Untitled Essay, Research Paper

Title: Militant Monks The Knights Templar, a military order of monastics answerable merely to the Pope himself, were founded in 1118. Their primary duty, at least ab initio, was to supply protection to Christians doing pilgrim’s journeies to the Holy Land. They rose in power, both spiritual and secular, to go one of the richest and most powerful entities in Christendom. By the clip of their disbandment in 1307, this extremely close organisation controlled huge wealth, a fleet of merchandiser ships, and palaces and estates crossing the full Mediterranean country. When the reformers captured Jerusalem from the Muslims in 1099, the Church encouraged all faithful Christians to see that holy metropolis in order to confirm their religion. The country, nevertheless, was still capable to sporadic onslaughts from assorted non-Christian cabals. A little group of knights, led by Hugh de Payens, vowed to protect the pilgrims. The group was granted quasi-official position by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who allowed them quarters in a wing of the royal castle near the Temple of Solomon. It is from this initial poster that the order derived its name. They took the standard vows of poorness, celibacy and obeisance and were bound to the regulations of the Augustinian order. [ Upton-Ward 1 ] The order languished in near-anonimity for several old ages, despite generous parts from assorted European personages. In 1126, Count Hugh of Champagne, holding donated his estates to Bernard of Clairvaux for usage in constructing a monestary for the Cistercian order, arrived in Jerusalem to fall in the Templars. This action indirectly obligated Bernard to back up the freshly chosen protagonism of his helper. He wrote to the count, & # 8220 ; If, for God & # 8217 ; s work, you have changed yourself from count to dub and from rich to hapless, I congratulate you. & # 8221 ; [ Howarth 49 ] In the twelvemonth 1126, King Baldwin found two grounds for desiring official acknowledgment of the order. First, he had, possibly prematurely, bestowed upon Hugh de Payens the rubric of Master of the Temple. Second, the male monarch had the chance to establish an onslaught on the metropolis of Damascus, but he needed more knights. Papal acknowledgment would let unfastened recruiting in Europe for the order. King Baldwin sent a missive to Bernard of Clairvaux, the order & # 8217 ; s primary frequenter, subsequently known as Saint Bernard, inquiring him to petition the Pope for official acknowledgment of the order. [ Howarth 50-51 ] The King & # 8217 ; s missive was hand-carried to Bernard by two loyal and trusted knights, Andrew de Montbard, motherly related to Bernard, and Gondemare. Upon their reaching at Clairvaux, the two knights presented Bernard with Baldwin & # 8217 ; s missive, which came right to the point. [ Upton-Ward 3 ] & # 8220 ; The brothers Templar, whom God has raised up for the defense mechanism of our state and to whom he has accorded particular protection, desire to have apostolic blessing and besides their ain Rule of life & # 8230 ; Since we know good the weight of your intercession with God and besides with His Vicar and with the other princes of Europe, we give into your attention this double mission, whose success will be really welcome to us. Let the fundamental law of the Templars be such as is suited for work forces who live in the clang and uproar of war, and yet of a sort which will be acceptable to the Christian princes, of whom they have been the valuable aides. So far as in you prevarications and if God pleases, strive to convey this affair to a speedy and successful issue. & # 8221 ; [ qtd. in Howarth 50-51 ] Bernard realized at one time the mastermind of the proposal to unite spiritual and military enterprises. Through such organisations, the boundary lines of Christendom could be extended and fortified. He instantly granted his blessing of the program and pledged his full support. He petitioned Pope Honorius II for a particular council to see the affair, and he notified Hugh of his actions. [ Howarth 51 ] The Council of Troyes convened on January 13, 1128, a bitterly cold Saint Hilary & # 8217 ; s Day, for the primary intent of sing the petition of the Knights Templar. Despite the holds of written communications, Hugh de Payens, accompanied by several brother knights, arrived from the Holy Land in clip to go to the meetings of the Council. [ Howarth 51 ] William of Tyre wrote an history of the events: & # 8220 ; Nine old ages after the initiation of this order, the knights were still in secular attire. They wore such garments as the people, for redemption of their psyches, bestowed upon them. During this 9th twelvemonth, a council was held at Troyes in France. There were present the archbishops of Rheims and Sens, with their suffragans ; the bishop of Albano, the Pope & # 8217 ; s official emissary ; the abbotts of Citeaux, Clairvaux, Potigny ; and many others. At this council, by order of Pope Honorious and of Stephen, patriarch of Jerusalem, a regulation was drawn up for this order and a wont of white assigned them. & # 8221 ; [ qtd. in Burman/Templars 27 ] Although referred to in William & # 8217 ; s history by the generic rubric Abbott of Clairvaux, Bernard, in actuality controlled the proceedings of the council. There was small uncertainty Bernard & # 8217 ; s petition would be met with blessing ; he was good known for his successes in reforming cloistered life. He was held in the extreme regard by spiritual and laic leaders likewise ; in many circles he was referred to as the 2nd Catholic Pope. In fact, many of the Catholic Popes were supplied by the mendicant orders. [ Robinson 66-67 ] At a clip when monastics were more extremely regarded than priests, and considered closer to God because of their ascetic life styles, Benard