Well done among the sheep meaning of the proverb. Well done against the sheep, and well done against the sheep himself

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

On French also several names of this organization:
-de Templiers;
-Chevaliers du Temple;
-L`Ordre des Templiers;
-L'Ordre du Temple.

In English: Knights Templas.

In Italian: Les Gardines du Temple.

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

The official name of this Order is Latin, which was given to him by the Pope at the establishment -
Pauperurum Commilitonum Christi Templiqne Solamoniaci.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thus, the betrayal of the Templars in 1241 led to a radical change in the long-term struggle of Christians and Muslims for the Holy Land in favor of Muslims. Subsequent Crusades, despite the fact that the crusaders sometimes achieved individual victories, no significant positive results no longer given. The Seventh Crusade (1248-1254) ended in a crushing defeat, and the Templars did not perform well here either. Their participation in the campaign was limited to providing money for the ransom of the captured French king Louis IX. But the Templars distinguished themselves in appropriating property from European colonists fleeing persecution by Muslims, and in internecine skirmishes with the Knights Hospitaller.

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

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

“In the morning... the Sultan, desperate to take the Temple by storm, gave the order for its destruction. A tunnel was dug under the foundation and the tower was supported with wooden posts. After these preparations, the supports were set on fire. When the flames weakened the supports, the tower collapsed with a terrible crash and all the Templars died under the rubble or burned in the fire.”

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

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

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

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

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

After this campaign, the order receives rich booty, but arouses the hostility of European monarchs against itself. Have a powerful organized military force(according to historians, the Order at that time had up to 15 thousand knights, sergeants and priests) and, moreover, no one wanted an uncontrollable, unauthorized and aggressive one. The seemingly countless wealth of the Order and their vast possessions, scattered throughout Europe, which also brought in considerable income, aroused the greed of the secular rulers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mystical order Templars

The Crusades, undertaken in the Holy Land to liberate the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidels, for 200 years attracted hordes of brave people of all classes to the East, driven by religious feelings, thirsting for feat and glory, adventure and profit. When in 1099 the Crusaders managed to reach and establish a Christian state in the Holy Land, the flow of pilgrims to the Holy Sepulcher increased significantly. The spiritual knightly orders, which arose to protect the Holy Land and to fight the infidels, took care of equipping pilgrims and protecting them on the way from the seashore to the Holy Places.

What do we know about wallets? How can we fill them?

The most powerful of these orders was the famous Order of the Knights Templar, or Templars, founded in 1118 by nine French knights with Hugh de Payenne at their head. The emergence of the Order, which in its warlike and pious goals fully met the spirit and needs of that time, aroused universal sympathy and favor from the spiritual and secular authorities. King Baldwin II of Jerusalem gave these monk-knights a house built on the site where, according to legend, the Temple of Solomon once stood, hence the name Templars or Templars. Enormous donations began to flow into the Order, and the number of its members quickly increased, for the flower of European chivalry sought to join the ranks of these fighters for the glory of God.

Templar uniform

Initially, the members of the Order consisted of knights and serving brothers. The first had to come from a knightly family, be single, take a vow of chastity, poverty and obedience and strictly fulfill the monastic rules of the Order. When free from military affairs, the knights were obliged to live in the shelters of the Order, indulging in prayer in their secluded cells and caring for sick pilgrims.

The knights wore white linen cloaks with eight-pointed crosses, a symbol of heartfelt purity and martyrdom. Serving brothers, who were divided into squires and artisans, could be married and, unlike knights, wore brown or black clothing. The order also had secular members, nobles and commoners of both sexes, who voluntarily fulfilled either all the requirements of the order's charter, or part of them, but lived separately.

By the end of the 12th century, the external position of the Order had reached unprecedented splendor. Monarchs and popes showered him with their favors and gave him unheard-of privileges. Generous donations in the form of horses, weapons, a tenth of large property made it possible to found their own communities in all European countries, which were ruled by elderly members of the Order.

In 1162 the pope Alexander III with a special bull of permission, he freed the Templars from the tutelage of the Jerusalem patriarch and bishops and allowed them to have their own clergy. The Order of the Knights of the Temple already had, due to special privileges, its own army, its own court, its own police and possessed enormous monetary wealth and extensive land properties in all European states , subordinate only to the pope, was a real state and in wealth and power could compete with many monarchs.

At the head of the Order was the Grandmaster, who primarily had leadership in the war, as well as executive power. It was freely chosen by the knights, but was written "by the grace of God." The grandmaster reported directly to the convention or “great council.” Supreme power was supposed to belong to the “general chapter,” but it was convened very rarely, at the behest of the grandmaster or the convention.

As the wealth of the Order increased, its internal content also changed. The original charter of the Order, compiled by St. Bernard. So novitiate, which had previously been compulsory, was abolished. Paragraph 54 of the charter, which prohibited the admission of knights excommunicated from the church to the Templars, was changed in the opposite sense: it was desirable to recruit new members among those rejected by the church in order to “promote the salvation of their souls.”

