A brief history of the Templar Order. History and ethnology

One of the first and most famous among them was the Order of the Templars (literally - “ knights of the temple"), founded in 1119 by the French knight Hugh de Payens and taking its name from the original home of its first members in Jerusalem - a castle built on the ruins Solomon's Temple(le temple). The beginning of this order was modest and poor; it consisted of only 9 knights. Their vows and duties were the same as those of the knights - Johannites: poverty, chastity, obedience to papal authority, protection of pilgrims and the fight against infidels. Distinctive clothing was a white caftan and a cloak with large red crosses. Soon the glory of their courage and virtue spread very widely and attracted many nobles and brave warriors to the order.

Subsequently, the Templar Order had three classes of members: serving brothers took care of sick and wounded pilgrims, priests performed divine services, encouraged soldiers in battles with infidels; knights, wearing armor over their order clothes, fought with infidels and saw off pilgrims. The head of the Templars bore (like the Johannites) the title of grandmaster (grand master); he ruled the affairs of his order and was its commander-in-chief. Initially, the Templars were poor, so the founders of their community, Hugh Payen and Godefroy Saint-Omer, had only one war horse, and in memory of this, the seal of the order had an image of two knights sitting on one horse. (Another explanation for this image says that it was a symbol of the Templars' fraternal loyalty to each other). But soon their order received many donations and became the owner of huge estates. Count Fulk of Anjou, on his first trip to Palestine, fought with the Templars, gave them thirty pounds of silver every year. He subsequently married the daughter of Baldwin II, Melisende, and became king of jerusalem. The Order continued to enjoy his favor. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was the patron saint of the Templars in Europe and wrote eloquent praise of their virtues, holding up their simplicity of life, pure morality and strict military discipline as an example to be emulated by the pampered and luxury-loving knights of Europe. According to Bernard, the Templars despised dress and all earthly vanity, combined monastic meekness with knightly courage, competed with each other in the exact fulfillment of their vows and all knightly virtues; God chose them from among the bravest knights to faithfully guard the Holy Sepulcher.

At the Council of Troyes, where Bernard was also present, Pope Honorius approved the Templar charter. The Council supplemented it with rules taken from Benedictine charter and on January 31, 1128 approved Hugues Payen to the rank of grandmaster. The battle cry of the Templars was Beauséant!(“Perfectly seated” rider on a horse. Perhaps this had to do with the image of the horse on the seal of the order). The Templars perfectly corresponded to the ideal of chivalry of that time. Their order enjoyed the great favor of sovereigns and nobles, received extensive possessions and rich incomes in all Christian countries of the West; Order houses with churches were built everywhere. The number of Templars increased rapidly; often the grandmaster led three hundred knights to war. They had armed ministers; they had many different artisans: masons, gunsmiths, grain makers, tailors. The power, wealth and possessions of the Templars increased continuously; they were considered the surest stronghold of the rule of Western Christians in the East and the most terrible enemies of Muslims. In battles with them, the temple knights always formed the front line. Their brave courage and the death of almost all the knights on the field of honor acquired the order general respect and special favor of the popes, who generously bestowed the order with privileges and honors.

Seal of the Templar Order

The role of the Templars in the Crusades

The first successors of Payen (he died in 1138) in the rank of grandmaster followed his example, did not go into too ambitious plans, but tried with all their might to preserve unity, morality and that exemplary military severity in the order, which distinguished the Templars until the end of their existence. In the Second Crusade, launched in 1147, the Knights of the Temple were the staunchest allies Emperor ConradII, especially during an unfortunate expedition to Damascus. In 1151, they liberated Jerusalem, overturning the troops of Nureddin who had already broken into the city, and then distinguished themselves in almost all the battles with the Saracens. But the increase in treasures and power does not quench, but increases the thirst for gold and conquests. This happened with the knights of the temple, and their greed subsequently began to harm the cause of Christians in Palestine as much as their courage and organization brought benefits. When in 1154 the crusaders besieged Ascalon, the grand master of the Templars Bernard de Tremele, wanting to appropriate to the order the wealth stored in the city, which, according to the then custom, belonged to the one who first entered the city on an attack, burst into Ascalon with the knights, but after miracles of courage , was killed with all his comrades. Under Grandmaster Bernard de Blancfort, the Templars, having captured the Sultan's son Nasreddin, who had fled from Egypt, treacherously took away his harem and treasures, and then handed him over to the Egyptians for 60 thousand guilders of gold. Under Grand Master Aude de Saint-Amand (1178), the order disgraced itself with treacherous murder assassins ambassadors by the knight Walter Dumesnil and the failure to hand over the criminal to the Old Man of the Mountain. These and other similar actions gave rise to the crusaders' disgust for the Templars, but did not discredit them in the eyes of the popes, who did not cease to shower them with favors. Dad Alexander III by a bull promulgated in 1162, he even freed the order from subordination to all secular authorities and the Patriarch of Jerusalem and granted only the Roman high priests the right of judgment over them. This bull completely changed the position of the Templars. Their grandmasters began to consider themselves equal to the ruling princes, acted autocratically and unaccountably, and the knights more and more indulged in selfishness and vices; They resembled the virtuous brothers of the founder of the order, Payen, only in their courage and military discipline.

In 1156 and 1164, the crusaders suffered severe defeats from the Mohammedans at Paneas and Goren, in which many knights of the temple fell; but this and other losses were easily replenished by numerous newcomers and experienced warriors who gathered in commanders and other estates belonging to the order in all parts of Europe. What caused him more harm was mutual envy with the Knights of St. John, which repeatedly brought both parties to an obvious break and was stopped with difficulty by the pope in 1187. In 1187 Saladin invaded Palestine with a large army and defeated the Christians in a bloody battle at Belfort, near Sidon. The brave grandmaster Aude de Saint-Amand, defending himself with his knights to the last extremity, was captured and died in prison in Damascus; His knights, who, according to the laws of the order, did not dare to offer more than a knife and a belt to the winners for their ransom, were executed. This event greatly shook the power of the Templars. Their new grandmaster Gerard de Ridefort, who prompted the weak King of Jerusalem Guido Lusignan to war with Saladin, was defeated with him and captured at hittin(1187). They received freedom for the cession of Ascalon and, with the help of Western pilgrims, besieged Acre. Saladin hastened to help the city, was at first overthrown, but the sally of the Acre garrison decided the matter in his favor, and Grandmaster Ridefort fell on the spot of the battle.

Armament and emblem of the spiritual knightly order of the Templars

In 1189, the three strongest monarchs in Europe: Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, King of France Philip August and the English Richard the Lionheart, set off on the Third Crusade to save Jerusalem taken by Saladin. But Barbarossa died on the road, and disputes between the other two kings prevented the crusaders from achieving important successes: they limited themselves to capture of Acre. At the end of the campaign, the Grand Master of the Templars, Robert Sabloil, bought from Richard the island of Cyprus, which he had conquered on his return journey, but ceded it to the former King of Jerusalem Guido Lusignan and moved to Acre, and from there to a strongly fortified castle on the seashore, near Caesarea, which received the name Pilgrim's Castle. Here the knights remained inactive for a long time, but they increased their influence and possessions on the island of Cyprus and in Western Europe, where from 1209 to 1212 they fought with exemplary courage against the Arabs in Spain. In 1218, Grandmaster William de Chartres took an active part in the glorious but useless siege of Damietta, which, soon after its conquest, was again abandoned by the crusaders. Meanwhile, the Saracens conquered almost all of defenseless Palestine. The knights of the temple, foreseeing the imminent and complete fall of the local Christian rule, tried to reward themselves by acquiring lands and wealth in Europe, and succeeded in this to such an extent that in the middle of the 13th century they already owned 9,000 commanders, castles and other estates there.

In 1228, fortune seemed to smile on the crusaders again: Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen marched into Palestine and took possession of Jerusalem. But the envious policy of the popes and the machinations of the spiritual knightly orders armed with it, and especially the Templars, stopped the victorious march of Frederick. He was forced to return to Europe to defend his own possessions, punished the Templars by taking away their estates in Southern Italy, but could not retain Palestine. In 1237, the Templars suffered a significant defeat there at the castle of Gvascume. Then new quarrels and fights began with the Johannite knights and ended only in 1244 with a thunderstorm that arose against the Eastern Christians from the Turkish Karaismin tribe. Jerusalem was again conquered by the Saracens, and the army of the united crusaders was defeated in the disastrous battle of Gaza, in which the Grand Master of the Templars, Herman de Périgord, fell with 300 knights. The Order soon recovered from this defeat, and when the French king Saint Louis opened a new Crusade in 1249 with the siege of Damietta, Grandmaster William de Sonnac reinforced it with a large army. This campaign, after brief successes, ended with the complete defeat of the crusaders at Mansur, the death of the grandmaster and the capture of King Louis with the remnants of his army. He received freedom only for handing over his treasures and conquests.

The possessions of Western Christians in Palestine were now limited to Acre and several fortified points on the seashore. It was impossible to even think about offensive actions against the Saracens. Even the Templars stopped them and entered into negotiations with their opponents. Strange, still insufficiently explained, their actions against other co-religionists, relations with assassins and Saracen emirs and secret intrigues aroused many rumors unfavorable for them, which were suppressed only by the strong patronage of the popes. Once again the Templars showed unparalleled courage in the defense of Acre , or Ptolemais, which cost the life of their grandmaster, William de Beaujeu, and almost all the knights in the city (1291). After the city was captured by the Turks, the few surviving Templars moved their residence to Cyprus, where in 1297 the last grand master of the order, Jacques Molay, was elected. In 1300, he once again, but in vain, tried to take possession of the coast of Syria by arming a strong fleet, but then was forced to turn all his attention to protecting the order from persecution by the Christian powers.

Western European rulers had long been jealous of the power and wealth of the knights of the temple. When, with the loss of Palestine, the real purpose of their founding collapsed, and the order began to appear only as a dangerous militia in the hands of ambitious popes, then open persecution of secular princes began against it. At their head was Philip IV the Fair, king of France, implacable enemy of the Templars. Rumors harmful to the order spread from all sides about mysterious rituals introduced when accepting new members into the order, and supposedly tending to contempt and desecration of the Christian faith, about the vicious life of the Templars, their pride and self-will. The people murmured and demanded punishment for the heretics; even the popes, seeing the inevitable death of the order, abandoned its protection. Dad Clement V- a blind game in the hands of Philip IV - ordered the betrayal of the order inquisitorial court, presided over by the royal confessor, the Archbishop of Sens. On October 13, 1307, all the knights of the temple living in France were thrown into prison.

Record of the interrogation of 30 Templars conducted by William of Paris (Inquisitor of France) and two royal commissioners

It is difficult to judge the degree of guilt or innocence of the Templars, the justice of accusing them of worship Baphomet(satanic head), in secret Mohammedanism, hidden orgies, etc., for the most careful researchers of the history of the order contradict each other on this. What is certain is that the true reason for the extermination of the Templars was not their anti-Christian beliefs and vicious life, but their treasures and vast possessions, and that the proceedings against them were carried out with disgusting partiality and inhumanity. Knights and elders were subjected to cruel torture according to the testimony of scoundrels expelled from the order; consciousnesses torn out by torment or long-term imprisonment were taken as clear evidence of guilt, and after the solemn destruction of the order by the pope at the Council of Vienne, all its members who did not recognize themselves as criminals were condemned to death. On March 19, 1314, the virtuous and glorious grand master of the Templars, Jacques Molay, who throughout his reign tried in vain to restore morality and order in the order, together with his most important assistants, ended his life at the stake, calling before his death his persecutors, Philip IV and Clement V, to the judgment of God. who actually died that year. The estates and treasures of the knights were seized into the French treasury, and some were transferred to other orders.

In a similar, but less cruel and violent manner, the Order of the Templars was destroyed in other European states. They say that he continued to exist in secret for a long time, but there is no reliable information about this.

Although the main purpose of its establishment was the military defense of the states created by the crusaders in the East. However, in 1291, Christian settlers were expelled from Palestine by Muslims, and the Templars, in order to preserve the order, switched almost entirely to usury and trade, accumulating significant material wealth, and thereby causing the envy of kings and the pope. In 1307-1314. members of the order were subjected to arrests and cruel persecution by the Roman Catholic Church, major feudal lords and kings, as a result of which the order was abolished and dissolved.

History of the order

Origin of the Order

Ala-Aksa Mosque, south-eastern part of the temple mount. This place was the headquarters of the Templars.

