the Temple was officially abolished and ceased to exist.
The sentence to the Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, was pronounced only in 1314 - Philip wanted to fully enjoy the humiliation of a man who was once so powerful that he could safely ignore his wishes. Before the trial, the Grand Master, as well as the Prior of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnay, the Visitator of France Hugo de Peyraud and the Prior of Aquitaine Godefroy de Gonville fully admitted the charges and repented of the atrocities committed, as a result of which the church court, on the initiative of the Pope, replaced the death penalty for them with imprisonment. Historians believe that this was a political move on the part of the Master - the trial of the Templars took place in public. After hearing the verdict, de Molay and de Charnay publicly renounced previous confessions extracted under torture. Grand Master Jacques de Molay declared that he would prefer death to imprisonment, which would humiliate his dignity and pride as a warrior. That same evening, the fire consumed them too.
And just like that, in bonfires and torture, humiliation and slander, the unique story of the great Order of the Poor Knights of Christ ended - an elephant defeated by a mouse. Thus fell the giant, who could not be broken by wars and defeats, but was broken by greed.
Church of the Order of the Templars (Temple), London, UK
The Templar Order is long gone, but its secrets have not yet been solved. There may be a select few today who have access to the true history of the Order, but they continue to keep the secrets of the Templars.
What secrets does the Templar Order keep?
The First Crusade was organized by Pope Urban, a power-hungry and cruel man, as an aid to the Byzantine Emperor Alexius, who requested military support because he was very concerned about the growing pressure from the Seljuk Turks. The cry of the campaign was to protect the Holy Land and make it possible for religious pilgrims to visit it. But the true purpose of this campaign was to weaken the position of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, with its center in Byzantium, which did not make it possible to expand the sphere of influence of the Roman Papacy to the eastern countries.
The army, which received remission of past and future sins, consisted of all sorts of dubious personalities, and even real thieves and bandits, and was driven solely by the thirst for profit in future possible robberies. In 1099, the campaign reached the city of Jerusalem, destroying more than one city along the way in a bloody massacre. History knows the unimaginable atrocities committed by the defenders of the Holy Sepulcher from Europe in cities such as Lycia, Antiochus, Marratus, the population of which, by the way, was Christian!
Jerusalem at that time was a city of peaceful existence of three religions - Orthodox Christianity, Judaism and Islam, a prosperous, cultural, commercial city, without military protection. The population of the city desperately resisted the bloodthirsty “liberators” storming it for several weeks, but were still forced to surrender. The fallen city was sacked and covered in blood, which marked the end of the First Crusade. The so-called “knights” departed little by little to their homes, loaded with numerous trophies and telling tall tales about their exploits in the liberation of Jerusalem. And defenseless religious pilgrims, who saw their duty to God in visiting the Holy Land, remained absolutely defenseless against the revenge of the Seljuk Turks for the desecrated and devastated lands. The busy roads of Asia Minor, along which streams of pilgrims flowed, became the scene of action for armed small detachments. On some days, hundreds of pilgrims became victims of the Turks, they were captured for ransom, to be sold as slaves in eastern markets, and simply killed.
During this difficult period, the French nobleman Hugo de Payens and his nine comrades organized the military-religious Order of the Templars to protect pilgrims from attacks. The full name of the order is “The Secret Knighthood of Christ and the Temple of Solomon,” but in Europe it was better known as the Order of the Knights of the Temple (Order of the Templars from the French tample - “temple”). This name was explained by the fact that his residence was located in Jerusalem, on the site where the temple of King Solomon was once located. The knights themselves were called templars. The Templar seal depicted two knights riding the same horse, which was supposed to speak of poverty and brotherhood. The symbol of the order was a white cloak with a red eight-pointed cross. In 1119, the Order offered its protective and guard services to King Baldwin the First of Jerusalem.
Symbol of the Order Personal courage and bravery, the nobility of the first members of the order earned respect and recognition from pilgrims, and the news of selfless and fearless knights, ready to come to the aid of a person in trouble, was spread to all corners of Europe. Soon the Order received the blessing of the Pope and its prosperity began. Members of the order, who took monastic vows of “purity,” “poverty,” and “obedience,” were practically “saints” in the eyes of most people, and, to the best of their ability, citizens sought to donate to help people who had unselfishly and voluntarily taken on a difficult burden. In addition to monetary donations, some rich people who had no heirs left estates, castles, and estates to the Order. So, after his death, the Aragonese king Alfonso the First left part of his kingdom in northern Spain to the Order, and the Breton Duke Conan left an entire island off the coast of France.