In connection with these changes, a secret heretical movement arose within the Order at the beginning of the 13th century. Along with the external confession of Christian teaching and church rituals, secret meetings took place in the underground order shelters at dawn or at night, where rites of mystical initiation and worship of the “mysterious power” were performed. Next to the explicit charter, the Templars created a new charter, open only to a select few and containing the secret teaching of the Order. The basis of this teaching was dualism: the Templars recognized the existence of a “higher God”, the creator of spirit and good, and a “lower God,” the creator of matter and evil. The idol mentioned by all historians was a symbol of matter and evil.

It was called Baphomet, which is translated from Greek as “baptism of wisdom,” and was a figure with the head of a goat and a woman’s breasts. According to other sources, Baphomet was depicted with a metallic bearded head. Not a single image of the Templar Baphomet has survived. Some are inclined to consider Baphomet a symbol of the god Pan, the god of Nature. One of the sacraments of the Templars was the initiation of converts. The initiate was girded with the “gird of John,” a white woolen cord, which was made sacred by touching the idol. After this, the knight initiated into the mysteries never left this belt, which served as a distinctive sign of his belonging to the secret union. The name of the Templars’ magic cord “the belt of John” is explained by the veneration that John the Baptist enjoyed among the Templars.

The main holiday of the Order was the day of John the Baptist. In the mid-13th century, the Albigensians, together with their leader Raymond VI Count of Toulouse, took refuge after their defeat in France in the Knights Templar, and infected the Knights of the Temple with their Kabbalah-based teachings. This is how the Gnostic teaching of the Templars was formed, which later passed on to the neophytes.

Jacob de Molay, last Master of the Knights Templar

Many historians explain the destruction of the Order not by state necessity, but by the greed of Philip the Fair, who coveted the untold wealth of the Templars. One way or another, on August 12, 1308, a papal bull was issued, ordering the spiritual and secular authorities to initiate prosecution against the Templars. The trial against the Templars lasted seven years... The Order was condemned. With a bull of May 2, 1312, the pope notified the entire Christian world of his decision to destroy the Templar Order and condemned it to damnation. As a result, some Templars were burned, including the last Grand Master Jacob Mole (March 11, 1314), the rest were imprisoned, from which many were released after the destruction of the Order. The Order's property was confiscated and divided among French, English, Spanish and other rulers.

Jacob Mole, being led to the stake, loudly renounced his testimony and, calling the king and pope to the Judgment of God, predicted their imminent death. Indeed, not even a year had passed since both died in terrible agony...

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

No matter how much time has passed, no matter how many centuries have covered the bas-reliefs on the graves of the martyrs of the Order with gray dust, no matter how many books have been read and no matter how many times history buffs have uttered the name of the great Jacques de Molay, they are still romantics and dreamers, Scientists and hoaxers in different countries are still packing their backpacks to go on a campaign for the “Templar gold.” Some people seriously study maps of mines and mines, search the ruins of castles and outline the paths of the Templars in Europe, others look for their “treasure” on the pages of bestsellers, trying to gain it through literary fame.

And none of us - neither dreamers nor scientists - can find out “how it was” in reality. We are left with only historical chronicles and memoirs of contemporaries, documents of the Inquisition and, to this day, sometimes pop-up letters and ancient scrolls from the personal archives of noble families of Europe.

Some people give the history of the Templars a religious connotation, others a secular one. We will try to discover the truth for ourselves - as much as possible through the thick of centuries.

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 of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem on the land of Palestine - the first military state populated mainly by European knights - a stream of pilgrims poured into the Holy Land, attracted by the utopian idea of ​​a safe life among Christian shrines. Hordes of people wandering “throughout the land of Jesus” naturally attracted not only the attention of Muslims, angry at the seizure of their original territories and cities, but also their revenge – terrible and uncompromising. The area along which the pilgrims' routes passed was overrun with robbers and murderers. The road to the Holy City became deadly for pilgrims.

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 obstacle on the path of the bright Christian world, and they hoped that the knights, who were promised generous land plots, would gradually eliminate this obstacle. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Jerusalem began to slowly empty out - the knights were rushing home, to their families and ancestral nests, and no rewards could stop most of them. What to do in this case with the pilgrims, who are daily subjected to violence, plunder, and murder?.. They needed protection.

The first, in the history of the Order of the Templars, Grand Master - Hugh de Payens Here is what Bishop William of Tyre, who for some time headed the Church of the State of Jerusalem, writes about this in 1119: “Some noble people of knightly origin, devoted to God, religious and God-fearing, declared their desire spend your whole life in chastity, obedience and without property, devoting yourself to the Lord Patriarch for service following the example of regular canons.” Several knights of high birth, having asked for the blessing of the King and the Church, volunteered to take charge of the protection of pilgrims and all Christians who moved in large numbers throughout the Holy Land. For this, they founded the spiritual-knightly order of the “Beggar Knights”, the secular basis of which was equalized and harmonized with the church foundations. That is, the templar brothers, when joining the order, did not take on monastic rank, but spiritually and physically, in essence, became one.

The Order was headed by one of its founders, the noble champagne knight Hugues de Payens, who became the first Grand Master in the history of the Order. And so, before the King and Patriarch of Jerusalem, Hugh and his eight loyal commanders - Godfrey de Saint-Omer, André de Montbard, Gundomar, Godfront, Roral, Geoffroy Bitol, Nivart de Mondesir, and Archambault de Saint-Aignan - took an oath to protect Christians, wandering or in need of help, to the last drop of blood, and also took three monastic vows.