In the years following the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, many of the participants in the First Crusade returned to the West or died, and the new Crusader states they created in the East did not have enough troops and skilled commanders capable of properly defending the borders of the new states. As a result, pilgrims who came to pay homage to the Palestinian shrines every year were often attacked by robbers or Muslims, and the crusaders were unable to provide them with proper protection. Around 1119, the French nobleman Hugh de Payns gathered eight of his knightly relatives, including Godefroy de Saint-Omer, and established an order with the goal of protecting pilgrims on their pilgrimages to holy places in the Middle East. They called their order "Beggar Knights". Few people knew about the activities of the order, as well as about the order in general, until the Council of Troyes in 1128, at which the order was officially recognized, and Archbishop Bernard of Clairvaux was instructed to develop its Charter, which would summarize the basic laws of the order. The medieval historian William, Archbishop of Tire, Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the greatest historians in the Middle Ages, documents the process of creating the order in his work:

“In the same year several noble knights, men of true believers and God-fearing, expressed a desire to live in severity and obedience, to forever renounce their possessions and, surrendering themselves into the hands of the supreme ruler of the church, to become members of the monastic order. Among them, the first and most famous were Hugh de Payns and God Frou de Saint-Omer. Since the brotherhood did not yet have their own temple or home, the king provided them with temporary refuge in his palace, built on the southern slope of the Temple Mount. The canons of the temple that stood there, under certain conditions, ceded part of the walled courtyard for the needs of the new order. Moreover, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, his entourage and the patriarch with his prelates immediately provided support for the order by allocating to it some of their land holdings - some for life, others for temporary use - thanks to which members of the order could receive a livelihood. First of all, they were ordered, in atonement for their sins and under the leadership of the patriarch, to “protect and protect pilgrims going to Jerusalem from attacks by thieves and bandits and take every possible care for their safety.”

Map of Jerusalem showing the location of the order's headquarters

At the very beginning of its activity, the order was ordered only to protect pilgrims, and the first knights of the order formed something like a brotherhood of the laity. The order constituted a group of knights in the service of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, allocated a place for headquarters on the southeastern wing of the Jerusalem temple, in the Ala Aqsa mosque. And Bernard of Clairvaux, who developed the Decree of the Order of the Knights of the Temple, became the patron of the order.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, patron of the order

The Templars who were present at the Council of Troyes launched an active and successful recruitment campaign in France and England for the order, for which most of them, following the example of Godefroy de Saint-Omer, went home. Hugh de Payns visited Champagne, Anjou, Normandy and Flanders, as well as England and Scotland. In addition to many neophytes, the order received generous donations in the form of land holdings, which provided it with a strong economic position in the West, especially in France, and confirmed its original “national” affiliation - the order was considered French. However, very soon the idea of ​​joining this spiritual-knightly order also captured Languedoc and the Iberian Peninsula, where the proximity of hostile Muslims forced the local population to pin their hopes for protection on the crusaders. Each nobleman who joined the order took a vow of poverty, and his property was considered the property of the entire order. On March 29, 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a bull, which he called Omne Datum Optimum, which stated that any Templar could freely cross any border, was exempt from taxes, and did not obey anyone except the Pope himself.

Further development of the order

Decline of the order and its dissolution

Jacques de Molay

In the early morning of October 13, 1307, members of the order living in France were arrested by officials of King Philip IV. The arrests were made in the name of the Holy Inquisition, and the possessions of the Templars became the property of the king. Members of the order were accused of the gravest heresy - of renouncing Jesus Christ, spitting on the crucifix, kissing each other indecently and having a penchant for homosexuality, and also worshiping idols in their secret meetings, etc. In October and November, the arrested Templars, including including Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order, and Hugo de Peyraud, Examiner General, almost simultaneously admitted their guilt. Many prisoners were subjected to torture. De Molay then publicly repeated his confession before a meeting of theologians at the University of Paris. For his part, King Philip IV wrote to other monarchs of Christendom with an urgent request to follow his example and make arrests of the Templars in their dominions. Pope Clement V initially perceived these arrests as a direct attack on his authority. However, he was forced to come to terms with the current state of affairs and, instead of resisting, tried to take responsibility for what happened. On November 22, 1307, he issued the bull "Pastoralis praeeminentiae", in which he ordered all monarchs of the Christian world to arrest the Templars and confiscate their lands and property. This bull marked the beginning of trials in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and Cyprus. Two cardinals were sent to Paris to personally interrogate the leaders of the order. However, in the presence of the Pope's representatives, de Molay and de Peyraud retracted their confessions and urgently asked the rest of the Templars to do the same. At the beginning of 1308, the pope suspended the inquisition processes. Philip IV and his people tried in vain for six months to influence the pope, encouraging him to start the investigation again. The culmination of the negotiations was a meeting between the king and the pope in Poitiers in May-June 1308, during which, after much debate, the pope finally agreed to open two judicial investigations: one was to be carried out by a papal commission within the order itself, the second - to be a series of trials at the level bishoprics, where local courts had to determine the guilt or innocence of a particular member of the order. For October 1310 The Council of Vienna was scheduled, which was to make a final decision on the Templar case. Episcopal investigations, which were carried out under the control and pressure of the bishops themselves, closely connected with the French throne, began as early as 1309. , and, as it turned out, in most cases the Templars repeated their original confessions after severe and prolonged torture. The papal commission, which investigated the activities of the order as a whole, began hearing the case only in November 1309. The Templar brothers, in the face of the papal commission, inspired by two talented priests - Pierre de Bologna and Renaud de Provins - began to consistently defend their order and their dignity.

By the beginning of May 1310. Almost six hundred Templars came to the decision to defend the order, completely denying the truth of the confessions wrested from them at the beginning of the investigation, made either before the inquisitors in 1307 or before the bishops in 1309. Pope Clement V postponed the Council for a year, until 1311. Archbishop of Sansa , the king's protege, having again begun an investigation into the case of individual members of the order within his diocese, found that forty-four people were guilty of having relapsed into heresy, and transferred them to the secular court (which carried out the sentences of ecclesiastical courts). April 12, 1310 Fifty-four Templars were sentenced to be burned at the stake and executed on the outskirts of Paris. One of the two main inspirers of the order's defense in court, Pierre de Bologna disappeared somewhere, and Renaud de Provins was sentenced to life imprisonment by the provincial council of Sané. Thanks to these executions, the Templars returned to their original testimony. The hearings of the papal commission also ended only in June 1311.

In the summer of 1311, the pope combined the testimony he received from France with investigative materials coming from other countries. But it was only in France and in those areas that were under its domination or influence that the Templars actually obtained a confession of guilt. In October, the Council of Vienna finally took place, and the pope urgently demanded the dissolution of the order on the grounds that the Templars had so dishonored themselves that the order could no longer exist in its previous form. The resistance of the holy fathers during the Council was, however, very significant, and the pope, under pressure from the king of France, insisted on his own, forcing the audience to remain silent under pain of excommunication. The bull "Vox in excelso" of May 22, 1312 marked the dissolution of the order, and according to the bull "Ad providam" of May 2, all the property of the order was transferred free of charge to another large order - the Hospitallers. Soon after, Philip IV seized a large sum of money from the Hospitallers as legal compensation.

Two Templars are burned at the stake.

Various Templars were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, including life, in those cases where the brothers never admitted their guilt, they were imprisoned in monasteries, where they eked out a miserable existence for the rest of their lives. Their leaders apparently appeared before the papal court on March 18, 1314, and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Hugh de Peyraud, Examiner General of the Order, and Geoffroy de Gonneville, Prior of Aquitaine, heard their verdict in silence, but Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Prior of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnay loudly protested, denying all charges, and asserted that their holy order was still pure before God and people. The king immediately demanded their condemnation as having fallen into heresy a second time, and that same evening they were burned on one of the alluvial islands of the Seine, the so-called Jewish Island.

Connection with Solomon's Temple

One of the variants of the cross used by the Templar Order

Since they had neither a church nor a permanent refuge, the king gave them temporary residence in the southern wing of the palace, near the Temple of the Lord.""Temple of the Lord" - refers to the Second Temple of Jerusalem, built by Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans in the 70s AD. During the existence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Temple of the Lord was called the so-called "Dome of the Rock", aka - The Golden Dome or, in Arabic, Qubbat al-Sakhra. The Al-Aqsa Mosque ("The Ultimate") was called Templum Solomonis - Temple of Solomon... They - and also, later, the palace of the King of Jerusalem, were built on the territory of the Temple Mount - there where the Temple of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans, stood. The main residence of the Templars was located in the southern wing of the palace. On medieval plans and maps depicting Jerusalem, until the 16th century, the Temple Mount bears the name Solomon's Temple. For example, on the plan of Jerusalem from 1200, one can clearly read " Temple Solomonis". Hence the name of the order itself. In documents of 1124-25, the Templars are called simply - " Knights of Solomon's Temple" or " Knights of the Jerusalem Temple».

“The real Temple is the Temple in which they live together, not as majestic, it is true, as the ancient and famous Temple of Solomon, but no less famous. For all the greatness of Solomon's Temple lay in mortal things, in gold and silver, in carved stone and in many varieties of wood; but the beauty of the present Temple lies in the devotion of its members to the Lord and their exemplary life. This one was admired for his external beauties, this one is revered because of his virtues and holy deeds, and thus the holiness of the house of the Lord is established, for the smoothness of marble is not as pleasing to Him as righteous behavior, and He cares more about the purity of minds, and not about the gilding of the walls ."

“Their premises are located in the Temple of Jerusalem itself, not as huge as Solomon’s ancient masterpiece, but no less glorious. Truly, all the splendor of the First Temple consisted in mortal gold and silver, in polished stones and costly woods, while the charm and sweet, lovely adornment of the present is the religious zeal of those who occupy it and their disciplined behavior. In the former one could contemplate all kinds of beautiful colors, while in the latter one could revere all kinds of virtues and good deeds. Truly, holiness is a fitting adornment for the house of God. There you can enjoy magnificent virtues, and not shiny marble, and be captivated by pure hearts, and not gilded panels.
Of course, the facade of this temple is decorated, but not with stones, but with weapons, and instead of ancient golden crowns, its walls are hung with shields. Instead of candlesticks, censers and jugs, this house is furnished with saddles, harnesses and spears.”

“In 1118, in the East, the Crusader knights - among them were Geoffrey de Saint-Omer and Hugo de Payens - devoted themselves to religion, making a vow to the Patriarch of Constantinople, whose see had always been secretly or openly hostile to the Vatican since the time of Photius. The openly avowed purpose of the Templars was to protect Christian pilgrims in holy places; the secret intention is to rebuild Solomon's Temple according to the model indicated by Ezekiel. Such a restoration, predicted by the Jewish mystics of the first centuries of Christianity, was the secret dream of the Eastern Patriarchs. Restored and dedicated to the Ecumenical Cult, Solomon's Temple was to become the capital of the world. The East was to prevail over the West and the Patriarchate of Constantinople was to prevail over the Papacy. To explain the name Templars (Templars), historians say that Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, gave them a house in the vicinity of Solomon's Temple. But here they fall into a serious anachronism, because during this period not only was not a single stone left even from the Second Temple of Zerubbabel, but it was also difficult to determine the place where these temples stood. It should be considered that the house given to the Templars by Baldwin was not located in the vicinity of Solomon's Temple, but on the spot where these secret armed missionaries of the Eastern Patriarch intended to restore it.
The Templars considered their biblical model for the masons Zerubbabel, who worked with a sword in one hand and a mason's shovel in the other. Since the sword and trowel were their signs in the subsequent period, they declared themselves the Masonic Brotherhood, that is, the Brotherhood of Masons."

Activities during the era of the Crusades

Seal of the Knights Templar. The two horsemen symbolize the vow of poverty or the duality of monk and soldier

According to one version, over the next nine years, nine knights do not accept a single new member into their society. But it should be noted that there are facts that allow us to either doubt the creation of the Order in 1119, or its nine-year isolation. It is known that in 1120 Fulk of Anjou, father of Geoffrey Plantagenet, was admitted to the Order, and in 1124 the Count of Champagne. By 1126, two more people had been accepted.