Subsequently, this turned out to be:
By the middle of the 22nd century, the Templar Order owned vast land resources with estates and castles under the management of people appointed by the Order
The importance of the Order exceeded many states, and in 1139 Pope Innocent granted the Order independence, which freed each unit from subordination to the local sovereign and the laws of the country where this unit was located
Instructions to the Order could only come from the Supreme Master or the Pope himself
We also owe the creation of the first “banking” network to the Templar Order. Pilgrims, heading to holy places, were forced to take bags of money with them on the road, which was extremely difficult and unsafe. The Order provided the opportunity, having handed over money in one place and receiving a receipt in return, to receive it in any city convenient for travel, since the representative offices of the Order were very numerous. The Templars also provided services for the transportation of cash and jewelry, and there is not a single case known when a convoy guarded by them was robbed. The created network also helped to quickly pay ransom for captives, because there was no need to transport money for ransom, say, from Germany to Jerusalem, but it was enough to quickly transport only letters.
During its heyday, the Templar Order found another and very powerful source of income: usury. Of course, the Templars did not lend money to ordinary citizens, but the Order secretly, and always with good collateral, provided loans to large monarchical families. This allowed the Order to have a powerful lever of influence on the rulers of many states; they were aware of almost all intimate and political secrets. Although ideological and religious power over states was still in the hands of the Pope, political and economic power was concentrated in the Supreme Master of the Order.
Analyzing the economic state of Western Europe in the 12th-13th centuries, one cannot help but notice the widespread construction of numerous cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys and churches. Only about 180 large cathedrals and churches were built during this period. The question arises, what funds were used for this construction? At that time there was a huge shortage of money. There was very little gold in circulation, and silver, which was the main metal for minting money, was completely insufficient. It is clear that silver exported from the countries of the Middle East as mining could not significantly solve this problem. Precious metals were practically not mined in Europe, and deposits in Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia had not yet been discovered. And despite this, in France alone, in less than a hundred years, 80 huge cathedrals and 70 smaller temples were built. Although it is known that most French cities had very limited funds for development, and if the magistrates had any, they were primarily spent on strengthening the city walls.
The only one who could have had the necessary money at that time was the Order of the Templars. The Order minted its own silver coin and during the period of the 12th-13th centuries such a number of cash silver coins were issued that they became a common means of payment, in particular for the grandiose construction campaign we mentioned. But where did the raw materials come from? It is known that the Templars took about a ton of silver from Palestine, which is clearly not enough. The masters of the Order were silent about the origin of the main amount of metal.
I would like to note that the Order had a serious fleet and achieved a monopoly on flights across the Mediterranean Sea, essentially controlling trade routes from Asia. But it is known that there were also ports and bases on the Atlantic coast, although the Order’s interests seemed to be concentrated in the Mediterranean.
It is known that the Order owned the notorious fortress of La Rochelle at the mouth of the Gironde River. Not long ago, Jean de la Varande, a French historian, put forward a hypothesis about the possibility of the Templars mining the mentioned silver in Mexico. The assumption is quite probable, since the Order showed interest in various sciences and discoveries being made, studied the works of Arab scientists and Greek sages, and of course could find out about the existence of lands overseas. Having our own fleet made it possible to carry out such a trip in reality. And the answer to whether there were Templars in Mexico can be obtained by carefully examining the painting of the pediment of the Order’s temple in the city of Verelai, the construction of which dates back to the 12th century. There, among the people surrounding Christ, a group of three figures catches the eye: a man, a woman and a child with disproportionately large ears. The man's outfit of feathers is very reminiscent of the clothing of North American Indians, and the woman is bare-breasted and wearing a long skirt. It is unlikely that in those days they could have simply invented such a thing.
There is one more fact in favor of this hypothesis. The seals of the Order, captured back in 1307 by the royal gendarmes, were recently discovered in the National Archives of France. Among the papers from the Grand Master's office is one on which is written "the secret of the temple" and in the center of it is a figure in a loincloth and a feather headdress, such as that of the Indians of North America (or Mexico and Brazil), holding a bow in his right hand. So it is likely that the Templars visited the American continent long before Columbus (this theory is also confirmed by the Kensington Rune Stone) and the existence of the New World was one of the great secrets of the Order, which only the highest hierarchs knew.