For the sake of absolute historical justice, the author of the article would like to note that, in fact, the founding of such an order became an absolutely unprecedented phenomenon, many centuries ahead of its time. In this case, this association of knights was not another monastic order, it was not some kind of spiritual organization - in fact, they organized the first of the “non-governmental non-profit organizations” familiar to us today, for the sake of promoting ideas and raising funds. The propaganda of the idea - the need for the existence of such an order - consisted of the already ongoing successful protection of pilgrims, and the collection of funds - what could we do without this?.. After all, the Templars themselves were unusually poor - to the point that there was one horse for every two knights. Subsequently, when the influence of the Templars spread very widely, they created a seal, in memory of the former days of the Order - this seal depicts two riders 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, in the absence of their own. This would have continued if the King of Jerusalem Baldwin II “Leper”, to some extent, personally offended by such a disastrous state of affairs of the order under his charge, had not sent Hugh de Payen to Pope Honorius II with a demand to initiate the Second Crusade, motivating its necessity with impudence Muslim warriors who continued to make forays into the territory of the newly formed state.

Baldwin was generally very favorable towards the order of the “poor knights” - he even provided them, who did not have any property of their own, with a church in his palace south of the ruins of Solomon’s Temple so that they could gather there for prayer. It was this fact that served as the starting point for the formation of the order, which is familiar to us from descriptions today: “Temple” (French temple), which gave people a reason to call the knights “those at the Temple”, “templars”. No one ever remembered the official name - “Beggar Knights”.

De Payens, accompanied by a small number of comrades, traveled throughout almost all of Europe, not only persuading the sovereigns to gather troops for the Crusade, but also along the way collecting small and reluctant donations. The culmination of this trip was the presence of Hugh de Payens 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 speech could provide support for the Church, and support for the Church could provide support for the heads of different countries. De Payen spoke long and eloquently, captivating this spoiled and blinkered church audience with pictures of a wonderful 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 also present there, who did not hide his obvious sympathy for the Templars, with a request to write a Charter for the new order, with which everyone would be happy. Also, the Fathers of the Church also showed great honor to the knights, commanding them to always wear white and black clothes, decorated with a red cross. At the same time, the prototype of the first battle banner of the Templars, called Bosseant, was created.
The abbot of Clairvaux, belonging to the Cistercian order, introduced this warlike spirit into the Templar Rule, later called the Latin Rule. Bernard wrote: “The soldiers of Christ are not in the least afraid of the sin of killing their enemies, nor of the danger that threatens their own lives. After all, to kill someone for Christ’s sake or to be willing 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, who by that time had already become a fairly large, wealthy order, gave them significant privileges, such as the establishment of the post of chaplain, exemption from paying tithes 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, himself, entrusting it to the master and his chapter full responsibility for the politics and administration of the order. This meant absolute freedom for the Templars. A absolute freedom brings absolute power.

This event opened all the paths of the world to the Beggar Knights and became a new chapter in their history - a chapter of unprecedented prosperity.

Golden Age of the Order

Manash clothing of the Order of the Templars Initially, all the brethren of the Order were divided, according to the Charter, into two categories: “knights” - or “chevalier brothers”, and “ministers” - or “brother sergeants”. These titles themselves indicate that only knights of noble birth were accepted into the first category, while any man of non-noble origin could enter the second category, without any hope of eventually becoming a “chevalier brother.” The Grand Master, who was not an elected figure - each Master had to choose his successor during his lifetime - had practically unlimited power to govern the Order, which was granted by the Pope. Initially, the Templars were categorically against joining the ranks of the priestly brothers, but, nevertheless, after a certain number of decades, from the moment of its formation, even a certain special class of brother-monks appeared in the ranks of the Templars, which was very convenient and even expedient: the monks did not they could shed blood, and besides, they held services in the Order’s own churches.

Since women were not allowed to join the Order, married knights were also reluctantly accepted into the Order, limiting their choice of colors for clothing. For example, married knights were deprived of the right to wear white robes, as a symbol of physical purity and “sinlessness.”

The family of married Templars, after its head joined the Order, faced an unenviable fate in the line of succession. In the event that a married brother departed to another world, all his property, according to the “Accession Agreement,” came into the common possession of the order, and his wife was to short term leave the estate so as not to tempt the knights and novices of the Order with his appearance. But since the Templars were famous philanthropists, 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 Order of the Templars soon already possessed huge 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 of the Temple (Tour du Temple) has survived to this day only on the pages of historical documents, on old paintings and engravings. The Parisian "temple" of the knightly order was destroyed by decree of Napoleon I in 1810.

The Catholic Order of the Poor Knights of Christ was founded in 1119 in 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 enormous wealth and vast lands in Europe. A significant part of the knight monks came from French noble families.

