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.
A complex topic - why the Knights Templar disappeared and died. I do not have sufficient knowledge in the history of the Templar Order, so I set out to compile a review using various sources from the Internet.
The Templar Order was created after the 1st Crusade in Palestine. It is believed that it was created to protect pilgrims to Jerusalem (although this is an ostentatious purpose). It was officially recognized by the Catholic Church in 1128 at the Council of Troyes. The charter of the military monastic Order was written by Bernard of Clairvaux. He also became the initiator of the 2nd Crusade. All the first templars took part in the crusade, i.e. They carried the faith in a completely inhumane way - with a sword and a spear.
Today there is a lot of talk about the secrets and mysteries of the most mystical monastic brotherhood - the Order of the Templars. It is still unknown how “the poor knighthood of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” (this was the official name of the Templar Order) became the owner of untold wealth and the largest European landowner. For example, based on historical facts, researchers claim that the Templar Order was much richer than any ruler in Western Europe.
In addition, founded in 1118, within 50 years the Templar Order became the most influential and powerful organization in Europe. The Templars financed the construction of cathedrals, built roads, and became international bankers. There is also evidence that the Templars sailed to America - much earlier than Columbus.
What did the Templar Order do in Europe?
The Knights Templar quickly grew and owned lands in all countries of Western Europe, especially in France, Catalonia, and Italy. Also:
- They had many privileges from the Pope and from their overlords.
- The Templars came up with a non-cash method of transferring money, in which gold no longer needed to be carried with them, but it was possible to receive it through letters of loan from treasurers in the priories. And since these priories, like a web, covered the entire Christian world of that time. No other secular moneylender was able to provide such a service to clients, but it was easy for the templars. In addition, it was they who came up with the system of checks and letters of credit payable to bearer, and introduced into use the concept of a “current account.”
- The Templars issued cash loans to sovereigns, and on the security of profitable lands, and even state treasures!
- They dealt the French kings a blow of unprecedented force: they minted and began to store in their Temple a standard gold livre. So now any gold coin that differed from it was declared counterfeit and was not accepted by them in calculations!
- They built and protected roads. Taking a check with him, the pilgrim could not carry money with him, but exchange it at any preceptory (comturia) of the templars; this made an attack by robbers for the purpose of robbery pointless.
- They created their own fleet, received a monopoly on transportation in the Mediterranean Sea, making excellent money from it.
The influence of the Templar Order was especially strong in France. This organization was put to an end there. The Templars concentrated great wealth. The French king Philip IV was not burdened with moral qualities, but was called the Handsome, and planned to put an end to the order. Philip the Handsome owes a lot to the Order. Many sources write that this is how the king decided to get rid of his debt - to destroy the credit institution.
Actions of King Philip IV
It is difficult for us to judge whether it was only the idea of Philip the Fair that destroyed the Knights Templar or whether there were other reasons, weaknesses within their organization. According to the official version, the archives of the Templar Order, as well as their gold reserves, have disappeared. The King of France got rid of the order, but did not find any wealth. Perhaps Philip IV, being a contemporary of the events, saw something else, for example, internal strife in the Order, confrontation between some forces fighting for power and influence, and took advantage of the situation.
The elimination of the Order of the Templars was clearly a planned action, and these plans were not formed spontaneously. To begin with, the order was deliberately accused of heresy. Not subject to local kings, subordination only to the Pope (and then only formally), exemption from taxes only added to the hatred of the templars.
At night on October 13, 1307 By order of the King of France, all Templars in the country were arrested, and all their property came under arrest. The investigation lasted for several years, and it would be even strange if during this time most of the knights did not confess to the most terrible acts for a Christian: that they worshiped the devil, the desecration of the Holy Communion, the desecration of the crucifix, the murder of newborn babies, the sin of sodomy and many other equally vile sins.
The executioners had no choice but to send the knights to the stake. None of the kingdom's laws applied to the Templars. If a witch who renounced heresy was, as a rule, spared and released, then a Templar who renounced heresy was sentenced to be burned at the stake.
The Curse of Jacques de Molay
It is persistently told that the Master of the Templar Order, Jacques de Molay, before being burned at the stake, summoned the King of France Philip IV, Pope Clement V and the closest adviser to the monarch de Nogaret to the Judgment of God. Jacques de Molay cursed them and their offspring: “Pope Clement! Knight Guillaume de Nogaret! King Philip! Not even a year will pass before I call you to God’s judgment and you will be given just punishment! A curse!! A curse on your family up to the thirteenth generation!!!” 
Two weeks later, Pope Clement V suddenly died of illness. Almost at the same time, death overtook the comrade-in-arms of the French king de Nogaret. They say that Nogaret's death was accelerated by Countess Matilda of Artois, who did not hide her disgust for Nogaret and said: “God is merciful and if he is in no hurry to fulfill the curse of the Master of the Templars, I will help him!” And Philip the Handsome did not live long - in November of the same year, when he defeated the order, he suddenly died of a stroke.
Philip's three sons also shared the fate of the king - they were popularly called "damned kings." Over the course of 14 years, they alternately died under very mysterious circumstances, leaving no offspring behind. The death of the last of them, Charles VI, interrupted the reign of the Capetian dynasty. But the new French Valois dynasty, which ascended the French throne, faced unprecedented disasters. In 1337 the famous Hundred Years' War began.
During the war, one of the Valois, John the Good, died in captivity of the British, the other, Charles V, lost his mind. A tragic fate befell all representatives of the Valois dynasty:
- killed at the tournament by Henry II (1547-1559),
- Francis II (1559-1560) died as a result of a medical error,
- Charles IX (1560-1574) was poisoned
- died at the hands of a fanatic Henry III (1574-1589).
Failed to escape the curse of Jacques de Molay and Bourbon dynasty who succeeded the Valois on the throne: the first of the Bourbons, Henry IV, died from an assassin’s knife, and the last, Louis XVI, ended his life on the scaffold. The following fact is interesting: before his execution, the king was imprisoned in the Temple Tower, which was previously considered the stronghold of the Templar Order. Eyewitnesses of the execution claim that after the execution of the king, a man shouted: “Jacques de Molay, you have been avenged!”
Secrets of the Templar Order
The history of the Templars has more mysteries than answers.
- Where could such a quantity of material and spiritual treasures of the templars be hidden?
- Why did the Templars so actively revive the legends of the Brotherhood of the Round Table and the glorious King Arthur?
- Were the knights really the guardians of one of the greatest relics of Christianity - the Holy Grail?
- Where did thousands of knights of the order get such enormous spiritual strength?
- And who really were the Templars - servants of God or subordinates of dark forces?
- Were they heretics or victims of slander?
Even the very sources of the Templars' wealth raise questions. Many believe that the Templars received numerous donations from the aristocracy and monarchs. But donations went not only to the Order of the Templars. Why did the power, influence and wealth of the Templars far exceed other concessions in the 12th–13th centuries?
Where did the Templars get so much silver? They paid generously with silver coins. But during the time of the Templars there were no significant deposits of silver in Europe. Where did silver come to them in such huge quantities?
The reasons are deeper, the consequences last longer
There is also an assumption: since the Templars maintained normal relations with the Muslim world, it is possible that it was the well-established trade with the Saracens that brought the knights huge income. Many researchers express the opinion that significant financial transactions carried out by the Templars without regard to the rulers of European states and the Church, as well as numerous “manipulations with material values” accelerated the death of the Order of the Temple. The question is not clear: how did a powerful military-religious order, with professional warrior monks, obediently allow itself to be destroyed?
Historians believe that the creation of a powerful paramilitary structure with enormous funds at its disposal had far-reaching plans. Most likely the goal was to create a united Europe with a single government and economy. At the heart of a unified European economy, the Templars intended to establish a monetary system similar to the one that operated in the order. It was planned to put the Merovingians, who were declared to be the direct descendants of Christ, at the head of a unified political power in Europe. The knights of the order set themselves a grandiose task, which even now no one can cope with.
Modern bankers, without a doubt, recognize that it was the Templar Order that created a stable credit and financial system with its debt obligations (bills) and loan interest. The Templars managed to build a pan-European usury network, very similar to the modern system of banking capital. They were not afraid to violate the prohibition of the church, which does not allow Christians to profit from interest on loans, i.e. receive unearned money. Only Jews were forgiven for engaging in this type of activity, considering them to be of other faiths - remember Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and Pushkin’s “The Miserly Knight.”
By the way, the ban on usury in Islam is still in effect (I wonder if they know about this in Islamic states?). It seems that the main reason that the Knights Templar failed to carry out the planned radical changes in Europe in the 14th century is that Europe itself was not mature enough to carry out such advanced changes.
Philip the Fair was not allowed to know about all the plans of the Templars. But he considered the influence that the Templars had acquired over the years of their existence dangerous for his empire and for himself personally. The Templars, on equal terms, communicated with the powers that be, had stable connections with regions all over the world, and could control any secret sects and teachings. It must be said that Philip himself also harbored plans to receive the crown of the Roman Empire, but was afraid that the Templar Order would interfere with the implementation of his ambitious plans.
The treasury of France was devastated, the indignation of the people was growing, and the Templars, to their misfortune, were not only fabulously rich, but were also the main creditors of Philip the Fair. His actions in relation to the Order of the Templars led to the fact that Philip the Fair entered world history not as a ruler who cared for the triumph of the law and the glory of religion, but as a robber and murderer, on whose hands was the blood of members of the Order of the Templars.
Not everyone died, but it was not possible to revive the past
But the Templars were not persecuted and destroyed everywhere. Scotland was one of the countries that granted them asylum. Many knights of the order joined the ranks of other military monastic orders, among them the Order of Malta, the Order of the Temple of Solomon, the Order of the Knights of Christ (Portugal). Thus, Vasco da Gamma and Prince Enrique the Navigator were knights of the Order of Christ. The prince contributed to the development of shipbuilding in Portugal, he equipped ships to explore new lands and they sailed under the flags of the Templars. Templar symbols were on Columbus's ships when he crossed the Atlantic.
Why was the Order so seemingly easily disbanded overnight, but its wealth and documents were not found?
In fact, the Order of the Templars could only be part of another, so-called ... Order of Zion, which appeared at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries. Very reminiscent of modern corporations. One belongs to the second, and the second is part of the first - about corporations.
What kind of order was this, the name of which comes from the name of the Abbey of St. Mary and the Holy Spirit on Mount Zion, with a rigid hierarchy divided into seven degrees? In 1118, its fifth degree - the Crusaders of St. John - became the Order of the Knights of John of Jerusalem (Hospitaliers, Johannites), and almost simultaneously the Templars, and then the Teutonic Order, also emerged from it. That is, all three of these orders were only legal parts of an illegal association.
