The Templars are “poor knights of Christ and Solomon's temple. The Templars - What is the Templars? History of the Knights Templar 18th century Templars

After the first crusade, nine monk-knights went to the Holy Land on a secret mission. In 1118 they arrived in Jerusalem and settled near the place where, according to legend, the famous temple of King Solomon once stood. The knights were nicknamed the Templars, or templars (in French > - >). It was an organization quickly becoming powerful, and in addition surrounded by a thick veil of mystery for the uninitiated. It seems that even the very creation of the order was at first hidden in complete secrecy. It was founded in 1118 or 1119 - even the exact date is unknown - by nine French knights, among whom was a certain Hugh de Payne from Champagne. To explain to the authorities the purpose of their presence in Jerusalem, the Templars announced that they would guard the roads along which thousands of Christian pilgrims rushed to Palestine and Syria. However, the knights did not participate in hostilities; they also could not provide significant assistance in protecting the pilgrims from Europe. What did the templars do in the ancient land? For nine years they kept complete silence about the new knightly brotherhood, in any case, not one of the chronicles reports about the Templars in these years. But it is known that in 1127 the knights returned from the Holy Land to their homeland (to the city of Troyes), where they announced themselves.

The following year, the order and its charter were officially recognized at the Church Council, held in the city of Troyes, the center of Champagne. The meeting was held under strict security. Not a word of what was being discussed was carried outside the walls of the monastery. Only the result of such a representative meeting is known: the new military Catholic Order of the Knights Templar was officially approved by the hierarchs of the church. He was granted very extensive privileges. Hugh de Paynes was elected the first master (leader) of the order.

The residence of the templars was at first in Jerusalem itself. King Baldwin gave them a place in the fence of the temple of King Solomon, from which the name of the order came. Officially, it was called like this -\u003e. The Knights of the Temple chose the Meek Mother of God as their patroness. Entering the order, they solemnly swore >.

From the very beginning, the Order of the Temple was dual: on the one hand, knightly, and on the other, monastic. Even his seal depicted a horse with two riders in the saddle. According to historical fact, there is another version: Hugo de Payne (Grand Master of the Order) and another knight named Gottfried Saint-Omer initially had one war horse for two. For this reason, and as a symbol of poverty, the coat of arms of the order featured two knights riding the same horse. And another version of such an image on the press: it spoke of poverty and brotherhood.

The templars wore a simple white cloak with a red cross on the chest. The banner of the order was striped, white and black, therefore it was called Bosean - in Old French this word means a skewbald horse; the banner had a cross and an inscription-motto: >.

The Temple Order quickly became a powerful, well-organized and disciplined organization. It was based on the principle -\u003e. The knights obeyed only their master and the Pope.

The Secret Life of the Templars.

The fame of the new knightly order, whose members fought against the infidels, guarded pilgrims and trade caravans, skillfully healed wounds, quickly spread throughout Europe. The order, professing poverty, quickly began to grow rich. Everyone joining it donated his fortune to the brotherhood free of charge. The order was given land by the French and English kings; already in 1130 the Templars had possessions in France, England, Scotland, Flanders, Spain, Portugal. Ten years later, possessions in Italy, Austria, Germany, and Hungary were added to this.

In the 12th century, along with vast lands, castles, fortresses, the Templars conducted trade operations, owned ports, shipyards, and had their own powerful fleet. The Grand Masters happened to lend money to the kings themselves; and more and more the templars forgot that the charter implies poverty and the rejection of all earthly joys, prohibits any secular pleasures, even laughter and singing.

Although some provisions in the charter of the order were surprising to many, they deviated from Christian dogmas, and sometimes simply contradicted them. Thus, one of the points indicated that members of the order may not stay in the monastery, although for members of other monastic communities, permanent presence was mandatory. The Knights Templar were only allowed to confess to chaplains belonging to the Order of the Temple, which meant that the activities of its members were not accountable or controlled by the Catholic clergy. The order had the right to engage in commercial activities and owned property (land and people who cultivate it). The Templars were freed from the power of local feudal lords and even from paying church taxes. Of course, all this raised a lot of questions. Why was such a small community singled out among many similar ones? What was so special about nine knights during their ten years in the Holy Land, having received such an award? Who was the secret patron of the knights?

It is believed that behind all the activities of the Knights Templar was the powerful Catholic leader Bernard of Clairvaux, abbot of the monastery in Clairvaux. He was the initiator of the creation of the order and its secret coordinator. The Templar researcher Louis Charpentier points out that it was on behalf of Bernard of Clairvaux that > ​​and > monks went to Jerusalem. Historians are unlikely to be able to accurately find out about the finds of the Templars. But Charpentier claims that the monk-knights were not so much engaged in military operations as they were collecting ancient manuscripts, and the main purpose of their arrival was the Treasure Ark of Solomon, which holds the key to secret knowledge. It was he who was brought by the templars to Europe. And it was the Treasure Ark that became the > and > that the knights passed.

During the existence of the Order of the Temple, the number of its members increased to hundreds of thousands. He was supported by the most famous aristocratic families of Europe. The organization of the Templars was distinguished by rigidity and unquestioning subordination of ordinary members to the top leadership. The Templars were divided into warrior monks who participated in all conflicts of the Catholic Church, and those who were engaged in economic activities.

> activities of the Templars deserve special attention. The commanderies of the knights-monks were located in all European countries. They became the largest centers of education and crafts. The Templars especially patronized construction. The construction of the largest Gothic churches in Europe surprisingly coincides with the beginning of their activity: in Chartres, Paris, Bourges, Reims, Amiens, Toulouse, Soissons and other cities.

A Gothic temple is a very complex architectural structure, the construction of which requires extensive knowledge. In Europe, after three hundred years of barbarian wars, there were almost no craftsmen left who could make masonry and repair the roof. Warrior monks brought to the treasury of the order not only the looted treasures of the Saracens, but also priceless Greek, Egyptian, Arabic manuscripts. Many manuscripts were considered heretical by the church, but the templars carefully preserved them. And it was through the libraries and schools of the Templars that the Europeans replenished the lost knowledge.

In battles with > the Knights of the Temple showed treachery, especially cruelty, causing the hatred of Muslims. It is no coincidence that, having defeated the army of the king of Jerusalem in 1187, Salah ad-Din very mercifully treated all the captured Christian knights, with the exception of the Templars.

However, even after this defeat, which shook the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Order of the Temple owned large estates in the Holy Land for a long time and continued to increase its wealth and glory - both good and sinister.