Collapse of the Templar Order
The increased power of the Order served him poorly. Having risen above the world, he began to fall into the abyss. Having initially proven themselves to be noble knights, the templars begin to act treacherously with the people who have trusted them. Thus, having provided asylum to the influential Arab sheikh Nasreddin, a contender for the throne in Cairo, who wished to convert to Christianity, they, without hesitation, sold him for 60 thousand dinars to his enemies in his homeland, which led to the immediate execution of the unfortunate man.
And in 1199, a huge scandal occurred when the Templars refused to return the funds of the Bishop of Sidon, which he had deposited, for which the latter in a rage anathematized the entire Order. The interests of the Templars often did not coincide with the interests of the crusader states or other orders, which is why they disrupted diplomatic agreements, fought in internecine wars, and even raised the sword against members of their fraternal Order of the Hospitallers.
Of great importance for the further fall of the Order was the failure to defend Jerusalem from Saladin's troops. Master Gerard de Ridfort was an adviser to the last king of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, and convinced him not to avoid participating in the battle with the Muslims at Hattin, which became decisive and in which all the Templars who took part in it died. Those who did not die during the battle were executed. And Ridefort himself, having been captured by Saladin, ordered the Gaza fortress to be surrendered to the enemy. And when, after the fall of Jerusalem, Saladin offered to ransom the lives of pilgrims and city residents from him, the incredibly rich Order, which had the responsibility to protect these people, did not give a penny. About sixteen thousand Christians then became slaves.
The accusations against the Order snowballed. And on Friday, October 13, 1307, by order of the strong, independent and imperious King of France, Philip IV (the Handsome), a simultaneous operation was carried out to capture all the representative offices and bases of the Templar Order. Since these searches and arrests were illegal, due to the legal disobedience of the Order to any rulers and laws, it took almost five years of torture and interrogation to draw up an evidence base for accusations against the Templar Order. So only in 1312, upon presentation of the collected materials, the Order was excommunicated, and the actions of King Philip were justified. What is also surprising is that, having only courier communications in those days, the royal services managed not only to keep the preparations and timing of the operation secret, but also to somehow coordinate their actions with England, Spain, Germany, Italy, since the blow was struck simultaneously in these states too.
The Templars were judged by the church court - the Inquisition. They were accused of heresy and apostasy, as well as idolatry. Under torture, most of the Templars admitted their guilt, including Supreme Master Jacques de Mollet, but in 1314, when reading the verdict in Notre Dame Cathedral in front of a huge crowd of people, he publicly stated that all confessions were extracted by torture, the accusations were lies, and The Order is innocent. Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake on an island in the middle of the Seine, and other unrepentant Templars were hanged on Mount Montfaucon.
The Last Grand Master Jacques de Mollet And now we come to the most important secret of the Templar Order. After a simultaneous search of all the "offices", NO treasure was found. No amount of torture could loosen the tongues of those arrested in confessing where the wealth was hidden. It is a known fact that the name of Master of France Gerard de Villiers, one of the most influential dignitaries of the Order, for unknown reasons does not appear in the materials of the trial. There is an assumption that the Templars were nevertheless warned of the impending danger and had the opportunity through the dungeons of Paris (and a detailed map of the dungeons was found) to transport the most valuable and important treasures to the fortress of La Rochelle and then take them to an unknown place on naval ships.
In addition to gold and jewelry, it was assumed that the Order owned Christian relics taken from Jerusalem, among which was the notorious Holy Grail. Biblical legends say that the Grail is a kind of cup from which Jesus Christ and the apostles took communion during the Last Supper, and after the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary, Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ into this cup. It is believed that this fact gave the Holy Grail extraordinary powers; it became the key to understanding the world, and whoever drinks from it receives forgiveness of sins, deliverance from illnesses and eternal life.
