MILITIA TEMPLI: THE MILITARY ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON


In 1118, nine knights, led by Hugh des Payens and Godfrey of St. Omer, bound themselves together in the creation of a knightly order for the express purpose of protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land. The objective of this order was to combine the functions of monk and knight---to live chastely and fight the Saracens with sword and spirit. They chose "La douce Mere de Dieu" as patroness, and bound themselves to live in accordance with the rules of St.Augustine. They swore to consecrate their swords, arms, strengths, and lives to the defense of the Christian faith; to pay complete and utter obedience to the Grand Master; to fight whenever and wherever commanded, regardless of the peril; and, even when opposed three to one by infidels, never to retreat. They also took upon themselves vows of chastity and poverty, and promised not to transfer allegiance to any other order, nor to surrender any wall or foot of land.(1)


The modest beginnings of the Military Order of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon were described by William, Archbishop of Tyre:


In the same year, certain noble men

of knightly rank, devoted to God,

religious and God-fearing, professed

the wish to live in chastity,

obedience and without property in

perpetuity, binding themselves in

the hands of the lord patriarch to

the service of Christ in the manner

of regular canons. Among these, the

first and most important were the

venerable men, Hugues de Payns and

Godefroi de Saint-Omer. Since they

did not have a church, nor a settled

place to live, the king conceded a

temporary dwelling to them in his

palace, which he had below the Temple

of the Lord, to the south side. The

canons of the Lord, under certain

conditions, conceded a courtyard

which they had near the same place,

to be used for the functions of the

Order. Moreover, the lord King

(Baldwin ll) with his nobles, as well

as the lord patriarch with his prelates,

gave to them certain benefices from their

own demesnes, some in perpetuity, some on

a temporary basis, from which they could

be fed and clothed. The first element of

their profession, enjoined on them for the

remission of their sins by the lord

patriarch and the other bishops, was

"that they should protect the roads and

routes to the utmost of their ability

against the ambushes of thieves and

attackers, especially in regard to the

safety of pilgrims."(2)

Because their sins would be purged for fighting the heretic Moslems and protecting pilgrims, the Templars began to attract a number of knights who were either excommunicated or in danger of becoming excommunicated due to the seriousness of their sins. St. Bernard applauded the Templars' methods of saving the "rogues and impious men, robbers and committers of sacrilege, murderers, perjurers, and adulterers" in a letter he wrote to des Payens. Armed with this letter, des Payens attended the Council of Troyes (1128) and received both a papal sanction and an exemption from excommunication for the Templars.(3)

Confirmed and appointed a white mantle by pope Honorious---to which Eugenius lll affixed a red cross on the breast---the Templars continued to live a life of chastity and poverty, in accordance with their vows, for the first nine years of their existence. But, little by little, they became haughty and insolent. After the Council of Troyes, des Payens took his delegation through France and England, and collected a number of recruits. Gifts and grants of land, rents, and arms were bestowed upon the Order, including bequests from the military and royalty.

By the end of the 12th century, the Templars had a membership of around 30,000, with 9,000 commanderies situated in Palestine and various European countries, with an annual rental of 112 million francs.(4) Because of their vast wealth, vows of honesty, and their papal immunity from civil jurisdiction, they became the bankers of the Levant and the courts of Europe. Louis Vll accepted a large loan from the Templars, the Moslems banked with them (5), and the Assassins and various sultans were known to have paid the Templars---30,000 and 60,000 pieces of gold, respectively---for various deeds.(6)



And so, they departed from their original humility, poverty, and piety. Their pride and arrogance became so well-known that when Richard Coeur de Lion was dying, he said, "I leave avarice to the Cistercian monks, luxuriousness to the begging friars, pride to the Templars...."(7) In 1207, Innocent lll condemned the Templars for their pride and abuse of their privileged position. He complained to the Grand Master that:

yielding to the doctrine of demons,

they mark the sign of the cross on

the chest of any vagabond, more-over

they do not care about adding sin to

sin like a long rope, alleging that

whoever, having collected two or three

denarii annually for them, will have

joined their fraternity, cannot lawfully

be deprived of an ecclesiastical burial,

even if they are excommunicate; and

through this, adulterers, manifest

userers and other false criminals

excommunicated from the Church, are,

by insolence of this kind, buried in

their cemetaries just like the Catholic

faithful.(8)