The Templars fought the Muslims in the Holy Land, and in Europe they established one commandery after another. They intervened in the affairs of states, acted as arbitrators, resolving conflicts between monarchs.

The knights of the temple were familiar with accounting and the principle of double entry, check payments and compound interest; in all Christendom there were no more experienced and honest economists. In addition, they encouraged the development of science.

Significant was the charitable work of the Templars. The charter assigned them three times a week to feed the poor in their homes.

3. How the history of the Order ended.

The Templars were also successful in commercial activities. Usury, trade, land and money donations made them the largest owners in Europe and the Middle East and creditors of almost all royal courts. Their influence grew from year to year, but especially increased when the great masters curtailed their activities in the East after the fall of Jerusalem under the blows of the Turks, and sent the freed funds to Europe.

And then the order, which has reached its power, suddenly ceases to exist. Why? This is another mystery that shrouded the history of the Knights Templar.

Of course, the indirect reason for this was the conflict between the King of France Philip 4 the Handsome and the masters of the Order of the Temple. In France alone, the Templars had about 2,000 commanderies, which owned more than 2 million hectares of land that were not subject to taxation. And if we add a well-established economic activity and treasures accumulated over the centuries, our own fleet and ports! Of course, the ruined Philip 4 had a passionate desire to get the wealth of the Templars, replenish their own treasury with them, and besides, this would lead to the elimination of a strong rival who influenced European politics. On September 12, 1307, a decree of Philip IV was sent to all the governors of France, ordering to arrest all the templars on the same day. The entire brotherhood, including the Grand Master, was accused of heresy, rejection of the Christian faith, worship of idols.

Of course, the Templars knew about the impending repression, for sure > warned them about the date. But why didn't such powerful monk-knights put up resistance and hide? This is another secret of the Templars. Clement v, who became the head of the Catholic Church with the help of the French king, supported his actions and sent similar decrees to Spain, Portugal, and England. Thousands of Templars were thrown behind bars. The authorities, seeking a confession of heresy, used torture against them. The Knights of the Order of the Temple have always been distinguished by their stamina and inflexibility, and the secrets of the Order have not been revealed.

Executions began: from time to time, by order of the king, knights were burned in small groups at the stake in Paris itself or other cities of the kingdom. Without waiting for the end of the investigation, Pope Clement v announced the dissolution of the order and its ban throughout the Christian world.

The treasures of the Templars did not become the property of either the French king or the Pope. It was said that the last Grand Master of the order, Jacques de Molay, knew exactly about the date of the impending defeat, but did not specifically leave France. The day before his arrest, in order to lull Philip's vigilance, he even arrived at the court to participate in the funeral procession on the occasion of the death of the king's brother's wife. The Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, spent five and a half years in prison, subjected to sophisticated torture. Finally, the day came when he, barefoot, in the yellow cap of a heretic, walked through Paris for the last time, accompanied by guards and monks. On one of the islands of the Seine, a fire was already laid out.

The Grand Master of the Brotherhood of Knights was burned at the stake on March 18, 1313. His last words were curses - to King Phillip of France, Pope Clement v and Guillaume de Nogaret, the military leader who arrested the Grand Master and personally tortured him. The curse turned out to be prophetic: within a year, one after the other, all three died.

But the order of the templars itself ceased to exist. Their castles and lands passed to the crown, ships were confiscated. Much of the property of the Templars was transferred to the Hospitallers, eternal rivals; the Castle Temple in Paris also went to them.

Only in Portugal and Spain, which fought against the Arabs, did the monarchs not give offense to the Templars: they needed the knight brothers as a powerful allied military force. True, in order to formally fulfill the prohibition of the Pope of Rome, new orders of chivalry were established, to which both the property of the templars and themselves were transferred. Untouched were the possessions of the templars, preserved on the island of Cyprus.

Mysteries of the Templars.

Little remains of the Order, once powerful and influential.

Philip, who wanted to get the riches of the Templars, got an empty treasury. Together with the treasury, the battle banner, sacred vessels and relics, and ancient manuscripts disappeared. The riches in all the commanderies of the Order of the Temple in France also disappeared without a trace. The fate of the treasures of the Templars has been lost for centuries.

But there are mysteries that remain unanswered. And I must say, they still excite the imagination of many people to this day.

The beliefs of the templars have become mysterious, there are even special studies on this subject - both quite scientific and complete mystics. For example, assumptions have been put forward: what, after all, did the Baphomet idol personify, which the knights of the Temple allegedly worshiped - it is quite possible that in the beliefs of the knights, the traditions and attributes of which they created for decades, hatred for > and. to the Pope himself.

After all, the Templars did not value anything as highly as absolute independence and power over everything and everyone. They believed in their power so much that it was precisely for this reason that they were defeated so easily and quickly.

But in addition to mysticism and theology, the templars have riddles of a more material plane.

And for many centuries, starting from 1307, those who wanted to find both the treasury of the order and its archive were not transferred.

Will they ever show up? Indeed, now for historians, the archives of the order are perhaps no less precious than all the treasures collected by the Templars over the centuries.

The fact that scientists to this day do not lose hope is evidenced by the hypothesis put forward not so long ago by the French researcher Jean de Maye. Although it seems at first glance unexpected and implausible, however, all its links line up in a rather harmonious chain.

The scientist drew attention to one oddity associated with the Order of the Temple. The fact is that he was so powerful that he minted his own coin. However, for some reason, not from gold, like all the others who had the right to it, but from silver.

Another oddity: among those seaports owned by the Templars, there is one - La Rochelle, - the purpose of which is not very clear: it lies away from all the trade sea routes of that time. Meanwhile, the fortress-port of La Rochelle was protected by strong walls, seven roads led there from different places in France.

And in addition to these oddities, there was also curious evidence that on the night before the arrests, three covered wagons left Paris, accompanied by a strong escort. The cargo should arrive at one of the ports belonging to the order, where ships were waiting for it.

Comparing all these facts, the French scientist suggested: long before Columbus. the Templars sailed to America, and it was for this purpose that the port of La Rochelle served them. In the wagons taken out of Paris, most likely there were treasures and the archive of the Order.

Where is the proof, you ask? There are also them. After all, we already know that the templars minted coins from silver, and it poured into Europe in a large stream from America and only after the ships of Europeans began to sail regularly across the ocean.

Another confirmation was found in the national archives of France: one of the ancient charters is sealed with the seal of the order, on which you can see. an image of a man in a feather dress, such as the Indians wear.