Financial activities

One of the main activities of the Order was finance. But what were they like at that time? According to Marc Block, "there was little circulation of money." They were not real coins, but transferable, counting coins. “Only at the very end of the 13th century did French legalists begin to distinguish with difficulty between its (coin’s) actual value (weight in gold) and its natural value, that is, its transformation into a monetary sign, an instrument of exchange,” wrote Jacques Le Goff. The value of the livre changed from 489.5 g of gold (Carolingian time) to 89.85 g in 1266 and to 72.76 g in 1318. The minting of gold coins resumed from the middle of the 13th century: florin 1252 g (3.537 g); ecu of Louis IX; Venetian ducat. In reality, according to J. Le Goff, silver was minted: the penny of Venice (1203), Florence (c. 1235), France (c. 1235). Monetary relations, therefore, are of a weighty nature - which makes them somewhat difficult. Attempts to assess any degree of wealth can lead to inadequate results. You can, for example, evaluate by the level of 1100 - when the livre fluctuated between 367-498 g, or by the level - livre 72.76 g. Thus, the author of any work can, using the data, get the result he needs - about the enormous amount of wealth of the Templars, for example.

It should be noted that due to the high risk, only certain individuals and congregations made money from financial transactions. Usury was usually practiced by Italians and Jews. Their competition came from abbeys, which usually gave money on the security of “land and fruits from it.” The purpose of the loan was usually a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the term was to return from there. The loan amount was equal to 2/3 of the collateral amount.

The Order of the Templars looked much more respectable in this field of financial activity. It had a special status - not only as a secular organization, but also as a spiritual one; consequently, attacks on the Order's premises were considered sacrilege. In addition, the Templars later received from the pope the right to engage in financial transactions, thanks to which they conducted their activities openly. Other congregations had to resort to all sorts of tricks (for example, giving money on interest to Jews).

It was the Templars who were the inventors of checks, and if the deposit amount was exhausted, it could be increased and subsequently replenished by relatives. Twice a year checks were sent to the release office for final calculations. Each check was accompanied by the depositor's fingerprint. The Order charged a small tax for transactions with checks. The presence of checks freed people from the need to transport precious metals (which played the role of money); now it was possible to go on a pilgrimage with a small piece of leather and receive a full coin from any Templar commuria. Thus, the monetary property of the owner of the check became inaccessible to robbers, whose number was quite large in the Middle Ages.

It was possible to take out a loan from the Order at 10% - for comparison: credit and loan offices and Jews gave loans at 40%. But since the time of the Crusades, the popes freed the crusaders from “Jewish debts”, but they gave them to the Templars in any case.

According to Steward, “The Templars' longest occupation, and their contribution to breaking the Church's monopoly on usury, was economics. No medieval institution did more to advance capitalism.”

The Order possessed huge land holdings: in the middle of the 13th century, about 9,000 manuaries; by 1307 there were about 10,500 manuari. In the Middle Ages, a manuarium was a plot of land measuring 100-200 hectares, the income from which made it possible to arm a knight. However, it should be noted that the land holdings of the Order of St. John were more than twice as large in territory as those of the Order of the Temple.

Gradually, the Templars became the largest creditors in Europe. Their debtors include everyone from peasants to kings and popes. Their banking business is so developed that Philip II Augustus entrusted the treasurer of the Order with the functions of minister of finance. “For 25 years the royal treasury was managed by the treasurer of the Order, Gaimar, then by Jean de Milly.” Under Louis IX the Saint, the royal treasury was located in the Temple. Under Louis's successor, it continued to remain there and almost merged with the Order's treasury. “The chief treasurer of the Order became the chief treasurer of France and concentrated the financial management of the country,” writes Lozinsky. Not only the French kings trusted the state treasury to the Templars; 100 years earlier, one of the keys to the Jerusalem treasury was kept by them.

The Order carried out active construction work. In the East, they mostly consisted of building castles and paving roads. In the West - roads, churches, cathedrals, castles. In Palestine, the Templars owned 18 important castles, for example, Tortosa, Feb, Toron, Castel Pelegrinum, Safet, Gastin and others.

In less than a hundred years, the Order built “80 cathedrals and 70 smaller temples” in Europe, says J. Maillet.

Separately, one should highlight such type of activity of the Templars as road construction. At that time, the lack of roads, the multiplicity of “customs barriers” - fees and duties levied by every small feudal lord at every bridge and compulsory passage point, not counting robbers and pirates, made it difficult to travel. In addition, the quality of these roads was, according to S.G. Lozinsky, extremely low. The Templars guarded their roads and built commuria at their intersections, where they could stop for the night. People were protected on the roads of the Order. An important detail: no customs duty was charged for travel on these roads - a phenomenon exclusive to the Middle Ages.

The Templars' charitable activities were significant. The charter ordered them to feed the poor in their homes three times a week. Besides the beggars in the courtyard, four people ate at the table. G. Lee writes that when, during the famine in Mostera, the price of a measure of wheat rose from 3 to 33 sous, the Templars fed 1000 people daily.

Akka fell and the orders moved their residences to Cyprus. Long before this event, the Templars, using their savings and extensive connections, became the largest bankers in Europe, so the military side of their activities faded into the background.

The influence of the Templars was especially great in Spain, France and England. The Order developed into a rigid hierarchical structure with a Grand Master at its head. They were distributed into four categories - knights, chaplains, squires and servants. It is estimated that at the time of its greatest power the order had about 20,000 members - knights and servants.

Thanks to a strong network of commanderies - in the 13th century there were five thousand of them, along with dependent castles and monasteries - covering almost the entirety of Europe and the Middle East, the Templars could provide, at low loan interest rates, not only the protection of the valuables entrusted to them, but also their transportation from one place to another. another, from the lender to the borrower or from the deceased pilgrim to his heirs.

The financial activities and exorbitant wealth of the order aroused the envy and enmity of the powers that be, especially the French king Philip IV the Fair, who feared the strengthening of the Templars and, experiencing a constant lack of money (he himself was a major debtor of the order), longed to take over their property. The special privileges of the order (jurisdiction only of the papal curia, exclusion from the jurisdiction of local feudal lords, exemption from paying church taxes, etc.) aroused hostility towards it from the church clergy.

Destruction of the Order

Secret negotiations between the King of France and the Pope

Using some random denunciation as a pretext, Philip ordered several Templars to be quietly interrogated and then began secret negotiations with Pope Clement V, insisting on an investigation into the state of affairs in the order. Fearing to aggravate relations with the king, the pope, after some hesitation, agreed to this, especially since the alarmed order did not dare to object to the investigation.

Then Philip IV decided that the time had come to strike. On September 22, 1307, the Royal Council decided to arrest all Templars located in France. For three weeks, preparations were made in the strictest secrecy for this operation, which was not at all easy for the then authorities. Royal officials, commanders of military detachments (as well as local inquisitors) did not know until the very last moment what they had to do: the orders were received in sealed packages, which could only be opened on Friday, October 13. The Templars were taken by surprise. There was no point in thinking about resistance.

The king pretended to act with the full consent of the pope. The same one learned about the masterful “police” action carried out by Philip only after it had happened. Those arrested were immediately charged with numerous crimes against religion and morality: blasphemy and renunciation of Christ, cult of the devil, dissolute life, various perversions.

The interrogation was conducted jointly by inquisitors and royal servants, and the most cruel tortures were used, and as a result, of course, the necessary testimony was obtained. Philip IV even assembled the Estates General in May 1308 to gain their support and thereby neutralize any objections from the pope. Formally, the dispute with Rome was about who should judge the Templars, but in essence - about who would inherit their wealth.

Accusations

1. Denial of Jesus Christ and spitting on the cross. Charles Heckerthorn sees here the theatricality of church rites characteristic of the Middle Ages, a parallel with the abdication of St. Peter. The Order thus accepted a person who rejected Christ and desecrated the Holy Crucifix - that is, who committed sacrilege. And from this apostate the Order made a qualitatively new Christian - a Knight of Christ and the Temple - thereby forever tying him to himself. Another option is offered by G. Lee. He says that renunciation was a test of the vow of obedience to elders, which was elevated to a cult in the Order. For example, when Jean d'Aumont, upon initiation into the Order, was ordered to spit on the cross, he spat, then went to confession to a Franciscan, who reassured him and, as atonement, ordered him to fast for three Fridays. Knight Pierre de Sherru, upon initiation, by order, uttered the phrase: “I renounce God,” to which the prior smiled disdainfully. Not everyone, however, easily agreed to renounce God and spit on the cross - many brothers later had to be reassured (like Ed de Bur), saying that it was a joke.
2. Kissing various parts of the body. Henry Lee suggests that this could either be a test of obedience, or the knight's mockery of his serving brother. Kisses were usually only required from employees.
3. Sodomy.
4. Blessing of a rope worn across the body around the idol. According to the testimony of one priest, the Templars obtained rope by any means, and if it broke, they even used woven reeds.
5. The priests of the Order did not consecrate the Holy Gifts during communion and distorted the formula of the Mass.

Here is a list of charges brought by the Inquisition against the Templars:

1. the knights worshiped a certain cat, who sometimes appeared to them at their meetings;
2. in every province they had idols, namely heads (some of them had three faces, and some only one) and human skulls;
3. they worshiped these idols, especially in their meetings;
4. they revered these idols as representatives of God and the Savior;
5. the Templars claimed that the head could save them and make them rich;
6. the idols gave all the wealth to the order;
7. idols made the earth bear fruit and the trees bloom;
8. they tied the heads of each of these idols or simply touched them with short ropes, which they then wore on their bodies under their shirts;
9. when a new member was accepted into the ranks of the order, he was given the above-mentioned short ropes (or one long one that could be cut);
10. everything they did was done out of reverence for these idols.

The trial: general and specific aspects of the conduct of the trial of the Templars in different countries

It should immediately be noted that the most brutal was the persecution of the Templars in France. It is through her example that historians usually consider the process. One gets the impression that it had a similar form - torture, prisons and fires - in other countries. This is not entirely true. The facts cited by G. Lee show that if torture was used almost everywhere except Cyprus, Castile, Portugal, Trier and Mainz, then they were usually imprisoned:

1. not suddenly, as in France;
2. they could take a word of honor and leave it in their castles - as in England and Cyprus;
3. They could not have been arrested at all, but summoned to trial. This was done in Trier, Mainz, Lombard and even in the Papal States. However, the Templars sometimes appeared themselves.

And, of course, the Templars were not burned at the stake everywhere. The following were burned:

• 54 Templars in the diocese of Sansk on April 12, 1310; 4 more Templars were later burned there;
• in April 1310, 9 Templars in Senlis;
• 3 Templars at Pont de L'Arc;
• Jacques de Molay (the last of the masters of the order) and Guillaume de Charnay, commander of Normandy - in 1314.

Other countries:

• in Lorraine many were burned, but note that Duke Thibault of Lorraine was a vassal of Philip IV the Fair;
• Templars from 4 monasteries in Marburg were burned;
• perhaps 48 Templars were burned in Italy, although Bishop Denis claimed that not a single Templar was burned in Italy.

Therefore, the statement about hundreds of bonfires throughout Europe is incorrect. In England and Spain, special royal orders were required for the use of torture against the Templars. Under English law, for example, torture was prohibited. The Church received permission from Edward of England to torture the Templars. This permission was called “church law.” In Aragon, the situation was better: the law also did not recognize torture, and the Cortes did not give permission to use it.

Poorly educated brothers of the Order, that is, serving brothers, were often used as witnesses in trials. G. Lee notes that in many places it was they who gave the most difficult and valuable testimony from the point of view of the Inquisition. The testimony of renegades of the Order was also used: the Florentine Roffi Dei and the Prior of Montfaucon; the latter, having been condemned by the Grand Master to life imprisonment for numerous crimes, fled and became the accuser of his former brothers.

In Germany, the measures applied to the Templars depended entirely on the attitude of local secular authorities towards them. Burchard III of Marburg did not like the Templars and burned knights from four monasteries - for which their relatives later caused him great trouble. The archbishops of Trier and Cologne in 1310 ceded their powers in relation to the Templars to Burchard III of Marburg for their lands. Archbishop Peter of Mainz incurred the displeasure of Clement V for acquitting the Templars. The Templars, in the eyes of the archbishop and local accusers, had undeniable evidence of their rightness: at the council convened on May 11, 1310, Commander Hugo Salm himself appeared and brought all twenty Templars; their cloaks were thrown into the fire and the crosses on them did not burn. This miracle greatly influenced public opinion, and they were acquitted. In the same Germany, St. John spoke in favor of the Templars, citing a case when, during a famine, when the price of bread increased from 3 sou to 33, the Templars from the monastery in Mostera fed 1000 people daily. The Templars were acquitted. Having learned about this outcome of the matter, Clement V ordered Burchard III of Marburg to take matters into his own hands - the result is known.

