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Knights Templar Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici
A Seal of the Knights Templar, with their famous image of two knights on a single horse, a symbol of their early poverty
Active	c. 1119–1312
Allegiance	Papacy
Type	Christian military order
Size	15,000–20,000 members at peak, 10% of whom were knights
Headquarters	Temple Mount, Jerusalem
Nickname(s)	Order of the Temple
Patron	St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Attire	White mantle with a red cross
Engagements	The Crusades, including: Battle of Montgisard (1177), Battle of Hattin (1187), Battle of Arsuf (1191), Siege of Acre (1190–1191), Siege of Acre (1291) Reconquista
Commanders
First Grand Master	Hugues de Payens
Last Grand Master	Jacques de Molay

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici), popularly known as the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple, were among the most famous of the Christian military orders.

The organization existed for approximately two centuries in the Middle Ages. It was created in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed toward Jerusalem after its conquest.

Officially endorsed by the church in 1129, the Order became a favored charity across Europe. It grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, easily recognizable in their white mantle with a distinct red cross, made some of the best equipped, trained, and disciplined fighting units of the Crusades. Non-warrior members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating many financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building numerous fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.

The Templars' success was tied closely to the success of the Crusades. When the Holy Land was lost and the Templars suffered crushing defeats, support for the Order's existence faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began pressuring Pope Clement V to take action. On Friday, October 13 1307, King Philip had many of the Order's members in France arrested, tortured into "confessions", and burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement, under continuing pressure from King Philip, forcibly disbanded the entire Order. The sudden disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the name "Templar" alive in modern fiction.

History

Rise

After the First Crusade resulted in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, many European pilgrims headed for the area to visit what they referred to as The Holy Places. But although the city was under relative control, the rest of the Outremer was not. Bandits abounded, and pilgrims were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey from the coastline at Jaffa into the Holy Land.

Around 1119, French knight Hugues de Payens and his relative Godfrey de Saint-Omer, veterans of the First Crusade, proposed the creation of a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims. King Baldwin II of Jerusalem agreed to their request, and gave them a headquarters in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, in the captured Al Aqsa Mosque. The Temple Mount had a mystique, because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and it was from this location that the Order took its name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or "Templar" knights. With few financial resources, the tiny Order of approximately nine knights had to rely on donations to survive. Their emblem displayed two knights riding on a single horse, emphasizing their poverty.

The Templars' impoverished status did not last long. The Order had a powerful patron in Bernard of Clairvaux, a leading church figure and a nephew of one of the founding knights. He spoke and wrote persuasively on their behalf, and in 1129 at the Council of Troyes, the Order was officially endorsed by the church. With this formal blessing, the Templars became a favored charity across Europe, receiving money, land, businesses, and noble-born sons from families who were eager to help with the fight in the Holy Land. Another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent II's papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the Order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, and were exempt from all authority except that of the Pope.

With its clear mission and ample resources, the Order grew rapidly. Templars were often the advance force in key battles of the Crusades, as the knights on their heavily armed warhorses would set out to gallop full speed at the enemy, in an attempt to break opposition lines. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard, where some 500 Templar knights helped to defeat Saladin's army of more than 26,000 soldiers.

Although the primary mission of the Order was military, only a small percentage of its members were actually at the front lines. The rest acted in support positions, both to assist the knights individually and to manage the financial infrastructure. The Templars, though sworn to individual poverty, were given control of wealth beyond direct donations to their cause. A nobleman who was interested in participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management while he was gone. Accumulating wealth in this manner across Europe and the Outremer, the Order in 1150 began generating letters of credit for pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land: pilgrims deposited their valuables with a local Templar preceptory before embarking, received an encrypted document indicating the value of their deposit, then used that document upon arrival in the Holy Land to retrieve their funds. This innovative arrangement may have been the first formal chequing system; it both improved the safety of pilgrims by making them less attractive targets for thieves, and further contributed to the Templar coffers.