In principle, there is nothing incredible in the fact that the ships of the Templars were able to sail to America - after all, the Vikings went there on much less advanced ships centuries before the founding of the order. It was on the ships of the templars, by the way, that the compass appeared for the first time in Europe. And if the templars really found a way to the New World, they would hardly advertise such a discovery - after all, mystery, mystery compared the very essence of the order.

Although the power of the Order was undermined, its symbols continued to be used. Christopher Columbus discovered America under the flag of the Templars with a white flag with a red octagonal cross.

Recently, an ancient Rosslyn chapel was discovered in Scotland. It is possible that the chapel is the repository of the countless treasures of the Knights Templar. We do not know what awaits the explorers inside the mysterious castle of powerful knights. With full confidence, we can only say that the ancient chapel of the Knights of the Templars today, like thousands of years ago, remains a symbol of true faith and selfless service to one's cause.

In one of the previous posts () I talked about the so-called. "Curse of Jacques de Molay", pronounced on March 18, 1314. Jacques de Molay was the last Grand Master of the Templars. And where did this mysterious order come from?

The first mention of the Templars belongs to the archbishop and historian William of Tire. William of Tire (1130-1186), was the archdeacon of the Metropolitan of Tyre, and tutor of Crown Prince Baldwin, then ambassador to Constantinople and Rome. He entered into an alliance in 1168 with Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. In 1174 William was appointed Archbishop of Tyre, and directed the politics of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was fluent in Latin, French, Greek, Arabic, Syriac and German. In general, even by today's standards, he was a very educated person. Not to mention medieval standards.

In his book Historia belli sacri a principibus christianis in Palaestina et in Oriente gesti, written between 1175 and 1185, William of Tyre recounted the history of the Frankish kingdom in Palestine from the very beginning. It is worth noting that by the time he began this extensive work, the Templar order had already existed for half a century and, therefore, he described many events from the words of other people, including from the words of the Templars themselves.

This is probably the first secret - and there will be many such secrets - in the history of the Order. It is surprising that for the first half century, the organization that so influenced the history of Europe, the first decades of its existence, seemed to be ignored by no one. Therefore, by the way, everything that we know explicitly about the history of the creation of the Knights Templar, we know exclusively from the book of William of Tire.

Founder and first Grand Master of the Order of Hugh de Payens. sculptural image

According to William of Tyre, the order of the "Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" - that is how the Knights Templar was officially called - was founded in 1118. A certain knight Hugh de Payens, a vassal of the Count of Champagne, as well as eight of his comrades, decided to protect the pilgrims going to the Holy Land. The goal is no doubt noble, given all the dangers to which the pious travelers were exposed, but clearly not designed for the forces of nine people.

Be that as it may, the comrades appeared before the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin I (the brother of Gottfried of Bouillon, who took possession of the Holy City nineteen years before the events described). These nine people offered their services to protect the pilgrims, to supervise the roads leading to the holy places, as well as the general protection of the Holy Sepulcher. Considering that the Kingdom of Jerusalem occupied approximately the territory occupied by the modern state of Israel, i.e. with an area of ​​more than 20,000 sq. km, one can imagine how much work nine fearless knights were going to shoulder on their mighty shoulders. Baldwin I can hardly be called a very exemplary Christian (for example, for selfish purposes, he remarried a rich bride without divorcing his wife), but he sanctioned the charitable activities of the new brethren.

Logically, such a field of activity - the protection of pilgrims and all the roads of the kingdom, suggested the need to maximize the number of the order. However, for the first nine years of the order's existence, not a single new member was admitted to it. That is, strictly speaking, nine people supposedly oversaw all the roads of the kingdom, and even guarded the pilgrims. Even if they scattered one by one in nine different directions, they would hardly pull such a job. But even this they could not do, because, according to William of Tire, they were so poor that they had one horse for two. Even the official seal of the order depicts two riders sitting on one horse. True, since there were nine of them, and nine is not completely divisible by two, then apparently either one of them (possibly Hugh de Payen) had a whole horse at his disposal, or some horse was forced to carry three knights at once . Poor animal! In any case, it was not the most numerous cavalry.

Templar seal.

True - and this, apparently, explains a lot - the seal itself dates back to the next century and, most likely, the first Templars were not so constrained in their means to not be able to acquire nine horses. Rather, two knights on one horse - this is a poetic image that emphasizes both the motto of the Templars - "Poverty and mercy", and, perhaps, unusually close friendly ties between members of the order - they say, too friendly, which they will be charged with in 1307.

No matter how many horses the first members of the order had, these animals stood in truly royal stables. In 1118, Baldwin I died, and the new king, Baldwin II, allocated to the brethren a whole wing of his palace, located on the foundation of the ancient Temple of Solomon, just in the place of his stables (in the southeast wing), in which, as they say, could fit up to two thousand horses. Actually, it is to this circumstance that the Order owes its name, which went down in history - the Order of the Temple. Temple in French - temple, hence the Templars. Everything is very simple. However, the Order itself was far from being so simple.

Although there were only nine of them, if we continue to believe William of Tire, in nine years the Templars covered themselves with such fame that it reached continental Europe and Bernard of Clairvaux himself (lived in the 12th century, French medieval theologian, mystic, public figure, Cistercian monk , abbot of the Clairvaux monastery; was an active propagandist of the reorientation of the vector of the crusades to the East, to the lands of the Slavs) drew attention to the rising luminary of the knightly sky. Bernard even wrote an entire treatise in which he passionately extolled the virtues of the new chivalry and declared the Templars to be the personification of Christian values. And it was, let me remind you, about the organization of only nine people.

Fragment of the layout of the Jerusalem Temple of Herod the Great (Temple of Solomon). Reconstruction.

In 1127, Hugh de Payen and some of his comrades went to Europe, where a triumphant reception awaited them (the roads of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, therefore, were left without cover for this period). The following year, the Pope held a council in Troyes under the spiritual leadership of Bernard of Clairvaux. That was the second important point in the history of the Order. At this council, the Templars were officially recognized as members of a simultaneous military and religious association. Hugo Painesky received the title of "Grand Master" of the community of monk soldiers, mystical warriors who formed the "army of Christ." It is worth noting, by the way, that this term - "the army of Christ" - applied only to the Templars, and not at all to all the crusaders, as they began to mean much later.

Finally, Bernard of Clairvaux approved the charter and rules of the new order, with his authority strengthening the already, apparently, not by the day, but by the hour, the strengthening positions of the templars. According to the rules, the Templars had to live in poverty, chastity and obedience; they should cut their hair, but not shave their beards. All the "knights of Christ" had to wear uniform clothes - a white cassock or cape, which eventually turned into the famous white cloak of the Templars, symbolizing the purity of the thoughts of the members of the Order.