The persecution of the Templars in Aragon began in January 1308. Most of the Templars locked themselves in seven castles, some shaved their beards and disappeared. The commander of Aragon was then Ramon Sa Guardia. He fortified himself in Miravet. The Templars also fortified themselves in the castles of Ascon, Montzo, Cantavieja, Vilelle, Castellot and Chalamera. The local population provided assistance to the Templars; many came to the castles and defended them with weapons in their hands. In November 1308, the fortress of Castellot surrendered, in January - the fortress of Miraveta, Monceau and Chalamera - in July 1309. By November 1309, the Templars from the remaining fortresses were allowed to leave in groups of 2-3 with weapons in their hands. Ramon Sa Guardia on October 17 appealed to Pope Vice-Chancellor Arnold, pointing out that the Templars, who have been in captivity for 20-30 years, do not renounce God, while renunciation gives them freedom and wealth, and even now 70 Templars are languishing in captivity. Representatives of many noble families came out in defense of the Templars. King James released the prisoners, but kept the lands and castles for himself. Ramon Sa Guardia has retired to Mallorca.

The Templars of Cyprus, of whom there were 118 brothers of all degrees on the island (75 were knights), first defended themselves for several weeks, then were arrested on their word of honor. The sheer number of knights on the island (the usual ratio of knights to servants was 1:10) clearly indicates that it was Cyprus, and not the Temple in Paris, that was the main seat of the Templars at that time. G. Lee writes: “In Cyprus, where the Templars were known better than anywhere else, not only friends, but also enemies, and especially all those who had been in close relations with them for a long time, felt sympathy for them; no one accused the order of any crime until its guilt was so unreasonably confirmed by the bulls of the pope.” Torture was not used against the Templars; they all unanimously denied the guilt of the Order of the Temple. Other 56 witnesses from among clergy of all degrees, nobles and townspeople, among whom were political opponents of the Templars, unequivocally stated that they only knew facts that did honor to the Order - their generosity, mercy and zeal for the fulfillment of religious duties were emphasized in every possible way.

In Mallorca, all 25 Templars closed in the mentorship of Matte from November 22, 1307. Later, in November 1310, Ramon Sa Guardia joined them. At the trial of 1313, the Templars were found innocent.

In France, the Templars were arrested and imprisoned from 6 am on October 13th. They were immediately subjected to torture and ill-treatment. It was in France that knights of the Order of the Temple began to be burned at the stake for the first time. Unfortunately for the inquisitors, among the Templars there was not a single person under investigation who would defend the heresy of the Order. The presence of such a witness would have been a godsend for Philip IV. Knights confessed to all their sins under torture. The torture was so terrible that Aimery de Villiers later stated: “I would admit everything; I think I would admit that I killed God if it were demanded.” But then, at the very next interrogation, the knights refused to confess to heresy. These refusals were so widespread that Jean de Marigny, Archbishop of the Sansk diocese (which then included Paris) was forced, under pressure from Philip IV, to hand over the Templars who refused their testimony to the hands of secular authorities to be burned at the stake. All the Inquisition rules were turned upside down: the witch who renounced heresy was confident of her salvation and the end of the torture; a Templar who renounced heresy ended up at the stake.

The process ended with the dissolution of the order. On April 3, Clement V issued the bull “Vox in excelso”, in which he said: it is impossible to condemn the Order for heresy, but the Templars voluntarily confessed to errors - this will alienate believers who will no longer join the Order; thus, it will not bring any benefit and should be disbanded.

The property of the Templars passed to the Order of St. John, but S.G. Lozinsky notes that the Dominicans, Carthusians, Augustines and Celestines also managed to profit.

The Templars were released from prison even in France, except for the leadership. Some of them joined the Order of St. John. In Mallorca, the Templars lived in the Mas Deo fortress, each of them received from 30 to 100 livres of pension. Ramon Sa Guardia was given a pension of 350 livres and income from the garden and vineyard. The last of the Templars of Mallorca died in 1350 - his name was Berangel de Col.

In Castile, the Templars were acquitted; many of them became hermits, and their bodies did not decay after death. In Portugal, the fate of the Templars was more than favorable: in gratitude for the services they provided in the fight against the Saracens, King Denis founded the Order of Jesus Christ, which was approved in 1318 by Pope John XXII. The new order was a simple continuation of the old one.

The responsibility to maintain the former Templars was assigned to those to whom their property was transferred. These sums were sometimes so large that in 1318 John XXII forbade the provision of such a pension to the Templars of Germany, which allowed them to save money and live luxuriously. In France, the king and his family accounted for:

• 200,000 livres from Temple plus 60,000 livres for the conduct of the trial;
• money received from the sale of the Order's property;
• Templar jewelry;

income from Templar property received during the process;

• 200,000 livres that St. John kept in the Temple;
• 500,000 francs taken by Philip IV for Blanche's wedding;
• 200,000 florins of Philip IV's debt to the Templars;
• 2,500 livres issued by the Templars in 1297 to organize a crusade that was not carried out;
• payments on Templar bills;
• debts of the royal family.

A quick glance at this list is enough to understand that the trial of the Order was very beneficial for Philip IV. Of course, this process could not be explained by any “struggle for the purity of faith” - its reasons were clearly of an economic and political nature. Godefroy of Paris expressed public opinion regarding the trial and behavior of Philip IV and Clement V, saying: “It is easy to deceive the church, but in no case can you deceive God.”

By this process, without any struggle, the congregation which was considered the proudest, the happiest and the strongest in Europe was destroyed. No one would have dared to attack her if the inquisitorial proceedings had not put in the hands of dexterous and less shy people the necessary means to put simple robbery into legal form.

Burning of the Templars

Legend of the Curse

According to Godfrey of Paris, Jacques de Molay, having mounted the fire, summoned Philip IV, Nogaret and Clement V to God's Court. Seemingly broken morally and physically, the Grand Master, in an unexpectedly loud, thunderous voice, so that the people could hear, says:

Justice demands that on this terrible day, in the last minutes of my life, I expose the baseness of lies and allow the truth to triumph. So, I declare before the face of Earth and Heaven, I affirm, although to my eternal shame: I have indeed committed the greatest crime, but it lies in the fact that I have pleaded guilty to the atrocities that are so treacherously attributed to our order. I say, and the truth forces me to say this: the order is innocent; if I argued otherwise, it was only to stop the excessive suffering caused by torture and to appease those who forced me to endure all this. I know what torment the knights who had the courage to recant their confessions were subjected to, but the terrible sight we now see cannot make me confirm an old lie with a new lie. The life offered to me on these terms is so pitiful that I voluntarily refuse the deal...

Obviously, the practice of summoning to God's Court is associated with a belief in higher justice, in the face of which the guilty answer with their lives. They were summoned to God's Court in a dying state - this was the last wish of the dying man. According to medieval ideas, the last will, the last desire of a dying person is fulfilled. This point of view is not characteristic only of the Middle Ages. We can meet this look at different periods of human history in completely different regions. Echoes of this kind of ideas have practically reached modern times - the last wish before the guillotine, for example, or the modern practice of wills - the whole point of which is the exact execution of the will of the deceased.

Thus, God's Judgment from tests with hot iron, boiling water and legal battles in the 14th century turned into a consideration of the case in the face of God, where the plaintiff is dead and the defendants are alive. The practice of such courts was quite common and G. Lee gives several examples of summons to God's Court. There is nothing unusual, therefore, in the Grand Master summoning his culprits to God's Judgment. Gradually, the practice of such courts was forgotten, and the consciousness of unscrupulous historians created the legend of the curse of the Templars. This legend was widely inflated and served as one of the grounds for attributing various magical practices to the Order.

Choking in the flames, Jacques de Molay anathematized the pope, the king, Nogaret and all their offspring for eternity, predicting that they would be carried away by a great tornado and scattered to the wind.

This is where the most mysterious thing begins. Two weeks later, Pope Clement V died from bloody diarrhea in terrible convulsions. Almost immediately after him, the king’s faithful comrade-in-arms, de Nogaret, died. In November of the same year, the absolutely healthy Philip the Handsome allegedly died of a stroke.

Philip’s fate was shared by his three sons, who were popularly dubbed “damned kings.” Over the course of 14 years (1314-1328), they died one after another under mysterious circumstances, leaving no offspring. With the death of Charles IV, the last of them, the Capetian dynasty was interrupted.

Oddly enough, but this is not all. Already the first representatives of the new Valois dynasty, related to the Capetians, suffered unheard-of disasters. The well-known Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) began. During this war, one of the Valois, John the Good, died in captivity of the British, another, Charles VI, went mad.

The Valois, like the Capetians, ended in complete degeneration, while all the last representatives of the dynasty died a violent death: Henry II (1547-1559) was killed at a tournament, Francis II (1559-1560) died from diligent treatment, Charles IX (1560-1574) poisoned, Henry III (1574-1589) stabbed to death by a fanatic.

And the Bourbons, who replaced the Valois at the end of the 16th century, continued to experience the curse of Jacques de Molay: the founder of the dynasty, Henry IV, fell from the knife of an assassin, its last representative under the “old order,” Louis XVI, died on the scaffold during the revolution. An interesting detail: before his execution, this king was imprisoned in the Temple Tower, which was once a stronghold of the Templars. According to contemporaries, after the king was beheaded on the scaffold, a man jumped onto the platform, dipped his hand in the blood of the dead monarch and showed it to the crowd, shouting loudly:

Jacques de Molay, you are avenged!

No less calamities befell the “damned” popes. As soon as the “Avignon captivity” ended, the “schism” began: two, or even three popes, elected simultaneously, anathematized each other for almost the entire 15th century. Before the “schism” ended, the Reformation began: first Jan Hus, then Luther, Zwingli and Calvin nullified the influence of the “apostolic governors” in central Europe, and the Great Revolution of 1789-1799 wrested France from the power of the popes.

It should be noted that even at the dawn of its activity, the order was seen in the eyes of contemporaries as a kind of mystical institution. The Knights of the Temple were suspected of magic, witchcraft and alchemy. The Templars were believed to be associated with dark forces. In 1208, Pope Innocent III called the Templars to order because of their “unchristian actions” and “exorcism of spirits.” In addition, legends claim that the Templars were very skilled in the manufacture of potent poisons.

The Templars were exterminated only in France. The English king Edward II sent the Knights of the Temple to monasteries to atone for their sins. Scotland even provided refuge to Templars from England and possibly France. After the dissolution of the order, the German templars became part of the Teutonic Order. In Portugal, the Knights of the Temple were acquitted by the court and in 1318 they only changed their name, becoming the Knights of Christ. Under this name the order survived until the 16th century. The order's ships sailed under eight-pointed Templar crosses. Christopher Columbus's caravels crossed the Atlantic Ocean under the same flags.

Various hypotheses about the Templars

Over the years, various hypotheses have been put forward about the life of the Templars.

The first hypothesis was put forward by researchers Jacques de Maillet and Inge Ott. According to them, the Templars either inspired the idea of ​​Gothic cathedrals, built Gothic cathedrals, or lent money to build them. Jacques de Maillet claims that in less than a hundred years the Templars built 80 cathedrals and 70 smaller temples. Inge Ott talks about the development of ideas for the Gothic cathedral by the architects of the Order and describes the participation of the architects of the Order in the construction of cathedrals. The main question is usually posed like this: where did the Templars get the huge sums necessary for the construction of the Gothic cathedral? Usually about 150 people took part in the construction of the cathedral, each of them received 3-5 sous a day. The architect received a special fee. The cathedral had on average about two to three thousand stained glass windows. One stained glass window cost an average of 15 to 23 livres. For comparison: a butcher's house in 1235 on the rue Sablon in Paris cost 15 livres; a rich man's house on the Little Bridge in 1254 - 900 livres; the construction of the castle of the Comte de Dreux in 1224 cost him 1,175 Parisian livres and two pairs of dresses.