With the fall of Palestine, the Order of Zion goes even further into the shadows, but still leads its legal “offshoots.” And, according to the authors of the version, foreseeing the sad fate of the Templar Order, the “Zions” took measures. The decision they made was cruel: not to waste effort on the compromised templars, but to save the main thing - their supranational empire, its wealth and connections.
And of course, the Order of Zion did not want to give anyone its gold, which only nominally belonged to its branch in the person of the Templars.
And since, according to the authors, the “Zionites” guessed about future events several years before they all happened (and where did such insight come from, did no one spill the beans?), then they had time to take out their wealth. Where did they take him? To England, which they chose as an instrument of revenge against France for... the destruction of their branch - the Order of the Templars. That's even how! Therefore, when the Hundred Years' War began in 1337, all the money ended up there. Hence all the military successes of the British. After all, England at that time, compared to France, was a poor country, and suddenly such military achievements and successes? What kind of “shisha”, you ask? But what kind - the “Templar gold”!
February 15th, 2014
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 gain 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 people 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. Hordes of people wandering “throughout 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 Tire, 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 an idea 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
Initially, the entire brethren of the Order was 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.
Help: Medieval Temple Castle (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 commander 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 loans 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 involved 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 Maula
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
Let's remember the chronology again:
1095 – first crusade proclaimed by Pope Urban II
1099 – capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders, foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
1118–1119 – a group of knights founds a religious brotherhood to protect pilgrims from Muslims.
1120 - the church council in Nablus recognizes the new brotherhood as a religious order, and King Baldwin II of Jerusalem gives them the premises of the Al-Aqsa mosque "Temple of Solomon", since then they have been called the Templars (templars).
1128 – Countess Teresa of Portugal decides to hand over the castle of Sur, on the Portuguese border with the Muslims, to the Templars.
1129 – Cathedral of Troyes (Champagne, France). The order receives a papal blessing and adopts the Latin charter of the order.
before 1130 - Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, writes “Dedication to the New Knighthood” to support the new order.
1131 – Count of Barcelona Raymond Berenger III transfers the border possession of Granien to the Templars
1134 - death of King Alfonso I of Aragon, who bequeathed his kingdom to the Templars, Hospitallers and Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.
1136-1137 – the Templars establish themselves in the border areas north of Antioch (now Türkiye)
1137 - Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England, niece of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin of Edessa, transfers lands in Essex (England) to the Templars
1139 - Pope Innocent II issues the bull Omne datum optimum, which gives the Templars various religious privileges so that they can act more effectively.
1143 - the ruler of Aragon, Count Ramon Berenger IV, concludes an agreement with the Templars on actions against Muslims and transfers to them various lands and castles.
1144 - Pope Celestine II issues the bull Milites Templi, in which he gives the Templars various religious privileges, which will be further enshrined in the bull Milites Dei issued by Pope Eugene III a year later.
1147-1149 – second crusade
1149-1150 - Templars gain the strategic castle of Gaza in southern Palestine
1153 – forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem occupy Ascalon
1163-1169 – King Amalric of Jerusalem invades Egypt
1177 - Battle of Montgisard, victory of King Baldwin 4 of Jerusalem over Saladdin, ruler of Syria and Damascus
1179 – Battle of Mezaphat, victory of Saladdin, Saladdin destroys the Templar castle of St. James in northern Galilee.
1187 - Battle of Hattin: disaster for the crusader states and victory for Saladdin, who executes all captured Templars and Hospitallers. Saladdin captures Jerusalem, and the Templars are deprived of their main residence.
1189-1192 – third crusade
1191 – The Templars settle in their new residence in Acre (now Acre, Israel)
1191-1126 - continuous wars between the Templars and King Leo of Cilician Armenia
1204 – Fourth Crusade, conquest of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). The Templars receive some lands in Greece.
1217-1221 – fifth crusade, military campaigns in Palestine and Egypt.
1218 – The Templars and some Crusaders build Pilgrim Castle (now Atlit, Israel) south of Acre.
1228-1229 Crusade of Frederick II, the emperor returns part of Jerusalem by treaty, but not the Temple Mount, where the Templars had their residence.
1129-1230 – King Jaime I of Aragon captures Muslim positions in the Bolearic Islands, his forces include the Templars.
1230 – The Templars receive their first property in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic)
1233 – King Jaime II of Aragon invades Valencia, his forces including the Templars.
1237 - The Templars suffer a heavy defeat while trying to retake the castle of Darbasque in the Principality of Antioch from the Muslims of Aleppo (now Aleppo, Turkey)
1239-1240 – crusade of Thibault of Champagne and Navarre.
1240-1241 – Crusade of Richard of Cornwall.
1240 – The Templars begin rebuilding their castle of Safed in northern Galilee.
1241 - Mongol invasion of Hungary and Poland, united Christian forces, which include local Templars, are defeated.
1244 – Capture of Jerusalem by the Khorezmian Turks. Battle of La Forbie, the Franks suffer a heavy defeat from the Egyptian forces in alliance with the Khwarezmians.
1248-1254 – crusade of Louis IX, King of France: military campaigns in Egypt and Palestine.
1250 - Battle of Mansur in Egypt: The Crusaders are defeated and many Templars are killed.
1260 – Battle of Ain Jalut: The Mongols are defeated by the Egyptian Mamluks.
1266 – Sultan Baybars of Egypt captures the Templar castle of Safed.
1268 – Baybars captures Antioch.
1270 – King Louis IX’s second crusade to Tunisia.
1271-1272 – Edward the English crusade.
1274 - Council of Lyon: discussions about a new crusade, which will never be carried out.
1289 – Sultan Kilawun of Egypt captures Tripoli (now Tarabalus, Syria)
1291 – capture of Acre Ashraf by Khalil son of Kilawun: end of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Templars evacuate their castles of Sidon and Tortosa, (now Tartuz, Syria), and establish their headquarters in Cyprus.
1302 – The Templars lose Ruad, an island near Tortosa.
1306 – King Henry II of Cyprus is deposed by his brother Amaury de Lusignan, the Templars support Amaury.
1307 – French Templars arrested by order of King Philip IV
1310 – King Henry II of Cyprus regains power and places the Templars under house arrest.
1311-1312 – church cathedral in Vienne, France.
1312 - Pope Clement V dissolves the order with the bull Vox in excelso. He issues the bull Ad providam, which transfers the property of the order to the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Hospitaliers).
1314 - two main dignitaries of the order, Master of the Order Jacques de Molay and Commander of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnay, were burned in Paris.
1316-1317 – Aimé de Ozilier, Marshal of the Templars, and other Templars of Cyprus die in prison during the reign of their opponent King Henry II of Cyprus.
1319 – The Order of Montesa establishes itself in Valencia and takes over the property of the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller in Valencia. The Order of Christ is founded in Portugal and takes over the property of the Templars there.
Quoted from Helen Nicholson - Knight Templar, translation: © www.templarhistory.ru
Here are additional materials on this topic:
Chivalry as the elite of medieval society and The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -
Although the main purpose of its establishment was the military defense of the states created by the crusaders in the East. However, in 1291, Christian settlers were expelled from Palestine by Muslims, and the Templars, in order to preserve the order, switched almost entirely to usury and trade, accumulating significant material wealth, and thereby causing the envy of kings and the pope. In 1307-1314. members of the order were subjected to arrests and brutal persecution by the Roman Catholic Church, major feudal lords and kings, as a result of which the order was abolished and dissolved.
History of the order
Origin of the Order
Ala-Aksa Mosque, south-eastern part of the temple mount. This place was the headquarters of the Templars.
In the years following the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, many of the participants in the First Crusade returned to the West or died, and the new Crusader states they created in the East did not have enough troops and skilled commanders capable of properly defending the borders of the new states. As a result, pilgrims who came to pay homage to the Palestinian shrines every year were often attacked by robbers or Muslims, and the crusaders were unable to provide them with proper protection. Around 1119, the French nobleman Hugh de Payns gathered eight of his knightly relatives, including Godefroy de Saint-Omer, and established an order with the goal of protecting pilgrims on their pilgrimages to holy places in the Middle East. They called their order "Beggar Knights". Few people knew about the activities of the order, as well as about the order in general, until the Council of Troyes in 1128, at which the order was officially recognized, and Archbishop Bernard of Clairvaux was instructed to develop its Charter, which would summarize the basic laws of the order. The medieval historian William, Archbishop of Tire, Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the greatest historians in the Middle Ages, documents the process of creating the order in his work:
“In the same year several noble knights, men of true believers and God-fearing, expressed a desire to live in severity and obedience, to forever renounce their possessions and, surrendering themselves into the hands of the supreme ruler of the church, to become members of the monastic order. Among them, the first and most famous were Hugh de Payns and God Frou de Saint-Omer. Since the brotherhood did not yet have their own temple or home, the king provided them with temporary refuge in his palace, built on the southern slope of the Temple Mount. The canons of the temple that stood there, under certain conditions, ceded part of the walled courtyard for the needs of the new order. Moreover, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, his entourage and the patriarch with his prelates immediately provided support for the order by allocating to it some of their land holdings - some for life, others for temporary use - thanks to which members of the order could receive a livelihood. First of all, they were ordered, in atonement for their sins and under the leadership of the patriarch, to “protect and protect pilgrims going to Jerusalem from attacks by thieves and bandits and take every possible care for their safety.”
Map of Jerusalem showing the location of the order's headquarters
At the very beginning of its activity, the order was ordered only to protect pilgrims, and the first knights of the order formed something like a brotherhood of the laity. The order constituted a group of knights in the service of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, allocated a place for headquarters on the southeastern wing of the Jerusalem temple, in the Ala Aqsa mosque. And Bernard of Clairvaux, who developed the Decree of the Order of the Knights of the Temple, became the patron of the order.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, patron of the order
The Templars who were present at the Council of Troyes launched an active and successful recruitment campaign in France and England for the order, for which most of them, following the example of Godefroy de Saint-Omer, went home. Hugh de Payns visited Champagne, Anjou, Normandy and Flanders, as well as England and Scotland. In addition to many neophytes, the order received generous donations in the form of land holdings, which provided it with a strong economic position in the West, especially in France, and confirmed its original “national” affiliation - the order was considered French. However, very soon the idea of joining this spiritual-knightly order also captured Languedoc and the Iberian Peninsula, where the proximity of hostile Muslims forced the local population to pin their hopes for protection on the crusaders. Each nobleman who joined the order took a vow of poverty, and his property was considered the property of the entire order. On March 29, 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a bull, which he called Omne Datum Optimum, which stated that any Templar could freely cross any border, was exempt from taxes, and did not obey anyone except the Pope himself.
