Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 09:19, 1 June 2003

The first of the military orders, the Knights Templar or Poor Knights of Christ were founded in 1118 in the aftermath of the First Crusade to help the new Kingdom of Jerusalem maintain itself against its defeated Muslim neighbors, and to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims that flowed towards Jerusalem after its conquest.

Their name alluded to their headquarters near the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Another variation of its seal depicts the mosque of Al-Aqsa, then thought to be a remnant of the temple. Templar churches in Europe often are octagonal like the mosque.

The Templars were organized as a monastic order, following a rule created for them by Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian Order. The Templars were well-connected and quickly became prime movers in the international politics of the Crusades period. In time, they were endowed with several extraordinary Papal Bulls (see Omne Datum Optimum) that permitted them, among other things, to levy taxes and accept tithing in the areas under their direct control, facilitating their quick rise to institutional power.

There were four divisions of brothers in the Templars:

• the knights, equipped as heavy cavalry
• the sergeants, equipped as light cavalry and drawn from a lower social class than the knights
• farmers, who administered the property of the Order
• the chaplains, who were ordained priests and saw to the spiritual needs of the Order.

At any time, there were approximately 10 people in support positions for each Knight. In addition, there were brothers devoted only to banking, as this extraordinary Order was often trusted with precious goods by participants in the Crusade—over time this grew into a new basis of money as Templars became increasingly involved in banking activities. It is some indication of their powerful political connections that the Templars' involvement in usury did not lead to more controversy within the Order and the church at large.

The Templars political connections and awareness of the essentially urban and commercial nature of the Outremer communities naturally led the Order to a position of significant power both in Europe and the Holy Lands. Their success attracted the jealousy and greed of many other Orders and eventually that of the nobility and monarchs of Europe as well, who were at this time seeking to monopolize control of money and banking after a long chaotic period in which civil society, especially the Church and its lay Orders, had dominated financial activities. The Templar's holdings were extensive both in Europe and the Middle East, including, for a time, the entire island of Cyprus.

Besides Palestine, the order also fought in Spanish Reconquista. They were given extensive possessions and castles in frontier land. At one point, they were to inherit the kingdom of Aragon, jointly with other military orders.

On October 13, 1307, what may have been all the Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philip the Fair (Philippe le Bel), to be later tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. A modern historical view is that Philip, who seized the treasury and broke up the monastic banking system, simply sought to control it for himself. This, and the Templars' original banking of assets for suddenly-mobile depositors, were two of many shifts towards a system of military fiat to back European money, removing this power from Church Orders. The Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, seeing the fate of the Templars, were also convinced to give up banking at this time.

Many kings and nobles supported the Knights at that time, and only dissolved the order in their fiefs when ordered so by Pope Clement V. In particular, Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots, had already been excommunicated for other reasons and was not, therefore disposed to pay any attention to Papal commands. As a result many of the order fled to Scotland.

However, the accusation of religious heresy was not, by the standards of the time, entirely without merit. Under torture, some Templars "admitted" to homosexual acts and the worship of a "bearded head" or cat idol ("Baphomet"). Their leaders later denied the admission and for that were executed. Some authors discount this as a common accusation (as it was in the Inquisition), and therefore a typical forced admission. Conspiracy theories related to the suppression of the Knights Templar often go far beyond the simple and obvious motive of simply seizing property, which was and remains an extremely common motivation for all forms of religious persecution. Some Freemasons believe they were descendant from Templars who fled to Scotland, and that the group really did have heretical beliefs. Ironically, it is the Catholic church's position that the persecution was unjust, and that the Pope at the time was tricked into supressing them.

Lately, friends of the Occult have claimed that the order stored secret knowledge, linking them to the Freemasons, the Sufis or a discovery of America before Christopher Columbus. See: Order of the Solar Temple.

See also:

• Templars in England
• Pope Clement V
• Acre, Palestine
• Jacques de Molay
• Hughes de Payens
• Albigensian Crusade

Military Orders:

• Knights Hospitaller
• Teutonic Knights
• Knights of St Thomas