Based on this mix of donations and business dealing, the Templars established financial networks all across Christendom. They acquired large tracts of land both in Europe and the Middle East; bought and managed farms and vineyards; built churches and castles; were involved in manufacturing, import and export; had their own fleet of ships; and at one point even owned the entire island of Cyprus. The Templars arguably qualify as the world's first multinational corporation.

Fall

In the mid-1100s, the tide began turning in the Crusades. The Muslim world was more united under effective leaders such as Saladin, and dissension rose between the Christian factions. The Knights Templar were occasionally at odds with the two other great Christian orders, the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights, and decades of internecine feuds weakened the Christian positions. After several disastrous battles including the pivotal Battle of the Horns of Hattin, Jerusalem was lost to Saladin in 1187. The Crusaders retook the city in 1229 (without Templar help), but held it just briefly. In 1244, the Khawarizmi Turks recaptured Jerusalem, and it would never again be under Christian control .

The Templars were forced to relocate their headquarters to other cities in the north, such as the seaport of Acre, which they held for the next century. But they lost that too in 1291, followed by their last mainland strongholds, Tortosa (in what is now Syria) and Atlit. This left them with only an offshore headquarters in Limassol, Cyprus, and a garrison on tiny Arwad Island, just off the coast from Tortosa. They attempted to build a new invasion force at Arwad, but in 1302 lost that island as well, their last foothold in the Holy Land.

With the Order's military mission no longer as important, European support for the organization began to dwindle. The situation was complex though, as over the two hundred years of their existence, the Templars had become a part of European daily life. The organization had a widespread presence at the local level, with thousands of Templar Houses around Europe. The Templars managed many businesses, and many Europeans had daily contact with the Templar network, such as by working at a Templar farm or vineyard, or using the Order as a bank in which to store their personal wealth. But the Order was still subject to no local government, making it a "state within a state". It also had a standing army that could pass freely through all borders, but no longer had a clear battlefield. This situation heightened tensions with some European nobility, especially as the Templars were indicating an interest in founding their own monastic state, just as the Teutonic Knights had done in Prussia.

Alliance with the Mongols (1298-1302)

From around 1298, the Knights Templar and their leader Jacques de Molay strongly advocated, and entered into, a collaboration with the Mongols and fought against the Mamluks. The plan was to coordinate actions between the Christian military orders, the King of Cyprus, the aristocracy of Cyprus and Little Armenia and the Mongols of the khanate of Ilkhan (Persia). In 1298 or 1299, Jacques de Molay halted a Mamluk invasion with military force in Armenia following the loss of Roche-Guillaume in the Belen pass, the last Templar stronghold in Cilicia, to the Mamluks.

The Mongol khan of Persia, Ghâzân, allied with the Armenian, the Templiers and the Hospitaliers, defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar in December 1299. They took Jerusalem by surprise that same year, but Ghazan had to leave with his troops because of another conflict in his rear. Jacques Molay, left alone in Jerusalem tried to rebuild the fortifications which had been dismantled by the Mamluks, but he ultimately had to leave the city in 1300 to avoid a disaster, waiting in vain for reinforcements from Europe. Abundant news circulated in Europe that the Mongols had finally conquered the Holy Land and Jerusalem in 1300, and handed it over to the Christians.

In 1300, Jacques de Molay made his order commit raids along the Egyptian and Syrian coasts to weaken the enemy's supply lines as well as to harass them, and in November that year he joined the occupation of the tiny fortress island of Ruad (today called Arwad) which faced the Syrian town of Tortosa. The intent was to establish a bridgehead in accordance with the Mongol alliance, but the Mongols failed to appear in 1300. The same happened in 1301 and 1302.

In 1301 Ghazan sent an embassy to the Pope, and in 1303 to Edward I, in the person of Buscarello de Ghizolfi, reinterating Hulagu's promise that they would give Jerusalem to the Franks in exchange for help against the Mamluks.