Some researchers have put forward another hypothesis, that the wealth of the Templars owes its origin to the silver mines of South America. Regular flights of the Templars to America are mentioned by Baigent, Ott and especially Jacques de Maillet, who defends this point of view, without having any basis for such versions. For example, de Maillet writes about the sculptural images of Indians on the 12th-century pediment of the Templar temple in the city of Verelai in Bourgogne: supposedly the Templars saw these Indians with large ears in America and depicted them in sculpture. The fact is, of course, good, but de Maillet also provides a photograph of this pediment. I found this pediment: the photograph shows a fragment of the relief of the tympanum “The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles” in the Church of Sainte-Madeleine in Vézelay (History of art in foreign countries: the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. - M., 1982. - Ill. 69). This church was built in 1125-1135. The Order of the Templars was just gaining strength at that time and had not yet carried out construction, and even if it had, the Templars still did not have a fleet at that time, and even with all their desire they could not get to America then. On the seal with the inscription "Secretum Templi" there is indeed an image that at first glance resembles an Indian. But anyone who is at least superficially familiar with mystical teachings will immediately recognize Abraxas in this image. De Maillet's remaining arguments are even weaker. However, it is worth noting that the silver and silver coins that poured into Europe during the Conquest had Templar signs on the reverse side, which was kept secret, but shocked researchers when this fact was discovered in the 20th century.

3. The connection of the Templars with Gnosticism, Catharism, Islam and heretical teachings. This is the most extensive field for researchers. Here the Templars are credited with: from Catharism in the Order to the idea of ​​​​establishing the creative unity of all bloods, races and religions - that is, the creation of a new type of state with a religion that absorbed the best of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Henry Lee is categorical: “there was no Catharism in the Order.” The Charter of the Order - compiled by St. Bernard - imbued with the most sublime spirit of the Catholic faith. However, Heckerthorn writes about the presence of Gnostic symbolism in the burials of the Templars (he does not provide evidence); the seal with Abraxas may indicate the presence of some traditions of Gnosticism. But it is impossible to say categorically about this. Baphomet, attributed to the Templars, has no traditions and parallels in the religious traditions of the world. Most likely he is the product of a monstrous process over them. The most likely version is that historians invented the imaginary heresy of the Templars.

4. Templars and the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is the supposed treasure of the Cathars, preserved by the Knights of the Order of the Temple, glorified by the famous novels born at the court of the Counts of Champagne, closely associated with the founding of the Order of the Temple... The Holy Grail, invested with mysterious power; reputed to be the source of all wealth and fertility on earth. The Holy Grail is legendary, but at the same time the cycle of legends about it bears the imprint of reality: Godfroi of Bouillon became the son of Lohengrin, the knight with a swan, and Lohengrin’s father was Parzival. What he is is unclear, but Wolfram von Eschenbach eight centuries ago in his novel Parzival (1195-1216) showed the Templars as the guardians of the Holy Grail, and they did not refute this. According to legend, the coat of arms of one of the three knights of the Holy Grail - Galahad - contained a red eight-pointed cross on a white background. This is the distinctive sign of the Templars. It is obvious that the image of the guardians of the Grail already in the Middle Ages was correlated with the image of the knights of the Order of the Temple.

Bottom line

The Order of the Temple is a natural child of its time, with all its advantages and disadvantages. His knights were (and are) professional military men, and his financiers were the best of the best.

The ease of arresting the Templars in France is somewhat surprising. It is impossible to break into castles and calmly arrest more than five hundred (no more than one hundred) knights - professional military men. The fact is that throughout 1307 there was a question between the Pope and the King and the Grand Master about the removal of various charges against the Order. The Master himself demanded a trial to justify the Order. No one could have imagined that everything would turn out this way: they would betray him. The opportunity to improve his financial affairs pushed Philip IV to the process of expelling the Order.

The Templars (from the French “templiers” or “temple” - “templars”, “church”, “temple”) were also called the Mendicant Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. They were among the first to form military-religious orders. Thus, the order was founded in 1119 by a small group of knights, led by Hugh de Payns.

This occurred in the wake of the First Crusade, to maintain the new Kingdom of Jerusalem, surrounded by its defeated Muslim neighbors, and to provide security for the many European pilgrims heading to Jerusalem following its conquest. However, it is worth making a distinction between the actual creation of the Templar Order, the beginning of its life and official recognition from the Pope, when it became an independent monastic brotherhood.

A brief history of the spiritual-knightly order of the Templars

When the First Crusade (1096-1099), which was supposed to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim supremacy, ended, something like a Christian state was created in the Eastern Mediterranean, which was called the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Small state formations also appeared, along with Tripoli, Antioch, the Kingdom of Cilicia, the County of Edessa, as well as the Assassins.

These Christian lands were given a name - the Latin East, and the main capital city began to be called Jerusalem.

It was completely natural that the European population began to systematically carry out pilgrimages to holy places. However, robbers, robbers, and dashing people roamed all the roads, unceremoniously and unscrupulously engaged in robbing pilgrims, and from time to time, killing them. Thus, the road to the east to visit holy places seemed to be a deadly dangerous undertaking.

Founding of the Templar Order

All this chaos continued for almost twenty years, until one day in 1118 a small detachment with noble knights passed along the dusty Palestinian roads. It was he who began to protect the pilgrims from robbers and all sorts of rabble. They went about their business with all their hearts, not out of fear, but out of conscience. The knights treated robbers mercilessly, and for believers they paved a safe road through holy places.

This small knightly team was led by a man named Hugh de Payns. He came from an ancient French noble dynasty, which at one time served its state faithfully and truly. At the age of fifteen, Hugo was knighted. From that moment on, the young man joined the caste of professional warriors - the French knights. The young man was lucky enough to become a participant in the crusade and liberation of Jerusalem.

Versions of the origin of the Templar Order

Hugh de Payns did not return home because he decided to stay on the land of Palestine. Having found unmercenaries like himself, he teamed up with them, and together they stood up to protect the wanderers. According to one version, these were nine knights known as nova militia christi, who united in France, where they vowed to protect pilgrims. After this they returned to Palestine.

Many of them were so poor that they did not have enough money even to purchase a sufficient number of horses. Often two riders could sit on one horse. However, this all lasted for about a year, until the court of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem paid attention to the fighting team protecting travelers for free.

The king himself treated the brave knights with favor, and under his patronage they decided to unite into an order. At the same time, they took the oath of allegiance not to the monarch, but to the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We can say that this is exactly how the knights of the temple or templars appeared. In French it was pronounced - Templars. This is exactly how the Order of the Templars appeared in 1119, headed by Hugo de Payns.

Activities of the Templar Order

At first, almost no one knew whether the Order of the Templars existed, but over time its fame began to increase. The noble knights were allowed to go to Europe and recruit people of noble birth into the order. European kings liked the idea. All of them respected the Knights Templar, who, guided only by the call of their hearts, stood up for the pilgrims going to the Holy Land.

A whole series of favors suddenly rained down on the Templars. All this was expressed in the granting of lands and castles to them. Thus, the poor knights became rich in an instant.

The French nobility was particularly generous. The fact is that the Grand Master of the Knights Templar treated their compatriots. Subsequently, they began to formally talk about the order as French. And this despite the fact that in its ranks there were people of very different origins.

Bull of the Pope

In 1139, during the time of the second master Robert de Craon, a bull was issued in the office of Pope Innocent II, in which the knights of the temple were exempted from all existing taxes. They were allowed to freely travel to any Christian countries other than Palestine, buy land, real estate, and also conduct financial activities aimed at strengthening their society. With all this, the noble knights had to report only to the Pope himself.

As a result, the Templars had complete independence. Their fate was in the hands of only God and the Pope. Heads of state and high-ranking holy fathers were not allowed to become involved in the affairs of the order. Moreover, they were prohibited from ordering what he should do or controlling his financial activities.

Money makes money

Generosity and altruism are, of course, the most beautiful human qualities. However, it was noted a long time ago that money motivates people to increase their wealth, and therefore make money. The Knights Templars could not avoid this either. Being educated people, the intercessors of the pilgrims began to become increasingly involved, first of all, in financial activities. These unlimited rights, together with complete lack of control, had an effect.

The Templars began to borrow money, and thus become moneylenders. They lent huge amounts of money at 10-15%. Whereas for Jews and Italians this service was no less than 40%.

Little by little, the newly minted moneylenders began to have debtors who were kings, dukes, and commoners. The Knights Templar expanded their vigorous financial activities throughout the European continent. The order's treasury began to fill with cash flows. So they began to get rich just before our eyes.

Construction of cathedrals, castles and roads

In addition to banking, the Templars began to build temples and castles. In total, over the entire history of the order, they built 150 cathedrals and 76 castles, which was more than a serious indicator of income. There is a version that in this way they, among other things, invested in real estate.

The Knights Templar were no strangers to road construction. At that time, European roads were in extremely poor condition. Moreover, they were all private.

The situation was aggravated by the robbers who lived in the wooded area. They often engaged in robbery and murder of unarmed people.

The Templars managed to build excellent roads, which were guarded and had inns, but what is most surprising was that they did not take customs fees from the people. All their roads were free and completely safe.

An important factor for the temple knights was charity. Each of them was instructed to meet with the needy three times a week and feed them freely. The charter of the Templar Order obliged this to be done, and all this was carried out unquestioningly.

The rigid hierarchical structure of the Templar Order

The order itself had a rigid hierarchical structure. It was headed by the Grand Master, who had unlimited power. The knights, who were equal partners in the order, numbered approximately a thousand people.

The community was also replenished with chaplains, clergy who performed additional duties. Knightly squires along with servants were considered members of the powerful union. Everyone took a vow of silence. All of them were forbidden to disclose to outsiders about the internal activities of the Templars.

It was a secret society with a strict power hierarchy, independence, its own finances and the ability to manage it all at its own discretion. However, it did not interfere in the affairs of states in which they owned property. There were no persons in the order close to the monarchs. Thus, he had no influence on their policies.

The Order's abandonment of Palestine

The main headquarters of the order was in Jerusalem until the very end of the 13th century. From 1291 the Latin East no longer existed. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, like other small states, was destined to fall. The Muslims managed to regain this territory after almost 200 years.

The knightly order was forced to leave Palestine. He settled permanently in European countries, which were Spain, France, Germany, and also England. As a result, the order was left without its main bastion. Very soon his ill-wishers, who could not survive wealth and power, decided to take advantage of this situation.

Defeat of the Templar Order

The main enemy, the French king Philip the Fair (1268-1314), was haunted by the wealth of the order. He was not a supporter of tyranny and sought to resolve all controversial issues in court. However, due to the fact that he was above the judicial power and completely controlled it, it would not be difficult to foresee whose side the court would be on.

Philip IV also decided to act strictly according to the law with the Templars. The autocrat was too eager to take away all the wealth of the order and use it to replenish the state treasury. However, serious reasons had to be found for this. And they presented themselves in August 1307.

One day the king received a denunciation that a criminal sentenced to death had some important information of national importance. The criminal told the crowned lady about the terrible things that the noble knights did. He happened to sit in the same cell with the same “suicide bomber,” who turned out to be one of the members of the Order of the Templars.

Shortly before the execution, he decided to ease his soul and told about what was happening in their castles. As it turned out, the Knights Templar, using their enormous financial resources, planned to seize power on the European continent. They had debtors from among very influential nobles, so the revolution was a matter of technology. Moreover, the Knights Templar were engaged in seducing boys, spitting on crosses, and also corrupting virgin peasant women. Thus, they were not true Catholics, but servants of Satan.

All this information was carefully documented, and became the reason for Philip the Fair to send an appeal to the Holy See. There were more doubts about the reliability of the prisoner’s testimony; it was unclear how the templar ended up in the royal casemate, moreover, he had a death sentence, because members of the order were not controlled by the monarchs, and they did not have the right to arrest them, much less judge and execute them.

Destruction of the Templar Order

However, Pope Clement V did not care about this essential detail. He hinted to Philip that he would not interfere with him and, in fact, authorized the arrest of all the Templars. As soon as the monarch's hands were untied, he ordered the arrest of all French Templars. It was decided to carry out this top secret action within one day. So on the morning of Friday, October 13, 1307, all members of the order were arrested on French territory.

They were thrown into dungeons, tortured and tormented. The torture of the Templars was so sophisticated that people could not stand it and gave any confession. The Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, also had to make confessions, although he later renounced them.

In total, 543 knights were arrested in France. Philip demanded that European monarchs also arrest the Templars who found themselves in their states, but they did not listen to Philip. Only in England were the Templars exiled to monasteries, but in Scotland, on the contrary, many Templars were lucky enough to take refuge.

Charges brought by the Inquisition

The charges brought by the Inquisition against the Templars were as follows:

• They bowed to some cat that sometimes appeared at gatherings;
• In the provinces they possessed one to three-faced idols, actual heads and human skulls;
• They bowed to these idols at their gatherings;
• They honored these idols, which were for them representatives of the Lord and Savior;
• They argued that the head could save them and make them rich;
• Because of the idols the order received all the wealth;
• Because of the idols the earth bore fruit and the trees blossomed;
• They tied the heads of the idols or touched them with short ropes, after which they put them on the body under shirts;
• When newcomers were accepted into the order, they were given these ropes;
• Everything was done out of reverence for idols.