When Henry lll chided the Templars (1252)---"You prelates and religious, especially you Templars and Hospitallers, have so many liberties and charters that your enormous possessions make you rave with pride and haughtiness. What was imprudently given must therefore be prudently revoked; and what was inconsiderably bestowed must be considerately recalled."---the Grand Master immediately replied---"What sayest thou, O King? Far be it that thy mouth should utter so disagreeable and silly a word. So long as thou dost exercise justice thou wilt reign; but if thou infringe it, thou wilt cease to be King!"(9)

When Jerusalem was lost, the Templars' spiritual, military, and monetary headquarters were transferred to Paris. It was at this Paris Temple that Philip the Fair took refuge in 1306, to escape the rioting caused by his devaluation of the currency. Three years earlier, when Philip broke with Boniface Vlll, he signed a formal treaty of alliance with the Templars in which he promised to protect them in return for their financing the government. By the time of the Paris riots, Philip was bankrupt and depending entirely upon the Templars for financing.(10) In an intolerable situation, Philip found the means of escape when an ex-Templar (Esquier de Florian) came to him with a lurid denunciation of the Order. Philip appointed 12 spies to infiltrate the Order and discover its iniquitous secrets, and prevailed upon Clement V to send for Grand Master Jacques de Molay.

De Molay came to Paris in 1307 wih 60 knights, 150,000 gold florins, and so much silver that it made up the lading of twelve horses.(11) Believing he had been sent for to discuss and plan for another crusade, de Molay was completely unsuspecting of the plots going on around him. To add to his beguilement, Philip treated him with the greatest consideration, made him the godfather of one of his sons, and chose him as one of the distinguished men who carried the pall at the funeral of his sister-in-law.(12) The very next day (October 13, 1307), he denounced the Templars to the Inqusition, and had de Molay and every other Templar in France arrested.(13)

"A bitter thing, a lamentable thing, a thing which is horrible to contemplate, terrible to hear of, a detestable crime, an execrable evil, an abominable work, a detestable disgrace, a thing almost inhuman, indeed set apart from all humanity."(14) Although these words were used by Philip to descrbe the "heresies" of the Templars, they could just as easily describe the actions of those who dealt with the Templars---including Philip himself. The Templars were accused of various unnatural crimes, debaucheries, and superstitious abominations---denying Christ, the Virgin, and the Saints; spitting and trampling on the cross; worshipping an idol in the form of the head of a man; annointing this idol with the fat of young, roasted children; considering the idol as their sovereign God; worshipping the devil in the form of the cat, in the presence of young virgins and female devils; being homosexuals; and, burning the bodies of dead Templars and giving the ashes to the younger brethren to eat.(15)
Efforts were then made to persuade the knights to confess. The Dominicans, as the Inquisitional "persuaders" and questioners, used three basic modes of torture:

(1) The "cord" was used first. This

entailed tying the heretic's hands

behind his back and, through use of a

pulley system, raising him to the

ceiling, which, at the least,

dislocated his shoulders. Variations

of this included the use of spikes

set in rollers---the heretic was pulled

over the rollers for at least a half-hour.


(2) The water torture was used if the

heretic still hadn't confessed. This

entailed covering the heretic's mouth and

nose with a thick cloth (while he was

lying on his back), and then pouring

water on the cloth through a funnel. If

he refused to confess, the heretic stood

the chance of slowly drowning..


