Symbols of the Templars and their designations. Templars in the holy land

Chapter 2. Anatomical differences from the ancestors. He is not yet a man who has not experienced love, war and hunger. 16th Century French Proverb The Hungry History of Mankind - What is a Holiday? - asked one little girl. “This is when they give cakes,” the child answered

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The list of great masters of the Knights Templar order (after 1314) contained in the so-called Charter of Larmenius and published in 1804 is a list of great masters of the Knights Templar after the execution in 1314 of the last reliable great ... ... Wikipedia

Coat of arms of the Grand Master The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order is the highest executive position in the Teutonic Order. He was in charge of domestic policy: territorial management, personnel policy, management of other matters of the order as well ... Wikipedia

Coat of arms of the Grand Master The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order is the highest executive position in the Teutonic Order. He was in charge of domestic policy: territorial management, personnel policy, management of other matters of the order as well ... Wikipedia

Coat of arms of the Grand Master Grand Master of the Teutonic Order top executive position in the Teutonic Horde ... Wikipedia

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Grand Master: Grand Master in Freemasonry, is the head of the lodges in his Masonic jurisdiction. The Grand Master of the Order is also a grandmaster (French Grand maître, German Großmeister, Spanish Gran Maestre) the title of the highest person and ... ... Wikipedia

Coat of arms of the Grand Master The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order is the highest executive position in the Teutonic Order. He was in charge of domestic policy: territorial management, personnel policy, management of other matters of the order as well ... Wikipedia

Jerusalem, Rhodes and Maltese Sovereign Military Odd Acceptance of the Order of St. John Ordre souverain militaire hospitalier de Saint Jean, de Jérusalem, de Rhodes et de Malte, Sovrano militare ordine ospedaliero di San Giovanni, di ... ... Wikipedia

The history of the birth, heyday and fall of the Knights of the Templar, or the “Knights Templars”, is perhaps one of the most romantic legends in the world in which we live.

No matter how much time has passed, how many centuries the bas-reliefs have covered with gray dust on the graves of the martyrs of the Order, how many books have not been read, and how many times history buffs have not pronounced the name of the great Jacques de Molay - still, romantics and visionaries, scholars and hoaxers in different countries still collect backpacks to go on a hike for the “Templar gold”. Someone is seriously studying the maps of mines and mines, scouring the ruins of castles and drawing the ways of the Templars in Europe, someone is looking for his "treasure" on the pages of bestsellers, trying to find it through literary fame.

And none of us - neither dreamers nor scientists, was given the chance to find out "how it was" - in fact. We only have historical chronicles and memoirs of contemporaries, documents of the Inquisition and, to this day, sometimes pop-up letters and old scrolls from the personal archives of noble families in Europe.

Someone gives the history of the Templars a religious coloring, someone secular. We will try to discover the truth for ourselves - as much as possible through the thick of the ages.

Francois Marius Granier "Pope Honorius II, granting official recognition to the Knights Templar."

“Knights of the temple”

Soon after the successful outcome of the First Crusade and the establishment on the earth of Palestine of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, the first military state inhabited mainly by European knights, a flood of pilgrims poured into the Holy Land, attracted by the utopian idea of \u200b\u200ba safe life among Christian shrines. The hordes of the people wandering “through the land of Jesus,” naturally, attracted not only the attention of Muslims who were enraged by the seizure of their native territories and cities, but also their revenge - terrible and uncompromising. The terrain along which the pilgrims' routes passed was flooded with robbers and murderers. The road to the Holy City has become mortally dangerous for pilgrims.

The European monarchs were pleased with the outcome of the Crusade - the mission was completed, the Holy Land was practically cleared. They considered the remaining Muslim settlements to be just an annoying hindrance to the bright Christian world, and hoped that the knights who were promised generous land allotments would gradually eliminate this hindrance. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Jerusalem began to slowly empty - the knights sought to go home to their families and tribal nests, and no rewards could stop most of them. What, then, should be done with pilgrims daily subjected to violence, plunder, and murder? .. They needed protection.

The first, in the history of the Templar Order, the Grand Master - Hugo de Payen Here is what Bishop William of Tire wrote about this in 1119, who for some time headed the Church of the Jerusalem State: “Some noble people of knightly origin, faithful to God, religious and God-fearing, declared their desire to spend his whole life in chastity, obedience and without property, betraying himself to Mr. Patriarch for service following the example of regular canons. ” Several knights of high descent, asking for blessings from the King and the Church, volunteered to take care of protecting the pilgrims and all Christians who traveled in large numbers around the Holy Land. To do this, they founded the spiritual and chivalric order of the “Pauper Knights”, the secular basis of which was equalized and harmonized with the foundations of the church. That is, the temple brothers, entering the order, did not assume the monastic rank, but spiritually and physically, in fact, they became.

The Order was headed by one of its founders, the noble champagne knight Hugo de Payen, who became the first Grand Master in the history of the Order. And so, in front of the King and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Hugo and eight of his loyal commanders - Gottfried de Saint-Omer, Andre de Montbar, Gundomar, Godfron, Roral, Geoffroy Bitol, Nivar de Mondesir, and Arshambo de Saint-Enignan took an oath to protect Christians, wandering or in need of help, to the last drop of blood, and also brought three monastic vows.

For the sake of absolute historical justice, the author of the article would like to note that, in fact, the foundation of such an order became the phenomenon of the Seal of the Templar Order, completely unprecedented, many centuries ahead of its time. In this case, this association of knights was not yet another monastic order, it was not some kind of spiritual organization - in fact, they organized the first of the “non-governmental non-commercial organizations” that we know today, in order to promote the idea and raise funds. The propaganda of the idea - the necessity of the existence of such an order - consisted in the successful protection of the pilgrims already being carried out, but how could they raise funds? .. After all, the Templars themselves were unusually poor - to the extent that two knights had one horse. As a result, when the influence of the templars spread quite extensively, they created a seal in memory of the old days of the Order - this seal depicts two horsemen on one horse.