In 1222 the Parisian Temple was built. The castle, surrounded by a deep moat, was considered impregnable. Inside the fortress walls, seven towers rose, and 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, the gray-haired Jacques de Molay, arrived in Paris. He was accompanied by sixty knights of the Order. The procession entered the capital on horses and mules. The priests carried the ashes of Molay’s predecessor, Guillaume de Beaujeu. The Templar treasury was also transported to Paris.

The residence of the Master of the Order was the Main Tower of the 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, it rose, the heavy gates fell, the forged bars fell, and the Main Tower became inaccessible from the ground. The Grand Master lived in the tower, answerable only to the Chapter.

The Chapter of the Templar Order met in the castle church. In the middle of the main corridor of the temple there was a spiral staircase leading to the crypt. The stone slabs of the crypt hid the tomb of the Masters; The Order's treasury was kept on one of the levels of the secret dungeon.

Also, it is the Templars who are considered to be the founders of banking - it was the treasurers of the Order who came up with the idea of ​​ordinary and “travelers’ checks.” The most interesting thing is that this scheme is still, one might say, a “classic” of modern banking. Appreciate its beauty, simplicity and practicality: the presence of such checks freed travelers from the need to transport gold and precious stones with them, constantly fearing attack by robbers and death. Instead, the owner of the valuables could appear at any “comturia” of the Order and deposit all these things into its treasury, receiving in return a check signed by the Chief Treasurer (!!!) and a print ... of his own finger (!!!), so that after that set off on the road with peace of mind with a small piece of leather. Also, for transactions with a check, the Order took a small tax - when cashing the values ​​​​indicated in the check!.. Think for a minute, doesn’t this remind you of modern banking transactions?.. If the owner of the check could exhaust his limit, but need in money, the Order issued it to him for subsequent repayment. There was also a highly developed system of what today we would call " accounting": twice a year, all checks were sent to the main command office of the Order, where they were counted in detail, the government balance was compiled and archived. The knights did not disdain usury, or, if you like, “bank lending” - any wealthy person could get a loan at ten percent, while Jewish moneylenders or state treasuries They gave it at forty percent.

Having such a developed banking structure, the Templars quickly became necessary for the Court. So, for example, for twenty-five years, two treasurers of the Order - Gaimar and de Milly - supervised 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 ruling the country. When Saint Louis IX ascended the throne, the French treasury was completely transferred to the Temple, remaining there under his successor.

Thus, the “poor knights” in a relatively short time acquired the status of the largest financiers in Europe and the Eastern Countries. Among their debtors were absolutely all segments of the population - from ordinary townspeople to august persons and the fathers of the Church.
Charity

Rationalization and charitable activities also occupy a special place in the Order’s list of affairs.

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

The Templars, without stinting, spent huge sums on the development of sciences and arts, on patronage support for artists, musicians, and poets. But still, soldiers remain soldiers, and the main area of ​​interest of the templars was the development of such areas as geodesy, cartography, mathematics, physical sciences, construction sciences, and navigation. By that time, the Order had long had its own shipyards, ports, not controlled by the kings, and its own modern and super-equipped fleet - suffice it to mention that all its ships had magnetic (!!!) compasses. The “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 rewards and church support.

The Templars were no less active in the construction of roads and churches. The quality of travel in the Middle Ages could be described as “complete robbery, multiplied by the lack of roads” - if you are a pilgrim, rest assured that you will be robbed not only by robbers, but also by state tax collectors who have a post at every bridge, on every road. And the Templars, to the displeasure of the authorities, solved this problem - they began actively building beautiful roads and strong bridges, which were guarded by their own troops. This construction is also associated with one “financial phenomenon”, which, according to the Middle Ages, is completely nonsense - the knights did not collect taxes for travel, not a single coin!.. Also, in less than a hundred years, the Order was spread throughout Europe At least 80 large cathedrals and at least 70 churches were built, and the monks who inhabited these churches and cathedrals were entirely supported by the Templars.

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

Molay, Jacques de. Last Grand Master of the Order

Beginning of the End

The scene of the crusade of the Knights TemplarAnd yet, the main calling of the Templars still remained chivalry, especially the wars with Muslims that continued in the Holy Land. The main funds and resources of the Order were spent on these wars. In these wars, the Templars succeeded - it is known that Muslim warriors were so afraid of the Templars and Hospitallers that Sultan Sallah ad Din even took an oath “to cleanse his land of these filthy orders.”

The French monarch Louis VII, who led the Second Crusade with his army, later wrote in his notes that the Templars provided him with enormous support, and he cannot even imagine what would have awaited his troops if the Templars had not been with them.

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

The Templars were furious - according to this agreement, the Saracens pledged to hand over Jerusalem to the 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 least of them - chose to go into open conflict, accusing the knights of treason. The Templars responded with threats, after which Frederick became so frightened that he soon turned down his troops and left the Holy Land. But the departure of Barbarossa did not cancel the concluded agreement, and the situation went from bad to disastrous.

It can be said that the Seventh Campaign, led by the inexperienced King Louis of France in tactical and political matters, Saint Louis, drove the last nail into the coffin of the Christian Kingdom. Louis, who had no experience in eastern regulations, for his part terminated the agreement, which was concluded with difficulty by the Grand Master of the Templars with the Sultan of Damascus, the main stronghold of the Saracens. The consequences of this a rash step immediately became very noticeable - the Muslim army, unrestrained by anything, won one victory after another, and the losses among the Jerusalem knights were enormous. Christians lost city after city, and were even forced to surrender Jerusalem in disgrace - after a long siege and fierce battle.