Further development of the order
Decline of the order and its dissolution
Jacques de Molay
In the early morning of October 13, 1307, members of the order living in France were arrested by officials of King Philip IV. The arrests were made in the name of the Holy Inquisition, and the possessions of the Templars became the property of the king. Members of the order were accused of the gravest heresy - of renouncing Jesus Christ, spitting on the crucifix, kissing each other indecently and having a penchant for homosexuality, and also worshiping idols in their secret meetings, etc. In October and November, the arrested Templars, including including Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order, and Hugo de Peyraud, Examiner General, almost simultaneously admitted their guilt. Many prisoners were subjected to torture. De Molay then publicly repeated his confession before a meeting of theologians at the University of Paris. For his part, King Philip IV wrote to other monarchs of Christendom with an urgent request to follow his example and make arrests of the Templars in their dominions. Pope Clement V initially perceived these arrests as a direct attack on his authority. However, he was forced to come to terms with the current state of affairs and, instead of resisting, tried to take responsibility for what happened. On November 22, 1307, he issued the bull "Pastoralis praeeminentiae", in which he ordered all monarchs of the Christian world to arrest the Templars and confiscate their lands and property. This bull marked the beginning of trials in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and Cyprus. Two cardinals were sent to Paris to personally interrogate the leaders of the order. However, in the presence of the Pope's representatives, de Molay and de Peyraud retracted their confessions and urgently asked the rest of the Templars to do the same. At the beginning of 1308, the pope suspended the inquisition processes. Philip IV and his people tried in vain for six months to influence the pope, encouraging him to start the investigation again. The culmination of the negotiations was a meeting between the king and the pope in Poitiers in May-June 1308, during which, after much debate, the pope finally agreed to open two judicial investigations: one was to be carried out by a papal commission within the order itself, the second - to be a series of trials at the level bishoprics, where local courts had to determine the guilt or innocence of a particular member of the order. For October 1310 The Council of Vienna was scheduled, which was to make a final decision on the Templar case. Episcopal investigations, which were carried out under the control and pressure of the bishops themselves, closely connected with the French throne, began as early as 1309. , and, as it turned out, in most cases the Templars repeated their original confessions after severe and prolonged torture. The papal commission, which investigated the activities of the order as a whole, began hearing the case only in November 1309. The Templar brothers, in the face of the papal commission, inspired by two talented priests - Pierre de Bologna and Renaud de Provins - began to consistently defend their order and their dignity.
By the beginning of May 1310. Almost six hundred Templars came to the decision to defend the order, completely denying the truth of the confessions wrested from them at the beginning of the investigation, made either before the inquisitors in 1307 or before the bishops in 1309. Pope Clement V postponed the Council for a year, until 1311. Archbishop of Sansa , the king's protege, having again begun an investigation into the case of individual members of the order within his diocese, found that forty-four people were guilty of having relapsed into heresy, and transferred them to the secular court (which carried out the sentences of ecclesiastical courts). April 12, 1310 Fifty-four Templars were sentenced to be burned at the stake and executed on the outskirts of Paris. One of the two main inspirers of the order's defense in court, Pierre de Bologna disappeared somewhere, and Renaud de Provins was sentenced to life imprisonment by the provincial council of Sané. Thanks to these executions, the Templars returned to their original testimony. The hearings of the papal commission also ended only in June 1311.
In the summer of 1311, the pope combined the testimony he received from France with investigative materials coming from other countries. But it was only in France and in those areas that were under its domination or influence that the Templars actually obtained a confession of guilt. In October, the Council of Vienna finally took place, and the pope urgently demanded the dissolution of the order on the grounds that the Templars had so dishonored themselves that the order could no longer exist in its previous form. The resistance of the holy fathers during the Council was, however, very significant, and the pope, under pressure from the king of France, insisted on his own, forcing the audience to remain silent under pain of excommunication. The bull "Vox in excelso" of May 22, 1312 marked the dissolution of the order, and according to the bull "Ad providam" of May 2, all the property of the order was transferred free of charge to another large order - the Hospitallers. Soon after, Philip IV seized a large sum of money from the Hospitallers as legal compensation.
Two Templars are burned at the stake.
Various Templars were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, including life, in those cases where the brothers never admitted their guilt, they were imprisoned in monasteries, where they eked out a miserable existence for the rest of their lives. Their leaders apparently appeared before the papal court on March 18, 1314, and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Hugh de Peyraud, Examiner General of the Order, and Geoffroy de Gonneville, Prior of Aquitaine, heard their verdict in silence, but Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Prior of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnay loudly protested, denying all charges, and asserted that their holy order was still pure before God and people. The king immediately demanded their condemnation as having fallen into heresy a second time, and that same evening they were burned on one of the alluvial islands of the Seine, the so-called Jewish Island.
Connection with Solomon's Temple
One of the variants of the cross used by the Templar Order
Since they had neither a church nor a permanent refuge, the king gave them temporary residence in the southern wing of the palace, near the Temple of the Lord.""Temple of the Lord" - refers to the Second Temple of Jerusalem, built by Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans in the 70s AD. During the existence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Temple of the Lord was called the so-called "Dome of the Rock", aka - The Golden Dome or, in Arabic, Qubbat al-Sakhra. The Al-Aqsa Mosque ("The Ultimate") was called Templum Solomonis - Temple of Solomon... They - and also, later, the palace of the King of Jerusalem, were built on the territory of the Temple Mount - there where the Temple of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans, stood. The main residence of the Templars was located in the southern wing of the palace. On medieval plans and maps depicting Jerusalem, until the 16th century, the Temple Mount bears the name Solomon's Temple. For example, on the plan of Jerusalem from 1200, one can clearly read " Temple Solomonis". Hence the name of the order itself. In documents of 1124-25, the Templars are called simply - " Knights of Solomon's Temple" or " Knights of the Jerusalem Temple».
“The real Temple is the Temple in which they live together, not as majestic, it is true, as the ancient and famous Temple of Solomon, but no less famous. For all the greatness of Solomon's Temple lay in mortal things, in gold and silver, in carved stone and in many varieties of wood; but the beauty of the present Temple lies in the devotion of its members to the Lord and their exemplary life. This one was admired for his external beauties, this one is revered because of his virtues and holy deeds, and thus the holiness of the house of the Lord is established, for the smoothness of marble is not as pleasing to Him as righteous behavior, and He cares more about the purity of minds, and not about the gilding of the walls ."
“Their premises are located in the Temple of Jerusalem itself, not as huge as Solomon’s ancient masterpiece, but no less glorious. Truly, all the splendor of the First Temple consisted in mortal gold and silver, in polished stones and costly woods, while the charm and sweet, lovely adornment of the present is the religious zeal of those who occupy it and their disciplined behavior. In the former one could contemplate all kinds of beautiful colors, while in the latter one could revere all kinds of virtues and good deeds. Truly, holiness is a fitting adornment for the house of God. There you can enjoy magnificent virtues, and not shiny marble, and be captivated by pure hearts, and not gilded panels.
Of course, the facade of this temple is decorated, but not with stones, but with weapons, and instead of ancient golden crowns, its walls are hung with shields. Instead of candlesticks, censers and jugs, this house is furnished with saddles, harnesses and spears.”
“In 1118, in the East, the Crusader knights - among them were Geoffrey de Saint-Omer and Hugo de Payens - devoted themselves to religion, making a vow to the Patriarch of Constantinople, whose see had always been secretly or openly hostile to the Vatican since the time of Photius. The openly avowed purpose of the Templars was to protect Christian pilgrims in holy places; the secret intention is to rebuild Solomon's Temple according to the model indicated by Ezekiel. Such a restoration, predicted by the Jewish mystics of the first centuries of Christianity, was the secret dream of the Eastern Patriarchs. Restored and dedicated to the Ecumenical Cult, Solomon's Temple was to become the capital of the world. The East was to prevail over the West and the Patriarchate of Constantinople was to prevail over the Papacy. To explain the name Templars (Templars), historians say that Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, gave them a house in the vicinity of Solomon's Temple. But here they fall into a serious anachronism, because during this period not only was not a single stone left even from the Second Temple of Zerubbabel, but it was also difficult to determine the place where these temples stood. It should be considered that the house given to the Templars by Baldwin was not located in the vicinity of Solomon's Temple, but on the spot where these secret armed missionaries of the Eastern Patriarch intended to restore it.
The Templars considered their biblical model for the masons Zerubbabel, who worked with a sword in one hand and a mason's shovel in the other. Since the sword and trowel were their signs in the subsequent period, they declared themselves the Masonic Brotherhood, that is, the Brotherhood of Masons."
Activities during the era of the Crusades
Seal of the Knights Templar. The two horsemen symbolize the vow of poverty or the duality of monk and soldier
According to one version, over the next nine years, nine knights do not accept a single new member into their society. But it should be noted that there are facts that allow us to either doubt the creation of the Order in 1119, or its nine-year isolation. It is known that in 1120 Fulk of Anjou, father of Geoffrey Plantagenet, was admitted to the Order, and in 1124 the Count of Champagne. By 1126, two more people had been admitted.
Financial activities
One of the main activities of the Order was finance. But what were they like at that time? According to Marc Block, "there was little circulation of money." They were not real coins, but transferable, counting coins. “Only at the very end of the 13th century did French legalists begin to distinguish with difficulty between its (coin’s) actual value (weight in gold) and its natural value, that is, its transformation into a monetary sign, an instrument of exchange,” wrote Jacques Le Goff. The value of the livre changed from 489.5 g of gold (Carolingian time) to 89.85 g in 1266 and to 72.76 g in 1318. The minting of gold coins resumed from the middle of the 13th century: florin 1252 g (3.537 g); ecu of Louis IX; Venetian ducat. In reality, according to J. Le Goff, silver was minted: the penny of Venice (1203), Florence (c. 1235), France (c. 1235). Monetary relations, therefore, are of a weighty nature - which makes them somewhat difficult. Attempts to assess any degree of wealth can lead to inadequate results. You can, for example, evaluate by the level of 1100 - when the livre fluctuated between 367-498 g, or by the level - livre 72.76 g. Thus, the author of any work can, using the data, get the result he needs - about the enormous amount of wealth of the Templars, for example.