The charter described a strict administrative hierarchy, as well as many other details - from the behavior of knights on the battlefield to the use of valuables placed at the disposal of the Templars.

In 1139, Pope Innocent II, by his bull, granted the Templars significant privileges: from that moment on, the order was under the exclusive care of his Holiness and could only be dissolved by the Pope. Thus, the Knights Templar was removed from the jurisdiction of any secular authority of the monarchs of Europe and the Holy Land, turning into a personal order of the papacy, becoming the first, so to speak, international organization in Europe, if you like - a prototype of a united Europe. This is a very important moment, which largely influenced the tragic ending of the order.

Knights literally poured into the order from all over Europe. Wealth also increased - the charter required that a knight applying for membership give everything he owned to the order. And since the main wealth of the knights of that time was not at all chests full of gold, but lands, the Knights Templar very quickly and very naturally became the owner of impressive territories in France, England, Flanders, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary and, of course, in the Holy Land . At the same time, none of the knights was personally rich, since he fulfilled the vow of poverty, but the order as a whole became one of the richest organizations in Christendom. There was no longer any talk of riding on dusty roads together on one horse. In 1130, Hugh de Payens returned to Palestine, accompanied by three hundred new brothers, while some of the newly converted Templars remained in Europe to guard the lands of the Order scattered everywhere.

In 1146, during the reign of Pope Eugene III, the famous red cross with characteristic "pawed" ends appeared on the white cloak of the Templars. With the new cross, the Templars took part in the Second Crusade. The second crusade took place in 1147-1149. It was started in response to the capture of Edessa in 1144 by Muslim troops. Contrary to expectations, the results of the campaign for the crusaders were insignificant. The Muslims not only were not defeated, but won a number of victories. The second crusade was led by the French king Louis VII. After this campaign, the cross made of scarlet matter, located at each Templar above the heart, was approved by the Pope as a coat of arms.

Battle of Ashkelon (1153). In this battle, forty Templars, led by their master Bernard de Tremblay, broke into the city, destroying many Saracens, but in the end they themselves died and were hanged by Muslims on the walls of the city. (Engraving by Gustave Doré).

During the campaign, the Templars showed themselves to be recklessly brave warriors who never back down and at the same time are surprisingly disciplined. In the rather careless armies of the crusaders there were no knights equal to the Templars in morale and fighting qualities. The French king even privately admitted that if such a poorly organized campaign did not turn into a complete collapse, it was only thanks to the Templars. In the same way, they showed themselves in all the other crusades to Palestine, which each time became more and more inglorious for European chivalry.

A century after its founding, the Order of the Temple has grown into a powerful organization on an international scale. The templars were the mainspring of a huge number of diplomatic actions, they were in contact with all the monarchs of Europe, while not forgetting about the Holy Land. As an example of the power of the Order, it can be mentioned that, for example, in England, the Grand Master was regularly elected to Parliament (of course, we are talking about Parliament in the rudimentary form in which it existed at that time). In London, the order had a large residence, which was regularly visited by English kings, and even, as they say, the Grand Master stood next to John Landless when he signed the Magna Carta (Magna Carta, I remind you - this is a political and legal document drawn up in June 1215 on based on the requirements of the English nobility to King John the Landless (1167-1216) and defending a number of legal rights and privileges of the free population of medieval England).

However, the matter was not limited to Europe. The Templars maintained relations with the Saracen leaders, and it was even said that they had relations with the Ismaili order, known in fiction under the name of the Assassins.

Great power gives rise to competitors and enemies. In 1252, Henry III of England (1207-1272) challenged the Templars by threatening to confiscate their property: "You Templars have so many freedoms and charters that your limitless possibilities fill you with pride and insolence." The Grand Master reacted with lightning speed: “What are you talking about, you, O king!... If you violate justice, you will cease to be a king!” This, of course, was too much - even the Pope did not have the power to depose kings. But the English king, as they say, "swallowed resentment."

However, while the Templars became more and more powerful in Europe, clouds began to gather at the epicenter of their appearance - in the Holy Land. In 1250, the Mamluks seized power in Egypt - a military caste that consisted mainly of Turks - former slave soldiers. The Mamluks immediately began to expand and by 1291 only one fortress of Acre remained from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but it eventually fell. In defending her, the Templars showed great heroism, continuing to hold back the attacks of the Mamluks in order to enable women and children to escape.

Having lost their base in the Holy Land, the Templars found a new headquarters on the island of Cyprus. At the same time, of course, their commanderies continued to be scattered throughout Europe, being especially densely located in France. The last Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, undertook a voyage to the countries of Europe in order to find support in organizing a new crusade to liberate the Holy Land. But in Europe the situation was somewhat different. Europe no longer wanted to waste energy on desert Palestine, focusing on internal affairs. The ambitious and ambitious French king, Philip IV the Handsome, hatched plans for what his distant descendant Louis XIV completed under the name of "absolutism". The ambitions of the king reached the point that he decided to "pocket" the popes, moving them from Rome, closer to him - to Avignon. Putting his Pope - Clement V, he carried out this venture. True, before that, he performed another, much more dangerous event.

Such a king as Philip IV could not put up with the fact that in his kingdom there was a large, powerful, rich, and most importantly, an organization completely beyond his control. Many of those who write about the sad end of the Templars put forward mercenary considerations as the main motive of Philip IV, saying that the king coveted the wealth of the Templars. Of course, the wealth of the Templars was a very significant point. However, at a time when any war ended with the robbery of the vanquished, there was nothing particularly remarkable about this. The bourgeois era, which in everything and always sees only economic interests, naturally saw in the intentions of Philip IV an exclusively greedy calculation. However, it seems that political considerations were more weighty. The fact is that the Templars threatened the power of the king himself. Almost from the very beginning, the Templars considered themselves the personal order of the Pope and Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master, was very unpleasant to see how the French king treats Clement V. Moreover, Jacques de Molay demanded that Clement V organize a public investigation of those insinuations that the agents of Philip the Handsome began to disband against the Templars.

Be that as it may, and no matter what real reasons pushed the French king to take this step, but early in the morning on Friday, October 13, 1307, arrests of the Templars began throughout France. Almost all of the knights, including Grand Master Jacques de Molay, were arrested. The order was dissolved and banned. No unprecedented wealth was found in the Parisian residence of the Templars. Which once again shows that it was not the treasury of the Templars that was the main concern of the king - after all, having organized such a thorough operation to arrest the Templars throughout the country in one day, he probably could have secured himself in terms of the treasury, not allowing it to be taken out of Paris. And the treasury of the Templars left Paris (if it was in it at all) and, as it is believed, was taken out in galleys in an unknown direction. After that, her traces are lost and speculation begins, which gave rise to one of the most mysterious legends - the legend of the treasures of the Templars.

