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 crossbow, 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 Coeur 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 Coeur 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.