The capture of Jerusalem at the end of the First Crusade marked a decisive turning point in the history of medieval Europe. The Holy City was to be defended and preserved at all costs, while the sacred sites of Christendom were to be safeguarded in accordance with God’s will. To fight in order to pray: this was the spirit that gave rise to the Templars, monks and warriors, pilgrims and knights, whose story still endures today as the embodiment of a past both mysterious and evocative.
The First Crusade
Jerusalem is the navel of the world, […] This royal city, therefore, situated at the centre of the world, is now held captive by His enemies, and is in subjection to those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathens […]. Accordingly undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the kingdom of heaven […]. When an armed attack is made upon the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: It is the will of God! It is the will of God!”.
Robert the Monk, Historia Hierosolymitana, Lib. I, 1-2, 11071.
Thus, at the Council of Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban II called upon the princes of Europe to prepare an expedition to defend the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and liberate the city from Muslim control. This marked the beginning of the Crusades. However, it remains uncertain whether the Pope’s appeal truly contained the militant tones later attributed to it by contemporary chroniclers. For Urban II, the mission was as an iter or sancta peregrinatio: a journey of devotion and redemption intended to allow Christians to visit the Holy Land. Indeed, the very term “crusade” became more widely used after 1250, in connection with the custom of soldiers and pilgrims sewing a small cross onto their tunics or cloaks2.
Urban II’s appeal was answered and, in August 1096, the first armed expedition set out for the Holy Land. After three years of marches, battles, and sieges, the crusaders finally succeeded in capturing Jerusalem on 15 July 1099.
The emergence of the Jerusalemite Military Orders
The most difficult task, however, had only just begun. The crusaders had to defend Jerusalem and preserve the holy places, in a territory surrounded by enemies far from Europe. For this reason, religious communities and military orders emerged from the first years after the conquest of 1099. Their principal duties were to guard the crusader territories, assist and protect pilgrims, and secure supplies arriving from the West. Among the most important of these orders were the Knights Hospitaller, the Teutonic Order, the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, and above all the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Pauperes commilitones Christi templique Salomonis), better known as the Knights Templar.
The foundation of the Order of the Templars
The decision to become a “Knight of Christ” in the service of the pauperes Dei and in defence of the holy places of Christendom represented a true vocation. It demanded not only the renunciation of material goods and complete submission to the divine will, but also, at the same time, adequate military training. This particular spiritual calling profoundly shaped the life of Hugues de Payns, the founder of the Templars. A French knight in the service of the Count of Champagne, he first travelled to the Holy Land on pilgrimage. Captivated by the experience, he returned in 1113 and settled permanently in Jerusalem3. Gathering around him eight fellow knights, Hugues de Payns vowed to protect the holy places of Christ and their pilgrims.
This well-known tradition concerning the origins of the Christi milites was handed down by the archbishop William of Tyre in his Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum4. William dates the foundation of the Templars to 1118-1119. However, he was writing at least fifty years after the events he describes. His accounts must therefore be approached critically and understood in a symbolic sense, in keeping with medieval historiographical tradition.
In this same year, [1118] certain noble men of knightly rank, religious men, devoted to God and fearing him, bound themselves to Christ’s service in the hands of the Lord Patriarch. They promised to live in perpetuity as regular canons, without possessions, under vows of chastity and obedience. Their foremost leaders were the venerable Hugh of Payens and Geoffrey of St. Omer.
William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, second half of the XII century5.
Closer in time to the events described is the account of the monk and chronicler Simon of Saint-Bertin. According to him, some men (nonnulli) founded the fraternitas about twenty years earlier, in 1099:
While he [Godfrey] was reigning magnificently, some [of the crusaders] had decided not to return to the shadows of the world after suffering such dangers for God’s sake. On the advice of the princes of God’s army they vowed themselves to God’s Temple under this rule: they would renounce the world, give up personal goods, free themselves to pursue purity, and lead a communal life wearing a poor habit, only using arms to defend the land against the attacks of the insurgent pagans when necessity demanded.
Simon of Saint-Bertin, Gesta abbatum Sancti Bertini Sithiensium, c. 11406.