Basically there were ten charges, like the ten commandments.

End justifies the means

Investigative measures against members of the order went on for several years. In October 1311, i.e. four years after the arrests, they decided to hold a trial at the Council of Vienne. At it, the clergy and the Vatican authorities, led by the Pope, decided to dissolve the once powerful order and distribute the property to other knights-monks. These were the Hospitallers, better known as the Knights of Malta.

The biggest jackpot in finance and real estate went to Philip the Beautiful as compensation for legal costs. As a result, he achieved his goals and found what he wanted. Then the trials of the Templars began. Mostly they were sentenced to life sentences. Others received long prison sentences, but only a few were released at an old age.

Execution and damnation of the last Templar Grand Master

Grand Master Jacques de Molay, along with Geoffroy de Charnay, was sentenced to be burned. On March 18, 1314, the sentence was carried out. Engulfed in fire, Jacques de Molay managed to curse the Pope and Philip, which definitely came true.

Clement V died within a month of his execution. King Philip died in November of the same year at the age of forty-six as a result of a massive cerebral hemorrhage (stroke), although the king had always been in excellent health and never had any complaints. Under strange circumstances and unclear reasons, his three sons also died within fourteen years after the death of their father. They were all unlucky enough to leave successors, and the dynasty was destined to end.

Mysteries of the Templar Order

Most people immediately saw the cause of the mysterious deaths in the curse that Jacques de Molay imposed, because the Templars always had a trail of the unknown and mysterious. Popular rumor called them possessors of magical knowledge.

Many even believed that the Templars had the Shroud of Turin and even the Holy Grail. And some researchers admit this, because the knights of the temple had to live in Palestine for almost two hundred years. Their generosity, coupled with their devotion to faith, aroused great respect in the Christian world.

Thanks to this, all those who kept shrines and relics calmly handed them over to the Templars. No one doubted the noble knights. Everyone was confident that the priceless Christian treasures were not destined to be lost, and they would be in good hands.

With the liquidation of the order everything changed. The Holy Grail may have been hidden in Scotland, and the Shroud of Turin was inexplicably discovered in France. The Pope and Philip achieved the abolition of the order, but he continued his life in Europe.

No one excludes that the order secretly continued to exist. Perhaps even now the Knights Templar continue their activities hidden from prying eyes, because all these people possessed secret magical knowledge. Actually, the craving for everything occult, like a magnet, attracts true spiritual seekers, and the courage, selflessness and devotion to the faith of the Templars remained in human hearts.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them

There are many mysteries in the history of mankind that excite the hearts of antiquity lovers and adventurers. Among such mysteries, covered with the dust of centuries, there is one, the answer to which, probably, no one will find. No one knows exactly who the Templars are; photos, or rather, images of which can be found in our article. Formally, their story is familiar from a school article. But there are too many white spots that provide food for fantasy.

The beginning of time

Before dealing with the question: “Who are the Templars?”, it is necessary to plunge into the past and study the global situation of those years. The first crusade organized by the Western world has just ended. Religious youth, who responded to the call of Pope Urban II, decide to create their own order. Its first participants were nine noble knights who set themselves a noble goal: to protect pilgrims going to the Holy Land. Hugh de Payns was elected head.

So, the Templars are members of a community with a religious bent. The date of its foundation is considered to be 1119, and their first charter appeared only nine years later, in 1128. But it is likely that the mysterious order arose much earlier, in 1099. Then Godefroy of Boulogne sent nine chosen people to rich Jerusalem, who were given special instructions. They founded the community we know as the Order of the Temple. And then the mass recruitment of all willing, but at the same time worthy people began.

The first mystery

And here lies the first mystery left by the Templars. Who are these valiant knights? Fanatics, warriors or hoaxers? It can be argued that their order arose precisely in 1099, since this date coincides with the crusade. But how could nine people provide reliable protection for the pilgrims? Of course not, especially since they remained in Jerusalem, where they were doing some business. But no one knows what the templars did these twenty years before the official appearance of the charter. And why did they keep their existence silent?

Scion of the Merovingian dynasty

The man who is the organizer of the Order was named Godefroy of Boulogne. He belongs to the Merovingian dynasty, an ancient royal family. He might have some secrets lost in history, as well as his own interest in Jerusalem, where his ancestors came from. It is likely that he had his own claims to the throne as a representative of the Davidic family. Thus, the Templars are the people whom Godefroy trusted and who helped achieve his secret goal. He died a year after the capture of the main city of the Holy Land. It is interesting that he was elected but was not crowned, and, in principle, he did not want this. His brother is considered the first ruler of the city. They buried Godefroy, the Defender of the Holy Sepulcher, as he called himself, in the temple where members of the community loved to sit.

Other founders

In addition to Godefroy of Boulogne, Hugh de Payns or Saint-Omer could have founded the community. Almost nothing is known about the second except his name. The first took part in the crusade and personally knew Godefroy. And they communicated closely at that time, they were comrades in arms. Hugo arrived in the Holy Land with the nickname Pogany (Pagan). But the Godefroy family loved him, and the next kings of Jerusalem (Baldwin the First and Second) assisted him. The Count of Champagne, Lord of Payne, also joined the Order, which indicates that Hugo was an extraordinary person. Otherwise, could a noble nobleman obey his vassal?

Name and emblem

The Templars were special from the very beginning. Who are these poor knights? Ordinary defenders of the Holy Sepulcher or an organization with its own secret goals? Probably the truth is somewhere in the middle. They got their name from the tradition of holding meetings in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is how the Order of the Temple arose. And the emblem appeared much later, after the adoption of the charter, somewhere in 1147-1148. The red cross was sewn onto branded white clothes, which distinguished the brothers from other knights.

The fabulous wealth of the order

So, it is quite obvious that the Templars are the crusaders who remained in Jerusalem with their goal. The order, which initially numbered only nine members, became highly respected in the West. Each royal court had its own representative of the brothers, they owned lands, castles and were successful in financial transactions. Even kings borrowed funds from them for their needs! The wealth of the Templars grew by leaps and bounds, which attracted many people. And the brothers were forgiven all the misdeeds and sins they had committed earlier. The power of the knights grew along with their income. They buy the island of Cyprus, where they create their own residence. Therefore, it is reasonable to ask: who are the Templars, poor knights or real Rothschilds?

This could not but please the European monarchs, who often had half-empty treasuries. The Frenchman, together with the pope, accused the Order of all mortal sins, ordered the arrest of the brothers and confiscated their property in their favor. The last master, Jacques de Molay, cursed both the monarch and the apostate pope, who blessed the massacre, to the thirteenth generation. All participants in the destruction of the Templars sank into oblivion, dying a shameful death within a year after this event. The Templar Curse is another mystery of the Order. Although the remaining knights could take revenge for the burning of the master and other brothers.

Reasons for the destruction of the Order

Why were the Templars destroyed? We have already partially figured out who they are, but we will give below the reasons why the Order was put on trial. The first is countless riches that many have never dreamed of - neither monarchs nor clergy. Of course, many would like to have these treasures shared with them. True, as time has shown, by the time the community was liquidated, the knights had already lost all their property: their treasury was empty. Maybe they managed to hide everything? And this is the main mystery of the knights, which haunts lovers of easy money.

The second reason is the influence and power of the brothers, who posed a serious threat to the power of any Christian country. The third is that the templars were exempt from tithing, that is, they did not pay taxes to the Pope. And this also could not be to the liking of the pontiff.

Masonic lodge

We can safely say that the Templars are Freemasons. Before his death, the Grand Master still managed to appoint a successor, who continued to conduct their activities, albeit in the strictest secrecy. He also managed to organize four Masonic lodges - in Paris, Edinburgh, Stockholm and Naples, that is, for the east, north, west and south. It is also likely that the remaining knights found refuge with the Freemasons, who were active long before the founding of the Order of the Templars. These closed organizations still exist today.

It is worth noting that after the fall of Akka in 1291, the knights moved to Cyprus, and then to Paris, choosing the French capital as their headquarters. Here they built their residence and temple, which resembled the Jerusalem shrine, massive fortress walls. But most of the buildings did not survive: they were either destroyed or became part of other churches. But the brainchild of the Order in the form of Masonic lodges is still active today. In Paris, the brothers are located on the quiet rue Cadet, 16. There is a headquarters, a museum and several other institutions here. The interiors are decorated with appropriate symbols and regalia. Even the floors in the halls are lined with red and white squares. And who the Templars and the Masons actually are remains to be figured out.

Assassins and Templars

To talk about the connection between these two legendary communities, you need to know the Templars well. The Templars are a knightly order that accepted exclusively Christians who wanted to devote themselves to a good cause - to protect pilgrims and the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The Assassins are the brainchild of the “Old Man of the Mountain” Hassan al-Sabah, who professed Islam. Members of the community were ready to die because a reward awaited them - the Garden of Eden with virgins. It was also rumored that the leader used intoxicating herbs, in particular hashish, and hypnosis.

These two organizations have common features: iron discipline, deep faith in God, even to the point of fanaticism, unquestioning execution of the will of the master, power and influence on the world, wealth. Even the pictures of their members are quite similar. However, they professed different religions that fought for dominance on the planet. Therefore, answering the question “who are the Assassins and Templars,” we can say that these are opponents, not allies.

Other Crusader orders

The reader already knows who the Templars are. Hospitallers, Teutons are other organizations that appeared during the Crusades. They had a lot in common, but there were also differences. Often brothers belonging to different orders fought with each other. After all, Christian knights were allowed to participate in wars with infidels and shed blood in the name of Christ. Accusing each other of heresy, they fought for influence. But if the Templars were liquidated and banned, then the Teutons and Hospitallers could exist calmly and continue their work. True, they never even dreamed of such successes as the Templars.

Order of the Hospitallers

The Order dates back to 1070, when a certain merchant - Mauro from Amalfi - founded a house for wanderers and pilgrims, the so-called hospital. It gathered people who cared for the wounded and sick and maintained order in the monastery. The society grew and became so strong that the pope granted it the title of spiritual knightly order.

The Hospitallers took vows of obedience, chastity and poverty. Their symbol was a white cross with eight ends, which was applied to black clothes on the left side. The robe had narrow sleeves, which spoke of the brothers' lack of freedom. Later, knights dressed up in red clothes and sewed a cross onto their chests. Members were divided into three categories - chaplains, knights themselves and servants. Important decisions were made by the Grand Master and the General Chapter.

From the very beginning, the Order of the Hospitallers set itself the goal of helping the sick and wounded, poor pilgrims and abandoned children. But then the knights began to actively take part in wars and crusades. At the beginning of the fourteenth century they settled on the island of Rhodes and lived there until the mid-sixteenth century. They then settled in Malta, where they continued to fight the infidels. Then Napoleon captured Malta and expelled the brothers. This is how the Hospitallers came to Russia.

Nobles and free people, monarchs and even women could join the order (the Templars accepted only men). But only aristocrats became Grand Masters. The attributes of the brotherhood were a crown, a sword and a seal. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Order of the Hospitallers (Ioanites, Knights of Malta) has been considered a spiritual and charitable corporation with its seat in Rome.

Warband

In Jerusalem in the twelfth century, German-speaking pilgrims organized their hospice. This can be considered the beginning of the development of the Teutonic Order, which at first was a formal part of the Hospitallers. In 1199, the charter was approved and the Grand Master was elected. But only in 1221 did the Teutons receive the privileges due to the knightly order. The brothers took three vows - obedience, chastity and poverty. And only representatives of the German-speaking population joined the Order. The symbols of the community were an ordinary black cross painted on a white cloak.

Very soon the knights ceased to perform the duties of hospitallers, completely switching to war with the infidels. But they did not have the same influence in their homeland that the Templars had in England or France. Germany was going through hard times, it was fragmented and poor. The Teutons left the Holy Sepulcher to other knights, directing their efforts to seize the eastern lands, which became their property. Then they turned their attention to the northern territories (the Baltic states), where they founded Riga and the possessions of the Prussians after the conquest. In 1237, the Teutons united with another German order - the Livonian order, with which they went to Russia, but lost.

The Order actively fought with the Polish-Lithuanian state. And in 1511, Master Albert of Hohenzollern proclaimed himself ruler of Prussia and Brandenburg and deprived the organization of all privileges. The Teutons were never able to recover from the last blow, eking out a miserable existence. And only in the twentieth century did the fascists extol the past merits of the knights and use their cross as the highest award. The order still exists today.