For ten long years, the templars led a completely miserable existence, observing the charter of the Order of St. Augustine the Blessed, for lack of their own. It would have continued if King of Baldwin II “The Leper”, somewhat offended personally by such a plight of affairs of his ward, would not send Hugo de Payen to Pope Honorius II with a demand to initiate the Second Crusade, motivating his necessity with arrogance Muslim warriors who continued to make sorties into the territory of the newly formed state.

Baldwin was generally very supportive of the Order of the “Poor Knights” - he even provided them, who had no property of their own, with a church in his palace south of the ruins of the Temple of Solomon so that they could gather for prayer there. It was this fact that served as the starting point for the formation of the order that we are familiar with from the descriptions today: “Temple” (French template), gave people an occasion to call the knights “those of the Temple”, “temples”. About the official name - "Beggar Knights" no one ever remembered.

De Payen, accompanied by a small number of comrades, traveled almost the whole of Europe, not only persuading the sovereigns to gather troops for the Crusade, but also simultaneously collecting a few and reluctant donations. The culmination of this trip was the presence of Hugo de Payne and the Knights Templar at the Great Church Council in the French city of Troyes - and this presence was due to the personal request of the Pope.

This was useful, and De Payen, as the head of the Order, understood the importance of speaking at the Council - a good performance could provide support for the Church, and support for the Church - support for the heads of different countries. De Payen spoke for a long time and eloquently, bewitching this spoiled and blinkered church audience with pictures of a beautiful new, Christian world that would take its source from the throne of Jerusalem. The Fathers of the Council, conquered by his speech, turned to Bernard of Clairvaux, who was present there, who did not hide his obvious sympathies for the Templars, with a request to write a charter for the new order, which everyone would be happy with. The Fathers of the Church also rendered great honor to the knights, having ordered them to always wear white and black clothes, decorated with a red cross. At the same time, a prototype of the first military banner of the Templars, called Bossean, was created.
The abbot of Clervaux, belonging to the order of the Cistercians, brought this warlike spirit into the Charter of the Templars, later called Latin. Bernard wrote: “The soldiers of Christ are not in the least afraid of either committing a sin by killing enemies, or the danger that threatens their own life. After all, to kill someone for Christ's sake or to wish to accept death for His sake is not only completely free from sin, but also very commendable and worthy. "

In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a bull, according to which the Templars, by then already becoming a rather large, non-poor order, gave them significant privileges, such as the establishment of a chaplain, exemption from tithing and permission to build chapels and have their own cemeteries. But most importantly - wanting to have his own defenders, the Pope subordinated the Order to a single person, entrusting the master and his chapter with full responsibility for the politics and administration of the order. This meant absolute freedom for the Templars. And absolute freedom brings absolute power.

This event opened all the ways of the world to the Beggar Knights and became a new chapter in their history - the head of an unprecedented flowering.

Golden Age of the Order

Manashery clothes of the Templar Order Initially, all the brothers of the Order were divided, according to the Charter, into two categories: “knights” - or “Chevalier brothers”, and “ministers” - or “sergeant brothers”. These ranks themselves indicate that only knights of noble birth were accepted in the first category, any man of noble birth could enter the second category, without any hope of becoming a “Chevalier brother” with time. The Grand Master, who was not an elected figure - each Master, even during his lifetime, had to choose his successor - possessed almost unlimited control power of the Order, which was granted by the Pope. Initially, the Templars were categorically against joining the ranks of the priestly brothers, but, nevertheless, some decades later, from the moment of its formation, even a certain special class of monk brothers appeared in the ranks of the templars, which was very convenient and even advisable: monks did not they could shed blood, besides, they sent services to their own churches of the Order.

Since women were not allowed to join the Order, married knights in the Order were also reluctantly accepted, restricting them in choosing colors for clothes. For example, married knights were deprived of the right to wear white robes as a symbol of physical cleanliness and “sinlessness”.

The family of the married Templars, after the entry of her head into the Order, was waiting for an unenviable fate on the line of inheritance. In the event that the married brother retreated to another world, all his property, according to the "Agreement of entry", came into common possession, and his wife had to leave the estate in a short time, so as not to tempt the knights and novices of the Order with their appearance. But since the Templars were famous benefactors, the widow and close family members of the deceased always received full financial support from the treasurers of the Order (usually secular, “hired” figures) until the end of their lives.

Thanks to this membership policy, the Templar Order soon possessed vast possessions not only in the Holy Land, but also in European countries: France, England, Scotland, Flanders, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Germany, Hungary.

Information: The medieval Castle Temple (Tour du Temple) has survived to our time only on the pages of historical documents, on ancient paintings and engravings. The Parisian “temple” of the Knightly Order was destroyed according to the decree of Napoleon I in 1810.

The Catholic Order of the Poor Knights of Christ in 1119 was founded on the Holy Land of Palestine. After the capture of Jerusalem by the Egyptians, religious members of the order left Palestine. By that time they possessed tremendous wealth and vast lands in Europe. A significant part of the monastic knights came from the French noble families.

In 1222, the Paris Temple was built. The castle, surrounded by a deep moat, was considered impregnable. Seven towers towered inside the fortress walls; there was a Gothic church with two apses and lancet openings. Along the walls of the spacious cloister were barracks and stables.

In the spring of 1306, the Grand Master of the Templars arrived in Paris - whitened by gray-haired Jacques de Molay. He was accompanied by sixty knights of the Order. The procession entered the capital on horses and mules. Priests carried the ashes of the forerunner of the forerunner of Molay - Guillaume de God. The treasury of the Templars was also transported to Paris.