The mysterious origins of Hugues de Payns
The figure of Hugues de Payns, whom William of Tyre refers to by the Latin name Hugo de Paganis, is also shrouded in a haze of uncertainty. The most widely accepted theory is that the founder of the Templars was French and originated from the Champagne region. Important medieval scholars, such as Simonetta Cerrini7 and Marie-Luise Bulst-Thiele8, have traced his origins to a small village called Payns, not far from Troyes. Some documents from the counts of Champagne and the abbey of Molesmes indeed attest to a knight named Hugues, who set out for the Holy Land around 1113. Furthermore, he was descended from the lords of Montigny, distant relatives of Bernard of Clairvaux’s Montbard family.
According to other hypotheses, Hugo de Paganis may, on the contrary, have been of Italian origin. For Filiberto Campanile, a seventeenth-century author who celebrated the genealogy of the Norman Pagano family, the knight was born in Nocera de’ Pagani9 .
The Codice Amarelli, a controversial letter preserved in Rossano in Calabria, would instead point to his origin in the village of Forenza in Basilicata10. The document is dated 18 October 1103 and signed by a certain Ugo de Paganis. It would record the death of his cousin Alessandro, a Templar, and an oath sworn to King Baldwin of Jerusalem. However, only a single version of the letter exists, dating from 1469. Moreover, its translation from Latin into Italian was certified by a notary two centuries later. This does not prove a seventeenth-century forgery, possibly linked to the Amarelli family, but it is a significant clue. The medievalist Vito Ricci also notes that the text mentions “velvet” and the currency known as the “scudo”, both of which were introduced only after the twelfth century11.
At the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Between 1118 and 1119, King Baldwin II, in recognition of their services, granted the knights of the Militia Christi the area of the al-Aqsa Mosque, where tradition placed the legendary Temple of Solomon. As a result, the fraternitas of Hugues de Payns adopted the name Militia Templi. At that time, the Templars did not yet have a military function. Instead, they were mainly devoted to assisting pilgrims and providing spiritual and hospitaller services, operating as lay associates of the Canons Regular of the Temple of the Lord and those of the Holy Sepulchre12. Only in January 1120, during a council held at Nablus, did they renew their vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty before the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Gormond. Thus, they separated themselves from the chapter of canons, possibly in order to reflect the original meaning of militia. On that occasion, they proclaimed the famous oath:
“Do you also promise to God and to Lady St Mary that you, all the remaining days of your life, will help to conquer, with the strength and power that God has given you, the Holy Land of Jerusalem; and that which Christians hold you will help keep and save within your power?”
And he should say: “Yes, sire, if it please God”.
Henri de Curzon, La Régle du Temple, par. 676, Paris, 188613.
De laude novae militiae ad Milites Templi
Not all accepted the idea that a fraternitas within the Church might take up arms. How could the prohibition of killing, set out in the Fifth Commandment, be reconciled with the use of the sword? Bernard of Clairvaux, the leading spiritual authority of the time, tempered the criticism that fuelled intense debate. To the theological uncertainties that also troubled Hugues de Payns, the saint responded with a fervent work of encouragement for the Templar mission, known as De laude novae militiae ad Milites Templi. Saint Bernard compared the vanity of the crusading armies, “non militia, sed malitia“, with the holy work of Templar Christianisation. Thus, the crusading mission found its symbolic roots in the actions of Christ, who drove the merchants from the Temple. He therefore morally justified the use of arms by monks through the notion of “killing evil” (malicidium):
“If he kills an evildoer, he is not a mankiller, but, if I may so put it, a killer of evil”.
Bernard of Clairvaux, De laude novae militiae ad Milites Templi, 1128-113514.
The Council of Troyes
The support of Bernard of Clairvaux was crucial in securing the Templars their own Rule and the official recognition of their Order. In January 1129, during a council held in Troyes in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, and in the presence of leading ecclesiastical authorities, including Cardinal Matthew of Albano, legate of Pope Honorius II, and Bernard of Clairvaux himself, the assembly officially recognised within the Church the Pauperes commilitones Christi templique Salomonis. The early Rule of the Knights Templar, to which Bernard also contributed, was based on the Benedictine tradition.
