CHAPTER XIII.
THE TEMPLE.—GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
Origin of the Order of Templars—First Home of the Order—Removal to the Banks of the Thames—Rules of the Order—The Templars at the
Crusades, and their Deeds of Valour—Decay and Corruption of the Order—Charges brought against the Knights—Abolition of the Order.
The Order of Knights Templars, established by
Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, in 1118, to protect
Christian pilgrims on their road to Jerusalem, first
found a home in England in 1128 (Henry I.),
when Hugh de Payens, the first Master of the
Order, visited our shores to obtain succours and
subsidies against the Infidel.
The proud, and at first zealous, brotherhood originally settled on the south side of Holborn, without the Bars. Indeed, about a century and a half
ago, part of a round chapel, built of Caen stone, was
found under the foundation of some old houses at
the Holborn end of Southampton Buildings. In
time, however, the Order amassed riches, and, growing ambitious, purchased a large space of ground
extending from Fleet Street to the river, and from
Whitefriars to Essex House in the Strand. The new
Temple was a vast monastery, fitted for the residence of the prior, his chaplain, serving brethren
and knights; and it boasted a council-chamber, a
refectory, a barrack, a church, a range of cloisters,
and a river terrace for religious meditation, military
exercise, and the training of chargers. In 1185
Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who had come
to England with the Masters of the Temple and the
Hospital to procure help from Henry II. against
the victorious Saladin, consecrated the beautiful
river-side church, which the proud Order had dedicated to the Virgin Lady Mary. The late Master
of the Temple had only recently died in a dungeon
at Damascus, and the new Master of the Hospital,
after the great defeat of the Christians at Jacob's
Ford, on the Jordan, had swam the river covered with
wounds, and escaped to the Castle of Beaufort.
The singular rules of the "Order of the Poor
Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ and of the Temple
of Solomon," were revised by the first Abbot of
Clairvaux, St. Bernard himself. Extremely austere
and earnest, they were divided into seventy-two
heads, and enjoined severe and constant devotional
exercises, self-mortification, fasting, prayer, and
regular attendance at matins, vespers, and all the
services of the Church. Dining in one common
refectory, the Templars were to make known wants
that could not be expressed by signs, in a gentle,
soft, and private way. Two and two were in
general to live together, so that one might watch
the other. After departing from the supper hall
to bed it was not permitted them to speak again
in public, except upon urgent necessity, and then
only in an undertone. All scurrility, jests, and
idle words were to be avoided; and after any
foolish saying, the repetition of the Lord's Prayer
was enjoined. All professed knights were to wear
white garments, both in summer and winter, as
emblems of chastity. The esquires and retainers
were required to wear black or, in provinces where
that coloured cloth could not be procured, brown.
No gold or silver was to be used in bridles, breastplates, or spears, and if ever that furniture was given
them in charity, it was to be discoloured to prevent
an appearance of superiority or arrogance. No
brother was to receive or despatch letters without
the leave of the master or procurator, who might
read them if he chose. No gift was to be accepted
by a Templar till permission was first obtained
from the Master. No knight should talk to any
brother of his previous frolics and irregularities in
the world. No brother, in pursuit of worldly delight,
was to hawk, to shoot in the woods with long or
cross-bow, to halloo to dogs, or to spur a horse after
game. There might be married brothers, but they
were to leave part of their goods to the chapter,
and not to wear the white habit. Widows were not
to dwell in the preceptories. When travelling,
Templars were to lodge only with men of the best
repute, and to keep a light burning all night "lest
the dark enemy, from whom God preserve us, should
find some opportunity." Unrepentant brothers were
to be cast out. Last of all, every Templar was to
shun "feminine kisses," whether from widow, virgin,
mother, sister, aunt, or any other woman.