The residence of the Master of the Order was the main tower of Temple. This powerful structure could only be reached via a drawbridge from the roof of the barracks. The bridge was driven by complex mechanisms. In a matter of moments he rose, the heavy gates fell, the forged gratings fell, and the Main Tower became unattainable from the ground. The Grand Master lived in the tower, reporting only to Kapitul.

The chapter of the Knights Templar sat in the castle church. A spiral staircase leading to the crypt was installed in the middle of the main corridor of the temple. Crypt stone slabs hid the tomb of the Masters; the treasury of the Order was kept at one of the levels of the secret dungeon.

Also, it is the Templars who are considered to be the founders of banking - it is the treasurers of the Order who own the idea of \u200b\u200bordinary and “travel” checks. The most interesting thing is that such a scheme is still, one might say, a “classic” of modern banking. Appreciate its beauty, simplicity and practicality: the presence of such checks relieved travelers of the need to transport gold and precious stones with them, every minute afraid of the attack of robbers and death. Instead, the possessor of values \u200b\u200bcould appear in any “commentary” of the Order and deposit all these things into its treasury, receiving in return a check signed by the Chief Treasurer (!!!) and a fingerprint ... of his own finger (!!!), so that after that calm soul hit the road with a small piece of skin. Also, for operations with a check, the Order took a small tax - when cashing the values \u200b\u200bindicated on the check! .. Think for one minute, does this not remind you of modern banking operations? .. If the holder of the check could exhaust its limit, but need in money, the Order issued him such, at the expense of subsequent repayment. There was also a highly developed system of what we would call “accounting” today: twice a year all checks were sent to the main commentary of the Order, where they were counted in detail, the state balance was summarized and archived. The knights did not shy away from usury, or, if you like, “bank lending” - any wealthy person could get a loan at ten percent, while Jewish moneylenders or state treasuries gave at forty percent.

Possessing such a developed banking structure, in speed, the Templars became necessary for the Court. So, for example, for twenty-five years, two treasurers of the Order - Gaimar and de Milli - oversaw the treasury of the French monarchy, while performing, at the request of Philip II Augustus, the functions of the Minister of Finance, that is, practically managing the country. When Louis IX the Holy ascended to the throne, the French treasury was completely transferred to Temple, remaining there under his successor.

Thus, the “poor knights” in a relatively short time acquired the status of the largest financiers of Europe and the East. Among their debtors went absolutely all sections of the population - from ordinary citizens to the most august persons and fathers of the Church.
  Charity

A special place in the to-do list of the Order is also taken by rationalization and charity.

Since the Templars were not only the richest of all existing orders, but also the most attractive to the new brothers in terms of opportunities, many outstanding minds and talents of his time worked under his auspices.

The Templars, without stint, spent huge sums on the development of sciences and arts, on patronage of artists, musicians, and poets. But still, the soldiers remain soldiers, and the main area of \u200b\u200binterest of the templars was the development of such fields as geodesy, cartography, mathematics, physical sciences, construction sciences, navigation. By that time, the Order had long owned its own shipyards, ports, and its own modern and super-equipped fleet, not controlled by the power of the kings - it’s enough to mention that all its ships had magnetic (!!!) compasses. Sea Templars were actively engaged in commercial cargo and passenger transportation, transporting pilgrims from Europe to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. For this they received generous remuneration and church support.

No less active, the Templars were engaged in the construction of roads and churches. The quality of travel to the Middle Ages could be described as “continuous robbery, multiplied by the lack of roads” - if you are a pilgrim, be sure that you will be robbed not only by robbers, but also by state tax collectors who have a post at each bridge on each the road. And the Templars, to the displeasure of the authorities, solved this problem - they took up the active construction of beautiful roads and strong bridges that guarded their own detachments. One “financial phenomenon” is also associated with this construction, which, according to the serks of the Middle Ages, is completely nonsense - the knights did not charge taxes, not a single coin for travel! .. Also, in less than a hundred years, the Order throughout Europe at least 80 large cathedrals and at least 70 churches were built, while the monks who inhabited these churches and cathedrals were completely supportive of the Templars.

The common people were not just disposed to the templars - people deeply appreciated the nobility of these warriors. In the most difficult times, when there was a famine and the price of a measure of wheat was a gigantic sum of thirty-three sou, the Templars fed up to a thousand people in one place, not counting daily meals for those in need.

Like, Jacques de. Last Grand Master of the Order

Beginning of the End

The scene of the crusade of the Knights of the Knights Templar And yet, the main vocation of the Templars, as before, remained chivalry, in particular - the war with the Muslims, which continued in the Holy Land. The main means and resources of the Order were spent on these wars. In these wars, the templars succeeded - it is known that the Muslim warriors were so afraid of the Templars and hospitaliers that Sultan Sallah ad Din even took the oath "To cleanse their land from these filthy orders."

The French monarch Louis VII, who led the Second Crusade with his army, later wrote in his notes that the Templars had given him tremendous support, and he could not even imagine what his troops would expect if there weren’t the templars with them.

However, not all European monarchs had such a high opinion of the reliability and loyalty of the Templars. For example, many royal persons insisted that peace should be concluded with the Saracens, and so, in 1228, Frederick II Barbarossa concluded this agreement.

The Templars were furious - according to this agreement, the Saracens pledged to transfer Jerusalem to Christians. The Grand Master of the Order considered this a huge strategic mistake - after all, Jerusalem was practically in a blockade, surrounded by Muslim territories. But Frederick, who did not like the Templars - for many reasons, and the wealth of the Order was not the last of them - chose to go into open conflict, accusing the knights of treason. The Templars answered him with threats, after which Frederick became so frightened that in the very near future he turned his troops and left the Holy Land. But the departure of Barbarossa did not cancel the contract, and the situation from bad to disastrous ceased.