Gisors Castle in Normandy; here, from March 1310 to March 1314, Jacques de Molay and a number of other high-ranking Templars were imprisoned. Modern photo.

The trial of Jacques de Molay and other top leaders of the Order lasted intermittently for seven years. Only in 1314, Jacques de Molay was sentenced to death by burning. It was burned on March 18, 1314. It is believed that before his death, Jacques de Molay cursed the French King Philip IV the Handsome and Pope Clement V. Like it or not, both survived the Grand Master by only a few months and died under suspicious circumstances. This gave rise to a second legend - the legend of the curse of Jacques de Molay, which he allegedly addressed to the entire French Carolingian dynasty.

Of course, not all the Templars died even in France. Many escaped with ostentatious renunciations. And those who did not want to renounce and had the opportunity to flee - some disappeared in Scotland, some in Germany and Italy. In Germany, the Templars even threatened to take up arms if they were not found not guilty and were immediately forgiven. Some of the Templars moved to the Order of the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order (which had previously been created largely thanks to the Order of the Temple). In Spain and Portugal, the Templars changed their name and became known as the Knights of Christ, and until the 16th century, under this name, they participated in sea expeditions. Recall, by the way, that the caravels of Christopher Columbus went to look for a way to India, and on their white sails a huge red "pawed" cross of the Templars was painted.

Columbus ships. Modern drawing.

In 1522, the Prussian descendants of the Templars, the Teutonic Knights, who by this time were already more of a secular organization, supported the initiator of the Reformation, Martin Luther, who showed Germany his revolutionary translation of the Bible. In 1525, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order converted to Protestantism, resigned and announced the secularization of the Prussian lands - the territory that belonged to the Teutonic Order, thereby finally breaking all ties with Rome, which had once betrayed the Templars.

In the 18th century, many secret brotherhoods, to one degree or another, honored the memory of the Templars, as their predecessors. For example, a number of Masonic rites are believed to have come from the Order of Christ. And the very image of the Templars and their last Grand Master was drowned in an abundance of various novels and fantasies. In our time, the game of Templars has acquired even comedic forms. Perhaps, looking at the fat-bellied rich old re-enactors, wrapped up in raincoats with a red cross in some VIP villa on the weekend after big deals, Jacques de Molay would have been surprised at the bizarre twists of history. The Templars originated as an order of poor fearless ascetic warriors, and today rich pampered bored old men amuse themselves under this name.

Modern "Templars".

And the question involuntarily comes to mind: was Jacques de Molay really avenged on January 21, 1793, as the stranger announced to the whole square, dipping his hands in the blood of the just executed French king? And will there still be those who want to avenge his death?

How to know. However, one thing is clear - the Order of the "Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" was called to life by the era of the Crusades. His main goal and the whole meaning of existence was the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bfighting the infidels for the Holy Sepulcher. But along with the end of the era of the crusades, the Templars themselves came to naught. And although they gave rise to many related movements, Europe did not see the Templars themselves from the second half of the 14th century.

On Friday, October 13, 1307, by order of the King of France, Philip IV the Handsome, all the French Templars were arrested. The order was officially banned, but traces of the "disappeared" Templars are found even in Russia.

Neo-Templars

From all that can be read about the successors of the Knights Templar, we can conclude that the Templars are no longer the same. The Templars of the 20th century have little to do with that order, which in medieval Europe was richer than all states, however, in Russia there were and still are those who call themselves descendants of those same "templars".

In 1917, Apollon Andreevich Karelin, an anarchist and sociologist, returned to Russia. During his life abroad, he was converted to the Order, this significant event took place in France. Karelin returned to Russia with a specific goal: to lay the foundation for the "Eastern Detachment" of the Order. The Order of the Knights Templar was opened by Karelin together with Andrei Bely in 1920. The first "knights" who were initiated to lead their own circles were artists Yu. A. and V. A. Zavadsky, V. S. Smyshlyaev, M. A. Chekhov, mathematicians A. A. Solonovich and D. A. Bem, scientists N. I. Proferansov, M. I. Sizov, N. P. Kiselev, M. V. Dorogova, art critic A. A. Sidorov, poet and writer P. A. Arensky, artists L. A. Nikitin and A. V. Uyttenhoven, anarchists N. K. Bogomolov and G. I. Anosov. [S-BLOCK]

The Order of the Knights Templar included several sub-orders, which were preparatory stages: the Order of Light, the Order of the Spirit, and the Temple of the Arts. The organization maintained a strict hierarchy. "Knights" received new degrees of initiation, passing a kind of exams, including the story of several legends and the pronunciation of a secret formula. Regardless of the Order, there was also a "Brotherhood of Mercy", which united a part of both the knights who had already accepted the initiation, and people who stood close to the Order, but did not formally join it. The goal of the brotherhood was to provide any necessary assistance to those who needed it (including non-members of the order), but in such a way that the recipient of assistance (monetary, clothing, medical, social) did not know where it came from.

At the meetings, the knights of the Order were told ancient legends, lectures were given on cosmology and philosophy, on chivalry, the world of spirits, Atlantis, the infinity of universes, on the spiritual principles in a person, the earthly incarnation of which is just one of the many stages in the development of a spiritual molecule (monad), which constitutes "brick" of the general system of the universe.

Despite the fact that there were many anarchists among the Templars, they did not set themselves any political tasks. The purpose of the Order was enlightenment, questions of history, philosophy, and problems of art were discussed. The OGPU, however, thought otherwise. The Templars were nicknamed "anarchists" and in 1930 were subjected to arrests and repressions.

Templar Gold

The Templars were the richest knightly order in history. They were so rich that none of the existing states could compare with them. The main mystery that the Templars left behind was the mystery of the Templar gold that had sunk into oblivion. That's the way history works.

There is a version, the reliability of which, however, is in great doubt, that the gold of the Templars should not be sought anywhere, but in Russia.

This version is based on information that on one of the nights before the wave of arrests, the Templar gold was taken from Paris to the port of La Rochelle, where it was loaded onto 18 galleys that departed in an "unknown direction". And in 1307, Yuri Danilovich of Moscow was in Novgorod, where he met overseas kaliks (pilgrim wanderers), who arrived on 18 ramming nozzles. Kaliki brought "a myriad of gold treasuries, pearls and precious stones", which bowed to Prince Yuri, the lord and all people; then they complained to those who met about "the whole untruth of the prince of the Gauls and the pope." Like any conspiracy theory, this version is good for its boldness and lack of evidence. It remains a mystery how the ships reached Novgorod from France without hindrance, bypassing all the cordons. It should also be taken into account that at that time "purges" were going on all over Europe, there were many Templars who were hungry for gold.