In September 1302 the Templars were driven out of Ruad by the attacking Mamluk forces from Egypt, and many were massacred when trapped on the island. The island of Ruad was lost, and Molay returned to Chypre with the remainder of the Order in 1303. They made a raid on Tortose in 1303. When Ghâzân died in 1304 dreams of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land were destroyed.

Arrests and dissolution

In 1305, the new Pope Clement V, based in France, sent letters to both Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Hospitaller Grand Master Fulk de Villaret, discussing the possibility of a merging of the two Orders. Neither was amenable to the idea, but Pope Clement persisted, and in 1306 he invited both Grand Masters to France to discuss the matter. De Molay arrived first, in early 1307, though de Villaret was delayed for several months. While waiting for him, De Molay and Clement discussed charges that had been made two years earlier by an ousted Templar. It was generally agreed that the charges were false, but Clement wrote to King Philip IV of France, also known as Phillip the Fair, to request his help in the investigation. King Philip, however, decided to seize upon the Templar rumors for his own financial needs. He was deeply in debt to the Templars as a result of his war with the English, and he began pressuring the church to take action against the Order in order to free himself from his debts.

On Friday, October 13 1307 (a date incorrectly linked to the origin of the Friday the 13th legend), Philip had Jacques de Molay and scores of other French Templars simultaneously arrested, charged with numerous heresies, and tortured, forcing false confessions of various blasphemies. Despite the fact that the confessions had been produced under duress, they caused a scandal in Paris. In response to more bullying from King Philip, Pope Clement then issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.

Papal hearings were convened to determine the Templars' guilt or innocence. Once freed of the Inquisitors' torture, many Templars recanted their confessions. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials, but Philip wouldn't allow it, and in 1310 used the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris.

With Philip threatening military action unless the Pope agreed to comply with his wishes, Clement finally agreed to disband the Order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, including Vox in excelso, which officially dissolved the Order, and Ad providam, which turned over most Templar assets to the Hospitallers.

As for the last remaining leaders of the Order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his statement. His associate Geoffrey de Charney, Preceptor of Normandy, followed de Molay's example and did the same, insisting on his innocence. Both men were declared guilty of being relapsed heretics, and sentenced to death by being burned alive at the stake in Paris on March 18 1314. Jacques de Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, asking to be tied in such a way that he could face the Notre Dame cathedral, and hold his hands together in prayer. His request was granted, and according to legend, he called out from the flames that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God. Pope Clement died only a month later, and King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year.

With the last of the Order's leaders gone, the remaining Templars around Europe were either arrested and tried under the Papal investigation (with virtually none convicted), absorbed into other military orders such as the Knights Hospitaller, or pensioned and allowed to live out their days peacefully. Some may have fled to other territories outside of Papal control, such as excommunicated Scotland. Templar organizations in Portugal simply changed their name, from Knights Templar to Knights of Christ.

In modern times, it is the Roman Catholic Church's position that the persecution was unjust; that there was nothing inherently wrong with the Order or its Rule; and that Pope Clement was pressured into his actions by the magnitude of the public scandal and the dominating influence of King Philip IV.

Organization

Part of a series on the
Knights Templar
Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon
Overview
History Latin Rule Seal Grand Masters Members Trials and dissolution
Councils
Council of Troyes (1129) Council of Pisa (1135) Council of Vienne
Papal bulls
Omne datum optimum (1139) Milites Templi (1144) Militia Dei (1145) Pastoralis praeeminentiae (1307) Faciens misericordiam (1308) Vox in excelso (1312) Ad providam (1312)
Locations
Brittany England Portugal Scotland
Successors
Order of Christ Order of Montesa
Cultural references
In the IOGT In self-styled orders In Freemasonry In popular culture
See also
Military order (religious society) Catholic orders of chivalry Militia Templi
Catholic Church portal
v t e

The Templars were organized as a monastic order, similar to Bernard's Cistercian Order, which was considered the first effective international organization in Europe. The organizational structure had a strong chain of authority. Each country with a major Templar presence (France, England, Aragon, Portugal, Poitou, Apulia, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, Anjou, and Hungary) had a Master of the Order for the Templars in that region. All of them were subject to the Grand Master, appointed for life, who oversaw both the Order's military efforts in the East and their financial holdings in the West. No precise numbers exist, but it is estimated that at the Order's peak there were between 15,000 and 20,000 Templars, of whom about a tenth were actual knights.