It can be said that the Seventh Campaign, led by King Louis the Saint, inexperienced in tactical and political matters, drove the last nail into the lid of the tomb of the Christian Kingdom. Louis, who has no experience in the Eastern regulations, for his part, terminated the contract, which was hardly concluded by the Grand Master of the Templars with the Sultan of Damascus - the main stronghold of the Saracens. The consequences of this rash step were immediately felt - the Muslim army, not restrained by anything, won one victory after another, and the losses among the Jerusalem knights were huge. Christians lost city after city, and even were forced to shamefully surrender Jerusalem - after a long siege and a fierce battle.

In the spring of 1291, the Saracen sultan Kilavun with his troops besieged the city of Agra, which at that time was the last bastion of chivalry in Palestine. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the battle was truly terrible, and the numerical superiority was on the side of the Muslims. The Saracens dared to defend themselves and burst into the city, committing the brutal massacre in which the Grand Master of the Templars perished.

The surviving Templars and Hospitallers hid in the tower of their residence, where they managed to resist the enemy for some time, but the Muslims, who could not get them out of there, came up with a way to solve everything at once. They began to dig and dismantle the tower at the same time, which led to its collapse. She fell, burying both the knights and the Saracens underneath.

All these events at one moment closed this chapter of the history of Christian chivalry, putting an end to the story of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Philip IV the Beautiful (King of France)

Fall of the order

With the fall of the Holy Kingdom, the position of the Templars became unenviable. Possessing the same power, both numerical and financial, they lost the main goal, which was the essence of its existence: the protection and defense of Jerusalem.

The European monks and the Church, for whom the need for the Order was no longer urgent, blamed them for the fall of the Christian kingdom - and this despite the fact that it was thanks to the Templars that he managed to survive for so long. The templars began to be accused of heresy and betrayal, that they personally gave the Holy Sepulcher to the Saracens and renounced God, and could not preserve the main value of the Christian world - the land on which Jesus' feet walked.

Especially the position of the Order did not suit the French monarch Philip IV the Beautiful, who ruled the country as an absolute tyrant and did not intend to tolerate anyone's interference in the affairs of the crown. In addition, Philip was saddled with a huge amount of debt to the Order. At the same time, Philip was smart, and was well aware that the Templars were a powerful, wealthy military organization, not accountable to anyone except the Pope.

Then Philip decided to act not by force, but by cunning. On his behalf, he wrote a petition to the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, in which he asked to be accepted as honorary knights. De Mola, considered one of the wisest politicians and strategists of his time, rejected this petition, realizing that Philip was striving to take over the post of Grand Master in time to make the treasury of the Order his own.

Philip was furious with the refusal, vowed in any way to end the existence of the Order, since he was unable to conquer it. And such an opportunity soon presented itself to him.

Last Grand Master of the Knights Templar Jacques de Molay.

The former Templar, the “Chevalier brother”, expelled by the Templars for the murder of his brother, while in state prison for other crimes, counting on condescension, confessed to the sins against the faith that he allegedly committed while being in the Order, along with other brothers.

The king immediately launched an investigation against the Order, exerting the most aggressive pressure on the Pope demanding that the Templars be denied all privileges. He issued an independent decree, sent out to all provinces, indicating "the Knights Templar should be seized, arrested and their property taken to the treasury."

On October 13, 1307, almost all members of the Order, who did not manage to take cover or were burdened by their families, were captured by the troops of Philip and arrested, and their property was confiscated.

According to the protocols of interrogation of the Inquisition available today, the Templars were accused of renouncing the Lord, insulting the Cross, heresy, sodomy, worshiping a certain “Bearded Head”, which is one of the hypostases of the demon Baphomet. Subjected to terrible torture, many knights confessed practically everything, and now, the Pope issued a bull that all European monarchs should begin the arrests of the Templars in all countries, as well as seize property in favor of the treasury and the Church - both their own and property of the Order , as well as land. This bull marked the beginning of lawsuits in Germany, Italy, England, on the Iberian Peninsula and in Cyprus, where was the second largest residence of the Grand Master after Paris.
  After a long, all-European investigation, torture and humiliation, in 1310 near the monastery of St. Anthony near Paris, 54 knights ascended the stake, who found the strength to refuse the testimony they gave under torture. Philip the Beautiful celebrated the victory - papal bull of April 5, 1312, the Order of the Temple was officially abolished and ceased to exist.

The sentence to the Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, was pronounced only in 1314 - Philip wanted to fully enjoy the humiliation of a man who was once so powerful that he could boldly ignore his wishes. Before the trial, the Grand Master, as well as Prior of Normandy Geoffrey de Charne, French visitor Hugo de Peyro and Prior Aquitaine Godfroix de Gonville, fully acknowledged the charges and repented of the atrocities committed, as a result of which, on the initiative of the Pope, the church court replaced the death penalty for them with imprisonment. Historians believe that on the part of the Master it was a political move - the trial of the Templars was held in public. After hearing the verdict, de Molay and de Charnay publicly renounced previous confessions, torn out under torture. Grand Master Jacques de Molay said he would prefer death to a conclusion that degrades his dignity and the pride of a warrior. That very evening, a fire consumed them too.

And so, in bonfires and torture, humiliation and slander, the unique story of the great Order of the poor Knights of Christ, the elephant defeated by the mouse, ended. So the giant fell who could not break wars and defeats, but broke greed.

