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Templar orderīs history |
The
Begining
The templar Order was founded in Jerusalem, after the First Crusade by nine knights, (Hugo of Payns, Godfried of Saint-Omer, Archambaud of Saint-Aignan, Payen of Montdidier, Geoffrey Bissot and Roland among others). The original idea belonged to Hugo of Payns.
The first name that the Order would have was "The Poor Knights of Christ". Poverty and chastity votes were taken and loyalty to the Pope was sworn. At their dawn, no distinctive habits were used. Their first Headquarter was a former mosque known as Solomonīs Temple; there, their name was changed to "The Poor Knights of Christ and Solomonīs Temple" from that moment the name was continously dropped down to "The Templars".
From their very begining the order enjoyed economical benefits, but had no legal acceptation from the church. Hugo of Payns was elected as the first Grand Master, he lead te order from the middle east to Europe enrolling many knights, even kings. Through his journey he obtainined many donations for the Order from the new members. During his travels he continously longed for the church approval of the order, using the new members influences to achieve this.
When the order was finally
approved by the Pope Honorious II, after the pre-approval of the Troyes council, a
strict conduct code was established and loyalty to only the Pope was
re-affirmed.
Life:
The order obtained great power, not only military, in Europe as in Outremer (as the latins called the reigns outside Europe), to the point of functioning as a large bank that loaned money to the kings.
Piers Paul Read, compares the order to what we would actually see as a large international corporation. This great economical power became target of great criticism, born mainly from greed itself.
At the same time that the Templar Order was born, the Saint John Hospital Order was founded, although it didnīt have a military begining, it ended up functioning as such. Many things were said about the joining and fighting of these two orders during the years, but as history proved, they had many collaborating moments and solely a few confrontations. At the end, they were to have different destinies...read on...
Many stories tell about the performance of military orders in Outremer. Beyond the dark cricticisms found in some tales, these orders played a key part in the battles for the Holy Land. The Templars were feared and recognized by their enemies.
As the Romans did years before, the Templars learned from their enemies and took their knowledge as own. Many of the military, as well as medical, art and ciences advances taken to Europe at that time by the templars really belonged to their defeated counterparts.
An example of the respect imposed by the templar is the following:
Many crusaders were taken prisioners during the battles, they ussualy were retrieved by ransom means, in the case of the Templar Knights they were inmediatly killed due to their excelling battle skills, as they were a threat not be faced again.
Another example to enlighten this is that of the influence on the order known as the "Murderers of the Islam" this order was dedicated to murdering leaders, but they never attemped to kill a Templar Grand Master, the reason(in the words of the murderers): "there is no point in doing that, another (as good or better) Templar Knight would take the place inmediatly".
It is odd that an order conceibed for the battle ground, where it excelled as no other, was to be brought down by a different enemy...
The many riches of the
Templars, the fact that they only responded to the Pope (which in many cases was thousands
of miles away from their location), added to fact
But this force was tolerated due to the fact that many nobles were aligned with their forces so as the Pope was, and, of course, they were the defenders of the Holy Ground.
The
Fall:
Once the european
possessions in the Middle East were lost (a historical milestone is the fall of Acre in
the hands of the Islam, May 18 1291), everything starts to change fast; the military
orders are blamed for the loss, and they do not find it easy to fit in the courts
life outside Outremer.
King Philippe IV is crowned in France with the desire to build a state closer to our actual notion of the word, meaning, a marked territory with a civilian authority above any religious power where everyone submits to a sole power...the king.
The military Orders had no place in this project.
During 1307 many allegations were thrown at the Order, sodomy (horrible crime at that time) and Satanic worshipping (the WORST crime of moment).
Philippe IV can be found behind these accusations and even though at first Pope Clement V stood up for the order, after the first confession of James of Moley (last Grand Master of the Order) and other templar leaders he decided to change his position and join the attack. A big influence on the Pope was the fear of losing the Templar loot in case the order fell (in other words, if the order fell, the loot would be split between the accusers).
The confessions were obtained by means of torture, many of the knights preferred to die at the bonfire than to confess a lie. Once the trial started the members of the order were hunted down throughout all Europe, having -when found- to confess or suffer the different tortures provided by the inquisition. In case they confessed they would be sending their leaders to their death.
After "confessing" the crimes, only mercy could be begged for, in order to stay alive, if that was not the path chosen, the end of the road was the bonfire for being a non-beleiving heretic.
The minor members that confessed the crimes, accusing the Order leaders, were left alive and joined other Orders (mainly the Order of Calatrava). Only a few resisted and died in battle (mainly in Spain). Most of the minor members did not confess and were put in prision during the trial, after that they were released, as others they joined other Orders.
The leaders were all terminated.
Finally the Order was abolished by Papal Bull by Clement V in 1312 (only 21 years after the fall of Acre), and their possessions were split between the kingdoms where the riches were situated, the Pope and other Orders (mainly the Hospitals and the Calatrava Order)
Final
Thoughts:
Why did they not endure
longer?
· They could not adapt themselves well to the life in Europe, proof of this is that they did not have good lawyers in their lines, as the Hospitals did.
· Most of the young knights that could stand up for the Order were in Chipre, being the first to be caught the elder ones or the administrative personnel.
· The lack of ability of James of Moley to handle the situation.
· The power embedded by Philppe IV and the Pope was such that many of the Templar friends chose not to defend them (such as the Hospitals) in fear of suffering the same consequences.
· After the fall of Acre, the Order had lost much of their prestige.
Is there truth behind the
accusations?:
· As far as sodomy is concerned, little or nothing could have happened between knights but it was not an established practice as stated by the accusations.
· It as almost certain that the Satan worshipping or lack of respect for the Cross accusation is fake, as a scam it was used to invoke the inquisition to take matters into their hands as a repressive force.
·
Last but not least. The
true sin commited by Templars was their excessive pride and arrogance, which added to the
fact of having enormous riches under their wings, triggered the hate in the figures of
power of the time. Lacking the support of their only protector, the church that is, they
bacame an easy target to bring down.
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