Saint Bernard’s support was crucial for the recognition of the Templars as an order and receive a “Rule”. In 1129, Pope Honorius II convened a council in Troyes, in the cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. There, with the most important ecclesiastical officials of the time and the abbot of Clairvaux, the Pauperes commilitones Christi templique Salomonis were officially recognized by the Church. The first Rule of the Knights Templar was based on a reworking of the one of Saint Benedict. Saint Bernard also contributed to the drafting of the document.
“[…] Then we, in all joy and all brotherhood, at the request of Master Hugues de Payens, by whom the aforementioned knighthood was founded by the grace of the Holy Spirit, assembled at Troyes from divers provinces beyond the mountains on the feast of my lord St Hilary, in the year of the incarnation of Jesus Christ 1128, in the ninth year after the founding of the aforesaid knighthood. And the conduct and the beginnings of the Order of Knighthood we heard in common chapter by the lips of the aforementioned Master, Brother Hughes de Payens”.
From the Rule of the Templars, 112915.
Papal concessions to the Templars
In the following years, the Templars obtained enormous privileges by the successive pope. These showed increasing confidence in the Order’s service in the Holy Land. In 1139, with the bull Omne Datum Optimum, Pope Innocent II confirmed the Templars’ spiritual independence. The act placed them thereafter under the sole authority of the papacy and exempting them from the payment of taxes. The Order was also granted permission to establish its own clerical branch, thereby enjoying apostolic protection and giving rise to the enduring image of the warrior monks in history.
“And, since you are called Knights of the Temple, you have been appointed by the Lord as defenders of the Catholic Church and attackers of Christ’s enemies”.
Omne Datum Optimum, 113916.
In 1144, the bull Milites Templi of Pope Celestine II granted the Templars permission to collect offerings from the faithful17. The following year, Pope Eugene III issued the bull Militia Dei. The concession allowed them the right to collect tithes and to organise burial services18. The Templars were thus also able to benefit from the contributions of the donati. These small landowners, in exchange for protection and participation in spiritual benefits, entrusted part of their resources to the Order.
The legendary treasure of the Knights Templar
Thanks to all these concessions, the Knights Templar accumulated considerable wealth, which over time gave rise to numerous legends. According to myth, the Poor Knights of Christ discovered in Jerusalem an inestimable treasure. This included some of the most precious relics of Christendom. Among the ruins of the ancient Temple of Solomon, the knights are said to have found the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest containing the Tablets of the Law of Moses.
Another legend, already rooted in medieval literary tradition19, tells of the discovery of the Holy Grail. This was the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper. The same vessel is said to have been used by Joseph of Arimathea to collect the blood of the dying Messiah on the cross, after the soldier Longinus pierced his side with his spear.
It is certain that the Templars carried into battle a fragment of wood believed to be from the True Cross20. According to contemporary accounts, the relic was discovered in Jerusalem by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, who later transferred it to Constantinople21.
The Life of a Knight: Symbols, Arms, and Prayer
Beyond the legends, the papal concessions enabled the Templars to become, within a few decades, a major economic and military power. Their organisation was based on a vast network of estates spread across Europe. The revenues of these financed the activities of the Order and the maintenance of expeditions to the Holy Land. Castles, fortifications, houses, and administrative centres ensured territorial control through different levels of hierarchical authority.
The fundamental unit was the commandery, also known as a domus or preceptory. This could include a military outpost, residential buildings, production facilities, and a system of granges. It was placed under the authority of a higher administrative district, the baillie, in turn part of a province22. Medium-sized fortified houses, known as captaincies, were likewise intended both for military training and for religious life. The activities associated with the Templar vocation were instead carried out in the hospitalia, cemeteries, and mansions: places devoted to the reception and care of the faithful along the principal pilgrimage routes, such as the Via Francigena.
Within every Templar establishment there were different duties according to social rank. The knights, equipped with heavy armour, generally came from the nobility. Servants or sergeants, who carried lighter weapons, were instead drawn from the lower social classes. Finally, the lay brothers were responsible for farming and manual labour. Each commandery also included at least one chaplain priest, recognisable by the coarse cloth mantle known as the bigello. This was responsible for the liturgical and spiritual life of the community. At the head of the political and administrative structure of the Templar Order stood the Master (magister generalis).