It was Bernard de Clairvaux and founder Hugues de Payens who devised the specific code of behavior for the Templar Order, known as the Latin Rule. Its 72 clauses defined the ideal behavior for the Knights, such as the types of robes they were to wear and how many horses they could have. Knights were to take their meals in silence, eat meat no more than three times per week, and have no physical contact of any kind with women, even members of their own family. A Master of the Order was assigned "4 horses, and one chaplain-brother and one clerk with three horses, and one sergeant brother with two horses, and one gentleman valet to carry his shield and lance, with one horse." As the Order grew, more guidelines were added, and the original list of 72 clauses expanded to several hundred in its final form.

There was a threefold division of the ranks of the Templars: the aristocratic knights, the lower-born sergeants, and the clergy. Knights were required to be of knightly descent, to wear white mantles, and were equipped as heavy cavalry, with three or four horses, and one or two squires. Squires were generally not members of the Order, but were instead outsiders who were hired for a set period of time. Beneath the knights in the Order and drawn from lower social strata were the sergeants. They were either equipped as light cavalry with a single horse, or served in other ways such as administering the property of the Order or performing menial tasks and trades. Chaplains, constituting a third Templar class, were ordained priests who saw to the Templars' spiritual needs.

The knights wore white robes with a red cross, and a white mantle; the sergeants wore a black tunic with a red cross on front and back, and a black or brown mantle. The white mantle was assigned to the Templars at the Council of Troyes in 1129, and the cross was most likely added to their robes at the launch of the Second Crusade in 1147, when Pope Eugenius III, King Louis VII of France, and many other notables attended a meeting of the French Templars at their headquarters near Paris. According to their Rule, the knights were to wear the white mantle at all times, even being forbidden to eat or drink unless they were wearing it.

Initiation into the Order was a profound commitment, and involved a secret ceremony. Few details of the rituals were known at the time, fueling the suspicions of medieval inquisitors, but initiates had to be willing to sign over all of their wealth and goods to the Order, which required vows of poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience. Most brothers joined for life, though some were allowed to join for a set period. Sometimes a married man was allowed to join if he had his wife's permission, but he was not allowed to wear the white mantle.

For the warriors of the Order, there was a cardinal rule of never surrendering unless the Templar flag had fallen, and even in that case they were first to try and regroup with another of the Christian orders, such as that of the Hospitallers. Only after all flags had fallen were they allowed to leave the battlefield. The red cross that the Templars wore on their robes was a symbol of martyrdom, and to die in combat was considered a great honor assuring a place in heaven. This uncompromising principle, along with a reputation for courage, excellent training, and heavy armament, made the Templars one of the most feared combat forces in medieval times.

Grand Masters

Starting with founder Hugues de Payens in 1118–19, the Order's highest office was that of Grand Master, a position which was held for life; considering the warrior nature of the Order, this could mean a very short tenure. All but two of the Grand Masters died in office, and several died in military campaigns: During the Siege of Ascalon in 1153, Grand Master Bernard de Tremelay led a group of 40 Templars through a breach in the city walls. When the rest of the Crusader army did not follow, the Templars, including their Grand Master, were surrounded and beheaded. Grand Master Gérard de Ridefort was beheaded by Saladin in 1189 at the Siege of Acre.

The Grand Master oversaw all of the operations of the Order, including both the military operations in the Holy Land and Eastern Europe, and the Templars' financial and business dealings in Western Europe. Some Grand Masters also served as battlefield commanders, though this was not always a wise choice: several blunders in Gerard de Ridefort's leadership were the cause of the devastating loss at the Battle of Hattin. The last Grand Master was Jacques de Molay, who by order of King Philip IV was burned at the stake in Paris in 1314.