Instead of an afterword

So who are the Templars? History cannot yet give an exact answer to this question; too much is forgotten or hushed up. Therefore, the blank spots are filled with all sorts of fantasies and original interpretations, like the theory of Dan Brown and his colleagues. But this only makes the Order of the Templars more attractive to lovers of antiquity.

Order of the Knights Templar
(Pauperurum Commilitonum Christi Templiqne Solamoniaci)

(Brief historical sketch)

This military-monastic organization is known in our country under several names:
-Order of the Poor Knights of Jesus from the Temple of Solomon;
-Order of the Poor Brothers of the Jerusalem Temple;
-Order of the Knights Templar;
-Order of the Templars.

There are also several names for this organization in French:
-de Templiers;
-Chevaliers du Temple;
-L`Ordre des Templiers;
-L'Ordre du Temple.

In English: Knights Templas.

In Italian: Les Gardines du Temple.

In German: Der Templer;
Des Templeherrenordens;
Des Ordens der Tempelherren.

The official name of this Order in Latin, which was given to it by the Pope upon its establishment, is
Pauperurum Commilitonum Christi Templiqne Solamoniaci.

The leaders of the Order (Grand Masters) at various times were (there were 22 in total):
1. Hugo de Payens from 1119 to May 24, 1136;
2. Robert de Craon from June 1136 to February 1149;
3. Evrard de Bar from March 1149 to May 1150;
4. Bernard de Tramelay from June 1151 to August 16, 1153;
5. Andre de Montbard 1153-1156;
6. Bertrand de Blancfort from October 22, 1156 to 1169;
7. Philip de Milly from 1169 to 1170;
8. Odon de Saint-Amand (Eude de Saint-Amand) from April 16, 1170 to 1180;
9. Arnaud de La Tour from January 3, 1180 to September 30, 1184;
10. Gerard de Ridefort from October 1184 to October 4, 1189;
11. Robert de Sablé from 1189 to 1193;
12. Gilbert Eral from 1193 to 1201;
13. Philippe de Plessier from 1201 to November 9, 1209;
14. Guillaume of Charts from 1209 to August 26, 1219;
15. Pere de Montegaudo from 1219 to 1232;
16 Armand of Périgord from 1232 to October 17, 1244;
17. Guillaume de Sonnac from 1244 to 1250;
18. Renaud de Vichiers from 1250 to 1256;
19. Thomas Bero from 1256 to March 25, 1273;
20. Guichard de Beaujeu May 13, 1273 to 1291;
21.Thobaut Gaudini from 1291 to 1298;
22. Jacques de Molay from 1298 to May 6, 1312.

In 1118 (1119?) in the period between the First and Second Crusades, the French knights Hugo de Payens and Geoffrey de Saint-Home, and seven other French knights (André de Montbard, Gundomar, Roland, Geoffrey Bizot, Payne de Mondesir, Archambault de Saint-Eynan) took upon themselves the responsibility of protecting the road leading from the Mediterranean coast to Jerusalem from bandits and robbers. It was intended, first of all, to protect Christian pilgrims who arrived in the Holy Land to worship Christian shrines in Jerusalem. King Baldwin of Jerusalem gave them a part of his castle, Temple, built on the site of the village's Jewish Temple of Solomon, for their residence. This group of knights united into a military-monastic Order called “The Poor Knights of Jesus from the Temple of Solomon” (according to other sources, “The Poor Brothers of the Temple of Jerusalem”), but in everyday life they began to be called the Templars or Knights of the Temple or Templars after their place of residence.

By joining the Order, knights simultaneously became monks, i.e. took monastic vows of obedience (submission), poverty and celibacy. The Templar Rule is said to have been developed by St. Bernard himself and approved at the Church Council in the French city of Troyes by Pope Eugene III in 1128. The basis of the Charter of the Templars was the charter of the monastic Order of the Cistercians (not military monastic, but simply Catholic monastic), the strictest and toughest charter.

The knight, entering the Order of the Templars, renounced not only all worldly life, but also his relatives. His food was to be only bread and water. Meat, milk, vegetables, fruits, and wine were forbidden. The clothes are only the simplest. If, after the death of a knight-monk, gold or silver items or money were found in his belongings, then he lost the right to be buried in consecrated ground (cemetery), and if this was discovered after the funeral, then the body had to be removed from the grave and thrown to the dogs. .

In fact, it turned out that these requirements are for the public. The Templars became famous for being the most greedy in terms of military booty, sensual entertainment and wine drinking, not hesitating to kill and rob anyone, including fellow believers. This is well described in W. Scott's novel "Ivanhoe". Although this is a work of fiction, historical chronicles confirm this style of behavior of the templars in England.

Members of the Templar Order were divided into three classes:
-knights;
-priests;
- sergeants (servants, pages, squires, servants, soldiers, guards, etc.).

Unlike, say, the Teutonic Order, the monastic vows of the Templars were accepted by all classes and all the strictures of the Rule applied to all members of the Order.

The distinctive insignia of the Templar Order was a white cloak-mantle for knights and a brown one for sergeants with a scarlet eight-pointed cross (also known as the “Maltese cross”), the battle cry: “Beaucean”, a flag (standard) of black and white cloth with the motto “Non nobis Domine” "(these are the initial words of verse 9 of Psalm 113 "Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam... - not to us, Lord, not to us, but give glory to your name...); the coat of arms of the Order became the image of two knights riding on one horse (symbol of the poverty of the Templars).
According to some sources, the sergeants' image of the cross was incomplete and it looked like the letter "T".

From the author. You should not assume that the white cloak with a red cross was something like the Templar uniform and they all dressed the same, like modern officers or soldiers. The cut, style, size and location of the cross - all this was determined by the knight himself. It was quite enough to have a white cloak and a red eight-pointed cross on the clothes. In general, it was customary for the crusaders (not only the Templars) to wear a cross on their chest when going on a crusade, and on their back when returning from a campaign.

Only French (later English) of noble birth could become Knights of the Order. Only they could occupy the highest leadership positions (grand master, masters of domains, capituliers, castellans, drapiers, etc.). However, this was not strictly observed regarding nationality. Among the knights there are also Italians, Spaniards, and Flemings.

Sergeants of the Order could be both rich citizens (they held the positions of squires, accountants, managers, storekeepers, pages, etc.) and ordinary people (guards, soldiers, servants).

Priests of the Catholic Church could become priests of the Order, however, upon joining the Order, such a priest became a member of the Order and was subordinate only to the Master of the Order and its highest dignitaries. The bishops of the Catholic Church and even the Pope himself were losing power over them. Priests performed spiritual duties in the Order, although the knights of the Order were endowed with the rights of confessors. Any member of the Order could perform his religious duties only before the order's priests (confession, communion, etc.).

It is now difficult to find out why the Templar Order quickly gained enormous popularity, but literally within a few years in its ranks there were already more than 300 knights alone, among whom were many princes and dukes.

Perhaps belonging to the Order provided its members with personal safety and physical protection of themselves, relatives and property from the tyranny of neighboring princes, kings and other large feudal lords, especially during the absence of a knight from his estate (participation in a crusade), and allowed them to improve their financial affairs from the spoils of the crusade. After all, we should not forget that in those days the Law meant so little. The one who was stronger was right. And to offend a member of the Order meant to offend the entire Order.

Although the Order was proclaimed mendicant, its wealth grew rapidly. Feudal lords from different countries gave the Order estates, villages, cities, castles, churches, monasteries, taxes and taxes from which flowed into the Order's coffers. Already in 1133, the childless king of the Spanish province of Aragon, Alonso I, who also owned Navarre and Castile, dying bequeathed all his possessions to the orders of the Templars and Hospitallers. Although this will was not fulfilled, Ramiro el Monje, who ascended the throne of Aragno, paid off the orders with very large alms. In 1222, the French king Philip I Augustus gave the Order a huge sum of 52 thousand gold coins at that time.

However, as many historians prove, the true basis of the Order’s wealth was not military booty and donations, but active usury, in fact, the creation of the banking system of Europe. When the Jews, recognized today as the founders of the modern banking system, had not yet risen above street money changers, the Templars already had a developed system of lending and promissory notes; monetary transactions were carried out not only with the help of gold, but also with securities.

In 1147, the Second Crusade begins. Two armies were formed - German and French. The latter moved through Smyrna, Ephesus and Laodicea. A small detachment of Templars who were with the army, well trained and disciplined, well versed in the terrain, repeatedly rescued the leader of the army of the French King Louis VII, organizing security, correct formation of the column and outlining resting and stopping places. This ensured that the French could safely reach the port of Atalia. The lack of ships to cross to Palestine led to the fact that only knights could go there by sea, and the squires and infantry of the crusaders who went by land all died. By 1148, only the remnants of two crusader armies had gathered in Palestine - the German one, led by King Conrad of Germany, and the French one, led by Louis VII.

The Templars convinced both kings to go and conquer Damascus. It was not possible to take Damascus. It soon became known that a large Muslim army led by Atabek was moving towards the city and the crusaders were forced to return to Europe.

Although the Second Crusade ended in complete failure, the merit of the Templars is that the crusaders managed to reach Damascus and not completely die halfway there.

In the rather long half-century period between the end of the Second Crusade (1148) and the beginning of the Third Crusade (1189), the history of North Africa is rich in events of struggle between Christians and Muslims. There was everything here - the ferocious cruelty of both, and the conclusion of alliances, and betrayal and successful assaults on cities on both sides. In all these events, the Templars take an active part, striving both to plant Christianity in the Holy Land and to strengthen their own. In 1177, the Templars took part in the Battle of Ascalon and made a significant contribution to the victory of the Christians; in 1179, on the banks of the Jordan River, they were defeated by Saladin and concluded a truce with him.

In 1187, Saladin invades the Kingdom of Jerusalem and lays siege to Tiberias. He captures the city and many Templars, led by their Grand Master Gerard de Ridfort, are captured. Some historical sources claim that the Grand Master bought his life by accepting Islam and agreeing to the execution of all the Templars captured with him. Whatever it was, of all the Templars taken prisoner in Tiberias, only he was left alive.

Within a few weeks, all the fortresses of the kingdom fell. Then it was the turn of Jerusalem and Tire itself. Temple - the headquarters of the Templars also ends up in the hands of Saladin.

In 1189, the Third Crusade begins. By 1191, after a two-year siege, the crusaders managed to capture the fortress of Saint-Jean d'Acre (Acres). The Templars, who took an active part in the siege of the fortress, place their Temple in the city (as the headquarters of the Order is traditionally called).

July 15, 1199, i.e. at the very beginning of the Fourth Crusade, the crusaders manage to recapture Jerusalem. The Templars commit a brutal massacre of Muslims at the walls of their old Temple. As one of the masters of the Templar Order noted in a letter to the Pope, “...know that in the portico of the Temple of Solomon and in the Temple itself, our people rode on horseback through the unclean blood of the Saracens, which reached the horses’ knees.” Historians of that time write that during the massacre in Jerusalem, the crusaders killed more than 30 thousand Muslims and Jews.

In October 1240, the brother of the English king Henry III, Richard Cornwall, managed to quarrel and set the Muslims of Egypt and Damascus against each other, after which in May 1241 he sought to conclude a peace treaty with the Egyptians, according to which the crusaders received most of Palestine, including Jerusalem. He managed to bloodlessly win the largest victory at that time. At this time, the Templars, having betrayed the common cause of the crusaders, entered into a conspiracy with the Damascusians and, together with them, attacked the troops of the Egyptian Sultan Ayub. Moreover, they attack the forces of the Order of the Hospitallers, knock out the Teutonic knights from Acre and take prisoner some of the Hospitallers who found themselves in Acre. The Templars behave extremely cruelly towards their brothers, not allowing the latter to even bury their fallen.

Soon, the Sultan of Egypt Ayuba, having entered into an alliance with the Khorezmians, ousted by the Tatar-Mongols from their lands east of the Caspian Sea (Sogdiana (?)), raises the Muslims to a holy war with all Christians. In mid-July, he besieged Jerusalem and six weeks later captured the city, committing a massacre there that was not inferior in scale to the massacre carried out by the Templars in 1199. In 1243, at the Battle of Gaza, the Egyptians, in alliance with the Khorezmians, inflicted a severe defeat on the combined forces of the Crusaders. 33 Templars, 26 Hospitallers and three Teutons made it out of the battlefield alive.