Clothing and Dress
The Rule laid down precise regulations concerning clothing and adornment. The garments worn by the Templars were to be black, white, or ash grey, depending on the role. Knights were assigned the white mantle, while sergeants wore black. These colours reflected the dual nature of their vocation: at once monks and warriors. The Templars had to reconcile religious life with military duty.
The Beauceant
The same chromatic contrast also characterised the banner of the Order, the Beauceant. Divided into black and white, the standard enabled the knights to recognise one another in battle and helped maintain the troops’ morale. Carried by a standard-bearer23, it was never to fall into enemy hands under any circumstances24. It represented the visible sign of the divine mandate entrusted to the Templar mission.
The name Beauceant probably derives from the term balzana, a coat of arms divided into bands of different colours. It was sometimes also called Valcento, from the medieval French vaucent, meaning “worth a hundred men”. Under the Beauceant banner, the Knights Templar were accustomed to reciting the motto:
“Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam!”.
“Not to us, not to us O Lord, but to Your name give glory!”.
Bernard of Clairvaux, De laude novae militiae ad Milites Templi, 13, 31. The quotation, drawn from Psalm 115, also appears in the prologue to the Rule of Saint Benedict, on which the early Rule of the Templars was based.
The Cross Pattée
Like many other crusaders, the first Templars began sewing a small cross onto their tunics or mantles. This was a symbol of Christ’s martyrdom. Only during the Council of Paris in 1147 Pope Eugene III officially granted the Order the right to wear a distinctive cross, known as the “cross pattée”. The red cross pattée was characterised by four equal arms, each widening towards the end, hence the term patentem.
“Although you were ‘by nature the children of wrath’, seculars devoted to pleasures, now through the favouring grace of the Gospel you have been rendered hearing listeners who have abandoned the pomp of this world and personal possessions, who have even left ‘the broad way that leadeth to destruction’ and have humbly chosen “the straitened way that leadeth unto life’, and, as proof that you are to be specially counted in the army of Christ, you always bear on your chest the sign of the life-giving cross”.
Innocent II, Omne Datum Optimum, 113925.
In the popular imagination, the cross pattée is unequivocally associated with the Knights Templar. However, the Order did not use it exclusively, nor is it clear whether the privilege of adopting it extended to other religious or knightly institutions. We can therefore say that the archaeological discovery of a cross pattée is suggestive evidence, but not definitive proof, of a Templar presence at a given site.
The seals of the Templars
Among the symbols most closely associated with the Knights Templar are those depicted on their seals. These official marks, impressed in wax or lead using special dies, validated the letters and documents. Only a few examples have survived to the present day, though they are particularly significant. Their iconography offers a valuable synthesis of the functions and values of the Templar missio. Seals were used both by the Masters of the Temple and by individual territorial branches, such as commanderies and provinces.
The most famous seal is probably the one which shows, on the obverse, two knights riding a single horse, and on the reverse, a depiction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Used by the Grand Masters between 1167 and 1250, it effectively expresses several key elements of Templar identity: fraternitas, represented by the two knights; militia, understood as a religious and military vocation; and the Order’s original connection with Jerusalem.
At a local level, however, the use of seals by the Templars was more varied26. Individual commanderies and provinces adopted different iconographic repertoires, often linked to specific religious or regional traditions. Among the most significant examples are seals bearing the Agnus Dei (preceptory of Provence and Aragon, 1224); the eagle with outstretched wings grasping a serpent in its beak (attested in several German preceptories); the cross pattée (preceptory of Aquitaine, 1251–1307); the pelican tearing its breast to feed its young (House of the Temple of Arles); and finally the unique example depicting Saint George fighting the dragon (French preceptory, 1255).
Templars symbolism
Alongside historically attested symbols, there are others that constitute at least suggestive traces, as they appear frequently in places associated with Templar presence or ownership. Among these is the depiction of the chessboard. The contacts with the Arab world during the Crusades may have facilitated its diffusion in the West. Symbolically, the contrast between the black and white squares represented the eschatological struggle between good and evil.