It should be noted that due to the high risk, only certain individuals and congregations made money from financial transactions. Usury was usually practiced by Italians and Jews. Their competition came from abbeys, which usually gave money on the security of “land and fruits from it.” The purpose of the loan was usually a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the term was to return from there. The loan amount was equal to 2/3 of the collateral amount.
The Order of the Templars looked much more respectable in this field of financial activity. It had a special status - not only as a secular organization, but also as a spiritual one; consequently, attacks on the Order's premises were considered sacrilege. In addition, the Templars later received from the pope the right to engage in financial transactions, thanks to which they conducted their activities openly. Other congregations had to resort to all sorts of tricks (for example, giving money on interest to Jews).
It was the Templars who were the inventors of checks, and if the deposit amount was exhausted, it could be increased and subsequently replenished by relatives. Twice a year checks were sent to the release office for final calculations. Each check was accompanied by the depositor's fingerprint. The Order charged a small tax for transactions with checks. The presence of checks freed people from the need to transport precious metals (which played the role of money); now it was possible to go on a pilgrimage with a small piece of leather and receive a full coin from any Templar commuria. Thus, the monetary property of the owner of the check became inaccessible to robbers, whose number was quite large in the Middle Ages.
It was possible to get a loan from the Order at 10% - for comparison: credit and loan offices and Jews gave loans at 40%. But since the time of the Crusades, the popes freed the crusaders from “Jewish debts”, but they gave them to the Templars in any case.
According to Steward, “The Templars' longest occupation, and their contribution to breaking the Church's monopoly on usury, was economics. No medieval institution did more to advance capitalism.”
The Order possessed huge land holdings: in the middle of the 13th century, about 9,000 manuaries; by 1307 there were about 10,500 manuari. In the Middle Ages, a manuarium was a plot of land measuring 100-200 hectares, the income from which made it possible to arm a knight. However, it should be noted that the land holdings of the Order of St. John were more than twice as large in territory as those of the Order of the Temple.
Gradually, the Templars became the largest creditors in Europe. Their debtors include everyone from peasants to kings and popes. Their banking business is so developed that Philip II Augustus entrusted the treasurer of the Order with the functions of minister of finance. “For 25 years the royal treasury was managed by the treasurer of the Order, Gaimar, then by Jean de Milly.” Under Louis IX the Saint, the royal treasury was located in the Temple. Under Louis's successor, it continued to remain there and almost merged with the Order's treasury. “The chief treasurer of the Order became the chief treasurer of France and concentrated the financial management of the country,” writes Lozinsky. Not only the French kings trusted the state treasury to the Templars; 100 years earlier, one of the keys to the Jerusalem treasury was kept by them.
The Order carried out active construction work. In the East, they mostly consisted of building castles and paving roads. In the West - roads, churches, cathedrals, castles. In Palestine, the Templars owned 18 important castles, for example, Tortosa, Feb, Toron, Castel Pelegrinum, Safet, Gastin and others.
In less than a hundred years, the Order built “80 cathedrals and 70 smaller temples” in Europe, says J. Maillet.
Separately, one should highlight such type of activity of the Templars as road construction. At that time, the lack of roads, the multiplicity of “customs barriers” - fees and duties levied by every small feudal lord at every bridge and compulsory passage point, not counting robbers and pirates, made it difficult to travel. In addition, the quality of these roads was, according to S.G. Lozinsky, extremely low. The Templars guarded their roads and built commuria at their intersections, where they could stop for the night. People were protected on the roads of the Order. An important detail: no customs duty was charged for travel on these roads - a phenomenon exclusive to the Middle Ages.
The Templars' charitable activities were significant. The charter ordered them to feed the poor in their homes three times a week. Besides the beggars in the courtyard, four people ate at the table. G. Lee writes that when, during the famine in Mostera, the price of a measure of wheat rose from 3 to 33 sous, the Templars fed 1000 people daily.
Akka fell and the orders moved their residences to Cyprus. Long before this event, the Templars, using their savings and extensive connections, became the largest bankers in Europe, so the military side of their activities faded into the background.
The influence of the Templars was especially great in Spain, France and England. The Order developed into a rigid hierarchical structure with a Grand Master at its head. They were distributed into four categories - knights, chaplains, squires and servants. It is estimated that at the time of its greatest power the order had about 20,000 members - knights and servants.
Thanks to a strong network of commanderies - in the 13th century there were five thousand of them, along with dependent castles and monasteries - covering almost the entirety of Europe and the Middle East, the Templars could provide, at low loan interest rates, not only the protection of the valuables entrusted to them, but also their transportation from one place to another. another, from the lender to the borrower or from the deceased pilgrim to his heirs.
The financial activities and exorbitant wealth of the order aroused the envy and enmity of the powers that be, especially the French king Philip IV the Fair, who feared the strengthening of the Templars and, experiencing a constant lack of money (he himself was a major debtor of the order), longed to take over their property. The special privileges of the order (jurisdiction only of the papal curia, exclusion from the jurisdiction of local feudal lords, exemption from paying church taxes, etc.) aroused hostility towards it from the church clergy.
Destruction of the Order
Secret negotiations between the King of France and the Pope
Using some random denunciation as a pretext, Philip ordered several Templars to be quietly interrogated and then began secret negotiations with Pope Clement V, insisting on an investigation into the state of affairs in the order. Fearing to aggravate relations with the king, the pope, after some hesitation, agreed to this, especially since the alarmed order did not dare to object to the investigation.
Then Philip IV decided that the time had come to strike. On September 22, 1307, the Royal Council decided to arrest all Templars located in France. For three weeks, preparations were made in the strictest secrecy for this operation, which was not at all easy for the then authorities. Royal officials, commanders of military detachments (as well as local inquisitors) did not know until the very last moment what they had to do: the orders were received in sealed packages, which could only be opened on Friday, October 13. The Templars were taken by surprise. There was no point in thinking about resistance.
The king pretended to act with the full consent of the pope. The same one learned about the masterful “police” action carried out by Philip only after it had happened. Those arrested were immediately charged with numerous crimes against religion and morality: blasphemy and renunciation of Christ, cult of the devil, dissolute life, various perversions.
The interrogation was conducted jointly by inquisitors and royal servants, and the most cruel tortures were used, and as a result, of course, the necessary testimony was obtained. Philip IV even assembled the Estates General in May 1308 to gain their support and thereby neutralize any objections from the pope. Formally, the dispute with Rome was about who should judge the Templars, but in essence - about who would inherit their wealth.
Accusations
- Denial of Jesus Christ and spitting on the cross. Charles Heckerthorn sees here the theatricality of church rites characteristic of the Middle Ages, a parallel with the abdication of St. Peter. The Order thus accepted a person who rejected Christ and desecrated the Holy Crucifix - that is, who committed sacrilege. And from this apostate the Order made a qualitatively new Christian - a Knight of Christ and the Temple - thereby forever tying him to himself. Another option is offered by G. Lee. He says that renunciation was a test of the vow of obedience to elders, which was elevated to a cult in the Order. For example, when Jean d'Aumont, upon initiation into the Order, was ordered to spit on the cross, he spat, then went to confession to a Franciscan, who reassured him and, as atonement, ordered him to fast for three Fridays. Knight Pierre de Sherru, upon initiation, by order, uttered the phrase: “I renounce God,” to which the prior smiled disdainfully. Not everyone, however, easily agreed to renounce God and spit on the cross - many brothers later had to be reassured (like Ed de Bur), saying that it was a joke.
- Kissing various parts of the body. Henry Lee suggests that this could either be a test of obedience, or the knight's mockery of his serving brother. Kisses were usually only required from employees.
- Sodomy.
- Blessing of a rope worn across the body around the idol. According to the testimony of one priest, the Templars obtained rope by any means, and if it broke, they even used woven reeds.
- The priests of the Order did not consecrate the Holy Gifts during communion and distorted the formula of the Mass.
Here is a list of charges brought by the Inquisition against the Templars:
- the knights worshiped a certain cat, who sometimes appeared to them at their meetings;
- in every province they had idols, namely heads (some of them had three faces, and some only one) and human skulls;
- they worshiped these idols, especially in their meetings;
- they revered these idols as representatives of God and the Savior;
- the Templars claimed that the head could save them and make them rich;
- the idols gave all the wealth to the order;
- idols made the earth bear fruit and the trees bloom;
- they tied the heads of each of these idols or simply touched them with short ropes, which they then wore on their bodies under their shirts;
- when a new member was accepted into the ranks of the order, he was given the above-mentioned short ropes (or one long one that could be cut);
- everything they did was done out of reverence for these idols.
The trial: general and specific aspects of the conduct of the trial of the Templars in different countries
It should immediately be noted that the most brutal was the persecution of the Templars in France. It is through her example that historians usually consider the process. One gets the impression that it had a similar form - torture, prisons and fires - in other countries. This is not entirely true. The facts cited by G. Lee show that if torture was used almost everywhere except Cyprus, Castile, Portugal, Trier and Mainz, then they were usually imprisoned:
- not suddenly, as in France;
- they could take a word of honor and leave it in their castles - as in England and Cyprus;
- They could not have been arrested at all, but summoned to trial. This was done in Trier, Mainz, Lombard and even in the Papal States. However, the Templars sometimes appeared themselves.
And, of course, the Templars were not burned at the stake everywhere. The following were burned:
- 54 Templars in the diocese of Sansk on April 12, 1310; 4 more Templars were later burned there;
- in April 1310, 9 Templars in Senlis;
- 3 Templars at Pont de L'Arc;
- Jacques de Molay (last of the masters of the order) and Guillaume de Charnay, commander of Normandy - in 1314.
Other countries:
- in Lorraine many were burned, but note that Duke Thibault of Lorraine was a vassal of Philip IV the Fair;
- Templars from 4 monasteries in Marburg were burned;
- perhaps 48 Templars were burned in Italy, although Bishop Denis claimed that not a single Templar was burned in Italy.
Therefore, the statement about hundreds of bonfires throughout Europe is incorrect. In England and Spain, special royal orders were required for the use of torture against the Templars. Under English law, for example, torture was prohibited. The Church received permission from Edward of England to torture the Templars. This permission was called “church law.” In Aragon, the situation was better: the law also did not recognize torture, and the Cortes did not give permission to use it.
Poorly educated brothers of the Order, that is, serving brothers, were often used as witnesses in trials. G. Lee notes that in many places it was they who gave the most difficult and valuable testimony from the point of view of the Inquisition. The testimony of renegades of the Order was also used: the Florentine Roffi Dei and the Prior of Montfaucon; the latter, having been condemned by the Grand Master to life imprisonment for numerous crimes, fled and became the accuser of his former brothers.