Thus, the betrayal of the Templars in 1241 led to a radical change in the long-term struggle of Christians and Muslims for the Holy Land in favor of Muslims. The subsequent Crusades, despite the fact that the crusaders sometimes achieved individual victories, did not produce any noticeable positive results. The Seventh Crusade (1248-1254) ended in a crushing defeat, and the Templars did not perform well here either. Their participation in the campaign was limited to providing money for the ransom of the captured French king Louis IX. But the Templars distinguished themselves in appropriating property from European colonists fleeing persecution by Muslims, and in internecine skirmishes with the Knights Hospitaller.

In 1270, the French king Louis IX began the Eighth (last) Crusade, which ended in complete failure. In the next twenty years, the Egyptian sultans took city after city from Christians - Arsuf 1265, Jaffa and Antioch (1268), the Hospitaller fortress Markab (1285), Tripoli (1289). Then it was Jerusalem's turn.

At the end of 1290, the Muslims approached Acre, where at that time the Temple of the Templars was located. The defense of Acre was led by the Grand Master of the Order, Guichard de Bojo. The garrison numbered 15 thousand people, including 900 Knights Templar and Hospitallers. After six months of siege, the Muslims, using a battering machine, managed to bring down one of the towers of the fortress. Seeing the inevitable defeat of about a quarter of the garrison, mostly the Hospitallers, they made a breakthrough and, having successfully boarded the ships, fled to the island of Cyprus. On May 18, 1291, Muslims broke into the fortress. During the battle, about 300 Templar knights, led by Grand Master de Bojo, fell inside the fortress. The rest (several hundred) managed to take refuge in the Temple. After several days of negotiations, during which the Templars deceived about 300 Muslims into the Temple and then killed them all, Sultan Amelik Azashraf, the son of the man who died at the beginning of the campaign on November 19, 1290. Sultan Kalawun ordered a mine to be placed under the Temple. As historian D. Legman writes:

From the author It is very doubtful that this enormous amount of work was done within 1-2 days. After all, the Temple is a large structure in which several hundred people took refuge. At least it took 2-4 months. Most likely, this mine was planted by Muslims throughout the siege

However, some sources claim that on the night before the death of the Temple, 11 templars left the Temple through a secret passage, boarded a ship that was waiting for them and sailed to Cyprus, taking with them all the treasures of the Templar Order. Their names have been erased by history, except for one - Thibaut Godini. elected in the same year in Cyprus as Grand Master of the Order.

In 1298, the mantle of Grand Master was donned by the last leader of the Templar Order, Jacques de Molay, who had previously been the Grand Prior of England (the viceroy of the Order in England). The situation around the Order by that time was unfavorable. With the abandonment of the idea of ​​the Crusades, the meaning of the existence of military monastic orders is also emasculated. The Teutons managed to find a field of activity for their Order and secure for themselves an active place in military-political life for another one and a half to two centuries. They moved to Europe and began introducing the Prussian and Lithuanian tribes who lived on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea to European civilization with the help of the cross and sword. The Templars were out of luck. After the fall of Acre, they no longer had a place in the Holy Land and they placed their Temple in Cyprus, this refuge of all Christians who fled Palestine and were not very welcome at home in Europe.

Jacques de Molay, realizing that only military victories and a return to the Holy Land can save the Order and prolong its existence, takes a desperate step - only with the help of the Templars he undertakes a crusade and in 1299 takes Jerusalem by storm. But the Templars were unable to hold the city, and already in 1300 they had to leave Palestine again, forever.

The Order quickly descends to the level of mercenary troops and robbers. In 1306, the brother of the French king Philip IV (the Handsome), Charles de Valois, wanting to give his wife the title of Empress of Constantinople, organized a crusade against the Greek Church, which had already freed itself from the power of Rome. Pope Clement V encourages the Neapolitan king Charles II, uniting with the Templars, to begin military operations against the Greek king Andronikos II. The Templar Roger, commanding a fleet, lands and takes Thessalonica by storm, but then, instead of attacking Andronikos' forces, turns along the coast and devastates Thrace and Morea, which were under the rule of Greek princes who professed Catholicism.

After this campaign, the order receives rich booty, but arouses the hostility of European monarchs against itself. Nobody wanted to have a powerful organized military force nearby (according to historians, the Order at that time had up to 15 thousand knights, sergeants and priests) and, moreover, an uncontrollable, unauthorized and aggressive one. The seemingly countless wealth of the Order and their vast possessions, scattered throughout Europe, which also brought in considerable income, aroused the greed of the secular rulers.

Knightly orders, at the beginning of the era of the Crusades, were actively supported by the Popes, because the latter believed in them to have their own military force, which could provide the papal throne, in addition to spiritual power, also with secular power over European monarchs. Hence the great autonomy of knightly orders, their complete independence not only from secular monarchs, but even from clergy (in a number of countries, Catholic bishops and abbots were then more dependent on local feudal lords than on Rome). However, the autonomization of knightly orders also played a cruel joke on the papal throne. The Grand Masters began to feel independent from Rome. Therefore, when secular monarchs decided to destroy the Templar Order, Pope Clement V was entirely on the side of the French king Philip the Fair. However, he was then completely dependent on the king. Even the papal throne was moved from Rome to Avignon in 1309

The French king Philip IV, who was in dire need of money and who had difficulty remaining on the throne due to constant financial clashes with French merchants, nobles and even ordinary people (the Parisian rebellion led by Courtille Barbet in June 1306) proposes to Grand Master Jacques de Male to move the seat of the Order from Cyprus to Paris, motivating this allegedly by organizing a new crusade, plans to unite the Order of Hospitallers with the Templars under the auspices of the latter.

It is now impossible to find out whether de Molay believed in these intentions or believed that Philip wanted to use the Order against the French who were endlessly rebelling against the king. However, a further stay in Cyprus was futile, and France promised the opportunity to become the possession of the Order, especially since most of southern France was the complete possession of the Templar Order

While maintaining his main residence, the Temple, in Cyprus, de Molay built a new Temple in Paris, creating it in the form of a powerful fortification.

In the fall of 1306, de Molay, accompanied by 60 knights, loaded 12 horses with gold (almost the entire gold reserve of the Order) set off for Paris. In the winter of 1307, de Molay was already in Paris. However, he does not know that a conspiracy against the Order has been brewing since 1305. An indictment has already been drawn up and sent to the Pope. Plans have already been agreed upon by the Inquisition in France, England, Italy, Cyprus and other countries for the simultaneous arrest of all Templars.

At the beginning of October 1307, sealed orders from the king were sent to all cities of France with the note “open October 12th”. On October 13, 1307, about 5 thousand Templars were simultaneously arrested and imprisoned throughout France. The same thing happened in other countries, although not immediately and not so decisively. Absolutely all the Templars were arrested in France - from the Grand Master to the last servant. It is believed that no more than one or two hundred Templars managed to escape. The brilliantly conceived police operation was a complete success, even though the police did not exist in those days.

In England, King Edward II resisted the arrest of the Templars for a long time. In December, he writes to Pope Clement V that in England the reputation of the Order is impeccable and that the reason for such serious accusations is most likely the greed of the King of France. However, the Pope's influence in England was too great and Edward, on January 10, 1308, ordered the arrest of the Templars. However, the execution of the order proceeded slowly and carelessly. It is known that in January 1311 the Sheriff of York was reprimanded by the king for the fact that dozens of Templars were still living in the cities.

In Germany, King Henry limited himself to declaring the Order dissolved, but even in 1318, the Hospitallers complained to the Pope that although the Order was dissolved, the Templars continued to own their property and live in castles.

In Italy, the pope's order to arrest the Templars was carried out quickly and strictly.

However, the Order was dealt a crushing blow and, in fact, on October 13, 1307, the Templar Order ceased to exist. In any case, as an organized force, as a capable organization. Although the Order's marshal, draper and treasurer were arrested in Cyprus only on May 27, 1308, the trial against the Templars was already in full swing and these last highest dignitaries of the Order were simply awaiting their fate.

The true reasons for the defeat of the Order are clear from the above. However, as is always the case, the Inquisition brought accusations against the Order, let’s say, formal, although obviously many of the accusations were not groundless.

First of all, the highest leaders of the Order were charged with heresy and sacrilege. The most significant charge was that the Order was dominated not by the Christian religion, but by a mixture of Islam and idolatry. Many Templars admitted under torture that they spat and urinated on the cross. A number of customs, norms and rules of conduct, and clothing were clearly borrowed by the Templars from the Muslim world. By modern standards, this is quite understandable - people, having spent many years in a different environment, one way or another adopt something. However, there is evidence that the Grand Master Gerard de Ridfort, having been defeated at the Battle of Hittin in 1187, was captured with all his knights and was released by Saladin after he converted to Islam. It is possible that there really was a certain influence of Islam on the Templars. After all, the Muslim world of that time was, in a number of ways, more civilized than the Christian world. And the knights-monks of that time were not very knowledgeable in science and literacy. The high knowledge of Muslims in mathematics, astronomy, geography and many other sciences and crafts could make a great impression on the Templars and it was quite possible that elements of Christianity and Islam could be mixed within the Order. We must not forget that the order’s priests were not associated with the Catholic Church and were not under its direct supervision and influence, because they were repaired only directly to the Pope, i.e. actually boiled in their own juice.

Among the many charges (there were 172 charges in total) was the accusation of homosexuality of many Templars.

From the author. This is where this method comes from to reliably denigrate, disgrace, and smear any person (political figure, military leader), organization, institution with mud. Although, while reading the Bible, you repeatedly come across passages that convince you that in ancient times this dirty vice was very widespread. So common that it took its repeated condemnation in the Holy Book for it to be treated in the Christian world as one of the most serious sins. It is likely that the Templars sinned in this way, but no more than their accusers. Yes, and modernity shows that most often accusations of homosexuality are groundless and that this vice is most common in communities (church, artistic, literary, poetic and journalistic communities), from whose lips accusations are most often thrown at other people and organizations.

Most confessions were extracted under torture. Suffice it to say that of the 140 Templars arrested in Paris between October 18 and November 24, 1307, 36 died under torture.

Legally, the Templar Order ceased to exist on the basis of the bulls of Pope Clement V of March 22, 1312 (Vox clamsntis), May 2, 1312 (Ad providam) and May 6, 1312 (Considerantes dudum). From the point of view of modern law, these are legal orders, because and the Order was also created by a bull of the Pope.

The last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was found guilty of the charges against him, sentenced to death and burned at the stake in 1314 in Paris.

Thus ends the two-hundred-year history of one of the three most famous military-monastic organizations of the era of the Crusades that left a noticeable mark in the history of the Middle Ages. With the beginning of the Crusades, these Orders were born, flourished, were the brainchild of the era, and with its end disappeared from the political arena. The Templars left the arena with a bang, leaving behind many legends; The Hospitallers tried for a long time to find their place in the political mosaic of subsequent centuries (the Russian Emperor Paul I was nominally elected Grand Master of this Order) and their pale shadow under the name of the Order of Malta still exists today. The Teutons stayed on the surface longer than others. Only by the middle of the 16th century did the decline of the Teutonic Order begin. It still exists today under its own name, but it is simply a public hospital charity organization.

By the 19th century, many myths and legends of a mystical nature began to accumulate around the name of the Templars. The Greyhound writers were especially successful in this, making sensations around the then newfangled movement of the Frank-Masons. The Masons themselves were prone to mysticism and liked to hint that the Templar Order did not cease to exist in 1312, but went underground (in modern terms), and that the Frank Masons were the direct successors and heirs of the Templar cause (what business, and in what its essence?). In the mid-20th century, a number of literary charlatans used the “secrets of the Templars” as the basis for writing novels with a mystical or semi-mystical flavor. However, everything is much more prosaic and simpler. The Templar Order existed and was defeated, existed and died. That's all. Everything else is from the evil one, just like the new Russian myth about the party’s gold.

Literature

1.Guy Stair Sainty. THE TEUTONIC ORDER OF HOLY MARY IN JERUSALEM (Site www.chivalricorders.org/vatican/teutonic.htm)
2. E. Lavvis, A. Rambo. The era of the Crusades. Rusich. Smolensk 2001
3.D. Legman, G. Li. History of the Templars. OLMA-PRESS. Moscow. 2002
4.Myachin A.N. and others. One Hundred Great Battles. EVEN. Moscow. 1998
5. Website "Templars" (http://www.tamplieres.by.ru)