Assumption Cathedral

Rumors that the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir was built with the money of the Templars have been circulating in pseudo-scientific literature for a long time. They are based on the assumption that Andrei Bogolyubsky participated in the second crusade. There is no reliable information about this, but since there is none, then (according to the logic of revisionist historians) it is logical to assume that something is unclean here, something is being hidden. The assumption of a close relationship between the Prince of Vladimir and Emperor Frederick is based on one mention in the writings of Vasily Tatishchev. The historian wrote that the German emperor allegedly sent some craftsmen to Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky to build the Assumption Cathedral: "The masters were sent from Emperor Frederick the First, with whom Andrei was on friendly terms." That, in fact, is all the "evidence" that the Assumption Cathedral was built with the help of the Templars. This hypothesis cannot be justified, if only for the reason that during the construction of the cathedral the Templars were far from being as rich as they are commonly thought: the order only, as they say, "gained momentum", and the fact that during its construction were Friedrich's "guest workers" are involved, not such a rare practice.

Order of the Oriental Templars

The Order of the Oriental Templars is an organization that still has its representative office in Russia. The center of the order is located in California, this is due to the fact that it was there that Aleister Crowley founded the Agape Lodge. The Order of the Oriental Templars recognizes its divergence from traditional Freemasonry, but it also has degrees of initiation. Both men and women can become members of the order.

The Moscow branch of the Order - "Pan's Asylum" was established on the basis of a charter issued by the Supreme Council of the Ordo Templi Orientis on April 15, 2000. The basis of the Camp "Pan's Refuge" was Russian members of the Order who were initiated in other countries. The program of the Order includes the study of magic and mysticism.This organization is related to the Templars only in name.

Moscow Templar

Rumors that the gold of the Templars "settled" in Russia also gave rise to the hypothesis that the rise of Moscow became possible precisely thanks to the wealth brought by the knights. According to supporters of alternative history, before becoming the capital of a secular state, Moscow for a long time was a stronghold, or komturstvo, of the Templars. So, from the annals it is known that from 1305 to 1314 there was a mass arrival of service people in Moscow. These knights ("on a horse in full armor") came from the horde, from Lithuania and "from the Germans" and were just the Templars who had fled from the Inquisition and the French king. The hypothesis about the rise of Moscow on the money of the Templars is not accepted by most historians, but fans of sensations and scandals will always bring their "arguments" in its favor.

holy grail

One of the main mysteries left to us by the Templars is the Holy Grail. The sacred relic, which disappeared along with the disappearance of the Order, according to some historians, is still in Moscow. So, Dmitry Zenin claims that the Holy Grail is located in the dungeons between St. Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin. In his opinion, the Christian artifact allegedly came to Russia as a dowry of the English wife of the Russian prince Vladimir Monomakh.

Symbolism of the Templars

Supporters of versions about the Russian Templars often build their hypotheses not on historical documents, annals and archaeological finds, but on illustrative material, which is a variety of symbols spied on by "researchers". The symbols of the Templars can be found everywhere: in the eight-pointed stars on St. Basil's Cathedral, on the crosses and roses of the old cemetery gratings, in the stucco ornaments of Stalin's skyscrapers.

With all the shortcomings and miscalculations of lovers of the "mystery of the Templars", it cannot be said that several influential Russian noble families had Templars as their ancestors: the Shchukins, Nazimovs, Nesterovs, Suvorovs, but it is hardly necessary to talk about the "secret" here. Having assimilated in the Russian environment and Russian tradition for several generations, they no longer had anything to do with the Order of Jacques de Mollet. The Masonic lodges that existed and still exist in Russia today also have a distant relationship with the Templars. Sometimes it's better to keep a secret a secret.

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

History of the Order

The birth of the order

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

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

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

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

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

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, patron of the order

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

Further development of the order

The decline of the order and its dissolution

Jacques de Molay

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

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

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

Two Templars are burned at the stake.

Different Templars were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, including life imprisonment, in cases where the brothers did not admit their guilt, they were imprisoned in monasteries, where they eked out a miserable existence until the end of their lives. Their leaders, apparently, were brought before the papal court on March 18, 1314, and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Hugues de Peyrot, Examiner-General of the Order, and Geoffroy de Gonneville, Prior of Aquitaine, heard their verdict in silence, but Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Prior of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnay protested loudly, denying all accusations, and maintained that their holy order was still clean before God and people. The king immediately demanded their condemnation as having fallen into heresy a second time, and on the same evening they were burned on one of the alluvial islands of the Seine, the so-called Jewish Island.

Connection with Solomon's Temple

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

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

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

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

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

Activities during the era of the Crusades

Seal of the Knights Templar. Two horsemen symbolize the vow of poverty or the duality of a monk and a soldier

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

Financial activities

One of the main occupations of the Order was finance. But what did they represent at that time? According to Mark Block, "money didn't circulate much". They were not real coins, but transferable, countable. “It was only at the very end of the 13th century that French legalists began to hardly distinguish between its (coins) real value (weight in gold) and natural, that is, its transformation into a banknote, an instrument of exchange,” wrote Jacques Le Goff. The value of the livre changed from 489.5 g of gold (Carolingian time) to 89.85 g in 1266 and to 72.76 g in 1318. The minting of gold coins resumed from the middle of the 13th century: florin 1252 g (3.537 g); ecu of Louis IX; Venetian ducat. In reality, according to J. Le Goff, silver was minted: a penny of Venice (1203), Florence (c. 1235), France (c. 1235). Monetary relations, therefore, are weighty in nature - which makes them somewhat difficult. Attempts to evaluate any degree of wealth can lead to inadequate results. It is possible, for example, to evaluate by the level of 1100 - when the livre fluctuated within 367-498 g, or by the level - livre 72.76 g. Thus, the author of any work can, using data, obtain the result he needs - about the enormous wealth of the Templars, for example.

It should be noted that due to the high risk, only certain individuals and congregations earned money from financial transactions. Usury was usually practiced by Italians and Jews. They competed with the abbeys, who usually gave money on the security of "the land and the fruits from it." The purpose of the loan was usually a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the term - the return from there. The amount of the loan was equal to 2/3 of the amount of the pledge.