In Germany, the measures applied to the Templars depended entirely on the attitude of local secular authorities towards them. Burchard III of Marburg did not like the Templars and burned knights from four monasteries - for which their relatives later caused him great trouble. The archbishops of Trier and Cologne in 1310 ceded their powers in relation to the Templars to Burchard III of Marburg for their lands. Archbishop Peter of Mainz incurred the displeasure of Clement V for acquitting the Templars. The Templars, in the eyes of the archbishop and local accusers, had undeniable evidence of their rightness: at the council convened on May 11, 1310, Commander Hugo Salm himself appeared and brought all twenty Templars; their cloaks were thrown into the fire and the crosses on them did not burn. This miracle greatly influenced public opinion, and they were acquitted. In the same Germany, St. John spoke in favor of the Templars, citing a case when, during a famine, when the price of bread increased from 3 sou to 33, the Templars from the monastery in Mostera fed 1000 people daily. The Templars were acquitted. Having learned about this outcome of the matter, Clement V ordered Burchard III of Marburg to take matters into his own hands - the result is known.
The persecution of the Templars in Aragon began in January 1308. Most of the Templars locked themselves in seven castles, some shaved their beards and disappeared. The commander of Aragon was then Ramon Sa Guardia. He fortified himself in Miravet. The Templars also fortified themselves in the castles of Ascon, Montzo, Cantavieja, Vilelle, Castellot and Chalamera. The local population provided assistance to the Templars; many came to the castles and defended them with weapons in their hands. In November 1308, the fortress of Castellot surrendered, in January - the fortress of Miraveta, Monceau and Chalamera - in July 1309. By November 1309, the Templars from the remaining fortresses were allowed to leave in groups of 2-3 with weapons in their hands. Ramon Sa Guardia on October 17 appealed to Pope Vice-Chancellor Arnold, pointing out that the Templars, who have been in captivity for 20-30 years, do not renounce God, while renunciation gives them freedom and wealth, and even now 70 Templars are languishing in captivity. Representatives of many noble families came out in defense of the Templars. King James released the prisoners, but kept the lands and castles for himself. Ramon Sa Guardia has retired to Mallorca.
The Templars of Cyprus, of whom there were 118 brothers of all degrees on the island (75 were knights), first defended themselves for several weeks, then were arrested on their word of honor. The sheer number of knights on the island (the usual ratio of knights to servants was 1:10) clearly indicates that it was Cyprus, and not the Temple in Paris, that was the main seat of the Templars at that time. G. Lee writes: “In Cyprus, where the Templars were known better than anywhere else, not only friends, but also enemies, and especially all those who had been in close relations with them for a long time, felt sympathy for them; no one accused the order of any crime until its guilt was so unreasonably confirmed by the bulls of the pope.” Torture was not used against the Templars; they all unanimously denied the guilt of the Order of the Temple. Other 56 witnesses from among clergy of all degrees, nobles and townspeople, among whom were political opponents of the Templars, unequivocally stated that they only knew facts that did honor to the Order - their generosity, mercy and zeal for the fulfillment of religious duties were emphasized in every possible way.
In Mallorca, all 25 Templars closed in the mentorship of Matte from November 22, 1307. Later, in November 1310, Ramon Sa Guardia joined them. At the trial of 1313, the Templars were found innocent.
In France, the Templars were arrested and imprisoned from 6 am on October 13th. They were immediately subjected to torture and ill-treatment. It was in France that knights of the Order of the Temple began to be burned at the stake for the first time. Unfortunately for the inquisitors, among the Templars there was not a single person under investigation who would defend the heresy of the Order. The presence of such a witness would have been a godsend for Philip IV. Knights confessed to all their sins under torture. The torture was so terrible that Aimery de Villiers later stated: “I would admit everything; I think I would admit that I killed God if it were demanded.” But then, at the very next interrogation, the knights refused to confess to heresy. These refusals were so widespread that Jean de Marigny, Archbishop of the Sansk diocese (which then included Paris) was forced, under pressure from Philip IV, to hand over the Templars who refused their testimony to the hands of secular authorities to be burned at the stake. All the Inquisition rules were turned upside down: the witch who renounced heresy was confident of her salvation and the end of the torture; a Templar who renounced heresy ended up at the stake.
The process ended with the dissolution of the order. On April 3, Clement V issued the bull “Vox in excelso”, in which he said: it is impossible to condemn the Order for heresy, but the Templars voluntarily confessed to errors - this will alienate believers who will no longer join the Order; thus, it will not bring any benefit and should be disbanded.
The property of the Templars passed to the Order of St. John, but S.G. Lozinsky notes that the Dominicans, Carthusians, Augustines and Celestines also managed to profit.
The Templars were released from prison even in France, except for the leadership. Some of them joined the Order of St. John. In Mallorca, the Templars lived in the Mas Deo fortress, each of them received from 30 to 100 livres of pension. Ramon Sa Guardia was given a pension of 350 livres and income from the garden and vineyard. The last of the Templars of Mallorca died in 1350 - his name was Berangel de Col.
In Castile, the Templars were acquitted; many of them became hermits, and their bodies did not decay after death. In Portugal, the fate of the Templars was more than favorable: in gratitude for the services they provided in the fight against the Saracens, King Denis founded the Order of Jesus Christ, which was approved in 1318 by Pope John XXII. The new order was a simple continuation of the old one.
The responsibility to maintain the former Templars was assigned to those to whom their property was transferred. These sums were sometimes so large that in 1318 John XXII forbade the provision of such a pension to the Templars of Germany, which allowed them to save money and live luxuriously. In France, the king and his family accounted for:
- 200,000 livres from Temple plus 60,000 livres for the conduct of the trial;
- money received from the sale of the Order's property;
- Templar jewelry;
income from Templar property received during the process;
- 200,000 livres that St. John kept in the Temple;
- 500,000 francs taken by Philip IV for Blanche's wedding;
- 200,000 florins of Philip IV's debt to the Templars;
- 2,500 livres issued by the Templars in 1297 to organize a crusade that was not carried out;
- payments on Templar bills;
- debts of the royal family.
A quick glance at this list is enough to understand that the trial of the Order was very beneficial for Philip IV. Of course, this process could not be explained by any “struggle for the purity of faith” - its reasons were clearly of an economic and political nature. Godefroy of Paris expressed public opinion regarding the trial and behavior of Philip IV and Clement V, saying: “It is easy to deceive the church, but in no case can you deceive God.”
By this process, without any struggle, the congregation which was considered the proudest, the happiest and the strongest in Europe was destroyed. No one would have dared to attack her if the inquisitorial proceedings had not put in the hands of dexterous and less shy people the necessary means to put simple robbery into legal form.
Burning of the Templars
Legend of the Curse
According to Godfrey of Paris, Jacques de Molay, having mounted the fire, summoned Philip IV, Nogaret and Clement V to God's Court. Seemingly broken morally and physically, the Grand Master, in an unexpectedly loud, thunderous voice, so that the people could hear, says:
Justice demands that on this terrible day, in the last minutes of my life, I expose the baseness of lies and allow the truth to triumph. So, I declare before the face of Earth and Heaven, I affirm, although to my eternal shame: I have indeed committed the greatest crime, but it lies in the fact that I have pleaded guilty to the atrocities that are so treacherously attributed to our order. I say, and the truth forces me to say this: the order is innocent; if I argued otherwise, it was only to stop the excessive suffering caused by torture and to appease those who forced me to endure all this. I know what torment the knights who had the courage to recant their confessions were subjected to, but the terrible sight we now see cannot make me confirm an old lie with a new lie. The life offered to me on these terms is so pitiful that I voluntarily refuse the deal...
Obviously, the practice of summoning to God's Court is associated with a belief in higher justice, in the face of which the guilty answer with their lives. They were summoned to God's Court in a dying state - this was the last wish of the dying man. According to medieval ideas, the last will, the last desire of a dying person is fulfilled. This point of view is not characteristic only of the Middle Ages. We can meet this look at different periods of human history in completely different regions. Echoes of this kind of ideas have practically reached modern times - the last wish before the guillotine, for example, or the modern practice of wills - the whole point of which is the exact execution of the will of the deceased.
Thus, the Judgment of God from trials with hot iron, boiling water and legal battles in the 14th century turned into a consideration of the case in the face of God, where the plaintiff is dead and the defendants are alive. The practice of such courts was quite common and G. Lee gives several examples of summons to God's Court. There is nothing unusual, therefore, in the Grand Master summoning his culprits to God's Judgment. Gradually, the practice of such courts was forgotten, and the consciousness of unscrupulous historians created the legend of the curse of the Templars. This legend was widely inflated and served as one of the grounds for attributing various magical practices to the Order.
Choking in the flames, Jacques de Molay anathematized the pope, the king, Nogaret and all their offspring for eternity, predicting that they would be carried away by a great tornado and scattered to the wind.
This is where the most mysterious thing begins. Two weeks later, Pope Clement V died from bloody diarrhea in terrible convulsions. Almost immediately after him, the king’s faithful comrade-in-arms, de Nogaret, died. In November of the same year, the absolutely healthy Philip the Handsome allegedly died of a stroke.
Philip’s fate was shared by his three sons, who were popularly dubbed “damned kings.” Over the course of 14 years (1314-1328), they died one after another under mysterious circumstances, leaving no offspring. With the death of Charles IV, the last of them, the Capetian dynasty was interrupted.
Oddly enough, but this is not all. Already the first representatives of the new Valois dynasty, related to the Capetians, suffered unheard-of disasters. The well-known Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) began. During this war, one of the Valois, John the Good, died in captivity of the British, another, Charles VI, went mad.
The Valois, like the Capetians, ended in complete degeneration, while all the last representatives of the dynasty died a violent death: Henry II (1547-1559) was killed at a tournament, Francis II (1559-1560) died from diligent treatment, Charles IX (1560-1574) poisoned, Henry III (1574-1589) stabbed to death by a fanatic.
And the Bourbons, who replaced the Valois at the end of the 16th century, continued to experience the curse of Jacques de Molay: the founder of the dynasty, Henry IV, fell from the knife of an assassin, its last representative under the “old order,” Louis XVI, died on the scaffold during the revolution. An interesting detail: before his execution, this king was imprisoned in the Temple Tower, which was once a stronghold of the Templars. According to contemporaries, after the king was beheaded on the scaffold, a man jumped onto the platform, dipped his hand in the blood of the dead monarch and showed it to the crowd, shouting loudly:
Jacques de Molay, you are avenged!
