Provinces of the Order--Eastern Provinces--Jerusalem--Houses of
this Province--Tripolis--Antioch--Cyprus--Western
Provinces--Portugal--Castile and Leon--Aragon--France and
Auvergne--Normandy--Aquitaine--Provence--England--Germany--Upper
and Central Italy--Apulia and Sicily.
We have thus seen what a number of persons of all ranks were more or
less intimately connected with the order of the Temple, and how powerful
its influence must have been throughout the Christian world. To enable
the reader to form some conception of its wealth and power, we shall,
previous to explaining its system of internal regulation, give a view of
its possessions in various countries.
The extensive possessions of the order of the Temple, in Asia and in
Europe, were divided into provinces, each containing numerous
preceptories or temple-houses, and each under its appointed governor.
These provinces may be classified under the heads of Eastern and
Western.
The eastern provinces of the order were,--
I. Jerusalem.--This province was always regarded as the ruling one; the
chief seat and capital of the order. The Master and chapter resided here
as long as the Holy City was in the hands of the Christians. This being
the province which was first established, its regulations and
organization served as a model for all others. Its provincial Master,
or, as he was styled, the Preceptor of the Land and Kingdom of
Jerusalem, took precedence of all others of the same rank.
The bailiwicks, or commanderies, in this province, were,--
1. The Temple of Jerusalem, the cradle of the order, and the original
residence of the Master and the chapter.
2. Chateau Pelerin, or the Pilgrim's Castle, renowned in the history of
the crusades. This castle was built by the Templars in 1217, in order
that it might be their chief seat after the loss of Jerusalem. It was
situated on the east side of Mount Carmel, which runs out into the sea
between Caipha and Caesarea. The Templars had long had a tower at a pass
of this mountain, called _Destruction_, or the Tower of the Pass, for
the defence of pilgrims against the robbers who lurked in the gorges of
the mountains. They were aided in building the castle, which was also
designed to be a defence to Acre, by Walter D'Avesnes and by the German
knights and pilgrims who were at that time in the Holy Land, and hence,
perhaps, they called it Chateau Pelerin. The Cardinal de Vitry, who was
at that time bishop of Acre, thus describes it. It was built on the
promontory, three sides of which were washed by the sea. As they were
sinking the foundation, they came to two walls of ancient masonry, and
to some springs of remarkably pure water; they also found a quantity of
ancient coins with unknown inscriptions, given, as the bishop piously
deems, by God to his beloved sons and warriors, to alleviate the toil
and expense which they were at. The place had probably been fortified in
former times by the Jews or the Romans. The builders raised two huge
towers of large masses of rock on the landward side, each 100 feet high,
and 74 broad; these were united by a lofty wall, broad enough at its
summit for an armed knight to stand at his ease upon it. It had a
parapet and battlements, with steps leading up to them. In the space
within this wall were a chapel, a palace, and several houses, with
fish-ponds, salt-works, woods, meads, gardens, and vineyards. Lying at a
distance of six miles from Mount Tabor, it commanded the interjacent
plain and the sea-coast to Acre. There the Master and the chapter took
up their final abode, after having dwelt from 1118 to 1187 at Jerusalem,
from 1187 to 1191 at Antioch, and from this last year till 1217 at Acre.
"The chief use," says D'Vitry, "of this edifice is, that the whole
chapter of the Templars, withdrawn from the sinful city of Acre, which
is full of all impurity, will reside under the protection of this castle
till the walls of Jerusalem are rebuilt." A prophecy never to be
fulfilled! On the fall of Acre, in 1291, Chateau Pelerin was abandoned
by the knights, and its walls were levelled by the infidels.
3. The castle of Safat, at the foot of Mount Tabor. This strong castle
was taken by Saladin. It was demolished in 1220, by Coradin, but
afterwards rebuilt by the Templars, who then held it till 1266, when
they lost it finally.
4. The temple at Acre, a remarkably strong building, the last place
taken in the capture of that town.
5. The hill-fort, Dok, between Bethel and Jericho.
6. Faba, the ancient Aphek, not far from Tyre, in the territory of the
ancient tribe of Ashur.