The tradition associates also a wide symbolic repertoire with the Templars’ link to the legendary figure of King Solomon and the Temple of Jerusalem. Their presence has sometimes been connected with various types of sacred engravings and markings. Among them, the Knot of Solomon, an image of the bond between God and man; the Sacred Centre, the place of encounter with the divine; and the Merels Board, a game board for nine men’s morris, but also a possible ground plan representation of the Temple of Jerusalem.
The last bastion of the Crusaders
After the death of Hugues de Payns in 1136, the Templars continued their military, political, and religious activity for nearly two centuries. The founder of the Order initiated a long succession of Masters, continued by Robert de Craon and followed by twenty-one further successors. The Knights Templar left the Holy Land only after the fall of Acre, the last major stronghold of the Crusaders. In 1291, the Mamluks besieged and conquered the city.
This event marked the definitive end of the Crusader presence in Outremer. Furthermore, called into question the very original mission of the Order of the Temple. The last Master, Jacques de Molay, did not immediately grasp the profound shift in the geopolitical landscape. Unlike the Knights Hospitaller, who succeeded in reorganising themselves into a sovereign state on Rhodes and later Malta, the Templars were unable to redefine their role in Europe with comparable effectiveness. For this reason, the political and religious upheaval of the conflict between King Philip the Fair of France and Pope Clement V ultimately struck the Order of the Temple most severely.
The trial of the Templars
With the fall of the Crusader states, the Church entered a period of increasing political and religious instability. In 1294, Pope Boniface VIII, born Benedetto Caetani, ascended to the papal throne. Forceful and determined, he sought to reassert papal authority and the supremacy of the Church over the powers of Christendom. This policy, however, ultimately deepened tensions with the leading Roman noble families, including the Colonna, and especially with King Philip IV of France. The conflict culminated in the “Outrage of Anagni”, when Sciarra Colonna physically assaulted the pope in 1303. Boniface VIII died a few weeks later, and the college of cardinals elected Pope Clement V in his place.
Meanwhile, Philip the Fair had openly opposed papal authority, threatening to declare Boniface VIII a heretic and occultist, and even to provoke a schism in the transalpine Church. Clement V chose to defuse the situation through compromise with the French king. In exchange for the promise that no posthumous trial would be held against his predecessor, in April 1307 the pope agreed to Philip’s request to open an investigation against the Templars. Philip the Fair in fact pursued an ambitious goal. He wanted to dissolve the Order and seize its vast treasure, thereby restoring the strained finances of his kingdom27.
The enquiry and capture of the Templars
As a pretext for initiating proceedings, the Order was accused of heresy, idolatry, and of permitting sodomy among its members. However, the investigations did not even have time to begin. As early as 14 September 1307, Philip IV sent a secret order to the baillis and seneschals of the kingdom to arrest all Templars in France and confiscate their property, an order carried out on Friday 13 October.
For his part, Pope Clement V initially attempted to preserve papal jurisdiction over the proceedings. However, he ultimately ratified the king’s action with the bull Pastoralis praeminentiae28, promulgated in November of the same year. The episode made clear the growing influence of the French monarchy over the papacy, foreshadowing the transfer of the papal seat to Avignon in 1309.
The false accusations
The accusations brought against the Templars were largely unfounded and often based on dubious confessions extracted under torture. From the trial records we know that members of the Order were charged with numerous offences: the worship of a supposed bearded idol called Baphomet, a name probably derived from a medieval corruption of “Muhammad”, as well as the desecration of the cross and the performance of acts considered obscene and sacrilegious29.
On 25 March 1308, Philip IV convened the Estates General at Tours to press for the prosecution of the Templars. Pope Clement V then resumed his investigation, sending two cardinals to Chinon. Here, in fact, many of the senior members of the Order had by then been imprisoned.
The Chinon Parchment
The written record of the trial, a form of hearing of the few Templars who were questioned, including Jacques de Molay, who was examined last, is contained in the Chinon Parchment30. The document, rediscovered in the Vatican Secret Archives in 2001 due to a cataloguing error, is dated 17-20 August 1308 and was drawn up by the apostolic notary Robert de Condet. The Chinon record shows that the accused denied the charges brought against them. Moreover, it reveals that the inquiry ended with the pope absolving them.