Among the possible options for where the Templar treasures went are the following. The money was sent to England and used to pay for the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It is the support of the secretly preserved Order that some historians explain the military successes of weaker England in this confrontation. Perhaps the wealth settled in Italy, and thanks to it, the Renaissance began in this country, an unprecedented flowering of culture and all kinds of sciences and arts. There is no doubt that some part of the capital became the basis for the creation of banking houses; the descendants of some of them were able to survive to this day. There is an assumption that the Order’s treasury would most likely have been taken to a place where the influence of the French king did not extend. Perhaps it was Portugal or Spain. Later, it was the Portuguese Order of Christ that became the heir to the local branch of the Templars. And the white sails of Columbus's ships, which set off to discover new lands, were decorated with Templar red crosses.
Tomar Castle, which was the headquarters of the Templars in Portugal, still amazes the imagination with its grandeur and size. And who knows, maybe some castle in the Pyrenees still keeps the treasures of the Templar Order in its dungeons.
Or maybe ships with treasures and archives went to the New World, and somewhere in Mexico or Brazil they were hidden in a secluded place, and later they were involved in the activities of the branches that survived the defeat in countries where the hand of the King of France did not reach.
There is another interesting point. During the investigation of the Templars by Pope Clement V, several prisoners, the highest dignitaries of the Order, were forced to stay for some time in the castle of Chinon, near the city of Tours. During the days that the knights were in the castle, they managed to carve interesting drawings on its stone walls. These are symbolic images - flaming hearts, a cross, a triple fence, carbuncles, a field with squares. These symbols themselves did not represent much of a secret, but the question was how to use them. There is no doubt that they were carved for a specific purpose - to convey a message to the initiated, to those who understand the sacred meaning of these symbols. Or maybe these were directions where to look for treasure?
The Castle of the Temple is the seat of the Order in Paris.
Over the course of several centuries, interest in the disappeared treasures subsided. But in 1745, the focus was on a document published by the German archivist Schittmann. It said that before his death, Jacques de Molay conveyed to the young Count Guitar de Beaujeu, the nephew of the previous Grand Master, a message saying that in his uncle’s grave there were not remains, but the secret archives of the Order and relics, including the crown of the Kings of Jerusalem , and four golden figures of the evangelists, who once adorned the Tomb of Christ and were saved by the templars from the Muslims. The rest of the treasures are stored in caches inside two columns that are located opposite the entrance to the crypt. The document claimed that the young Count de Beaujeu allegedly obtained and hid all the valuables and the archive into a new cache. This message, which shook the whole of Europe, received indirect confirmation: one of the columns actually turned out to be hollow.
Historians, who have intensively studied the chronicles of the period of interest, have found confirmation that after the execution of Jacques de Molay, the young Count Guichard de Beaujeu actually received permission from King Philip the Fair to remove the ashes of his noble relative stored there from the Temple Temple. And it was then that the count may have removed gold and other valuables from the columns.
The assumption that the treasures of the Templars could be kept in the de Beauge family crypt led to the fact that after the Great French Revolution, treasure hunters went through the de Beauge family estate pebble by stone, turning it into a well-plowed field. But this would be too easy a path, it is clear that there were no treasures in the crypt, nor in the cellars, nor in the ground... Later it turned out that the de Beauge family, in addition to the already surveyed estate, also owned in the Rhône department the medieval castle of Arginy with vaulted towers entrances and deep ditches. In 1307, it was outside the domain of Philip IV and therefore was not damaged. This castle, despite its venerable age, was well preserved and was all dotted with Templar signs, allowing one to wonder if this was the key to treasures?
The main tower of the castle, the Tower of Eight Beatitudes, was also dotted with strange signs. In the middle of the 20th century, the castle was owned by Jacques de Roseman, and he and his father were looking for the supposed hiding place of the Templars, but this time they could not find anything. There is an interesting suggestion by historians Dane Erlig Haarling and Englishman Henry Lincoln that the treasures of the Templars should be looked for on the small Baltic island of Bornholm. It is known that in 1162, the Danish Archbishop Eskil visited the Grand Master of the Templars, Bertrand de Blanchefort, in order to attract the Knights of Christ to the baptism of the Baltic peoples, then still pagans. Historians believe that during this meeting there may also have been talk about transferring the Order's greatly increased treasures to a new safe place. They believe that the cathedrals built by the Templars on the island are in strict accordance with the geometry adopted by the Templars, and it is in this geometry that one must look for the key to the location of the treasure. And in Latvia you can look for relics hidden by the Templars.