7. Some small castles near Acre, mentioned in the history
of the war with Saladin, such as _La Cave_, _Marle_, _Citerne-rouge_,
_Castel-blanc_, _La Sommellerie du Temple_.
8. The house at Gaza.
9. The castle of Jacob's-ford, at the Jordan, built in 1178 by King
Baldwin IV., to check the incursions of the roving Arabs. When Saladin
took this castle, he treated the Templars whom he found in it with great
cruelty.
10. The house at Jaffa.
11. The castle of Assur, near this town.
12. _Gerinum parvum._
13. The castle of Beaufort, near Sidon, purchased by the order, in 1260,
from Julian, the lord of that town.
We may observe that most of these abodes of the Templars were strong
castles and fortresses. It was only by means of such that possession
could be retained of a country like Palestine, subject to the constant
inroads of the Turks and Saracens. The Templars possessed, besides these
strongholds, large farms and tracts of land, of which, though their
names are unknown, frequent mention is made in the history of the order.
II. Tripolis.--The principal houses of the order in this province were
at Tripolis itself; Tortosa, the ancient Antaradus; Castel-blanc, in the
same neighbourhood; Laodicea, Tyre, Sidon, and Berytus.
III. Antioch.--Of this province but little is known. There was a house
at Aleppo; and the jurisdiction of the prior probably extended into
Armenia[83], where the order had estates to the value of 20,000 byzants.
[Footnote 83: The Armenia of the crusades was a part of Cilicia.]
IV. Cyprus.--As long as the Templars maintained their footing on the
continent, Cyprus, it would appear, formed no distinct province, but
belonged either to that of Tripolis or of Antioch. At the time when
Richard, King of England, made the conquest of this island, he sold the
sovereignty of it for 25,000 marks of silver to the Templars, who had
already extensive possessions in it. The following year, with the
consent of the order, who were, of course, reimbursed, he transferred
the dominion to Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem. On the capture of
Acre the chief seat of the order was fixed at Limesal, also called
Limissa and Nemosia, in this island, which town, having an excellent
harbour, they strongly fortified. They had also a house at Nicosia, and
one at the ancient Paphos, named Gastira, and, at the same place, the
impregnable castle of Colossa.
Some idea of the value of the possessions of the Templars in Cyprus may
be formed from the circumstance, that when, in 1316, after the
suppression of the order, the Pope directed the Bishop of Limissa to
transfer their property there to the Hospitallers, there were found, in
the house in that town, 26,000 byzants of coined money, and silver plate
to the value of 1,500 marks. As the last Master, when setting out for
France ten years before, had carried with him the treasure of the order,
this property must have been accumulated during that time out of the
surplus revenue of the possessions of the order in the island.
The Western provinces of the order were--
I. Portugal.--So early as the year 1130 (a strong proof of the rapid
increase of the order) Galdin Paez, the first provincial master of the
Temple in Portugal, built the castles of Tomar, Monsento, and Idanna.
The Templars had also settlements at Castromarin, Almural, and
Langrovia. Tomar was the residence of the great-prior.
II. Castile and Leon.--In this province the possessions of the order
were so extensive as to form twenty-four bailiwicks in Castile alone. It
is needless to enumerate their names[84].
[Footnote 84: They will be found in Campomanes, p. 80, and Muenter, p.
424.]
III. Aragon.--In this province, which abounded in castles, several
belonged to the Templars; and the bailiwick of Majorca, where they were
also settled, was under the jurisdiction of the great-prior of Aragon.
It is to be observed that most of the castles possessed by the order in
Spain and Portugal were on the borders of the Moorish territory. Some of
these had been given to the Templars as the inveterate foes of the
infidels; others had been conquered by them from the Moors.
France, where the possessions of the order were so considerable, was
divided into four provinces, namely--
IV. France and Auvergne, including Flanders and the Netherlands.
V. Normandy.
VI. Aquitaine, or Poitou.
VII. Provence.
The residences of the great-priors of these four provinces were, for
France, the capacious and stately Temple at Paris, which was, as we are
informed by Matthew Paris, large and roomy enough to contain an army;
for Normandy, as is supposed, _La ville Dieu en la Montagne_; for
Poitou, the Temple at Poitiers; for Provence, that at Montpellier.
