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Knights Templar, Saint Paul Minnesota

Origins of the Ancient Order of Knights Templar

Historical tradition states that the Knights Templar originated during the period of the Crusades as a holy brotherhood in arms to protect those making pilgrimages to the Holy City. They were also said to guard the Holy Sepulchre as well as other revered places in the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem. These places and those who would make a pilgrimage to them were threatened by neighboring hostile peoples. These peoples had been suppressed by earlier Crusades, but had begun an aggressive retort. The period of history during which this endeavor began in earnest was the Eleventh Century.

One of the most distinguished figures of early Templary was Hugh de Payens, who had fought valiantly at the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099. In 1113, a few years after the First Crusade, he was chosen by the Knights to receive the title of “The Master of the Temple” – afterwards the “Grand Master.” De Payens is therefore, generally regarded as the Founder of the Order.

A few years later, the order assumed the name of Knighthood of the Temple of Solomon, the name “Knights Templar” was derived from the Temple on Mount Moriah, where they maintained their place of habitation.

The Knights Templar soon acquired fame and reputation, receiving the favors, gifts, and benefits of their sponsoring nobility and homeland. In their undertakings, they were renowned for renouncing pomp and vanities of worldly life, assuming a status likened to sanctity.

At the time of the Second Crusade, the Templars assumed the blood-red cross (the symbol of martyrdom) as the distinguishing Badge of the Order. Worn on the left side of their clothing, at a place over the heart, they became known as Knights of the Red Cross. At this time, the Red Cross Banner was first used on the fields of battle.

During the Third Crusade, the banner carried was changed to a banner of black and white, which was known as the Beauceant, designating that these Knights were fair and favorable to the friends of Christ, but were dark and terrible to His enemies.

Among the earliest of the Grand Masters (or Grand Priors or Grand Preceptors of England) was Richard de Hastings, who headed the Order at the time of the ascension of Henry II to the throne. He was known to be a friend and confidant of Thomas a’ Becket and figured historically in efforts to end conflicts between Beck and the King. Of the greatest benefactors of the Order of England, Henry III is said to have granted to the Templars, lands, privileges, and immunities along with confirming all donations to the Order from his predecessors.

After the loss of the Christian territory in Palestine and the hopes of recovering and protecting the Holy City, the service of the Templars ceased to the required, and the members of the Order became suspect by those who coveted their wealth and possessions. Thus, the Templars became unpopular with the European sovereigns and nobility, whose estates and resources had been diminished by grants to the Order by their predecessors.

The name of Jacques De Molay holds special significance to the circumstances during the fall from favor of the Templars. De Molay was the Second Grand Master after the expulsion of the Christian powers from Acre in 1291. A few years thereafter, Philip IV (“The Fair”) ascended the throne of France. In 1306, Philip IV entered into a pact with Pope Clement V to summon Jacques De Molay, and to confiscate the possessions of the Order. In 1312, the Order throughout Europe was suppressed by the Council of Vienne, and its property bestowed upon the Knights of St. John. In the years to follow, all Knights Templar in the French dominions were arrested and persecuted, the clergy preaching against them in the public places and churches. Fired by superstition, the Templars were imprisoned and tortured; more than 900 were sent to the prisons of Paris alone.

Throughout Europe, prosecution of the Templars continued. The exception was in Portugal and Germany where they were declared innocent and protected from the influence of the King of France and the Pope.

After more than five years in prison, De Molay was brought before an Inquisition where he and three of his faithful companions were humiliated and tortured. Refusing to succumb to the demands of the Inquisition, the four Knights were put to death on the scaffold on March 18, 1313 in front of the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame in Paris.

The Order of Knights Templar was revived in Portugal where it received favor from the government in return for its valor against the Spanish Moors. The Order assumed the name of the “Knighthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through these efforts, the Order again became strong, and eventually was recognized and invested with power by Pope Calixtue (1455-58).

A second theory as to the circumstances relating to the persecution of the Knights Templar has been referred to scholars of Chivalric History as the “French Theory.” This theory reputes the annihilation of the Order by Philip IV and Clement V as culminating with the martyrdom of Jacques De Molay. The theory supports in fact that De Molay appointed John Mark Larmenius as his successor in office, and that a continuous line of Grand Masters followed, as some scholars note, down to the present day.

According to the “French Theory” the charter by which the supreme authority has been transmitted is judicial and conclusive evidence of the Order’s continued existence and the charter of transmission, with the signatures of the various Chiefs of the Temple is preserved at Paris, with the ancient statutes of the Order, the rituals, the records, the seals, the standards, and other memorials of the early Templars. Thus, similar to other Orders of Knighthood, the Order of the Temple continues in full and chivalric existence.

“The days of Heraldry – the knightly chivalry of the panoplied armored past and the deeds of those romantic distant years may well fire our imagination. The valor of our plumed Knight brothers of the long yesterday makes up properly glad and proud to don the regalia typifying our connection with those our predecessors immortalized in the song and story of their own heroic deeds.

“With retrospective views we see that in the medieval morn the Templar past was glorious, -- herald of approaching day.

“Glorying in the wonderful past, -- basking in the glowing present, we turn to the vision of the full midday in consecrated achievement. Thus is the modern Templar task glorified, while the morrow beckons forward with Heraldry and Banners – the emblazoned Banners of the Cross!”

(This account of the Origins of the Ancient Order of Knights Templar was excerpted from an undated publication of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Minnesota entitled: FRAGMENTS OF TEMPLAR HISTORY: LEGEND AND STORY.”