Templar Church (Temple), London, UK

An old legend tells that in the grave crypt of the Templars every year, on the night of the destruction of their order, there is a ghost in a white mantle with a red cross and asks who will fight for the release of the Holy Sepulcher. And then because of the vaults he clearly hears the answer: "No one! Nobody! Because the Temple is destroyed."

On March 18, 1314, the Grand Master of the Order of the Temple (Templars) Jacques de Molay was burned over low heat. Together with the Templars, the era of chivalry, crusades, and spiritual quests virtually disappears from the historical scene.

Nearly 200 years before this event, which was called by the Itorians the worst crime of the Middle Ages, in 1119, the Knights Hugues (Hugo) de Payen and Geoffrey de Saint-Omer with seven comrades on the ruins of the temple of Solomon at the Holy Sepulcher took an oath to protect the roads to Jerusalem so that pilgrims without all fear could travel on them. The name of the order comes from the French word "temple" - the temple. The knights, who gave, in addition to the "protective", three monastic vows (obedience, abstinence, poverty), opened a completely different kind of activity. To their desire to fight the enemies of Christianity, consonant with the spirit of the times, religious enthusiasm is added.

The charter of the order was mainly based on the charter of a very severe order of the Cisterians (the Templars borrowed uniforms from them - a white cloak with a red cross): monastic warriors were ordered to be chaste; He who wanted to join the fraternity became a servant and a slave of the order; he was supposed to have bread, water, and simple clothes. The charter was developed by the Cisterian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux in 1128. Pope Innocent at the Troyes Cathedral in the same year approved it, and Pope Eugene III (1145-1154) - a red eight-pointed cross and the standard of the Order of the “Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon”, known as the black-and-white Bosean, on which was inscribed : "Non nobis Domine" ("Not to us, Lord, not to us, but give Thy name to glory ..."). Templar residence in Paris - Templar fortress and quarter. In the Paris residence, the main funds of the Order were stored.

The order gradually became a "state in the state." His life from top to bottom was a system of obedience worked out to automatism. The Grand Master, relying on the chapter, with a firm hand led the community of monks; the general chapter (from 100 to 300 knights) chose the Grand Master. The elite of the order were “whites” - aristocrats-nobles who owned power and property, and, to some degree, priests who were under the masters or served in churches. At different times they comprised from 10 to 25% of the composition. The brothers “sergeants,” or “brown,” served as squire and infantrymen during the war, and in peacetime they ran the household. At the very bottom of this hierarchical "ladder" were dependent peasants and slaves taken out of Palestine. One indispensable condition bound the Tapliers - no one could leave the Order.

Thousands of knights of the most noble blood wished to become members of the fraternity. The Templars were members of numerous military companies in the Middle East. Their role in the Crusades is difficult to overestimate. Until the fall in 1291, the Templars and the Knights' Order of the Hospitallers (Johannites) were the main striking force in the fight against Muslims.

To understand the following, it is important to note that the Order did not recognize any secular authority (except papal, often nominal) and possessed the right of extremality. His possessions were scattered throughout Europe - in France, England, Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece and Cyprus.

The Templars were given an important privilege by the popes: they independently operated with huge amounts of money sent through various channels to the Crusades. In their hands were many ways along which the crusaders and pilgrims went to the Holy Land.

By the end of the XII century, trade (from Europe brought weapons, food, horses to the Middle East; wine, fabrics, spices and sugar, carpets, silk, perfumes in the opposite direction) became indispensable, and the closer to the tragedy, the main component of politics Order. In Europe, the Templars became the main moneylenders and the largest contractors in the construction of churches.

Large feudal lords, wanting to enlist the support of the powerful Order, gave them lands and castles. Despite the Templars' passion for trading, not one Crusade, starting with the Second, could not do without their participation. More than 20 thousand members of the Order died in the Holy Land, including six Grand Masters out of 23. So in the famous battle in the mountains of Laodicea, now southern Turkey (1148), during the Second Crusade 200 knights (mostly Templars ), who were the retinue of King Louis VII, were able to restrain the frantic attacks of 20,000 Muslims. Like the hospitaliers, to the last drop of blood they defended a large stronghold of Christians. With his fall, the Order seemed to have lost ground.

The historical ascent of the Templars, spiritual warriors, was a direct challenge to secular power. But sooner or later, the "union" with the popes could give a serious crack. With the actual submission of the papal throne to the French king Philip IV the Beautiful, the position of the Templars in France became increasingly dangerous.

coat of arms of the Knights Templar

Historians often exaggerate the wealth of the Templars. Hospitallers - their constant rivals (but in battles with Muslims - allies), were no less powerful. It was in France that the most significant Templar estates were located. Philip IV the Beautiful, whom the knights constantly loaned money, owed his life to him (during the mob revolt in 1306, the king took refuge in Temple Castle), at some point he felt the burden of “gratitude”.

Having such a powerful, completely unaccountable organization at hand, one could hardly consider himself an absolute ruler. To lay hands on the property of the Order, but to arrange the matter in such a way that it looked in the eyes of everyone, as a struggle against sinfulness, this is the task the king of France wanted to solve, deeply wounded by the refusal of the capital to be admitted to the “honorary knights”.

And he brilliantly dealt with her. After the fall of Acre, the Order moves to Cyprus. The struggle for the Holy Land took too much power from the templars; the chapter decides to gradually transfer its affairs to France. In 1306, Jacques de Molay, accompanied by 60 of the most respected knights, went to the banks of the Seine. The Grand Master took the order treasury with him (150 thousand gold coins and dozens of bales of silver). At an evil hour, the Templars returned - the king finally subjugated the popes to his power. In 1309, already in the process of the Templars, they moved their residence to Avignon - a fortified city, surrounded by the French crown. After the death of the Order, the papacy no longer claimed world domination.

