Knights Templars

Knights Templars , in medieval history, members of the military and religious order of the Poor Knights of Christ, called the Knights of the Temple of Solomon from their house in Jerusalem.

Origins

Like the Knights Hospitalers and the Teutonic Knights , the Templars were formed during the Crusades . They originally had a purely military function. Founded when Hugh de Payens and eight other knights joined together c.1118 to protect pilgrims, the order grew rapidly. St. Bernard of Clairvaux drew up its rules, and it was recognized at the Council of Troyes (1128) and confirmed by Pope Honorius III .

Rise to Power

The Templars received gifts of estates and money, and the organization soon became one of the most powerful in Europe. By combining monastic privilege with chivalrous adventure, they attracted many nobles. The order, organized under a grand master and general council, had its headquarters at Jerusalem. It was directly responsible only to the pope and thus was free from the control of the secular crusading leaders. As Crusaders the knights were important both in fighting the Muslims (notably at Gaza in 1244 and later at Damietta, during the Fifth Crusade) and in the internal struggles of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (see Jerusalem, Latin Kingdom of ). Although the Knights of the White Cross (the Hospitalers) were at first probably larger and richer, the Templars, who wore the red cross on a white ground, were greater warriors. In the later crusades the deadly rivalry of the three orders helped weaken the Crusaders' chances of success.

When Jerusalem fell to the Muslims (1187), the Templars operated from Acre; after its fall (1291) the order retreated to Cyprus. By that time the Templars had ceased to be primarily a fighting organization and had become the leading money handlers of Europe. From the beginning the knights aroused opposition because of their special privileges, their freedom from secular control, and their great military and financial strength. As their banking role increased—they served such kings as Henry II of England and Louis IX of France—and their landholdings grew, they aroused the hostility, fear, and jealousy of secular rulers and of the secular clergy as well.

Persecution and Destruction of the Templars

When the Crusades failed, the Hospitalers became a naval patrol in the East, but the Templars grew more worldly, more decadent, and more hated. In 1307, Philip IV of France, who needed money for his Flemish war and was unable to obtain it elsewhere, began a persecution of the Templars. With the aid of Pope Clement V, the king had members of the order arrested and their possessions confiscated. By 1308 the persecutions were in full process. The knights were put on trial and were tortured to extract confessions of sacrilegious practices. The pope at first opposed the trials but soon reversed his position, and at the Council of Vienne (1311-12) he dissolved the order by papal bull.

The Templars were completely destroyed by 1314. Much of their property, theoretically designated for the Hospitalers, was acquired by secular rulers. The leaders of the order, including the last grand master, Jacques de Molay, were tried by ecclesiastic judges and sentenced to life imprisonment, but after denouncing their confessions they were burned at the stake (1314) as lapsed heretics by civil authorities. It is impossible to evaluate fairly the Templars and their fate; the injustices of their final treatment have led some to consider them blameless, yet the charges against them were not entirely unfounded.

Bibliography

The literature on the Templars is vast. A defense of the order is C. G. Addison, The History of the Knights Templars (rev. ed. 1912). See also the studies by E. Simon (1959) and T. W. Parker (1963).

Knights Templars, created to protect pilgrims to Palestine and combining a military function with life according to a religious rule, were present in Ireland before 1180, when they were granted the vill of Clontarf by Henry II. This became the chief house or preceptory of the order in Ireland and five other preceptories were established by 1200. The Templars' lifestyle was modelled on that of the Cistercians and the preceptories were religious houses in which novices were received and instructed and to which older members could retire. Nine other smaller houses (cameras) were established in the late 12th and 13th centuries. All the foundations were in areas controlled by the Anglo‐Normans and their role in Ireland was to protect the colony from the attacks of the native population, though some Templars from Ireland fought in the Holy Land. The native Irish were initially excluded from membership but this ban was later lifted.

In 1307–8, as part of the wider campaign against them, the Templars in Ireland were imprisoned and in 1310 fifteen of them were brought to trial in Dublin. In 1311 three preceptories assigned to accommodate members of the order; the rest of their property, in accordance with the decisions of Clement V and the Council of Vienne, passed to the Knights Hospitallers after 1312.

Colmán N. Ó Clabaigh

Knights Templar Military religious order established in 1118, with headquarters in the supposed Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. With the Knights Hospitallers, the Templars protected routes to Jerusalem for Christians during the Crusades. The possessions of the Templars in France attracted the envious attention of King Philip IV, who urged Pope Clement V to abolish the order in 1312.