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

It is the Templars who are the inventors of checks, and if the amount of the deposit was exhausted, then it could be increased with subsequent replenishment by relatives. Twice a year, checks were sent to the issue committee for final counting. Each check was supplied with the depositor's fingerprint. For operations with checks, the Order took a small tax. The presence of checks freed people from the need to move precious metals (which played the role of money), now it was possible to go on a pilgrimage with a small piece of skin and receive a full-weight coin in any Templar commandery. Thus, the monetary property of the owner of the check became inaccessible to robbers, whose number was quite large in the Middle Ages.

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

According to Steward, "The Templars' longest occupation, their contribution to the destruction of the Church's monopoly on usury, was economics. No medieval institution did more for the development of capitalism.”

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

Gradually, the Templars become the largest creditors in Europe. Among their debtors is everyone - from peasants to kings and popes. Their banking business is so developed that Philip II Augustus entrusted the treasurer of the Order with the performance of the functions of the Minister of Finance. "For 25 years, the royal treasury was managed by the treasurer of the Order, Gaimard, then Jean de Milly." Under Louis IX the Saint, the royal treasury was located in the Temple. Under the successor of Louis, she continued to remain there and almost merged with the cashier of the Order. "The Chief Treasurer of the Order became the Chief Treasurer of France and concentrated the country's financial administration", writes Lozinsky. Not only the French kings entrusted the Templars with the treasury of the state, even 100 years earlier, one of the keys to the Jerusalem treasury was kept by them.

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

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

Separately, one should single out such type of activity of the Templars as the construction of roads. At that time, the lack of roads, the multiplicity of "customs barriers" - fees and duties levied by each petty feudal lord at each bridge and mandatory passage point, not counting robbers and pirates, made it difficult to move. In addition, the quality of these roads was, according to S. G. Lozinsky, remarkably low. The Templars guarded their roads and built commanders at their crossroads, where they could stay for the night. People were protected on the roads of the Order. An important detail: customs duties were not charged for travel on these roads - a phenomenon exclusive to the Middle Ages.

Significant was the charitable work of the Templars. The charter ordered them to feed the poor in their homes three times a week. In addition to the beggars in the yard, four were eating at the table. G. Lee writes that when during the famine in Moster the price of a measure of wheat rose from 3 to 33 sous, the Templars fed 1,000 people daily.

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

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

Thanks to a strong network of commanderies - in the 13th century there were five thousand of them, along with dependent castles and monasteries - covering almost the entire Europe and the Middle East, the Templars could provide, at low interest rates, not only the protection of the values ​​\u200b\u200bentrusted to them, but also their transportation from one place to another. another, from the lender to the borrower, or from the deceased pilgrim to his heirs.

The financial activities and exorbitant wealth of the order aroused the envy and enmity of the powerful of this world, especially the French king Philip IV the Handsome, who was afraid of the strengthening of the Templars and, experiencing a constant lack of money (he himself was a major debtor of the order), longed to seize their property. The special privileges of the order (jurisdiction of only the papal curia, withdrawal from the jurisdiction of local feudal lords, exemption from paying church taxes, etc.) caused hostility towards him from the side of the church clergy.

Destruction of the order

Secret negotiations between the King of France and the Pope

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

Then Philip IV decided that it was time to strike. On September 22, 1307, the Royal Council decided to arrest all the Templars who were in France. For three weeks, in the strictest confidence, preparations were made for this operation, which was not at all easy for the then authorities. Royal officials, commanders of military detachments (as well as local inquisitors) did not know until the very last moment what they were to do: the orders came in sealed packages, which were only allowed to be opened on Friday, October 13th. The Templars were taken by surprise. There was nothing to think about resistance.

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

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

accusations

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

Here is a list of accusations made by the Inquisition against the Templars:

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

Court: general and special in the conduct of the trial of the Templars in different countries

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

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

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

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

Other countries:

• many were burned in Lorraine, but we note that Duke Thibaut of Lorraine was a vassal of Philip IV the Handsome;
• burnt by Templars from 4 monasteries in Marburg;
• possibly 48 Templars were burned in Italy, although Bishop Denis claimed that not a single Templar was burned in Italy.

Thus, the statement about hundreds of bonfires throughout Europe is incorrect. In England and Spain, special royal ordinances were required to torture the Templars. Under English law, for example, torture was prohibited. The church obtained permission from Edward of England to torture the Templars. This permission was called "ecclesiastical law." In Aragon, things were better: the law also did not recognize torture, and the Cortes did not give permission for their use.

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

In Germany, the measures applied to the Templars depended entirely on the attitude of the local secular authorities towards them. Burchard III of Marburg did not like the Templars and burned the knights from four monasteries - for which their relatives caused him great trouble later. The archbishops of Trier and Cologne in 1310 ceded their powers in relation to the Templars to Burchard III of Marburg for their lands. Archbishop Peter of Mainz incurred the displeasure of Clement V for justifying the Templars. The Templars, in the eyes of the archbishop and the accusers there, had indisputable evidence of their innocence: Commodore Hugo Salm himself appeared at the cathedral convened on May 11, 1310 and brought all twenty Templars; their cloaks were thrown into the fire and the crosses on them were not burned. This miracle greatly influenced public opinion, and they were acquitted. In the same Germany, St. John spoke in favor of the Templars, citing a case when, during a famine, with an increase in the price of bread from 3 sous to 33 sous, the Templars from the monastery in Moster fed 1,000 people daily. The Templars were acquitted. Upon learning of this outcome, Clement V ordered Burchard III of Marburg to take matters into his own hands - the result is known.

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

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

In Mallorca, all 25 Templars from November 22, 1307 closed in the tutelage of Matte. Later, in November 1310, Ramon Sa Guardia joined them. At the trial of 1313, the Templars were found not guilty.

In France, the Templars were arrested and imprisoned from 6 am on October 13th. They were immediately subjected to torture and ill-treatment. It was in France that they first began to burn at the stake the knights of the Order of the Temple. Unfortunately for the Inquisitors, there was not a single defendant among the Templars who would defend the heresy of the Order. The presence of such a witness would have been a godsend for Philip IV. Knights under torture confessed to all sins. The torture was so horrendous that Aymery de Villiers later stated: “I would admit everything; I think I would admit that I killed God if it was demanded. But after, at the next interrogation, the knights refused confessions of heresy. These refusals were so massive that Jean de Marigny, the archbishop of the diocese of Sens (which then included Paris) was forced, under pressure from Philip IV, to hand over the Templars who were refusing their testimony to secular authorities for burning at the stake. All the rules of the Inquisition were reversed: the witch, who had renounced heresy, was sure of her salvation and the end of the torture; a Templar who renounced heresy fell to the stake.