In the spring of 1291, the Saracen Sultan Kilawun and his troops besieged the city of Agra, which at that time was the last stronghold of knighthood in Palestine. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the battle was truly terrible, and numerical superiority was on the side of the Muslims. The Saracens swept away the defenses and burst into the city, committing a brutal massacre in which the Grand Master of the Templars died.

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 simultaneously dig and dismantle the tower, which led to its collapse. She fell, burying both knights and Saracens under her.

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

Philip IV the Fair (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.

European monks and the Church, for whom the need for the Order was no longer pressing, held them responsible for the fall of the Christian kingdom - and this despite the fact that it was thanks to the Templars that it managed to exist for so long. The Templars began to be accused of heresy and treason, 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 the feet of Jesus walked.

The position of the Order especially did not suit the French monarch Philip IV the Fair, 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 burdened 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, rich military organization, not accountable to anyone except the Pope.

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

Philip was infuriated by the refusal and vowed to stop the existence of the Order in any way, since he could not conquer it. And such an opportunity soon presented itself to him.

The last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Mola.

A former Templar, “brother-chevalier,” expelled by the Templars for the murder of his own brother, while in state prison for other crimes, hoping for leniency, he confessed to sins against the faith, which he allegedly committed while in the Order, along with other brothers.

The King immediately began an investigation against the Order, putting as aggressive pressure as possible on the Pope to deny the Templars all privileges. He issued an independent decree, sent to all provinces with instructions to “seize all the Templars, arrest them and confiscate their property to the treasury.”

On October 13, 1307, almost all members of the Order, who did not have time to take refuge or were burdened with families, were caught by Philip’s troops and arrested, their property was confiscated.

According to the interrogation protocols of the Inquisition available today, the Templars were accused of renouncing the Lord, insulting the Cross, heresy, sodomy, and worshiping a certain “Bearded Head,” which is one of the incarnations of the demon Baphomet. Subjected to terrible torture, many knights confessed to almost everything, and so the Pope issued a bull that all European monarchs should begin arresting Templars in all countries, as well as confiscate property for the benefit of the treasury and the Church - both their own and the property of the Order , as well as lands. This bull marked the beginning of trials in Germany, Italy, England, the Iberian Peninsula and Cyprus, where the second largest residence of the Grand Master was located after Paris.
After a long, pan-European investigation, torture and humiliation, in 1310, near the monastery of St. Anthony near Paris, 54 knights went to the stake, who found the strength to renounce the testimony they had given under torture. Philip the Fair celebrated his victory - with a 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 safely ignore his wishes. Before the trial, the Grand Master, as well as the Prior of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnay, the Visitator of France Hugo de Peyraud and the Prior of Aquitaine Godefroy de Gonville fully admitted the charges and repented of the atrocities committed, as a result of which the church court, on the initiative of the Pope, replaced death penalty for them to imprisonment. Historians believe that this was a political move on the part of the Master - the trial of the Templars took place publicly. After hearing the verdict, de Molay and de Charnay publicly renounced previous confessions extracted under torture. Grand Master Jacques de Molay declared that he would prefer death to imprisonment, which would humiliate his dignity and pride as a warrior. That same evening, the fire consumed them too.

And just like that, in bonfires and torture, humiliation and slander, it ended unique story of the great Order of the Poor Knights of Christ - an elephant defeated by a mouse. Thus fell the giant, who could not be broken by wars and defeats, but was broken by greed.

Church of the Order of the Templars (Temple), London, UK

Order of the Knights Templar. The Secret of the Knights of the Temple

At the beginning of the 12th century, during the brief occupation of the Holy Land by the Crusaders, two orders appeared, both monastic and knightly. The first founded the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John (later called the Order of Malta), which reported directly to the Pope. After some time, the Order of the Knights Templar was created in Jerusalem, independent of both the leaders of the Crusades and the next Pope.

Both congregations of knight-monks would have remained just another page in the annals of that troubled and tense era, if not for the enormous wealth and power that the Templars were able to achieve. The Templar Order became a kind of virtual state behind the backs of various European kingdoms, an invisible force behind the throne. The subsequent fate of the Order of the Temple, persecution by the Pope and the Inquisition, only increases the aura of legend and mystery that arose around it due to the sometimes assumed, and sometimes undoubted participation of the Templars in all major events world history.

In addition to disputes about the fate of the “lost fleet” of the Templars, about its participation in the expeditions of Christopher Columbus or in the American War of Independence, which are still being conducted in relation to specific historical facts, there are also a number of researchers who talk about the mystical origin of the Templars (ranging from the brotherhood of Phoenician seafarers to antediluvian or even extraterrestrial origin) and attribute to them a mysterious chiliastic project, which could equally turn out to be both the victory of the devilish evil empire and the establishment of the wisest and fairest world order . In both cases, in order to implement it, it is necessary to overthrow the power of the Vatican and destroy the Roman Church.