After the defeat of the Order, its remnants merged with the modest Livonian Order at that time. And, by a strange coincidence, this same period was marked by the extraordinary flourishing of the Order, which was still poor to this day. The richest castles, cathedrals, and fortresses were built, and the land holdings of the Livonians increased many times over. Maybe this flourishing was helped by the exported treasures of the Templar Order. The patroness of both Orders is Mary Magdalene. But only in the Catholic cathedrals of Latvia was she depicted with a dagger, the handle of which was in the form of a Templar cross; in the cathedrals of other countries, the image of the handle was different. So the Templar Order could well have hidden its treasures, including the Holy Grail, on the territory of modern Latvia.
Many were dazzled by the legendary brilliance of the Templar treasures. Among the seekers of this treasure were scientists and adventurers, politicians and many other people.
One of the first and most famous among them was the Order of the Templars (literally - “ knights of the temple"), founded in 1119 by the French knight Hugh de Payens and taking its name from the original home of its first members in Jerusalem - a castle built on the ruins Solomon's Temple(le temple). The beginning of this order was modest and poor; it consisted of only 9 knights. Their vows and duties were the same as those of the knights - Johannites: poverty, chastity, obedience to papal authority, protection of pilgrims and the fight against infidels. Distinctive clothing was a white caftan and a cloak with large red crosses. Soon the glory of their courage and virtue spread very widely and attracted many nobles and brave warriors to the order.
Subsequently, the Templar Order had three classes of members: serving brothers took care of sick and wounded pilgrims, priests performed divine services, encouraged soldiers in battles with infidels; knights, wearing armor over their order clothes, fought with infidels and saw off pilgrims. The head of the Templars bore (like the Johannites) the title of grandmaster (grand master); he ruled the affairs of his order and was its commander-in-chief. Initially, the Templars were poor, so the founders of their community, Hugh Payen and Godefroy Saint-Omer, had only one war horse, and in memory of this, the seal of the order had an image of two knights sitting on one horse. (Another explanation for this image says that it was a symbol of the Templars' fraternal loyalty to each other). But soon their order received many donations and became the owner of huge estates. Count Fulk of Anjou, on his first trip to Palestine, fought with the Templars, gave them thirty pounds of silver every year. He subsequently married the daughter of Baldwin II, Melisende, and became king of jerusalem. The Order continued to enjoy his favor. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was the patron saint of the Templars in Europe and wrote eloquent praise of their virtues, holding up their simplicity of life, pure morality and strict military discipline as an example to be emulated by the pampered and luxury-loving knights of Europe. According to Bernard, the Templars despised dress and all earthly vanity, combined monastic meekness with knightly courage, competed with each other in the exact fulfillment of their vows and all knightly virtues; God chose them from among the bravest knights to faithfully guard the Holy Sepulcher.
At the Council of Troyes, where Bernard was also present, Pope Honorius approved the Templar charter. The Council supplemented it with rules taken from Benedictine charter and on January 31, 1128 approved Hugues Payen to the rank of grandmaster. The battle cry of the Templars was Beauséant!(“Perfectly seated” rider on a horse. Perhaps this had to do with the image of the horse on the seal of the order). The Templars perfectly corresponded to the ideal of chivalry of that time. Their order enjoyed the great favor of sovereigns and nobles, received extensive possessions and rich incomes in all Christian countries of the West; Order houses with churches were built everywhere. The number of Templars increased rapidly; often the grandmaster led three hundred knights to war. They had armed ministers; they had many different artisans: masons, gunsmiths, grain makers, tailors. The power, wealth and possessions of the Templars increased continuously; they were considered the surest stronghold of the rule of Western Christians in the East and the most terrible enemies of Muslims. In battles with them, the temple knights always formed the front line. Their brave courage and the death of almost all the knights on the field of honor acquired the order general respect and special favor of the popes, who generously bestowed the order with privileges and honors.