On September 14, 1307, letters signed by the king were sent to officials throughout France with the order: October 13, Friday, to open the envelope. Philip IV ordered the arrest of all the Templars and confiscation of their property. Deciding on such a step, which would inevitably shock public opinion, it was required to quickly substantiate it with the help of squeezed ... testimonies. And for the sake of receiving them, everything was good: promises, threats, violence - there would be a result.

On October 19, 1307, the Inquisition machine was launched: the press custodian and Chancellor of the Kingdom Guillaume de Nogaret led the process. His many assistants recorded the confessions of 138 prisoners held in Temple. As early as October 16, appeals were sent to all the rulers of the Christian world, which spoke of the involvement of the Templars in heresy; called on kings and counts to follow the example of the French king.

Only four Templars, not broken by torture, refused to admit their guilt. In Paris alone, 36 knights died under torture. The process lasted intermittently for almost seven years. On March 18, 1314, at a special council, the cardinals heard Jacques de Molay, Hugo de Peyro, Geoffrey de Gonneville and Geoffroy de Charne. Pope Clement V finally betrayed the Templars, signing the Templars for life imprisonment in particularly harsh conditions. One of the council members described his move as follows:

"... When the cardinals had already found the case closed, completely unexpectedly, two of the convicts, namely the Grand Master (J. de Mollet) and the Prior of Normandy (J. de Charne), came forward with a stunning self-defense, turning words to the cardinal, who only that he delivered a sermon to the archbishop of Sanskoy, and renounced his testimony made earlier, as well as all that he had previously admitted. " (E. Zharinov. "Jacques de Mollet")

The Grand Master, turning to the council, noted the enormous role that the Templars played in the fight against the Saracens:

“They, and not you, suffered from hunger, illnesses, and from the scorching sun ... But you forgot that your court is not the only one. And therefore I declare that King Philippe the Beautiful and Pope Clement V will appear with me in another Court. And the Lord will call them to him within 12 months, which expire from the day of our execution. "

Executed as unrepentant heretics that very evening, March 18, 1314, de Molay and de Charnet carried away with them many secrets. The archives of the Order mysteriously disappeared, like almost all the gold and silver ... The mystery of the knights ’ties with the American continent, where the ships with the Templar’s \u200b\u200btreasures had gone from the fortress port of La Rochelle, has not been solved.

In the novel Iron King, the writer M. Druon, who used serious historical documents, cites the last words of the Grand Master uttered at the stake:

"... Pope Clement ... Knight Guillaume de Nogare, King Philippe ... less than a year later I will call you to the judgment of God and you will be justly punished! Curse! Curse on your clan to the thirteenth knee! ... "

Philip

The prophecy came true with magical accuracy. Pope Clement V died on April 20, 1314. Philip IV Handsome at the age of 46, died on November 29, 1314 from a very mysterious disease. His sons, alternately ascending the throne, Louis X Svarlivy, Philip V Long and Charles IV the Beautiful, as if they were under the "sight" of the Order. In 1328, i.e. 15 years later, the Capetian dynasty was stopped. It was this fact that led to the destructive, destructive for both France and England, the Hundred Years War (1337-1454). From a terrible poisoning, even before the death of his overlord, Guilloy de Nogare died. And after a little less than five centuries, the gloomy Temple building will become the last refuge of the Bourbon branch of the Capetings - King Louis XVI and his family ...

History of the medieval Knights Templar

March 18, 1314 in Paris, opposite the royal palace, an unusual bustle reigned. Carpenters hurriedly built a fire. In the evening, they brought here the Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Prior of Normandy, Geoffrey de Charnet. Exhausted by many years of imprisonment, the old men voluntarily took off their clothes, prayed, and ascended the woodpile. King of France Philippe the Beautiful watched what was happening from the palace gallery.

The Templars were to suffer painfully burning over low heat without first strangulation. Bonfire flared up for a long time. At the last moment, when the flame already covered the body of the master, he shouted loudly: “Pope Clement! King Philip! Guillaume de Nogaret! In less than a year, I will call you to the Judgment of God! A curse on your clan up to 13 knees! ”

Headquarters of the Order of Militia Templi (Siena).

Soon, Pope Clement V got a stomachache. The doctors prescribed him to drink crushed emeralds, and on April 20 of the same year the viceroy of God on earth died in terrible convulsions from bloody diarrhea. Under mysterious circumstances, the guardian of the royal seal Guillaume de Nogare went next to the next world. November 29, 1314 Philip fell on a hunt with a horse. The paralyzed king was brought to the castle, where he died suddenly. Over the next 14 years, all of Philip's sons died. The Capetian dynasty, which ruled the country since 987, was interrupted.

After the end of the early Middle Ages, relative peace reigned in Europe. The warriors who had tamed the Vikings and Hungarians simply had nothing to do. At the same time, constant clashes with Muslims took place on the southern borders. The harvest years, the economic upsurge of Europe, the capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens, and the defeat of peasant crowds who set off to “liberate the Holy Land” - all this made it possible for knights to switch from plundering peasants to massacre of Arabs.

On July 14, 1099, the crusaders killed the entire population of Jerusalem, created a new Christian kingdom and returned home with a sense of accomplishment. Pilgrims reached the holy places, in connection with which an unexpected problem arose - they had to be guarded by someone. The city was under the control of King Baldwin II, but robbers of all stripes and nationalities were atrocious in the vicinity. The unfortunate pilgrims were massacred on an industrial scale, and everyone didn’t give a damn about it.