In order to correctly assess the creation and first actions of the Templar Order, it is necessary to outline the historical situation in which these events unfolded, that is, the European invasions of the Middle East in the 12th century, known as.

At the Council of Clermont-Ferrand in 1095, Pope Urban II gave a fiery speech calling on European monarchs and nobles to engage in a kind of holy war, the purpose of which was to free the Christian captives who had been enslaved by the Muslims and return the Holy Sepulcher to the Christians. In reality, these noble goals concealed the expansionist and economic interests of the Vatican, as well as European kings and lords.

The first crusade, which was led by an alliance of feudal lords, was the only successful one. 1099 - the head of the crusaders, Godfrey of Bouillon, entered Jerusalem, conquering vast territories that were divided into 4 parts, called the “Latin States”: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with its center in Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch and the counties of Tripoli (Lebanon) and Edessa (modern Turkey) .

There, on enemy territory, they created a military-religious order, the most powerful and most mysterious of all. The fact is that the weak and surrounded by enemies Christian kingdoms could not protect the thousands of pilgrims who walked to the Holy Land along roads infested with robbers and bandits. This was the reason, or at least a pretext, for the creation of an order that could provide military protection and spiritual support to travelers.

Templars: historical facts

Let us leave aside for a moment the hermetic and esoteric connotations surrounding the Templars and consider concrete facts, duly documented and verified by credible scholars and researchers.

Who are the Templars? The official history reports that in 1118, nine poor French knights under the command of Hugh de Payns appeared before Baldwin II, sovereign of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and offered him their services. Their goal was to found a military-religious order to guard the Holy Land and protect endangered pilgrims.

The king, apparently touched by the noble intentions of the veteran crusaders, invited them to locate the barracks in an ancient building adjacent to the al-Aqsa mosque, erected on the site of the destroyed Temple of Solomon. The local population, due to the harsh lifestyle and poverty of a group of ragamuffins who called themselves an order of chivalry, dubbed them the “mendicant knights of the Temple” (pronounced “Temple” in French, hence the name “Templars”).

The motives that led the nine knights to create the order remain a mystery, and little more is known about the founders themselves. The names of 5 of them are preserved in the chronicles, but they do not say anything about their origin or life before joining the order. What is known is that all, or almost all, were French and veterans of the First Crusade, and probably one of them was a Norman named Saint Clair.

In his younger years, this knight fought bravely alongside Godfrey of Bouillon, and, as we will see below, his descendants played a major role in the subsequent history of the Order of the Temple. After the capture of Jerusalem, most of the nobles who participated in the campaign returned to Europe to enjoy the well-deserved glory and check the state of their affairs. Only the most fanatical crusaders and those who did not have enough money for the return journey remained in the Latin kingdoms. Perhaps Hugh de Payns and his comrades met both conditions, because they were not short of fanaticism, and their way of life bordered on poverty.

Two knights on one horse

The first Templars - who founded the order - were less than 10 people, but they had even fewer horses. On the streets of Jerusalem it was often possible to meet two stern knights riding on the same war horse. At first, they went on the road, ate and fought as a pair. This funny custom gave rise to a lot of gossip in Jerusalem and served as an object of ridicule from soldiers and other crusaders, especially those belonging to the Order of the Hospitallers of St. John, rivals of the Templars. Almost two centuries later, at the trials of the Inquisition, among other crimes, the Templar Order was accused of the sin of sodom.

Soon after its founding, the 10th knight, Count Hugo of Champagne, a noble and powerful French nobleman who was accepted at court and in high church circles, joined the detachment. It was probably through the mediation of this influential aristocrat that the founders of the order came into contact with the monk and scientist Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the most controversial and mysterious characters in Christian hagiography.

Six years earlier, the future Saint Bernard wrote the rules of the new monastic brotherhood of the Cistercians, hoping to revive the rigor and spirituality lost by the Cluny order, which succumbed to worldly temptations. Shortly before the creation of the Templar Order, Bernard had a secret meeting with the Templar leaders Count of Champagne and de Payns, who asked for his advice on the organization and activities of the order.

Abbot Clairvaux showed big interest to the undertaking of soldier monks, defined the main provisions of the order’s charter and promised them to obtain from the Pope the necessary permission to create the order. It was Bernard who suggested using the characteristic white vestments, which contrasted sharply with the black clothes of the Hospitallers, and the emblem in the form of a scarlet eight-pointed cross, which the Templars wore on their cloak next to their heart.

The Templar Rule, written with the participation of Saint Bernard, included the usual vows of obedience, poverty and chastity, which the knights had to strictly fulfill. Also added were the duties of giving alms to the poor, attending mass, and eating meat at least three times a week in order to maintain the purity of spirit and physical strength necessary to fulfill their mission.

In addition, the knightly oath required to provide assistance to brothers in the order in trouble, even at the risk of their lives, to fight three opponents at the same time and not to respond to any provocations from another Christian knight, unless he insulted the templar three times. Failure to fulfill these commandments was punishable by triple scourging. Needless to say, the number three had enormous symbolic meaning for the templars.