Legacy

With their military mission and extensive financial resources, the Knights Templar funded a large number of building projects around Europe and the Holy Land. Many of these structures remain standing today. Many sites also maintain the name "Temple" due to centuries-old association with the Templars. For example, some of the Templars' lands in London were later rented to lawyers, which led to the names of the Temple Bar gateway, the Temple tube station, and many others.

Distinctive architectural elements of Templar buildings included images of the "two knights on a single horse," representing the Knights' poverty, and round buildings which were built to resemble the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Modern Templar organizations

The story of the secretive yet powerful medieval Templars, especially their persecution and sudden dissolution, has been exploited by various organizations to enhance their supposed dignity, history, and mystery. Many groups claim traditions from the original Order. The Freemasons began incorporating Templar symbols and rituals in the 1700s, and have a modern title called "Order of the Knights Templar" to which members can aspire. The Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, founded in 1804, has achieved United Nations NGO status as a charitable organization.

Though there is no verifiable historical link between the Templars, which were dismantled in the early 1300s, and any of these organizations, the oldest of which emerged in the 1700s, there is public confusion and many overlook the 400-year gap.

Legends and relics

The Knights Templar have become associated with legends concerning secrets and mysteries handed down to the select from ancient times. Rumors circulated even during the time of the Templars themselves. Freemasonic writers added their own speculations in the 19th century, and further fictional embellishments have been added in modern movies and best-selling novels such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ivanhoe, National Treasure, Foucault's Pendulum, The Last Templar, and The Da Vinci Code.

The best known of the Templar legends are connected with the Order's early occupation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and speculation about what relics the Templars may have found there, such as the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant. That the Templars were known to be in possession of some relics is certain. Even today, many churches display relics such as the bones of a saint, a scrap of cloth that a holy man once wore, or perhaps even the skull of a martyr. The Templars did the same. They were documented as having a piece of the True Cross, which the Bishop of Acre carried into battle with them at the disastrous Horns of Hattin. When the battle was lost, Saladin captured the relic, which was then ransomed back to the Crusaders when the Muslims surrendered the city of Acre in 1191. They were also known to possess the head of Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon. The subject of relics also came up during the Inquisition of the Templars, as several trial documents refer to the worship of an idol of some type, referred to in some cases as a severed head, and in some cases as Baphomet.

There was particular interest during the Crusader era in the Holy Grail myth, which was quickly associated with the Templars, even in the 12th century. The first Grail romance, the fantasy story Le Conte du Graal, was written in 1180 by Chrétien de Troyes, who came from the same area where the Council of Troyes had officially sanctioned the Templars' Order. In Arthurian legend, the hero of the Grail quest, Sir Galahad (a 13th-century literary invention of monks from St. Bernard's Cistercian Order), was depicted bearing a shield with the cross of Saint George, similar to the Templars' insignia. In a chivalric epic of the period, Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach refers to Templars guarding the Grail Kingdom. A legend developed that since the Templars had their headquarters at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, they must have excavated in search of relics, found the Grail, and then proceeded to keep it in secret and guard it with their lives. However, there is no historical record of the Templars ever having the Holy Grail in their possession. In the extensive documents of the Templar inquisition, there was never a single mention of anything like a Grail relic, and most scholars agree that the story of the Grail was just that—a fiction that began circulating in medieval times. One legendary artifact that does have some connection with the Templars is the Shroud of Turin. In 1357, the shroud was first publicly displayed by the family of the grandson of Geoffrey de Charney, the Templar who had been burned at the stake with the Order's last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, in 1314. The artifact's origins are still a matter of controversy, but carbon dating indicates that the shroud may have been made between 1260 and 1390, a span that includes the last half-century of the Templars.