During six of the seven Crusades (1096–1272),
during which the Christians of Europe endeavoured,
with tremendous yet fitful energy, to wrest the
birthplace of Christianity from the equally fanatic
Moslems, the Knights Templars fought bravely
among the foremost. Whether by the side of
Godfrey of Bouillon, Louis VII., Philip V., Richard
Cœur de Lion, Louis IX., or Prince Edward, the
stern, sunburnt men in the white mantles were ever
foremost in the shock of spears. Under many a
clump of palm trees, in many a scorched desert
track, by many a hill fortress, smitten with sabre
or pierced with arrow, the holy brotherhood dug the
graves of their slain companions.
A few of the deeds, which must have been so
often talked of upon the Temple terrace and in the
Temple cloister, must be narrated, to show that,
however mistaken was the ideal of the Crusaders,
these monkish warriors fought their best to turn it
into a reality. In 1146 the whole brotherhood
joined the second Crusade, and protected the rear
of the Christian army in its toilsome march through
Asia Minor. In 1151, the Order saved Jerusalem,
and drove back the Infidels with terrible slaughter.
Two years later the Master of the Temple was slain,
with many of the white mantles, in fiercely essaying
to storm the walls of Ascalon. Three years after
this 300 Templars were slain in a Moslem ambuscade, near Tiberias, and 87 were taken prisoners.
We next find the Templars repelling the redoubtable Saladin from Gaza; and in a great battle near
Ascalon, in 1177, the Master of the Temple and
ten knights broke through the Mameluke Guards,
and all but captured Saladin in his tent. The
Templars certainly had their share of Infidel blows,
for, in 1178, the whole Order was nearly slain in a
battle with Saladin; and in another fierce conflict,
only the Grand Master and two knights escaped;
while again at Tiberias, in 1187, they received a cruel
repulse, and were all but totally destroyed.
In 1187, when Saladin took Jerusalem, he next
besieged the great Templar stronghold of Tyre;
and soon after a body of the knights, sent from
London, attacked Saladin's camp in vain, and the
Grand Master and nearly half of the Order perished.
In the subsequent siege of Acre the Crusaders lost
nearly 100,000 men in nine pitched battles. In
1191, however, Acre was taken, and the Kings of
France and England, and the Masters of the
Temple and the Hospital, gave the throne of the
Latin kingdom to Guy de Lusignan. When Richard
Cœur de Lion had cruelly put to death 2,000
Moslem prisoners, we find the Templars interposing to prevent Richard and the English fighting
against the Austrian allies; and soon after the
Templars bought Cyprus of Richard for 300,000
livres of gold. In the advance to Jerusalem the
Templars led the van of Richard's army. When the
attack on Jerusalem was suspended, the Templars
followed Richard to Ascalon, and soon afterwards
gave Cyprus to Guy de Lusignan, on condition of
his surrendering the Latin crown. When Richard
abandoned the Crusade, after his treaty with
Saladin, it was the Templars who gave him a galley
and the disguise of a Templar's white robe to
secure his safe passage to an Adriatic port. Upon
Richard's departure they erected many fortresses in
Palestine, especially one on Mount Carmel, which
they named Pilgrim's Castle.
The fourth Crusade was looked on unfavourably
by the brotherhood, who now wished to remain at
peace with the Infidel, but they nevertheless soon
warmed to the fighting, and we find a band of the
white mantles defeated and slain at Jaffa. With a
second division of Crusaders the Templars quarrelled, and were then deserted by them. Soon after
the Templars and Hospitallers, now grown corrupt
and rich, quarrelled about lands and fortresses; but
they were still favoured by the Pope, and helped to
maintain the Latin throne. In 1209 they were
strong enough to resist the interdict of Pope Innocent; and in the Crusade of 1217 they invaded
Egypt, and took Damietta by assault, but, at the
same time, to the indignation of England, wrote
home urgently for more money. An attack on
Cairo proving disastrous, they concluded a truce
with the Sultan in 1221. In the Crusade of the
Emperor Frederick the Templars refused to join
an excommunicated man. In 1240, the Templars
wrested Jerusalem from the Sultan of Damascus,
but, in 1243, were ousted by the Sultan of Egypt
and the Sultan of Damascus, and were almost exterminated in a two days' battle; and, in 1250, they
were again defeated at Mansourah. When King
Louis was taken prisoner, the Infidels demanded
the surrender of all the Templar fortresses in
Palestine, but eventually accepted Damietta alone
and a ransom, which Louis exacted from the
Templars. In 1257 the Moguls and Tartars took
Jerusalem, and almost annihilated the Order, whose
instant submission they required. In 1268 Pope
Urban excommunicated the Marshal of the Order,
but the Templars nevertheless held by their comrade, and Bendocdar, the Mameluke, took all the
castles belonging to the Templars in Armenia, and
also stormed Antioch, which had been a Christian
city 170 years.