Bernard of Clairvaux eventually fulfilled his promise by ensuring that the new order was consecrated by the Pope. At a council held in Troyes in 1128, in the presence of Bernard himself, Pope Honorius II approved and solemnly announced the formation of the Order of the Knights of Christ and the Temple of Jerusalem, the first Grand Master of which was Hugh de Paynes. Both Bernard and the Count of Champagne remained in the shadows for reasons known only to themselves.

The era of the highest power of the Templars

Subsequently, the order began to develop at an amazing pace. Both the number of knights and the movable and immovable property of the Templars grew rapidly. To join the order and take a vow of poverty, the applicant had to donate to the order a castle and income from his lands, which were spent on the purchase of weapons, shields, war horses, armor and other equipment. In addition to the contributions of the new knights, the fortune of the order increased due to the generous donations of kings, princes, nobles, wealthy merchants and traders associated with the Priory of Sion.

1146 - Muslims conquered the Latin state of Edessa, which is why the Second Crusade was convened, which, thanks to the inept leadership of the young and stupid French king Louis VII, failed miserably. The Muslims struck back: in 1187, under the command of the outstanding commander, Sultan Saladin, they defeated the defenders of Jerusalem and drove the crusaders outside the Holy Land.

Skeptical about the Third Crusade, which was also being prepared by Philip Augustus of France, the Templars remained aloof from this campaign, which received the blessing of Pope Clement III, which is still in to a greater extent complicated their relationship with the Vatican.

Openly disobeying orders, they traveled around the Middle East, coming into conflict along the way both with participants in the internal internecine war between Muslim leaders and with Christian detachments. Some chronicles contain references to regular bloody battles with a monstrous Islamic sect of murderous assassins, as well as a brutal battle with the Pope-supporting Order of the Hospitallers of St. John, in which the Templars won.

After a short stay on the island of Cyprus, the Templars moved to Europe and placed Main Headquarters in Paris, creating large operational centers in Catalonia, Aragon and the south of France - the cradle of the Cathars, Troubadours and the Merovingian dynasty.

When the Templars already had the weapons and other resources necessary to carry out their mission, there was a need to somehow use the money and real estate that did not stop flowing into the order. Then they organized a kind of “medieval bank”, which had two directions of activity: First, they lent significant sums to kings and nobles so that they could survive difficult times or afford an expensive military operation.

Second, taking advantage of the fact that their castles and lands were scattered throughout almost the entire world known to Europeans, the Templars developed a system of lending to travelers and merchants, who could thus go on long trips without carrying cash with them. To carry out their numerous commercial and trading operations, the Templars acquired a huge fleet of ships, equipped with the latest technology of the time, which were based in the French port of La Rochelle.

Religious order or secret society?

Some authors believe that the knowledge of the Abbot of Clairvaux was not limited to theological and philosophical sciences those times, but that he was also quite versed in the mysteries of Hermetic Christology. Furthermore, many claim that Bernard was a prominent member of the Priory of Sion and one of the "Guardians great secret", which, according to certain esoteric teachings, hold ancient secrets and a plan to achieve world domination.

This secret information is passed down from generation to generation through a few initiates, among whom are the Egyptian, Jesus, King David, Julian the Apostate, and others. historical figures who swam against the tide of their era.

The same authors claim that Bernard conveyed secret information to the Templar elite, which they believe he kept, and chose the order to carry out a plan that had come down from the depths of centuries. In this case, the Templar Order was a medieval version of a sect dating back thousands of years, and not an ordinary military monastic brotherhood whose mission was to protect the pilgrims, which the Hospitallers of St. John did remarkably well without them.

One of amazing facts, which abound in the history of the Templars, is their outstanding knowledge of architecture, which influenced the emergence gothic style in the 12th century. It is generally accepted that the Templars organized and financed the construction of many cathedrals, the most famous of which is Chartres Cathedral. This temple was erected in 1194 on the site where previously there were pagan sanctuaries and a Druid school.

Today it has been proven that some underground currents and tectonic cracks converge here, which is why strange fluctuations occur from time to time. There is a rational explanation for this fact, which consists in the fact that in the ranks of the order there were scientists and specialists in a variety of sciences who could discover this exceptional phenomenon. According to more esoteric interpretations, the druids and pagan priests were also “keepers of the great secret” and passed on to their heirs the coordinates of the magical zone where altars stood in contact with higher powers universe.

The Templar origin of Chartres Cathedral is beyond doubt, because on the floor of the main nave it is still possible to see a labyrinth marked with the symbols of the Templars, which are also present on some details interior decoration. Its design used innovative ideas and techniques, such as the polyhedral base, the improved form of the pointed arch or the use of the golden ratio, the appearance of which is dated by official history to the period of the evolution of the early Romanesque style, while authors inclined to an alternative description of history trace them back to the technique used Egyptian architects of the Great Pyramid.

This technique, according to some researchers, was preserved and passed on to descendants by the Phoenician masons of Tire, who worked on this monumental and mysterious work of art.

Harassment and collapse of the Templar Order

Thanks to the huge loans granted to European monarchs, the templars acquired serious influence and received the right to give strategic advice, and in certain circumstances, impose their decisions on pressing political, military or trade issues of a particular kingdom.