“After this, we concluded to extend the mercy of pardons for these acts to Brother Jacques de Molay, the Grandmaster of the said Order, who in the form and manner described above had denounced in our presence the described and any other heresy, and swore in person on the Lord’s Holy Gospel, and humbly asked for the mercy of pardon [from excommunication], restoring him to unity with the Church and reinstating him to the communion of the faithful and the sacraments of the Church.”
Archivum Arcis Armarium D 217, Chinon Parchment dated August 17-20, 130831.
The dissolution of the Templars
In this way, Pope Clement V hoped to protect those Templars who had repented from the persecution of Philip IV of France, allowing them to be received back into the Church and reassigned to other religious congregations. Nevertheless, with the bull Faciens misericordiam of 12 August 1308, the pope summoned to Paris the papal commission tasked with examining the conduct of the entire Order. Between 1309 and 1311, the main hearings took place, during which a Templar delegation endeavoured to refute the accusations32. Finally, on 16 October 1311, the council of Vienne opened to decide on the possible condemnation of the Templars. However, when Philip the Fair advanced with his army towards the council site in order to influence its outcome, Clement V had no choice but to yield to the will of the French king.
With the bull Vox in excelso of 22 March 1312, the pope ordered the dissolution of the Templar brotherhood, not on the basis of proven guilt, but by administrative decision33. The Church carried out the dissolution of the Templars between 1312 and 1314. The bull Considerantes dudum, of 6 May 1312, granted freedom to the innocent and to those who had confessed. Nonetheless, it prescribed execution by burning for the condemned and for those who had retracted their confession34.
The curse of Jacques de Molay
On 11 March 1314, in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, a papal commission specially convened for the occasion read out the sentence of life imprisonment for the last Templar Master Jacques de Molay and the Preceptor of Normandy, Geoffrey de Charnay, who had previously confessed to the charges. However, faced with the prospect of lifelong imprisonment, they abruptly retracted their testimony. The two Templars declared that they had lied to the inquisitors under torture
“when the cardinals believed that they had imposed an end to the affair, immediately and unexpectedly two of them, namely the grand master and the master of Normandy, defending themselves obstinately against the cardinal who had preached the sermon and against the archbishop of Sens, returned to the denial both of the confession as well as everything which they had confessed”
Guillaume de Nangis, Chronicon, 1285-130035.
Hence Philip the Fair, as the matter was now within the jurisdiction of French justice, condemned them to the stake. The execution took place on an island in the Seine, known at the time as the “Jews island”.
A witness to the events narrated, Godefroy de Paris, transcribed Jacques de Molay’s last words before the pyre36:
“At least let me join my hands a little and make a prayer to God for now the time is fitting. Here I see my judgement
Godefroy de Paris, Chronique métrique, 1312-131737.
when death freely suits me; God knows who is in the wrong and has sinned. Soon misfortune will come to those who have wrongly condemned us: God will avenge our death”.