No less calamities befell the “damned” popes. As soon as the “Avignon captivity” ended, the “schism” began: two, or even three popes, elected simultaneously, anathematized each other for almost the entire 15th century. Before the “schism” ended, the Reformation began: first Jan Hus, then Luther, Zwingli and Calvin nullified the influence of the “apostolic governors” in central Europe, and the Great Revolution of 1789-1799 wrested France from the power of the popes.
It should be noted that even at the dawn of its activity, the order was seen in the eyes of contemporaries as a kind of mystical institution. The Knights of the Temple were suspected of magic, witchcraft and alchemy. The Templars were believed to be associated with dark forces. In 1208, Pope Innocent III called the Templars to order because of their “unchristian actions” and “exorcism of spirits.” In addition, legends claim that the Templars were very skilled in the manufacture of potent poisons.
The Templars were exterminated only in France. The English king Edward II sent the Knights of the Temple to monasteries to atone for their sins. Scotland even provided refuge to Templars from England and possibly France. After the dissolution of the order, the German templars became part of the Teutonic Order. In Portugal, the Knights of the Temple were acquitted by the court and in 1318 they only changed their name, becoming the Knights of Christ. Under this name the order survived until the 16th century. The order's ships sailed under eight-pointed Templar crosses. Christopher Columbus's caravels crossed the Atlantic Ocean under the same flags.
Various hypotheses about the Templars
Over the years, various hypotheses have been put forward about the life of the Templars.
The first hypothesis was put forward by researchers Jacques de Maillet and Inge Ott. According to them, the Templars either inspired the idea of Gothic cathedrals, built Gothic cathedrals, or lent money to build them. Jacques de Maillet claims that in less than a hundred years the Templars built 80 cathedrals and 70 smaller temples. Inge Ott talks about the development of ideas for the Gothic cathedral by the architects of the Order and describes the participation of the architects of the Order in the construction of cathedrals. The main question is usually posed like this: where did the Templars get the huge sums necessary for the construction of the Gothic cathedral? Usually about 150 people took part in the construction of the cathedral, each of them received 3-5 sous a day. The architect received a special fee. The cathedral had on average about two to three thousand stained glass windows. One stained glass window cost an average of 15 to 23 livres. For comparison: a butcher's house in 1235 on the rue Sablon in Paris cost 15 livres; a rich man's house on the Little Bridge in 1254 - 900 livres; the construction of the castle of the Comte de Dreux in 1224 cost him 1,175 Parisian livres and two pairs of dresses.
Some researchers have put forward another hypothesis, that the wealth of the Templars owes its origin to the silver mines of South America. Regular flights of the Templars to America are mentioned by Baigent, Ott and especially Jacques de Maillet, who defends this point of view, without having any basis for such versions. For example, de Maillet writes about the sculptural images of Indians on the 12th-century pediment of the Templar temple in the city of Verelai in Bourgogne: supposedly the Templars saw these Indians with large ears in America and depicted them in sculpture. The fact is, of course, good, but de Maillet also provides a photograph of this pediment. I found this pediment: the photograph shows a fragment of the relief of the tympanum “The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles” in the Church of Sainte-Madeleine in Vézelay (History of art in foreign countries: the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. - M., 1982. - Ill. 69). This church was built in 1125-1135. The Order of the Templars was just gaining strength at that time and had not yet carried out construction, and even if it had, the Templars still did not have a fleet at that time, and even with all their desire they could not get to America then. On the seal with the inscription "Secretum Templi" there is indeed an image that at first glance resembles an Indian. But anyone who is at least superficially familiar with mystical teachings will immediately recognize Abraxas in this image. De Maillet's remaining arguments are even weaker. However, it is worth noting that the silver and silver coins that poured into Europe during the Conquest had Templar signs on the reverse side, which was kept secret, but shocked researchers when this fact was discovered in the 20th century.
3. The connection of the Templars with Gnosticism, Catharism, Islam and heretical teachings. This is the most extensive field for researchers. Here the Templars are credited with: from Catharism in the Order to the idea of establishing the creative unity of all bloods, races and religions - that is, the creation of a new type of state with a religion that absorbed the best of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Henry Lee is categorical: “there was no Catharism in the Order.” The Charter of the Order - compiled by St. Bernard - imbued with the most sublime spirit of the Catholic faith. However, Heckerthorn writes about the presence of Gnostic symbolism in the burials of the Templars (he does not provide evidence); the seal with Abraxas may indicate the presence of some traditions of Gnosticism. But it is impossible to say categorically about this. Baphomet, attributed to the Templars, has no traditions and parallels in the religious traditions of the world. Most likely he is the product of a monstrous process over them. The most likely version is that historians invented the imaginary heresy of the Templars.
4. Templars and the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is the supposed treasure of the Cathars, preserved by the Knights of the Order of the Temple, glorified by the famous novels born at the court of the Counts of Champagne, closely associated with the founding of the Order of the Temple... The Holy Grail, invested with mysterious power; reputed to be the source of all wealth and fertility on earth. The Holy Grail is legendary, but at the same time the cycle of legends about it bears the imprint of reality: Godfroi of Bouillon became the son of Lohengrin, the knight with a swan, and Lohengrin’s father was Parzival. What he is is unclear, but Wolfram von Eschenbach eight centuries ago in his novel Parzival (1195-1216) showed the Templars as the guardians of the Holy Grail, and they did not refute this. According to legend, the coat of arms of one of the three knights of the Holy Grail - Galahad - contained a red eight-pointed cross on a white background. This is the distinctive sign of the Templars. It is obvious that the image of the guardians of the Grail already in the Middle Ages was correlated with the image of the knights of the Order of the Temple.
Bottom line
The Order of the Temple is a natural child of its time, with all its advantages and disadvantages. His knights were (and are) professional military men, and his financiers were the best of the best.
The ease of arresting the Templars in France is somewhat surprising. It is impossible to break into castles and calmly arrest more than five hundred (no more than one hundred) knights - professional military men. The point is that throughout
The history of the Templar Order, founded in the 12th century to protect pilgrims, turned out to be closely connected with European socio-economic policies. Creditors of kings, all-powerful bankers, warriors and heretics who have lost their conscience - who exactly were these monastic knights? And is it true that it was money-grubbing that destroyed them?
On the dark night of October 13, 1307, a cavalcade of knights hastily left the small Flemish town of Saint-Léger. Their path lay to the north, where the power of Philip IV of France did not extend, and nothing threatened them. The royal provost, who foresaw this maneuver, decided to “cut off” Saint Leger from the north and moved to intercept the departing cavalcade with an armed detachment. The official was afraid of being late, but - amazing! — footprints on the road showed that no one had left the town in the last hours. On the contrary, it turned out that several horsemen from the north rode along his same course about half an hour ago. Are the arrogant templars really so distraught that they called for help, deciding to defend themselves from the legitimate authorities? Only when he discovered the empty command of Saint-Léger the next morning and learned that the Templars had been reshod the horses the night before, did the provost realize how cleverly he had been tricked...
“The further fate of the Templars from Saint Leger is unknown to us,” this is what researchers often have to say when it comes to the knights of this Order, who disappeared from history in the same way as from Saint Leger - into obscurity. However, we can tell who these elusive knights were and why they were pursued by the French king.
Where do the monks get their money?
Several decades passed after the formation of the Order, and the white cloaks of the Templars with a red cross began to inspire horror in the East and envy in the West. After the Order was officially recognized at the Council of Troyes in 1128, the Templars did not immediately go home to Jerusalem. First, they dispersed throughout Europe, opening branches of the Order, and most importantly, accepting donations for noble service in the Holy Land. The gifts were different: from a copper penny to huge estates that were endowed to the Order by the Queen of Portugal, the French king, the Count of Barcelona... The “generosity competition” was won by Alfonso of Aragon, who bequeathed his kingdom equally to three orders (the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre).
The Catholic hierarchs did not stand aside: European prelates transferred lands, churches, and the right to collect tithes to the templars! Merchants and artisans did not lag behind, donating houses, shops, parts of land to the Order; among the donations there is also the right to use hay from some meadow, part of a swamp, a barn, livestock, horses... In return, the donors received the joy of performing a godly deed and the prospect of lying down after death at the order cemetery. The Templars made up dozens of their economic units—commanderships—from donations. The money came in very handy: maintaining combat-ready troops and castles in Palestine was incredibly expensive; trophies and indemnities alone cannot do it. To financially support actions in the East, the Templars created an international financial corporation in Europe - according to all the rules of medieval banking, which will be discussed below. The chronicler Matvey of Paris in the 13th century estimated the number of commanderies at 9 thousand, and this number is clearly overestimated, but there is no doubt about the figure of 800-900. Commanderies were distributed unevenly, the Order had not yet acquired “internationality”, the lion’s share of economic cells fell on the territory of modern France. At first these were typical agricultural farms, run by several brothers or rented out. Later, the templars were given the opportunity to choose places for commanderies where it was necessary to protect pilgrims.
After the founding of the Crusader states in the East, thousands and thousands of people embarked on long and expensive journeys, and not always voluntarily: the church could also impose obedience - on a repentant heretic, for example. These travels, however, were not safe, and an organization like the Templars turned out to be very appropriate. In the then Christian world, there were two main pilgrimage routes: to Jerusalem from Western Europe through the ports of Marseille, Pisa, Genoa, Bari or Brindisi and to Santiago de Compostella - to the place of the supposed burial of the Apostle James - through Languedoc, Vizcaya and Asturias. The routes coincided with the main trade communications of the era, so the commanderies were located at a distance of a day's march from each other. By creating a network of such strongholds, the Templars helped pilgrims not only in matters of personal protection and comfort, but also in the safety of property during the journey, as well as loans for travel. Soon, such loans and the transfer of land to the Templars in “trust management” became popular ways to borrow money. It is not surprising that the Order became one of the wealthiest property owners in Europe.
Drang Nach Osten from the 11th century
In 1095, in the provincial French city of Clermont, Pope Urban II from the square in front of the Cathedral called on bishops, barons and knights to go on a campaign against the Muslims who occupied Palestine and return the Holy Sepulcher.
The reason was the blatant facts of oppression of Christians, about which the Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenos wrote, and Urban’s call made a huge impression. Europe responded passionately: tens of thousands of townspeople and peasants left their homes with their families, artisans and merchants sold their shops, monks abandoned monasteries and rushed to Jerusalem. A more serious force followed them: in 1097, knightly detachments, led by the noblest barons, invaded the territories of the Middle Eastern emirates and a year later took the Holy City. The Kingdom of Jerusalem and three Christian principalities arose: Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli. Their territories were divided into seigneurial fiefs (fiefs), and some warriors, naturally, got the “best pieces,” others got worse, and some got nothing at all.