Seal of the Templar Order
The role of the Templars in the Crusades
The first successors of Payen (he died in 1138) in the rank of grandmaster followed his example, did not go into too ambitious plans, but tried with all their might to preserve unity, morality and that exemplary military severity in the order, which distinguished the Templars until the end of their existence. In the Second Crusade, launched in 1147, the Knights of the Temple were the staunchest allies Emperor ConradII, especially during an unfortunate expedition to Damascus. In 1151, they liberated Jerusalem, overturning the troops of Nureddin who had already broken into the city, and then distinguished themselves in almost all the battles with the Saracens. But the increase in treasures and power does not quench, but increases the thirst for gold and conquests. This happened with the knights of the temple, and their greed subsequently began to harm the cause of Christians in Palestine as much as their courage and organization brought benefits. When in 1154 the crusaders besieged Ascalon, the grand master of the Templars Bernard de Tremele, wanting to appropriate to the order the wealth stored in the city, which, according to the then custom, belonged to the one who first entered the city in an attack, burst into Ascalon with the knights, but after miracles of courage , was killed with all his comrades. Under Grandmaster Bernard de Blancfort, the Templars, having captured the Sultan's son Nasreddin, who had fled from Egypt, treacherously took away his harem and treasures, and then handed him over to the Egyptians for 60 thousand guilders of gold. Under Grand Master Aude de Saint-Amand (1178), the order disgraced itself with treacherous murder assassins ambassadors by the knight Walter Dumesnil and the failure to hand over the criminal to the Old Man of the Mountain. These and other similar actions gave rise to the crusaders' disgust for the Templars, but did not discredit them in the eyes of the popes, who did not cease to shower them with favors. Dad Alexander III by a bull promulgated in 1162, he even freed the order from subordination to all secular authorities and the Patriarch of Jerusalem and granted only the Roman high priests the right of judgment over them. This bull completely changed the position of the Templars. Their grandmasters began to consider themselves equal to the ruling princes, acted autocratically and unaccountably, and the knights more and more indulged in selfishness and vices; They resembled the virtuous brothers of the founder of the order, Payen, only in their courage and military discipline.
In 1156 and 1164, the crusaders suffered severe defeats from the Mohammedans at Paneas and Goren, in which many knights of the temple fell; but this and other losses were easily replenished by numerous newcomers and experienced warriors who gathered in commanders and other estates belonging to the order in all parts of Europe. What caused him more harm was mutual envy with the Knights of St. John, which repeatedly brought both parties to an obvious break and was stopped with difficulty by the pope in 1187. In 1187 Saladin invaded Palestine with a large army and defeated the Christians in a bloody battle at Belfort, near Sidon. The brave grandmaster Aude de Saint-Amand, defending himself with his knights to the last extremity, was captured and died in prison in Damascus; His knights, who, according to the laws of the order, did not dare to offer more than a knife and a belt to the winners for their ransom, were executed. This event greatly shook the power of the Templars. Their new grandmaster Gerard de Ridefort, who prompted the weak King of Jerusalem Guido Lusignan to war with Saladin, was defeated with him and captured at hittin(1187). They received freedom for the cession of Ascalon and, with the help of Western pilgrims, besieged Acre. Saladin hastened to help the city, was at first overthrown, but the sally of the Acre garrison decided the matter in his favor, and Grandmaster Ridefort fell on the spot of the battle.
Armament and emblem of the spiritual knightly order of the Templars
In 1189, the three strongest monarchs in Europe: Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, King of France Philip August and the English Richard the Lionheart, set off on the Third Crusade to save Jerusalem taken by Saladin. But Barbarossa died on the road, and disputes between the other two kings prevented the crusaders from achieving important successes: they limited themselves to capture of Acre. At the end of the campaign, the Grand Master of the Templars, Robert Sabloil, bought from Richard the island of Cyprus, which he had conquered on his return journey, but ceded it to the former King of Jerusalem Guido Lusignan and moved to Acre, and from there to a strongly fortified castle on the seashore, near Caesarea, which received the name Pilgrim's Castle. Here the knights remained inactive for a long time, but they increased their influence and possessions on the island of Cyprus and in Western Europe, where from 1209 to 1212 they fought with exemplary courage against the Arabs in Spain. In 1218, Grandmaster William de Chartres took an active part in the glorious but useless siege of Damietta, which, soon after its conquest, was again abandoned by the crusaders. Meanwhile, the Saracens conquered almost all of defenseless Palestine. The knights of the temple, foreseeing the imminent and complete fall of the local Christian rule, tried to reward themselves by acquiring lands and wealth in Europe, and succeeded in this to such an extent that in the middle of the 13th century they already owned 9,000 commanders, castles and other estates there.