Some of the kings respected the Templars and listened to their advice, such as Stephen of England, who allowed them free entry into England and Scotland (which allowed the order to survive in hard time), or Alphonse, the childless king of Aragon, who bequeathed his entire kingdom to the templars.

When this king died in 1133, the Templars refused a generous inheritance in exchange for monetary compensation offered by Aragonese nobles, perhaps so as not to provoke the Muslims, against whom the late monarch had fought almost 300 battles.

Other kings, more submissive to the papal will, although also borrowed from the Templars large sums, or perhaps precisely because of this, they organized conspiracies against them, in which the church authorities were also involved, trying to undermine the enormous power that the Templars possessed.

The king of France, Philip the Fair, who owed a lot to the templars, was distinguished by the greatest zeal in this regard. In addition, the Templars pointedly demonstrated their power by abolishing French laws in part of the territory of his kingdom, where the fortress stood and the order’s headquarters were located. Philip understood that he could not defeat the order on his own, without influential support. Then he turned for help to Pope Clement V, who was also fed up with the Templars, and they agreed to act simultaneously and suddenly.

On a January night in 1307, the mercenaries of Philip the Fair arrested all members of the Templar Order, whom they were able to take by surprise. The next day, the Vatican ordered all bishops, abbots, kings and princes under his command to sequester the property of the Templars and without hesitation to arrest all the knights in their possessions.

Pope Clement officially dissolved the Knights Templar and excommunicated all masters and ordinary knights, giving their privileges to the Hospitallers of St. John, who at that time represented a kind of personal army of the pontiff. Carrying out this decree, the Supreme Court of the Inquisition prosecuted, imprisoned and sentenced many Templars, accusing them of “heresy, perjury, sodomy and Satanism.”

Many of them confessed to the most absurd crimes under torture or died during the torture. Others spent the rest of their lives in dungeons or were sold into slavery, while the Vatican, France and other kingdoms and dioceses appropriated castles, fiefs and other property of the order. But no matter how much the papists scoured all corners of Europe, they could not find the fabulous fortune that the Templars were rumored to possess.

The last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, hid for 4 years, but was then captured by the Inquisition, brutally tortured and eventually burned at the stake. From the point of view of his cruel opponents and common people, his death marked the final destruction of the Templar Order.

However, not all templars were captured by enemies and fell into the clutches of the Inquisition. In France, many of them found protection in the masons' union, with which they strengthened ties during the construction of cathedrals, in Spain they joined other military or religious orders, and in Germany they joined the Hanseatic Teutonic Knights. But most surprising of all was the disappearance of the huge Templar fleet from La Rochelle, which evaporated from the port on the very night when Philip the Fair began a dishonorable roundup of the Knights Templar.

The Lost Fleet of La Rochelle

The number and type of ships that made up the Templar fleet are not known for certain, but all sources call it “large” and “powerful.” There is also no information that would explain how these ships could disappear so suddenly at the most opportune moment.

A more acceptable version is that the leaders of the order were warned of the danger by spies at the French court or in the Vatican, and had a few hours or perhaps a couple of days to avoid the danger. This would explain why the ships were fully prepared for departure and the Templars, ready to flee, boarded them. According to some sources, de Molay himself also boarded the ship that night and was arrested 4 years later when returning to carry out a secret mission.

Various authors state that the large fleet was divided into no less than two flotillas, which, leaving the port, sailed in different directions in order to confuse their pursuers. Some of the ships headed to Portugal, another part to Scotland, and, probably, the third squadron entered the Mediterranean Sea to take refuge in Sicily.

Portugal was ideal place, where the ships of the Templars could quickly leave the open sea and hide from the observation of papal ships, because it was relatively close to La Rochelle. In addition, the royal dynasty of Portugal, unlike France and Spain, traditionally maintained good relations with the order. Under the patronage of King Alfonso IV, the Templars founded an alternative brotherhood called the Order of the Knights of Christ, of which the monarch himself was the first Grand Master. Subsequently, the Grand Master of the Order of the Temple, which went underground, will be Prince Enrique the Navigator.

It is known that Prince Enrique took an active part in the first voyages to the shores and western islands of the African continent and in geographical discoveries such Portuguese sailors as Vasco da Gama and Pedro Alvares Cabral. The official purpose of these expeditions was to find a sea route to India, because land caravans were subject to constant attacks from Muslims.

However, it is very likely that Enrique, as Grand Master of the underground templars, saw ancient Phoenician and Arab maps, which indicated a huge unexplored continent located west of the Azores. Perhaps he wanted to test his ships in action and provide their captains with the opportunity to gain experience in long journeys along the coast of Africa before sending an interoceanic expedition in search of the lost continent. The idea of ​​such a voyage came to Columbus after contact with the Templars in Portugal and the Azores.

Other ships from the Templar fleet set sail for the shores of Great Britain, seeking to reach safe ports in Ireland. There they came into contact with the leader of the Scottish independence movement, Robert the Bruce, who was waging war against the British and their supporters. Bruce already controlled a significant part of the territory of Scotland, and neither papal bulls nor the authority of the Vatican were in effect in it, since Bruce himself was excommunicated from the Church for rebellion. He generously received the Templars, who in turn supported him in his campaign against England and its local allies.