It was the “loser” knights who formed knightly communities - brotherhoods, one of which eventually turned into the Order of the Knights Templar.
Financiers "from God"
The order was supposed to unite respectable knights who did not seek profit through deception: monks, by definition, were deprived of personal property. But the author of the templars’ charter took into account the “human factor,” and the articles regulating the brothers’ relations with money looked more than harsh. An ordinary knight or sergeant was forbidden to use any government funds without special permission, and if, after the death of a templar, hidden coins or other evidence of his financial dishonesty were found, funeral prayers were not read over him and he was not buried in consecrated ground. The charter made no exceptions even for the master. There were also special conditions that hampered the commercial activities of this first “world bank”: the Order could not lend money on interest - the church condemned usury. But the Templars found a way out! They hid the net profit from the operation and formally did not receive interest on the loan. The first documents about such financial matters date back to 1135 and talk about a loan to an elderly couple who were going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There is no agreed percentage in the contract - upon the return of the spouses to France, the Templars were going to receive back the same amount that they gave out. And while the pilgrims were traveling, the Order received all the benefits from their possessions.
How was the issue of landless people resolved? Their documents initially indicated a larger loan amount than what the recipient received. In this case, collateral was required, for example, in the form of jewelry. The rates for such hidden lending were not advertised, but some historians (for example, Piers Paul Reed in Templars) believe that they were initially moderate - about 12% per annum - despite the fact that the most reliable and famous bankers of that era, the Lombards, demanded 24 ! How did the latter not go bankrupt when faced with such dumping competition? It's simple: fearing accusations of usury, the templars issued loans only for charitable deeds. This was more than enough for them.
The loss of Jerusalem by the crusaders in 1187 forced the master to think about alternative sources of income, and the commanderies launched full-fledged banking activities: they issue loans, guarantee other people’s financial transactions, and carry out what we call money transfers. A current account was opened for each client: anyone, having deposited a certain amount, say, in Normandy, could easily receive it somewhere in Acre, and already converted: into marks, livres, maravedis. There is no need to tremble before robbers on your travels; it is enough to have with you only a loan letter, encrypted for fidelity. Apparently, the treasurers of the commanderies knew how to recognize the authenticity of such letters, but we do not yet know how exactly. The knights-financiers also carried out non-cash payments, making appropriate entries in the books. Contracts were even concluded for the provision of audit services and supervision of the receipt of funds to the client. In general, contemporaries said: “there are more accounting books in the commanderies than spiritual ones.” It cannot be said that the Templars invented banking: they borrowed a lot from Lombard bankers and Italian merchants, but one thing is undeniable: thanks to a network of commanderies that covered almost all of Europe, the Templars created for the first time a transnational financial system.
They managed to solve the main trading problem - the safe movement of funds. The Order had competitors, and not only the Lombards: other monastic orders also provided financial services to clients, but only the Templars managed to create a single financial corporation. By the way, one of the main creators of the financial empire of the Templars, brother Eustache, who became the treasury adviser to the French king Louis VII in 1165, was a Lombard.
The chain of commands, densely planted on the most important trade routes, allowed the Order to provide non-financial services - for example, the delivery of urgent correspondence. The Templars even set a record - a letter from Acre arrived in London 13 weeks after sending - a speed unheard of in the Middle Ages. There were other strongholds: in La Rochelle, Genoa, and the main one in the famous Temple Temple in the center of Paris. It was the residence of the French master - the largest commandery with an area of more than six hectares, with a huge donjon tower where funds were stored, surrounded by a powerful wall with special windows. Through these “cash windows” numerous “operators”, humble clerks of the great Order, received and transferred coins, bills, letters of guarantee - day after day, year after year.
In 1118, nine knights led by Hugh de Payns and Geoffroy de Saint-Omer approached King Baudouin II of Jerusalem with a proposal to create a special guard, a kind of “bodyguard” agency to protect pilgrims to the Holy Places. The monarch allocated plots of land to the new organization, including part of the royal residence, which was adjacent to the so-called Temple of Solomon. The temple had nothing to do with the biblical king - it was an Arab building, but the knights were convinced of the opposite, and they were soon given the name “templiers” (templiers from temple, “temple”).
Another decade passed, and in 1128 six Templars appeared at a church council in Troyes, France, where they were received with extraordinary honor: the fame of the Palestinian “militia” spread to Europe. The patronage of influential persons, such as the counts of Champagne and Anjou, also played a role, and the most decisive support for the Templars was provided by the nephew of one of the founders, Bernard of Clairvaux, the head of the powerful Cistercian order, who also developed a charter based on the Cistercian model. At first, the charter included 72 articles that regulated not only the monastic aspects of the life of the Order, but also the military. The brothers were divided into knights and sergeants depending on their origin ("pure" priests were added later). Both took vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. The main figure was declared to be the Grand Master with headquarters in Jerusalem, and he was elected by a special meeting - a convention. Below in the hierarchy were the great seneschal, the grand marshal and the commanders of the largest fortresses in the East, and in Europe (divided into order provinces) - regional masters and the great visitator (“overseer”), something like the “permanent representative” of the grand master in Europe. Soon the Order acquired its distinctive sign - a red cross on a white field, a symbol of purity and faith.
Lords in bondage to vassals
One common misconception is that the Templars formed a sort of "shadow government" structure throughout Europe, holding ministers and kings in their hands. This is not so: the monarchs of England, Germany, and France most often treated the Order without reverence. History has preserved examples of how these monarchs simply appointed masters from among their confidants, and the convention put up with this. (So, Richard the Lionheart placed his admiral Robert de Sable in this position, and the proteges of the French court were Renaud de Vichier and Guillaume de Beaujeu). High-ranking persons robbed the Order, and even publicly humiliated their master, although they were equal in position to cardinals and obeyed only the pope. It is known that the disgraced and repeatedly excommunicated German Emperor Frederick II completely expelled the Templars from his possessions, transferring a significant part of their property to the Teutonic Knights, after the Templars did not support him in the Crusade, and, according to some reports, even tried to organize his murder.
But even having lost some positions, the Knights of the Temple remained the largest players in the financial market of Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. They were creditors of many European rulers, which in the medieval political situation, however, did not allow them to dictate terms to high-ranking debtors. The solution was to become the treasurers of these debtors. In 1204, brother Eimard was appointed “minister of finance” of Philip Augustus of France; in 1263, brother Amaury de La Roche held the same position at the court of Louis IX. The Templars helped collect direct and extraordinary taxes, escorted caravans with collected money to Paris, and were responsible for collecting special bribes for new crusades. The knights made sure that none of the brothers abused the trust of the kings: if the Templars were accused of embezzlement, this would be an excellent reason for the confiscation of their enviable wealth. When faced with malicious non-payments, they used heavy artillery: the bull of Pope Lucius III is known, where he demands that the bishops of the South of France repay the debts to the Temple within a month.
For all the outstanding successes of the Order, by the end of the 12th century its overall reputation had deteriorated. First of all, because of the events in the Holy Land, where the Templars, who had two dozen powerful castles and an army of 300 knights and several thousand sergeants, were unable to defend Jerusalem. The interests of the Templars often ran counter to the interests of the crusader states and other orders. As a result, they disrupted diplomatic agreements, fought in internecine wars, participated in the wars of the Italian republics, and even raised the sword against the Hospitaller brothers! Everyone remembered how, after the fall of Jerusalem, the winner Saladin offered preferential terms for the ransom of pilgrims and residents remaining in the city, but the fabulously rich Order, created to protect these people, did not give a penny. Sixteen thousand Christians then went into slavery!
What about treachery? Here the templars provide refuge to the influential Arab sheikh Nasreddin, a contender for the throne in Cairo, who even wished to convert to Christianity, but then... they sell him to his enemies at home for 60 thousand dinars. The unfortunate man was immediately executed. When in 1199 the Templars refused to return the funds deposited with the Bishop of Sidon, he in a rage anathematized the entire Order, and the scandal caused a lot of noise. Rumors of shameful deeds spread throughout Europe. Pope Innocent III even wrote to the Grand Master in 1207: “The crimes of your brothers grieve us extremely... their [monastic] robes are pure hypocrisy.”
The strategic mediocrity of the command also added grist to the same mill. Everyone knew about the sad role of Master Gerard de Ridefort in the decisive battle with the Muslims at Hattin, where all the Templars who took part in it died: Ridefort persuaded the last King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, to commit a suicide march. Later, when all the templars captured by Saladin were executed, this would-be adviser remained alive and, while in captivity, ordered the Gaza fortress to be surrendered to the enemy.
Friday the thirteenth
...But still, no one expected such a cruel outcome: early in the morning, on Friday, October 13, 1307, all the templars of France were arrested. Royal agents also burst into the Temple, where they arrested the Grand Master Jacques de Molay himself, the Grand Visitor Hugo de Peyraud, the treasurer and four other senior dignitaries of the Order. The action had been prepared for a long time: two months before the fateful day, all royal bailiffs and provosts received secret letters with detailed instructions, and notaries carried out an inventory of the property of the doomed in advance. The official accusations against the templars sounded terrible: heresy and idolatry, mass sodomy and desecration of shrines. They announced that they spit on the cross, eat the bodies of dead comrades and babies, and serve masses to the devil, whose name is Baphomet. The full list included 117 charges. According to the inquisitorial procedure, the templars were tortured. Later, one of them testified before a papal commission about dozens of brothers who died in dungeons, and as evidence even showed his heel bones, exposed after being roasted on a brazier. Another “under investigation” admitted that if the same tortures that he had already endured were applied to him again, he would confess that he killed Christ himself.
Under torture, those arrested admitted only some of the charges from the list presented, but almost everyone confessed to the blasphemous desecration of the cross. However, when the pope created his own commission of inquiry, most of the templars said: their confessions were made under torture, and they renounced their previous testimony. When, by order of King Philip the Fair, 54 Templars who renounced their forced confessions were burned near Paris as “relapsed into heresy,” the Order lost the desire to fight. By the decision of the Council of Vienna in 1312 it was dissolved.
Under French pressure, Pontiff Clement V unconditionally renounced the Order: “we... prohibit the Order of the Templars, its charter, clothes and name... we completely prohibit it; anyone who from now on calls himself by his name, or wears his robes, or behaves like a Templar, will be excommunicated. In addition, we will confiscate all the property and lands of the Order...” All the possessions of the Templars went primarily to the Hospitallers, as well as other knightly orders or returned to the donors of valuables. Trials of the Templars took place in almost all European countries, but outside France, most of them simply disappeared or moved to other orders, and in Portugal the local “branch” was completely preserved, giving it a new name - the Order of Christ.