The final speech of Jacques de Molay, together with the dignified composure with which he faced death, deeply shocked his contemporaries. The belief that the Grand Master had pronounced a terrible curse against Pope Clement V and Philip IV of France fuelled a legend that endured for centuries: the pope died in April of the same year, 1314, while the king died just six months later.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Notes
- Translation by Dana C. Munro, Urban and the Crusaders, Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, Vol 1:2, 1895. The full passage is reproduced below: “Hierusalem umbilicus est terrarum, terra prae caeteris fructifera, quasi alter paradisus deliciarum. […] Haec igitur civitas regalis in orbis medio posita, nunc a suis hostibus captiva tenetur, et ab ignorantibus Deum ritui gentium ancillatur. Quaerit igitur et optat liberari, et ut ei subveniatis non cessat imprecari. A vobis quidem praecipue exigit subsidium, quoniam a Deo vobis collatum est prae cunctis nationibus, ut jam diximus, insigne decus armorum. Arripite igitur viam hanc, in remissionem peccatorum vestrorum, securi de immarcessibili gloria regni coelorum. […] Cum in hostem fiet bellicosi impetus congressio, erit universus haec ex parte Dei una vociferatio: Deus vult, Deus vult“. ↩︎
- J. Flori, Pour une redefinition de la croisade, in Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 47e année, n.188, 2004. ↩︎
- F. Cardini, S. Cerrini, Storia dei Templari in otto oggetti, 2019; F. Cardini, I Templari, Giunti, 2011. ↩︎
- William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, second half of the XII century, critical edition by R. B. C. Huygens, with identification of the historical sources and dates by H. E. Mayer and G. Rösch, Brepols, Turnhout, 1986. ↩︎
- Translation by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, 1962. The original text is reproduced below: “Eodem anno quidam nobiles viri de equesti ordine, deo devoti, religiosi et timentes deum, in manu domini patriarche Christi servicio se mancipantes, more canonicorum regularium in castitate et obedientia et sine proprio velle perpetuo vivere professi sunt. Inter quos primi et precipui fuerunt viri venerabiles. Hugo de Paganis et Gaufridus de Sancto Aldemaro“. ↩︎
- Simon of Saint-Bertin, Gesta abbatum Sancti Bertini Sithiensium, c. 1140, ed. O. Holder-Egger, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores. Translation by Helen Nicholson, Documents relating to the Military Orders, 2018. The original passage: “Quo magnifice regnante, dum nonnulli non amplius ad seculi illecebras post tanta pericula, quae pro Deo sunt perpessi, deliberassent redire, consilio principum exercitus Dei templo Dei se sub hac regula devoverunt, ut seculo abrenunciantes, proprietate carentes, castimoniae vacantes, communem sub paupere habitu ducerent vitam, armis tantum contra insurgentium paganorum impetus ad terram defendendam uterentur, quando necessitas exigeret“. ↩︎
- P. V. Claverie, S. Cerrini, La révolution des Templiers. Une histoire perdue du XIIe siècle, Paris, 2007. ↩︎
- M. L. Bulst-Thiele, Sacrae Domus Militiae Hierosolymitani magistri: Untersuchungen z. Geschichte d. Templerordens 1118/19-1314, Gottingen, 1974. ↩︎
- F. Campanile, L’armi, overo insegne de’ nobili, Napoli, Tarquinio Longo, Napoli, 1610. ↩︎
- Libro nel quale si dimostra la nobiltà dell’antica famiglia Amarelli della Nobilissima Città di Rossano in M. Moiraghi, L’taliano che fondò i Templari, Ancora, 2005. ↩︎
- V. Ricci, Hugo de Paganis: champenois o lucano? Un falso problema, in Il Giornale di Napoli, 26 gennaio 2018. ↩︎
- F. Cardini, I Templari. ↩︎
- Translation by Paul Hill, The Knights Templar at War, 1120-1312, 2018. “Encores prometes vos a Dieu et a madame sainte Marie que vos, tous les jors mes de vostre vie aideres a eonquerre, a la force et au pooir que Dieu vos a done, la sainte terre de Jerusalem; et cele que crestien tienent aideres a garder et a sauyer a vostre pooir’. Et il doit dire: ‘Oil, sire, se Dieu plaist“. ↩︎
- Translation by C. Greenia, Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Bernard of Clairvaux, In Praise of the New Knighthood, prologue-chapter five, from Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises Three, Cistercian Fathers Series, Number Nineteen, Cistercian Publications, 1977. For completeness, the original Latin text is also reproduced below: “Sane cum occidit malefactorem, non homicida, sed, ut ita dixerim, malicida, et plane Christi vindex in his qui male agunt, et defensor Christianorum reputatur“. ↩︎