Notes

1. Burman, p. 45.
2. Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple. Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-521-42041-5.
3. ^ The History Channel, Decoding the Past: The Templar Code, November 7 2005, video documentary written by Marcy Marzuni
4. Martin, p. 47.
5. Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars. Cambridge University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-521-45727-0.
6. Burman, pp. 13, 19.
7. Read, The Templars. p. 91.
8. Barber, The New Knighthood, p. 7.
9. Burman, p. 40.
10. Stephen A. Dafoe. "In Praise of the New Knighthood". TemplarHistory.com. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
11. ^ The History Channel, Lost Worlds: Knights Templar, July 10 2006, video documentary written and directed by Stuart Elliott
12. ^ Sean Martin, The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order, 2005. ISBN 1-56025-645-1.
13. Martin, p. 99.
14. Martin, p. 113.
15. "L’ordre du Temple et son dernier grand maître, Jacques de Molay, ont été les artisans de l’alliance avec les Mongols de Perse contre les Mamelouks en 1299-1303, afin de reprendre pied en Terre sainte." Alain Demurger, Master of Conference at Université Paris-I, author of « Chevaliers du Christ. Les ordres religieux militaires au Moyen Age » (Seuil, 2002), « Jacques de Molay. Le crépuscule des Templiers » (Payot, 2002) « Les Templiers. Une chevalerie chrétienne au Moyen Age » (Seuil), in an interview with Le Point Source
16. Malcolm C. Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge University Press) 1995:79.
17. Source Templis.fr
18. "Ainsi, Jacques de Molay reprend Jérusalem en 1298 (qu'il conservera jusque en 1300)", Centre de Développement en Art et Culture Médiévale, Les Croisades, Hervé Husson et Fabian Müllers
19. Doubts have been raised whether the conquest of Jerusalem actually happened: "Gesta Dei per Mongolos 1300. The Genesis of a Non-Event" Sylvia Schein, The English Historical Review, Vol. 94, No. 373 (Oct., 1979), p. 805, Source
20. Encyclopedia Iranica article
21. Les Croisades. Hervé Husson et Fabian Müllers, Centre de Développement en Art et Culture Médiévale, Source
22. "Friday the 13th". snopes.com. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
23. David Emery. "Why Friday the 13th is unlucky". urbanlegends.about.com. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
24. Martin, p. 118.
25. Martin, p. 122.
26. ^ Barber, Trial, p. 3.
27. Martin, pp. 123–124.
28. "Convent of Christ in Tomar". World Heritage Site. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
29. Martin, p. 125.
30. Martin, p. 140.
31. Martin, pp. 140–142
32. Frale, Barbara (2004). "The Chinon chart — Papal absolution to the last Templar, Master Jacques de Molay". Journal of Medieval History. 30 (2): 109–134. doi:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2004.03.004. Retrieved 2007-04-01. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |journal= (help)
33. Burman, p. 28.
34. Barber, Trial, p. 10.
35. Burman, p. 45.
36. Burman, p. 43.
37. Burman, pp. 30–33.
38. Martin, p. 32.
39. Barber, p. 190
40. Barber, p. 190
41. Martin, p. 54.
43. Barber, p. 191
44. Burman, p. 44.
45. Barber, The New Knighthood, page 66: "According to William of Tyre it was under Eugenius III that the Templars received the right to wear the characteristic red cross upon their tunics, symbolising their willingness to suffer martyrdom in the defence of the Holy Land." (WT, 12.7, p. 554. James of Vitry, 'Historia Hierosolimatana', ed. J. Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, vol I(ii), Hanover, 1611, p. 1083, interprets this as a sign of martyrdom.)
46. Martin, The Knights Templar, page 43: "The Pope conferred on the Templars the right to wear a red cross on their white mantles, which symbolised their willingness to suffer martyrdom in defending the Holy Land against the infidel."
47. Read, The Templars, page 121: "Pope Eugenius gave them the right to wear a scarlet cross over their hearts, so that the sign would serve triumphantly as a shield and they would never turn away in the face of the infidels': the red blood of the martyr was superimposed on the white of the chaste." (Melville, La Vie des Templiers, p. 92.)
48. Burman, p. 46.
49. Martin, p. 52.
50. Burman, p. 44.
51. Barber, Trial, p. 4.
52. Barber, p. 193
53. ^ Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, The Templar Revelation, 1997, ISBN 0-684-84891-0.
54. Read, p. 137.
55. Martin, p. 58.
56. "List of non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council as at 31 August 2006" (PDF). United Nations Economic and Social Council. August 31 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
57. Read, p. 91.
58. Read, p. 171.
59. Martin, p. 139.
60. Barber, Trial of the Templars, p. 62.
61. Martin, p. 133.
62. Jim Barrett. Recent research from a BBC programme , however, dates the textile to the 1st century AD on the evidence of a Testile archeologist, on the basis of the style of stitching, the folding and placing in an urn and various other factors. The programme also debunked the carbon dating, which was contaminated and examined all the other ways it could have been made.IT was not a pbotograph but was made with an imprint of bodily fluids on the surface of the cloth attatched by three pins according to the usage of the time.More light was shed on this from a picture of the cloth being buried at a Narthern Cathedral in Spain, out of the reach of the Muslim invaders. This picture has only been found recently in a Cathedral in Hungary, previously not accessible (before the fall of the iron curtain). "Science and the Shroud: Microbiology meets archaeology in a renewed quest for answers", The Mission, Spring 1996. Retrieved on 2007-04-01