VIII. England.--The province of England included Scotland and Ireland.
Though each of these two last kingdoms had its own great-prior, they
were subordinate to the great-prior of England, who resided at the
Temple of London.
The principal bailiwicks of England were--1. London; 2. Kent; 3.
Warwick; 4. Waesdone; 5. Lincoln; 6. Lindsey; 7. Bolingbroke; 8. Widine;
9. Agerstone; 10. York. In these were seventeen preceptories; and the
number of churches, houses, farms, mills, &c., possessed by the order
was very considerable[85].
[Footnote 85: The possessions of the Templars in England will be found
in the works of Dugdale and Tanner.]
[Illustration: Interior of Round Tower, in Temple Church, London.]
[Illustration: Saxon Doorway, Temple Church, London.]
[Illustration: Details of Saxon Capitals.]
[Illustration: Round Temple Church, Cambridge.]
The chief seat of the order in Scotland appears to have been Blancradox.
Its possessions were not extensive in that poor and turbulent country;
and in Ireland the Templars seem to have been few, and confined to the
Pale. We hear of but three of their houses in that country--namely,
Glaukhorp, in the diocese of Dublin; Wilbride, in that of Ferns; and
Siewerk, in that of Kildare.
IX. Germany.--It is difficult to ascertain how the order was regulated
in Germany, where its possessions were very extensive. We hear of three
great-priors: those of Upper Germany, of Brandenburg, and of Bohemia and
Moravia; one of whom, but it cannot be determined which, had probably
authority over the others. Though the Templars got lands in Germany as
early as the year 1130, their acquisitions were not large in that
country till the thirteenth century. Poland was included in the province
of Germany. Great-prior in Alemania and Slavia was a usual title of the
great-prior of Germany. Though the possessions of the Templars in
Hungary were very considerable, there are no grounds for supposing that
it formed a separate province: it was probably subject to the
great-prior of Germany.
X. Upper and Central Italy.--There was no town of any importance in this
part of the Italian peninsula in which the Templars had not a house. The
principal was that on the Aventine Hill at Rome, in which the
great-prior resided. Its church still remains, and is called _Il
Priorato_, or the Priory.
XI. Apulia and Sicily.--The possessions of the Templars in Sicily were
very considerable. They had houses and lands at Syracuse, Palermo,
Trapani, Butera, Lentini, &c.; all of which were dependent on the
principal house, which was in Messina. The great-prior resided either at
Messina or at Benevento in Apulia. Possibly the seat was removed to this
last place, after the Emperor Frederic II. had seized so much of the
property of the order in Sicily.
In Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the order had no possessions whatever.
Though the people of these countries took some share in the crusades,
and were, therefore, not deficient in religious zeal, their poor and
little-known lands offered no strong inducements to the avarice or
ambition of the knights of the Temple, and they never sought a
settlement in them.
We thus see that, with the exception of the northern kingdoms, there was
no part of Europe in which the order of the Temple was not established.
Everywhere they had churches, chapels, tithes, farms, villages, mills,
rights of pasturage, of fishing, of venery, and of wood. They had also,
in many places, the right of holding annual fairs, which were managed,
and the tolls received, either by some of the brethren of the nearest
houses or by their _donates_ and servants. The number of their
preceptories is, by the most moderate computation, rated at 9,000; and
the annual income of the order at about six millions sterling--an
enormous sum for those times! Masters of such a revenue, descended from
the noblest houses of Christendom, uniting in their persons the most
esteemed secular and religious characters, regarded as the chosen
champions of Christ, and the flower of Christian knights, it was not
possible for the Templars, in such lax times as the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, to escape falling into the vices of extravagant
luxury and overweening pride. Nor are we to wonder at their becoming
objects of jealousy and aversion to both the clergy and the laity, and
exciting the fears and the cupidity of an avaricious and faithless
prince.