said, & # 8220 ; The people can non look up to the priests, because the people are better than priests. & # 8221 ; [ Robinson 67 ] Bernard & # 8217 ; s offer to personally help in the preparation of the Rules of the order was appreciatively accepted by all. Bernard based his Rule of the Templars on that of his ain Cistercian order, which was itself based on the older Benedictine Rule. [ Robinson 67 ] The Rule of the Templars was a rigorous and complex system of 686 written Torahs, meant to cover every possible facet of day-to-day life. As an illustration, Rule 25, On Bowls and Drinking Vessels, provinces: Because of the deficit of bowls, the brothers will eat in braces, so that one may analyze the other more closely, and so that neither asceticism nor secret abstention is introduced into the communal repast. And it seems merely to us that each brother should hold the same ration of vino in his cup. [ qtd. in Upton-Ward 26 ] In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a Bull, titled Omne Datum Optimum, declaring that the Knights Templar were under the direct and exclusive control of the Pope. This freed the Knights to run throughout Christendom and the Levant unencumbered by local ecclesiastical and secular swayers. This unprecedented liberty was due, in no little portion, to the personal requests of the new Grand Master, Robert the Burgundian. While Hugh had been an first-class warrior, Robert was an ideal decision maker who understood political relations. [ Howarth 80 ] The Order was authorized to hold chaplain brothers, who were authorized to hear the confessions of their fellow brothers, and thereby shrive them of their wickednesss. There were, nevertheless, five specific offenses for which granting of absolution was reserved by the Pope. These were: & # 8220 ; the violent death of a Christian adult male or adult female, ; violently assailing another brother ; assailing a member of another order or a priest ; abdicating holy orders in order to be received as a brother ; and come ining the order by simony. & # 8221 ; [ Upton-Ward 5 ] It was besides during the mastership of Robert that the Rules were translated from Latin into French. Church paperss were usually in Latin merely, but since most of the Knights were soldiers instead than educated churchmans, they were unable to read Latin. In 1147, the Knights were authorized to have on a ruddy cross upon their white mantles, despite regulation 18, which forbade any ornaments on their vesture. [ Upton-Ward 12 ] As the Knights Templar gained political and economic strength, they found themselves involved in many facets of secular life. They established the first truly international banking service ; travellers non desiring to go with big amounts could lodge their monies at any Temple and roll up a similar sum at their finish. [ Burman/Templars 85 ] The Templars were the primary bankers for the Holy See. Since the order was a apostolic creative activity which was administered straight by the Pope himself, their significance as apostolic bankers is apprehensible. Less obvious is the Templars & # 8217 ; map as royal bankers for several of Europe & # 8217 ; s royal houses. The two greatest Temples outsid

e the Levant were located in Paris and London. These two Temples offered a full range of financial services to the royal houses, including collecting taxes, controlling debts and administering pension funds. [Burman/Templars 87-88] The treasury of the King of France was kept safely within the vault of the Temple of Paris. [Sinclair 36] The Templars owned a great fleet of merchant ships with which to convey all manner of goods, e.g., pepper and cotton, as well as pilgrims, between Europe and the Holy Land. People wanting to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but lacking the resources to do so, were allowed to assign rights to their houses and property, upon their death, to the Templars in exchange for passage on a Templar ship. To avoid accusations of usury, this procedure was legitimized by the papal bull Quantum Praedecessores, issued by Pope Eugenius II in 1145. [Burman/Templars 75-78] The Holy Land was divided into four Crusader States: Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli and Edessa. Shifting alliances, complicated by the plotting of independent Arab emirates, posed a complicated and often confusing backdrop for the Knights’ military operations. Their first action was in the northern sector of the Principality of Antioch. They captured the March of Amanus, which formed a natural barrier between the city of Amanus and Asia Minor. [Burman/Templars 50] The Knights Templar frequently fought side-by-side with their counter- parts, the Knights Hospitaller, another military order, founded to provide shelter to sick, wounded or destitute pilgrims. Together, these two warrior orders afforded the Holy Land a formidable fighting force. Although some histories allude to a deep and bitter rivalry between the two, it is more likely that they cooperated well during the battles, keeping any such pettiness for the monotonous weeks between actions. [Upton-Ward 6-7] The first military action of the Templars was in the northern sector of the Holy Land. In 1131, they captured the March of Amanus in Antioch. It was a natural barrier between the city and Asia Minor, which afforded control of two roads into Antioch. The same year, King Fulk, Baldwin?s successor, travelled to the site and granted ownership to the Templars. [Burman/Templars 52] Control of the various areas of the Holy Land see-sawed back and forth between the Crusaders and the Arabs, with neither side enjoying a decisive victory. Then the balance of power began to change with the rise of the great Arab leader Salah-ad-Din Yusuf ibn-Aiyub, known to westerners as Saladin. Descended from a long line of military heroes, he was born in 1138 in