References

• Barber, Malcolm. The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple. Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-521-42041-5.
• Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars. Cambridge University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-521-45727-0
• Burman, Edward. The Templars: Knights of God. Destiny Books, 1986. ISBN 0-89281-221-4.
• Frale, Barbara. "The Chinon chart — Papal absolution to the last Templar, Master Jacques de Molay". 2004. Journal of Medieval History 30 (2): 109–134. DOI:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2004.03.004.
• Hietala, Heikki. The Knights Templar: Serving God with the Sword, 1996, Renaissance Magazine.
• The History Channel, Decoding the Past: The Templar Code, November 7, 2005, video documentary written by Marcy Marzuni
• The History Channel, Lost Worlds: Knights Templar, July 10, 2006, video documentary written and directed by Stuart Elliott
• Martin, Sean, The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order, 2005. ISBN 1-56025-645-1.
• The Mission. "Science and the Shroud: Microbiology meets archaeology in a renewed quest for answers", Spring 1996.
• Picknett, Lynn and Prince, Clive. The Templar Revelation, 1997, ISBN 0-684-84891-0.
• Read, Piers Paul, The Templars. Da Capo Press, 1999. ISBN 0-306-81071-9.

Further reading

• Barber, Malcolm. "Who Were the Knights Templar?". Slate Magazine, 20 April 2006.
• Barber, Malcolm.The Trial of the Templars, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-67236-8
• Brighton, Simon (2006-06-15). In Search of the Knights Templar: A Guide to the Sites in Britain (Hardback). London, England: Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 0-297-84433-4.
• Butler, Alan and Stephen Dafoe, The Warriors and the Bankers: A History of the Knights Templar from 1307 to the present, Templar Books, 1998. ISBN 0-9683567-2-9.
• Nicholson, Helen. The Knights Templar: A New History. Sutton, 2001. ISBN 0-7509-2517-5
• Partner, Peter. The Knights Templar and their Myth. Destiny Books; Reissue edition (1990). ISBN 0-89281-273-7.
• Ralls, Karen. The Templars and the Grail, Quest Books, 2003. ISBN 0-8356-0807-7.
• Smart, George. The Knights Templar: Chronology, Authorhouse, 2005. ISBN 1-4184-9889-0.
• Upton-Ward, JM. The Rule of the Templars: The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar. The Boydell Press, 1992. ISBN 0-85115-315-1.

External links

• The History of the Knights Templar, by Charles Addison, 1842.

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• 1119 establishments
• 1312 disestablishments
• Knights Templar