(3) The final torture was by fire. This

was for the heretic who was too stubborn

to either confess or die during the

preceding tortures. Here, the heretic was

lain and fastened onto the ground. Then

lard, grease or oil was rubbed on the

soles of his feet, and they were set on

fire. If he confessed properly, the fire

was put out. If his confession was

unsatisfactory, he was left afire until

he confessed what he was supposed to

confess. If, after all this, the heretic

still refused to confess, or recanted his

confession, he was condemned to death.(16)

By October 19th, less than one week after they had been arrested, 140 Templars were being "put to the question" by the Dominican Imbert, at the Paris Temple. Of these, 36 Templars died under torture within a few days of their arrest, and the remainder confessed to every real and imagined sin they could think of. Of all the Templars "tried" only four were recorded as refusing to confess, regardless of what persuasive measures were used on them.(17) In order to save his men suffering, de Molay ordered them to surrender and confess. Except for the four mentioned above, the rest of the Templars did confess, but at least 133 (including de Molay) recanted their confessions and were burned.

In 1314, de Molay and two of his chiefs---Guy of Auverge and Geoffroi de Charney---made public proclamations of innocence on the platform to which they had been taken to have their sentences announced. De Molay declared, "I confess that I am indeed guilty of the greatest infamy. But the infamy is that I have lied. I have lied in admitting the disgusting charges laid against my Order. I declare, and I must declare, that the Order is innocent. Its purity and saintliness have never been defiled. In truth, I had testified otherwise, but I did so from fear of horrible tortures."(18) When Philip heard this, he ordered their immediate burning. The following day, de Molay, de Charney, and Guy were burned by a slow fire on the Ile-des-Javiaux, between the royal gardens and the Church of the Hermit Brethren of St. Augustine. A monk who chronicled the event commented, "They were seen to be so prepared to sustain the fire with easy mind and will that they brought from all those who saw them much admiration and surprise for the constancy of their death and final denial."(19)

The burning of the Order's leaders in 1314 was the final echo of the Templars' death knell. Two years earlier the Templars' properties were divided between Philip, Clement, and the Hospitallers. By the time of de Molay's death, the Knights Templar, as an order, was defunct---members had been burned, exiled, imprisoned, or sent to spend their remaining years in other orders' monasteries. The king who caused the Templars' downfall, and the pope who did nothing to save them, did not enjoy their new-found wealth for long---Clement died within a month of the burning of de Molay, and Philip died only seven months after Clement. Villani said, "And the King of France and his sons had afterwards much shame and adversity, both because of this sin and of the capture of Pope Boniface....And note, that the night after the said Master and his companions had been martyred, their ashes and bones were collected as sacred relics by the friars and other religious persons, and carried away to holy places."(20) The heroic deaths of the Templars' leaders, followed so swiftly by the deaths of the king and pope who condemned them, gave rise to a series of legends. The most popular---and perhaps closest to the truth---said that Jacques de Molay had called them both to appear with him before the tribunal of God.

CITATIONS

1. Daraul, _A History of Secret Societies_, pp. 39-40

Heckethorn, _The Secret Societies_, p. 152

2. Barber, _The Trial of the Templars_, pp. 5-6

3. Mackenzie, _Secret Societies_, p. 118

4. Heckethorn, p. 153

5. Mackenzie, p. 119

6. Daraul, p. 44

7. Heckethorn, p. 153

8. Barber, p. 19

9. Daraul, pp. 48-49

10. Mackenzie, p. 127

11. Heckethorn, p. 155

12. ibid

13. Mackenzie, p. 127

14. Barber, p. 45

15. Mackenzie, p.127

Heckethorn, p. 15

16. Heckethorn, pp. 179-181

17. Barber, p. 54

18. Mackenzie, p. 129

19. Barber, p. 241

20. Barber, p. 242

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barber, Malcolm. _The Trial of the Templars_. Cambridge University Press: London, 1978.

Darual, Arkon. _A History of Secret Societies_. Citadel Press: New York, 1962.

Heckethorn, Charles William. _The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries_, Vol. l. University Books: New Hyde Park, NY, 1966.

Hroch, Miroslav & Skybova, Anna. _Ecclesia Militans_. Dorset Press: Leipzig, G. D. R., 1988.

Mackenzie, Norman. _Secret Societies_. Holt, Rinehart & Winston: New York, 1967.

Uden, Grant. _A Dictionary of Chivalry_. Thomas Y. Crowell Co.: New York, 1968.

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