All but 9 god-fearing French knights - veterans of the First Crusade. History has preserved their names: Hugo de Payne, Godfroix de Saint-Omer, Payne de Mondidier, Andre de Montbar, Hugo de Champagne, Gundomar, Gofred Bisol, Geoffroy Bisot and Arsambo de Saint-Aman. In 1119 (historians are not sure about the accuracy of this date), the first two came to the court of King Baldwin II and offered their services to protect the pilgrims on the way from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The king did not object to free military assistance and gave the knights the southern wing of his palace (Al-Aqsa Mosque).

Al-Aqsa Mosque, Former Templar Headquarters

From a historical point of view, the place was magnificent. Somewhere here supposedly stood the legendary Temple of Solomon. That is why the knights began to be called “temples” (“temple” in French “temple”, hence the Templars), or rather, “the mendicant knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon”. The emblem of the Templars emphasized their poverty and depicted two warriors riding one horse.

However, the templars did not succeed in begging in full force. Jerusalem chroniclers left very little mention of the early years of the Templars. Some suggest that the knights for about 9 years did not accept anyone in their ranks and guarded the roads from robbers (hundreds of kilometers by the forces of a dozen people). According to another, more believable version, as soon as the templars received an elegant headquarters from the king, they immediately went to Europe to look for sponsors.

By 1127, the ranks of the templars expanded, Hugo de Payne made several diplomatic tours and enlisted the support of the most respected theologian Bernard of Clairvaux (Uncle Andre de Montbar), ranked as a saint. This card was played by the Templars very competently: Bernard took up the “ideological” work and began to agitate the clergy to assist the “brother knights”. As a result, Pope Honorius II convened a cathedral in Troyes (1129), where the Catholic Church officially recognized the Knights Templar, approved its Charter and appointed Hugo de Payne as Grand Master.
The Templar charter had 72 articles. The first seven impose various religious obligations on the templars: they determine how many (13 to 100) times and under what circumstances it is necessary to read Our Father, and in the event of the death of one of the brothers, they oblige them to feed the poor for seven days.

The remaining chapters determine the daily life of knights. Eat silently while listening to scripture reading. Meat - twice a week. A tenth of the bread needs to be given to the poor. After the evening, you should also be silent (except in cases of military operations). Women are not accepted into the Order. Kissing with the "vessels of sin", including mothers, sisters and daughters, is prohibited. After the death of the templar, his widow receives a pension.

The clothes of the “Chevaliers” who have taken the vow of celibacy are white. The clothes of the “sergeants” are black. No fur trimmings other than sheepskin are allowed. Gold or silver elements of equipment are prohibited (it was allowed to use gold-plated armor if they were painted beforehand). Horses - no more than three. You can’t cut your beard and mustache. Shoes - without laces and sharp noses. The bed is a straw mattress. All night in a common bedchamber a fire should burn.

It was forbidden to have bags or chests with locks. All personal correspondence is read in the presence of the master. All gifts are transferred to the ownership of the Order. You can’t hunt - the exception is made only in relation to the lions, because they "walk in circles and look for someone to eat."

One of the flags of the Templar Order

In 1139, Pope Innocent II took the Templars under his personal protection, publishing the bull Omne Datum Optimum, according to which the templars could keep all military booty, were exempted from all taxes, received autonomy from secular authorities and courts. Bulla Milites Templi (1144) took away the sins of all who donated the order, and therefore the number of people who wanted to part with the money increased significantly, and Bulla Militia Dei (1145) allowed the Templars to build their own churches (parishioners also meant additional income) and bury the dead knights in their own cemeteries.

The monarchs of Europe granted the Templars no less generous privileges. The mendicant knights began to receive fabulous profits. They owned hundreds of castles and huge land plots (by the end of the 13th century - about a million hectares). They bought the right to collect taxes from the kings, gave money for a loan at 10% per year (Jews at 40%) and organized a system of traveler’s checks: now the pilgrims going to the Holy Land paid a certain amount to the Templars at their place of residence and received a check, which could be cashed by the Templars in Jerusalem.

For a hundred years, templars have built over 150 of their own churches. In addition, they actively built roads and did not charge travelers (unlike the feudal lords, who often demanded money even for crossing bridges). Wealth allowed the Templars to conduct unprecedented charity events: their numerous commanders fed an army of beggars, and in the hunger years the knights supplied grain to thousands of poor people, preventing the extinction of large regions.

By the end of the 13th century, the Templars had all Europe in debt - from kings to peasants. The mendicant knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon became the largest transnational corporation on the planet. At the same time, the Order of the Temple was not the richest (other monastic orders had comparable resources) and the most influential in the political arena. It was a unique religious-military-financial organization - rapidly rising and well-armed.

By the beginning of the 14th century, the number of knights had reached 20,000, but only a few of them made up the “army wing” of this organization. At the very beginning of the Order's existence, the templars constituted a formidable military force.

Knights, according to contemporaries, were proud, arrogant, warlike, brave and, more importantly, disciplined. In major military operations, they formed the vanguards of the armies, sweeping away the enemy with the first onslaught of the cavalry. Ahead were the “white” Templars, followed by the “blacks”. In the best years of the Order's existence, its fighters were a kind of medieval special forces. The battle of Montjisar is evidence of the skill and reckless courage of the knights.

On November 25, 1177, the leper King of Jerusalem Baldwin IV with an army of 500 knights, 80 Templars led by the Grand Master and several thousand foot soldiers suddenly attacked the army of Saladin, numbering 26 thousand people. Knights killed almost all Arabs, including the legendary Mamelukes. Saladin was saved only because he mounted a thoroughbred “racing” camel and rode off the battlefield. It is not surprising that the Muslims fiercely hated the Templars and considered them the main enemies of Islam.