In 1228, fortune seemed to smile on the crusaders again: Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen marched into Palestine and took possession of Jerusalem. But the envious policy of the popes and the machinations of the spiritual knightly orders armed with it, and especially the Templars, stopped the victorious march of Frederick. He was forced to return to Europe to defend his own possessions, punished the Templars by taking away their estates in Southern Italy, but could not retain Palestine. In 1237, the Templars suffered a significant defeat there at the castle of Gvascume. Then new quarrels and fights began with the Johannite knights and ended only in 1244 with a thunderstorm that arose against the Eastern Christians from the Turkish Karaismin tribe. Jerusalem was again conquered by the Saracens, and the army of the united crusaders was defeated in the disastrous battle of Gaza, in which the Grand Master of the Templars, Herman de Périgord, fell with 300 knights. The Order soon recovered from this defeat, and when the French king Saint Louis opened a new Crusade in 1249 with the siege of Damietta, Grandmaster William de Sonnac reinforced it with a large army. This campaign, after brief successes, ended with the complete defeat of the crusaders at Mansur, the death of the grandmaster and the capture of King Louis with the remnants of his army. He received freedom only for handing over his treasures and conquests.
The possessions of Western Christians in Palestine were now limited to Acre and several fortified points on the seashore. It was impossible to even think about offensive actions against the Saracens. Even the Templars stopped them and entered into negotiations with their opponents. Strange, still insufficiently explained, their actions against other co-religionists, relations with assassins and Saracen emirs and secret intrigues aroused many rumors unfavorable for them, which were suppressed only by the strong patronage of the popes. Once again the Templars showed unparalleled courage in the defense of Acre , or Ptolemais, which cost the life of their grandmaster, William de Beaujeu, and almost all the knights in the city (1291). After the city was captured by the Turks, the few surviving Templars moved their residence to Cyprus, where in 1297 the last grand master of the order, Jacques Molay, was elected. In 1300, he once again, but in vain, tried to take possession of the coast of Syria by arming a strong fleet, but then was forced to turn all his attention to protecting the order from persecution by the Christian powers.
Western European rulers had long been jealous of the power and wealth of the knights of the temple. When, with the loss of Palestine, the real purpose of their founding collapsed, and the order began to appear only as a dangerous militia in the hands of ambitious popes, then obvious persecution of secular princes began against it. At their head was Philip IV the Fair, king of France, implacable enemy of the Templars. Rumors harmful to the order spread from all sides about mysterious rituals introduced when accepting new members into the order, and supposedly tending to contempt and desecration of the Christian faith, about the vicious life of the Templars, their pride and self-will. The people murmured and demanded punishment for the heretics; even the popes, seeing the inevitable death of the order, abandoned its protection. Dad Clement V- a blind game in the hands of Philip IV - ordered the betrayal of the order inquisitorial court, presided over by the royal confessor, the Archbishop of Sens. On October 13, 1307, all the knights of the temple living in France were thrown into prison.
Record of the interrogation of 30 Templars conducted by William of Paris (Inquisitor of France) and two royal commissioners
It is difficult to judge the degree of guilt or innocence of the Templars, the justice of accusing them of worship Baphomet(satanic head), in secret Mohammedanism, hidden orgies, etc., for the most careful researchers of the history of the order contradict each other on this. What is certain is that the true reason for the extermination of the Templars was not their anti-Christian beliefs and vicious life, but their treasures and vast possessions, and that the proceedings against them were carried out with disgusting partiality and inhumanity. Knights and elders were subjected to cruel torture according to the testimony of scoundrels expelled from the order; consciousnesses torn out by torment or long-term imprisonment were taken as clear evidence of guilt, and after the solemn destruction of the order by the pope at the Council of Vienne, all its members who did not recognize themselves as criminals were condemned to death. On March 19, 1314, the virtuous and glorious grand master of the Templars, Jacques Molay, who throughout his reign tried in vain to restore morality and order in the order, together with his most important assistants, ended his life at the stake, calling before his death his persecutors, Philip IV and Clement V, to the judgment of God. who actually died that year. The estates and treasures of the knights were seized into the French treasury, and some were transferred to other orders.
In a similar, but less cruel and violent manner, the Order of the Templars was destroyed in other European states. They say that he continued to exist in secret for a long time, but there is no reliable information about this.