- J. M. Upton-Ward, The Rule of the Templars, The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar, Boydell Press, 1997. From the Rule of the Templars, 1129: “Nos ergo cum omni granulazione, ac fraterna pietate precibusque Magistri Hugonis, in que prӕdicta militai sumpsit exordium, cùm Spiritu Sancto intimante ex diversis ultramontanӕ provinciӕ mansionibus, in solemnitates S. Hilarij, anno 1128 ab incarnato Dei folio, ab inchoatione prӕdictӕ militiӕ nono, ad Trecas, Deo Duce, in usum convenimmo, et modum, et observantiam Ordinis Equestris per singola Capitula, ex ore ipsius prӕdicti Magisteri Hugonis audire meruimus, ac iuta notitiam exiguitatis nostrӕ scientiӕ, quod nobis videbatur bonum, et utile, collaudavimus“. ↩︎
- Translation by the author: “Et, cum nomine censeamini milites Templi, constituti estis a Domino catholice ecclesie defensores et inimicorum Xpisti impugnatores“. ↩︎
- M. Barber, La storia dei Templari, traduzione di Mirko Scaccabarozzi, Piemme, 2003. ↩︎
- A. Demurger, Les Templiers, une chevalerie chrétienne au Moyen Âge, Seuil, 2008. ↩︎
- Jacopo da Varazze, “Legenda Aurea“, 1260-1298; Robert de Boron, “Roman dou l’Estoire de Graal ou Joseph d’Arimathie”, XIII secolo. ↩︎
- P. P. Read, The Templars, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1999. ↩︎
- Teodoreto, Storia ecclesiastica; Rufino, Storia ecclesiastica; Socrate Scolastico, Storia ecclesiastica; Sozomeno, Storia ecclesiastica. ↩︎
- J. Riley-Smith, Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, Londra, 1967. ↩︎
- M. Melville, La vie des Templiers, ed. Gallimard, 1974. ↩︎
- J. P. Bourre, Dictionnaire templier, ed. Dervy, 1995. ↩︎
- Translation by M. Barber, R. Horrox, K. Bate, The Templars: selected sources, 2002. The original text of the bull is reproduced below: “Cum enim natura essetis filii ire et seculi voluptatibus dediti, nunc, per aspirantem gratiam, evangelii non surdi auditors effecti, relictis pompis secularibus et rebus propriis, dimissa etiam spatiosa via que ducit ad mortem, arduum iter quod ducit ad vitam, humiliter elegistis, atque ad comprobandum quod in Dei militia computemini signum vivifice cruces in vestro pectore assidue circumfertis“. ↩︎
- G. C. Bascapè, Sigillografia. Il sigillo nella diplomatica, nel diritto, nella storia, nell’arte, volume II, Fondazione italiana per la storia amministrativa, Milano 1978. ↩︎
- F. Cardini, I Templari. ↩︎
- A. Demurger, Les Templiers. ↩︎
- M. Barber, The trial of the Templars, Cambridge University Press, 2011. ↩︎
- B. Frale. Il Papato e il processo ai Templari. L’inedita assoluzione di Chinon alla luce della diplomatica pontificia, Viella, 2003. ↩︎
- Translation by A. A. Grishin, The Knights Templar Absolution: The Chinon Parchment and the History of the Poor Knights of Christ, 2013. The original Latin text sent is reproduced below: “Post hec nos eidem fratri Iacobo Magistri maiori dicti ordinis, iuxta modurn et formam suprascriptos, predictam et omnem aliam heresim in nostris manibus abiuranti, et corporale prestanti ad sancta Dei evangelia iuramenturn, ac eciam absolutionis beneficiurn super hoc hurniliter postulanti, huius absolutionis beneficiurn iuxta formam Ecclesie duximus impendendurn, reincorporantes ipsurn ad Ecclesie unitatem ipsurnque restituentes comunioni fideliurn et ecclesiasticis sacramentis“. ↩︎
- Demurger, Les Templiers. ↩︎
- F. Cardini, I Templari. ↩︎
- Demurger, Les Templiers. ↩︎
- Michael Haag, The Tragedy of the Templars: The Rise and Fall of the Crusader States, 2012; cf. M. Barber, La storia dei Templari. ↩︎
- N. de Wailly, L. Delisle, Chronique rimée attribuée à Geffroi de Paris, ‘Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France’, Parigi, 1860. ↩︎
- Translation by Alain Demurger, The Last Templar: The Tragedy of Jacques de Molay, Last Grand Master of the Temple, 2009. The original text: “Lessiez-moi joindre I po mes mains, et vers Dieu fere m’oroison; car or en est temps et seison. Je voi ici mon jugement, où mourir me couvient brément; Diex set qu’à tort et à péchié. S’en vendra en brief temps meschié sus celz qui nous dampnent à tort: Diex en vengera nostre mort“. ↩︎