After Prince Edward's Crusade the Templars were
close pressed. In 1291, Aschraf Khalil besieged
the two Orders and 12,000 Christians in Acre for
six terrible weeks. The town was stormed, and
all the Christian prisoners, who flew to the Infidel
camp, were ruthlessly beheaded. A few of the
Templars flew to the Convent of the Temple, and
there perished; the Grand Master had already
fallen; a handful of the knights only escaping to
Cyprus.
The persecution of the now corrupt and useless
Order commenced sixteen years afterwards. In
1306, both in London and Paris, terrible murmurs
arose at their infidelity and their vices. At the
Church of St. Martin's, Ludgate, where the English
Templars were accused, the following charges were
brought against them:—
1. That at their first reception into the Order,
they were admonished by those who had received
them within the bosom of the fraternity to deny
Christ, the crucifixion, the blessed Virgin, and all
the saints. 5. That the receivers instructed those
that were received that Christ was not the true
God. 7. That they said Christ had not suffered for
the redemption of mankind, nor been crucified but
for His own sins. 9. That they made those they
received into the Order spit upon the cross.
10. That they caused the cross itself to be trampled
under foot. 11. That the brethren themselves did
sometimes trample on the same cross. 14. That
they worshipped a cat, which was placed in the midst
of the congregation. 16. That they did not believe
the sacrament of the altar, nor the other sacraments of the Church. 24. That they believed that
the Grand Master of the Order could absolve them
from their sins. 25. That the visitor could do so.
26. That the preceptors, of whom many were
laymen, could do it. 36. That the receptions of
the brethren were made clandestinely. 37. That
none were present but the brothers of the said
Order. 38. That for this reason there has for a
long time been a vehement suspicion against them.
46. That the brothers themselves had idols in
every province, viz., heads, some of which had
three faces, and some one, and some a man's skull.
47. That they adored that idol, or those idols,
especially in their great chapters and assemblies.
48. That they worshipped them. 49. As their
God. 50. As their saviour. 51. That some of
them did so. 52. That the greater part did. 53.
They said those heads could save them. 54. That
they could produce riches. 55. That they had
given to the Order all its wealth. 56. That they
caused the earth to bring forth seed. 57. That
they made the trees to flourish. 58. That they
bound or touched the heads of the said idols with
cords, wherewith they bound themselves about
their shirts, or next their skins. 59. That at their
reception, the aforesaid little cords, or others of
the same length, were delivered to each of the
brothers. 61. That it was enjoined them to gird
themselves with the said little cords, as before
mentioned, and continually to wear them. 62.
That the brethren of the Order were generally
received in that manner. 63. That they did these
things out of devotion. 64. That they did them
everywhere. 65. That the greater part did. 66.
That those who refused the things above mentioned
at their reception, or to observe them afterwards,
were killed or cast into prison.
The Order was proud and arrogant, and had
many enemies. The Order was rich, and spoil
would reward its persecutors. The charges against
the knights were eagerly believed; many of the
Templars were burned at the stake in Paris, and
many more in various parts of France. In England their punishment seems to have been less
severe. The Order was formally abolished by
Pope Clement V., in the year 1312.