Chronology
. 1118 - the first mention of the brotherhood of knights, which would later become the Order of the Templars
. 1120 - the brotherhood receives as a residence part of the al-Aqsa mosque, which was considered the Temple of Solomon
. 1128 - the church council in Troyes adopts the official charter of the Order, the Order receives various possessions in France
. 1129 - the brotherhood receives its first possessions in Europe - from Queen Teresa of Portugal
. 1134 - death of Alfonso, King of Aragon, who bequeathed his kingdom to three orders: the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
. 1135 - the first evidence of the financial activities of the Order
. 1137 - The Order receives its first possessions in England from Queen Matilda
. 1139 - the first papal bull granting privileges to the templars
. 1165 - Templars become financial advisors to the French court
. 1170 - the Templars receive their first possessions in Germany
. 1187 - Battle of Hattin, the Order's army is completely destroyed. Saladin captures Jerusalem
. 1191 - Templars establish new headquarters in Acre
. 1204 - Templars become treasurers of the French kingdom
. 1204 - the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders. The Order receives various possessions in Greece
. 1248-1254 - crusade of the French king Louis IX Saint to Tunisia. Almost all the Templars who took part in it died
. 1291 - Fall of Acre. The Templars lose their last stronghold in the Holy Land
. 1307 - the great “Templar pogrom” in France and the beginning of the trial of the Order
. 1312 - Pope dissolves the Order
. 1314 - trial of the highest dignitaries of the Order
The stingy and beggar knight
And now, having before our eyes the external outline of events and taking into account the almost complete absence of sources, let’s try to understand the true reasons for the fall of the Templars. The most widespread version says: the greedy King Philip IV inspired the massacre of the Templars in order to seize their treasures and lands. Why not? A little earlier, in approximately the same way, the French king dealt with the main financiers of the era - Jews and Lombards. However, upon closer examination, the scheme “greedy Philip against the rich templars” is not confirmed by anything. Therefore, let us ask ourselves: was the Order so rich in 1307? The powerful financial organization discussed above would seem to automatically assume a positive answer, but the development of a system that tried to combine incompatible principles - economic genius and religious charter - led to its collapse.
By the time of the bloody denouement, two of the three main sources of income for the Order had already been in crisis for a whole century: the service of pilgrims, the number of which was steadily decreasing with the loss of the Holy Places, was coming to naught, which means that donations to the Order were also declining. The fact is confirmed by an analysis of the surviving cartularies (codes of charters) of several French provinces: from the beginning of the 13th century, donations to the Templars became significantly less, and from the second half they were reduced to a minimum (as a result of the bad reputation that we wrote about above).
Did the Order possess colossal treasures at that time? In the materials of the investigative process there is no mention of the return of lands, money and jewelry that were pledged. Obviously, the financial activities of the Order at that time were in crisis; they had nothing to give. Royal agents monitoring the activities of the commanderies, who burst into the monasteries of the Templars on Friday the 13th, of all the treasures they were looking for, found only ordinary church utensils indicated in the inventory list mentioned above. Now about matters of policy. Where have the influential protectors of the rich templars gone (for example, the aristocracy of states remote from France)? Why didn’t they raise their voices in defense of the “great bank”, because the support of such rich people could result in considerable benefits for them? Could the hypothetical wealth of the Order become a direct cause of its death?
Let’s assume that mythical “treasures” existed, and let’s define what we are talking about: naturally, the concept of “treasure” was absent in the Order’s charter. There was the treasury of the Order, the treasury of the provinces and individual central commands. In the year of the dissolution of the Templars, also in 1312, their main treasury was in Cyprus, which is recorded in the documents of the trial of the Cypriot Templars, and its further fate is unknown. The treasury of the “English wing” was largely transported to the East in the second half of the 13th century and, most likely, was spent there for the natural needs of the Order. The funds of the Portuguese Templars went to the newly created Order of Christ. As for Spain, given that there were garrisons and castles there that required large maintenance costs, then, according to indirect evidence, the funds were used to pay lifelong pensions to the Spanish Templars. This means that we should be concerned about the fate of the largest treasury - the French templars from the Parisian Temple.
Knights and demon
Historical tradition and, following it, mass culture rush either into demonization or romanticization of the Templars. In addition to the confusing speculation that the Templars brought the Holy Grail to Europe and hid it somewhere (as the notorious Dan Brown claims in his novel “The Da Vinci Code”, the main ideas of which he learned from the authors of the book “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail” Michael Baigent and Richard Lee), there are many versions circulating regarding the accusations of heresy against the Templars. One of the reasons for this was the worship of Baphomet, an “idol” of still unclear origin: after all, some arrested templars confirmed that they worshiped a certain mysterious head. Later, a reliquary in the shape of this head appeared at the trial as material evidence, but the forced descriptions of it were so different from each other and from this head that it turned out to be impossible to identify it. As for the strange name, various characters appeared under it, for example, the Masons describe him as a demon of wisdom, crowned with the head of a goat or rooster, bearded or beardless, with or without wings. The scientific version of the origin of Baphomet is as follows: the tested Templars confessed under torture - traitors who betrayed their faith supposedly worship Mohammed, that is, convert to Islam. For medieval scribes, who knew little about this religion, the name sounded quite “demonic”, and they wrote it down as they heard it. Philologists call the linguistic adventures of Mohammed “the Old French bastardization of the name,” confirming this with a surviving poem from the mid-13th century, where Mohammed is called Baphomet.
Where are the treasures?
Hypnotized by the “mystery of the Templar treasures,” the authors are divided into two groups: some write that Philip IV, having captured the treasury of the Order, became significantly richer, and others that his emissaries did not find a penny in the Temple. In fact, historians do not have a single document telling what was in the Temple on that ill-fated Friday. No improvement in the financial situation in France was observed in subsequent years. This means that if something was requisitioned from the Temple, then either very insignificant amounts, or all the wealth of the Order were hidden, which is unlikely - the state at that time was in great need of funds. Theoretically, the Order could have treasures, priceless relics, and important documents, and probably had the opportunity to hide them. The trouble is that the stories that wander from article to article, from novel to novel, either about 15 galleys that sailed from La Rochelle, or about mysterious wagons with hay that left the Temple on the night before the raid, are not only completely fictional, but also not agree on one point. There was no one to hide the Templars' money: the entire top of the Order was under arrest at that time and actively collaborated with royal prosecutors.
Here, however, we will delight lovers of mysteries - 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. What happened to him? Did he die suddenly? Was he killed? Or did he... manage to escape - along with his wealth and relics? But where and how? A huge number of articles and publications of varying degrees of seriousness are devoted to this mystery. Sometimes they write about fleeing to Scotland and even name the treasured chapel of Rosslyn, but in Scotland there were only a few commanderies and a dozen Templars, and the chapel has nothing to do with the Order. Canadian Alan Butler writes about the “Swiss vector”: supposedly it was the treasures of the Order that, 500 years later, laid the financial foundation of this future state of bankers, but even a century after the trial, the Swiss were considered savages in Europe, and the Order did not have possessions there.
The place where the Templars could evacuate the Temple treasury had to be outside the reach of the French king and have a powerful paramilitary structure of the Order. Portugal and Spain come to mind: after all, the Portuguese Order of Christ became the heir to the local branch of the Templars. The white sails of Columbus's ships bore the Templar red cross, and Tomar Castle, the headquarters of the Templars in Portugal, still amazes with its size and grandeur. These conclusions, however, are hampered by the fact that the Portuguese Templars obeyed not the Grand Master, but the Portuguese king. And yet, who knows - maybe some castle in the Pyrenees still keeps the wealth of knight bankers in its dungeons?
What destroyed the order?
So, if it was not the hypothetical treasures of the Order that played a cruel joke on his fate, then what? The soul of banking is not storing money in safes, but financial transactions. But during the time of Philip IV, who strengthened the monarchy, they gradually reached a dead end. And although we do not have the opportunity to step-by-step trace the movement of cash flows at the specified time, one thing is clear: the Templars’ money “worked,” and not least for the French king. For example, the last master, Jacques de Molay, who arrived from Cyprus on the eve of the massacre of the Order, discovered: the treasurer of the French Temple issued a huge loan to Philip IV... without asking the master’s permission. Such insubordination was a crime for de Molay; the treasurer was expelled in disgrace; the intercession of neither the king nor the pope helped him. If de Molay had insisted on repaying the loan, would the royal treasury have had the opportunity to pay off the templars? Wouldn't it have been easier for the king to disperse the Order in order to eliminate the inconvenient creditor? Philip, irreconcilable with the opposition, acted according to the laws of the times: he was not satisfied with the existence of such an independent corporation, he even intended one of his sons to become a master, but received a daring refusal. So the king had not only financial, but also political reasons for wanting his defeat.
The complexity of the situation with the templars was aggravated by the fact that they were ministers of the church. God-fearing Philip began to hate the monks who missed the Holy Sepulcher, who were odiously famous for their money-grubbing and were accused of heresy. Two words about the former patron of the Templars - Pope Clement V, whose relationship was no better than with Philip. De Molay rejected the pontiff’s idea of uniting the Templars with the Hospitallers, which was useful for the crusading movement, and in general, it seems, he went too far. The chronicler writes: having received a papal letter with a request to pardon the treasurer of the Parisian Temple, de Molay threw it into the fire without reading it. The Order intended to act in Europe as the same player as in the East, where it did not take into account either the local church or the aristocracy. The Templars overestimated their strength. Their bad reputation and unpopularity, arrogance and unwillingness to obey secular and spiritual authorities, financial influence, no longer backed by real military force, coupled with exaggerated rumored wealth, led the Order to an inglorious end.
In 1314, four of the highest dignitaries of the Order were sentenced to life imprisonment. According to legend, upon hearing the verdict, the Grand Master and Prior of Normandy loudly declared: The Order is holy and innocent, and they themselves are only guilty of betraying and slandering it. On the same day the sentence was changed and they were burned at the stake. Tradition says that the old man de Molay, engulfed in flames, shouted: “The king and the pope have power over our bodies, but not over our souls!” Cursing his destroyers, de Molay promised to call them to God's judgment within a year. And no matter how we feel about this legend, Pope Clement V and King Philip IV actually died at the appointed time, and the latter under unclear circumstances. France faced a century and a half of disasters - the extinction of the royal dynasty, the plague, the Hundred Years' War.
Eduard Zaborovsky