The habit of throwing itself at the enemy’s many times superior forces more than once turned out to the Templars sideways. At the Battle of Kishon, 600 people attacked an army of 7,000 Saracens. God's miracle did not happen - the Arabs, who had a big tooth on the Templars, not only killed their army, but also abused the bodies of the fallen. In the ensuing battle of Hattin (1187), Saladin captured many Christians, including the King of Jerusalem. He spared them all - except for the 230 Templars, tortured and executed.

The Templars should not be idealized. They were no better than their contemporaries. The knights deliberately violated the agreement, refused to return cash deposits, robbed caravans, participated in feudal feuds and were extremely reluctant to part with their wealth. After the battle of Hattin, Jerusalem fell. Saladin offered the Templars to redeem its inhabitants, but the order, created specifically to protect the city, refused to do this, and 16 thousand Christians fell into slavery.

Subsequent crusades did not have significant success - Jerusalem fell into the hands of Europeans for only a few months. Moreover, the Templars thwarted the cunning diplomatic policy of Richard, the brother of the English king, who managed to set Muslims against each other: the knights attacked the Egyptians, violating the peace treaty and causing a series of wars during which Christians forever lost the East.

In 1291, the Arabs took Acre, the new headquarters of the Temple Order. There were about 900 Templars in the city, most of whom (including Grand Master Guillaume de Beaujois) died defending a breach in the wall. The remaining templars managed to lock themselves in the tower, trick 300 Muslims into it and kill them. The angry sultan ordered a mine to be placed under the tower; she collapsed and buried the knights under the rubble.

After the end of the Crusades, the existence of military orders lost all meaning. The Templars took several “military PR actions”, trying to show their power, but it didn’t go beyond short-term land seizures. In just a few years, the templars turned into mercenaries and robbers. Under the leadership of the Grand Master Jacques de Molay there were about 15,000 people - a very serious force by the standards of that time, which could not be ignored. In addition, the Templars enjoyed the patronage of the Pope, who considered them his "militants" (although the templars obeyed him no more than any European monarch).

The wealth of the Order haunted the French king Philip the Beautiful, who had a large duty to the knights. Having come to power, Philip assembled a government “team” of ignoble, but very talented villains. The right hand of the king was the keeper of the seal Guillaume Nogare.
Philip tried to become a member of the Order with the prospect of leading it (unsuccessfully), and then he invited Jacques de Molay to move the Templars' residence to Paris - supposedly for further unification with the Order of Hospitallers and the organization of a new crusade. The king’s next step is secret negotiations with the puppet Pope, who “surrendered” the Templars, promising ideological support in their destruction.

How to defeat an organization with thousands of thugs? Philip carried out a police operation of an unprecedented scale even in modern times: on September 22, 1307 packets were sent to royal officials, commanders of military units and inquisitors with instructions to open them on Friday October 13. The arrest occurred at the same time, the knights did not show resistance.
The king was awfully disappointed - the legendary treasury of the Templars was empty. Money disappeared, and no one wanted to say where. It is reliably known that when moving to Paris, the templars equipped a long convoy with gold. Probably, the master foresaw the “special operation” of the king or, in spite of precautionary measures, found out about it from informants, and hid the money in one of the numerous castles of the Order.

Very colorful accusations were made against the knights: they say they spat on a crucifix, kissed each other in the ass, practiced homosexuality, distorted the words of prayers, worshiped a black idol with red eyes and smeared it with the fat of burnt Christian babies. The Templars, who were tortured, at first confessed to all their sins in unison (their testimonies were not much different from each other and seemed to be written with a carbon copy), and subsequently no less unanimously refused to testify.

After some procedural confusion with the jurisdiction of the accused, the knights went to the stake (mainly in France), landed in prisons, lost their ranks, were expelled, but sometimes they justified themselves. In England and Germany, the pope’s order to arrest the Templars was actually slowed down - the Templars were subject to minimal sanctions.

The property of the Templars - numerous castles in France, churches in England (for example, Temple Church and the Rosslyn Chapel, glorified by the "Da Vinci Code") - has survived to this day. However, until recently, only historians and elite real estate dealers were interested in it. Fantastic legends about the Order of the Temple appeared only in the 19th century - on the wave of enthusiasm for “fashionable” Freemasonry.

The greatest amount of fog was written by fiction writers around Jerusalem Temple. Like, the knights excavated in the basement of the Temple, stumbled upon an ancient system of tunnels and found there: a) the Ark of the covenant; b) The Holy Grail; c) manuscripts testifying of the cohabitation of Christ with Magdalene. They hid these riches in one of their temples, where relics are to this day.

The only shrine that the Templars really had was a piece of wood from the True Cross on which Jesus was crucified. According to the custom of those years, the instruments of execution buried at the place of its fulfillment. In 326, Elena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, authorized the excavation at Calvary. The True Cross was discovered, the touch of which healed the sick and raised the dead. As in the case of the relics of the saints, particles of this relic dispersed throughout the world. Skeptics point out that if you put them together, then the tree will be enough to build a warship.

Other legends of the Templars are as believable as the accusations made against them. Rumor has it that the surviving Templars “went underground” and continued to secretly influence the history of mankind. What exactly did they discover America, because on the sails of the Columbus caravels there were red crosses (the surviving templars really founded the Order of the Knights of the Cross in Spain).

The Templars swept through history like a comet - suddenly, brightly and very quickly. They burned down, making a lot of noise. Contemporaries and current scholars unanimously consider the allegations against them to be false. But even if they had not been subjected to legalized robbery, the fate of the Templars was already decided. With the extinction of the Crusades, the order lost its “ideological base”. Re-profiling, crushing and grinding awaited him - as happened with hospitaliers or Teutonicians. Someone believes that after the fall of the Templars, the decline of European chivalry began, complete with the spread of firearms. If you agree with this approach, then the decline of chivalry began much earlier - when the Templars began to serve not God, but the golden calf.