Baalbek, Syria, where his father was military governor. He began to develop his warrior skills by accompanying his father and uncles on various campaigns. [Burman/Templars 98] Saladin’s rise to power was rapid and successful. His adherance to the orthodox Sunni faith caused him to initiate dramatic changes in his Shi-ite army. Upon his ultimate rise to the position of Sultan, he declared a ‘jihad’, or holy war, against the Crusaders. This intense re-focusing of the Moslem effort began a gradual shift in power. Christian strongholds fell in increasing numbers, creating a domino effect. By the middle of 1187, Saladin had captured Acre, Nablus, Jaffa, Toron, Sidon, Beirut and Ascalon. Jerusalem fell on 2 October, 1187. [Burman/Templars 108] The fall of Jerusalem was a disaster from which the Crusades never recovered. Among Saladin’s prisoners were the King of Jerusalem and Raynald de Chatillon, commander of the fortress at Moab. After entertaining the two in his tent, Saladin had Raynald killed. The King saw his fellow prisoner executed and thought he was surely next, but Saladin had him brought back i nto his tent and told him, “It is not the habit of kings to kill kings.” Saladin’s victory was complete. [Payne 223-4] In the disarray that followed, the orders began to disperse. The Hospitallers removed their headquarters, first to Rhodes and then to Malta; and, with the ultimate fall of Acre in 1291, the Templars lost their base of operations and relocated to Cyprus. In effect, the orders had lost their original reason for existence. [Upton-Ward 9] As the Knights had their policital patrons, so had their enemies. In 1305, Philip IV of France, known as Philip the Fair, seized control of the Holy See and relocated the papacy to Avignon. From there, he initiated a series of papal decrees, ostensibly issues by Pope Clement V, a puppet pope under his absolute control. Eyeing the vast fortunes and resources of the Templars, he conceived a plot of treachery against them. Since he also controlled the Inquisition in France, he had no difficulty leveling a whole laundry list of horrible, but adsurd and largely unsupportable, crimes against the Knights. [Burman/Inquisition 95] The role of the Inquisition, under the auspices of Chief Inquisitor Guillaume of Paris, was to obtain confessions and conduct trials. On Friday the 13th of September, 1307, the warrant was issued for the arrest of the Knights and seizure of their property. Many of the Temples were ‘tipped off’ by the local sheriffs about the impending sweep, but Grand Master Jacques de Molay and his associates were arrested in their bed clothes. The interrogations, aimed at soliciting evidence of any wrongdoing with which to prove the allegations against the order, dragged on for years. Ultimately, the Grand Master, along with other high-ranking Templars, were executed by burning in March, 1314, on an island in the Seine. [Howarth 17] The years between the arrest of Templars and the order’s final dissolution afforded plenty of time for knights on the lam to become absorbed by the underground. Knights in England were never pursued, due largely to a rift between the King and the Church, and many were thought to have participated in the war between Scotland and England, on the side of Robert the Bruce. [Robinson 150-51] The vast fleet of Templar merchant ships was never found. There is no record of the 18 Templar ships which had been based at La Rochelle on the French coast, nor any of the various Templar ships normally anchored in the Thames or other English seaports. There is some speculation that the Barbary Pirates, who gained worldwide noteriety by plundering European shipping well into the 19th century, were founded by seagoing Templars with revenge on their minds. Many of the order’s ships were galleys, which were particularly suited for piracy. [Robinson 165] One of the more mysterious tenets of the Freemasons can be found in the initiation of a Master Mason. The initiate is told his degree “will make you a brother to pirates and corsairs.” [Robinson 165-66] In 1813, a merchant ship, captained by a Freemason, was captured and boarded by pirates. In desperation, the captain rendered the Grand Hailing Sign of Distress of a Master Mason. The pirate captain apparently recognized the secret sign and allowed the merchant ship to proceed unharmed. [Robinson 166] The destruction of the Knights Templar by Philip the Fair was due to what he saw as wealth, arrogance, greed and secrecy on the part of the order. Even Philip’s lawyer admitted “perhaps not all of them had sinned.” It took more than suspicion of guilt to bring about the downfall of such a powerful entity as the Knights Templar. The final blow, however, was probably three-fold: a general unpopularity of the order among the European aristocracy, due in part to jealousy; a chronic shortage in the French treasury, despite heavy taxation; and Master de Molay’s refusal to consider a merger of the Templars with the Hospitallers, as suggested by the Pope. The fact remains, however, that no evidence of heresy was ever found. [Burman/Templars 180] An order founded by nine knights in Jerusalem came to amass great wealth and power, which speaks well of their integrity and discretion. They became the “shock troops” of the Holy See. When they lost their original mission of protecting pilgrims upon the fall of Jerusalem, their downfall became inevitable. [Sinclair 37] Works Cited: Burman, Edward. The Inquisition. New York: Dorset, 1984. –. The Templars. Rochester, VT: Destiny, 1986.? Howarth, Stephen. The Knights Templar. New York: Dorset, 1982. Payne, Robert. The History of Islam. New York: Dorset, 1987. Robinson, John J. Born in Blood. New York: Evans, 1989. Sinclair, Andrew. The Sword and the Grail. New York: Crown, 1992. Upton-Ward, J. M. The Rule of the Templars. Suffolk: Boydell, 1992.