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

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

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

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

The obligation to support the former Templars was assigned to those who received their property. These sums were sometimes so great that in 1318 John XXII forbade the Templars of Germany to receive such a pension that allowed them to save money and live luxuriously. In France, the share of the king and his family accounted for:

• 200,000 livres from the Temple, plus 60,000 livres for the conduct of the process;
• money received from the sale of the Order's property;
• jewels of the Templars;

income from the property of the Templars received during the process;

• 200,000 livres that the Johnites kept in the Temple;
• 500,000 francs taken by Philip IV for Blanca's wedding;
• 200,000 florins owed by Philip IV to the Templars;
• 2500 livres issued by the Templars in 1297 to organize a crusade that was not carried out;
• payments on bills of the Templars;
• debts of the royal family.

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

Through this process, without any struggle, the congregation, which was considered the proudest, happiest and most powerful in Europe, was destroyed. No one would have dared to attack her if the inquisitorial legal proceedings had not given into the hands of people dexterous and a little shy the necessary means to clothe a simple robbery in a legal form.

Burning of the Templars

Cursed Legend

According to Gottfried of Paris, Jacques de Molay, ascending the fire, summoned Philip IV, Nogaret and Clement V to God's Judgment. The great master, seemingly broken morally and physically, in an unexpectedly loud, thunderous voice, so that the people could hear, says:

Justice requires that on this terrible day, in the last minutes of my life, I expose all the meanness of lies and let truth triumph. So, I declare before the face of Earth and Heaven, I affirm, although to my eternal shame: I really committed the greatest crime, but it consists in the fact that I pleaded guilty to the atrocities that are so treacherously attributed to our order. I say, and the truth compels me to say this: the order is innocent; if I argued otherwise, it was only to end the excessive suffering caused by torture, and to appease those who made me endure all this. I know what tortures the knights were subjected to when they had the courage to renounce their confessions, but the terrible spectacle that we now see cannot force me to confirm the old lies with new lies. The life offered to me on these terms is so pitiful that I voluntarily refuse the deal...

Obviously, the practice of calling to God's Judgment is connected with the belief in the highest justice, in the face of which the guilty answer with their lives. They were summoned to God's Judgment in a dying state - this was the last wish of the dying. According to medieval ideas, the last will, the last wish of the dying person is fulfilled. This point of view is not characteristic only of the Middle Ages. We can meet this view in different periods of human history in completely different regions. Echoes of this kind of ideas have practically reached the New Age - the last wish before the guillotine, for example, or the modern practice of making a will - the whole point of which lies in the exact execution of the will of the deceased.

Thus, in the 14th century, God's Judgment turned from trials with red-hot iron, boiling water and court fights into a trial before God, where the plaintiff is dead, and the defendants are alive. The practice of such courts was quite common, and G. Lee gives several examples of challenges to God's Judgment. There is nothing unusual, then, in the Grand Master's summoning of his perpetrators to God's Judgment. Gradually, the practice of such courts was forgotten, and the consciousness of unscrupulous historians created the legend of the curse of the Templars. This legend was widely inflated and served as one of the grounds for attributing various magical practices to the Order.

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

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

The fate of Philip was shared by his three sons, who were popularly dubbed "cursed kings." For 14 years (1314-1328), they died one after another under mysterious circumstances, leaving no offspring. With the death of Charles IV, the last of them, the Capetian dynasty ended.

Oddly enough, but that's not all. Already on the first representatives of the new Valois dynasty, akin to the Capetians, unheard-of disasters rained down. The well-known Hundred Years War (1337-1453) began. During this war, one of the Valois, John the Good, died in captivity with the British, the other, Charles VI, went mad.

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

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

Jacques de Molay, you have been avenged!

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

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

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

Various hypotheses about the Templars

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

The first hypothesis was put forward by researchers Jacques de Maillet and Inge Ott. According to them, the Templars either inspired the idea of ​​Gothic cathedrals, or built Gothic cathedrals, or lent money for their construction. Jacques de Maillet claims that in less than a hundred years the Templars built 80 cathedrals and 70 smaller temples. Inge Ott talks about the development of the ideas of the Gothic cathedral by the architects of the Order and describes the participation of the architects of the Order in the construction of cathedrals. The main question is usually put like this: where did the Templars get the huge sums needed for the construction of the Gothic cathedral? Usually about 150 people took part in the construction of the cathedral, each of them received 3-5 sous per day. A special fee went to the architect. In the cathedral, on average, there were about two to three thousand stained-glass windows. One stained-glass window cost an average of 15 to 23 livres. For comparison: a butcher's house in 1235 on the Rue Sablon in Paris cost 15 livres; the rich man's house on the Small Bridge in 1254 - 900 livres; the construction of the castle of the Comte de Dreux in 1224 cost him 1175 Parisian livres and two pairs of dresses.

Some researchers have put forward another hypothesis that the wealth of the Templars owes its origin to the silver mines of South America. The regular flights of the Templars to America are mentioned by Baigent, Ott, and especially Jacques de Maillet, who defends this point of view, having no basis for such versions. For example, de Maillet writes about the sculptural images of Indians on the pediment of the XII century Temple of the Templars in the city of Verelai in Burgoni: supposedly the Templars saw these Indians with big ears in America and sculpted them. The fact, of course, is good, but de Maillet also gives a photograph of this pediment. I found this pediment: the photo shows a fragment of the relief of the tympanum "The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles" in the church of Sainte-Madeleine in Vezelay (History of Art of Foreign Countries: Middle Ages and Renaissance. - M., 1982. - Ill. 69). This church was built in 1125-1135. The Order of the Templars was then only gaining strength and had not yet conducted construction, and even if it did, the Templars still did not have a fleet then, and with all their desire to get to America, they could not then. On the seal with the inscription "Secretum Templi" there is indeed an image that at first glance resembles an Indian. But anyone familiar with mystical teachings, at least superficially, will immediately recognize Abraxas in this image. The rest of de Maye's arguments are even weaker. However, it is worth noting that the silver and silver coins that poured into Europe during the Conquest had signs of the Templars on the reverse side, which was kept secret, but shocked researchers when this fact was discovered in the 20th century.

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

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

Outcome

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

The ease with which the Templars were arrested in France is somewhat surprising. It is impossible to break into castles and calmly arrest more than five hundred (not more than a hundred) knights - professional military men. The point is that throughout

In the history of the Christian world there are historical characters who managed to make a significant contribution to the development of Western civilization through their actions and deeds. Such characters, of course, are the knights of the Knights Templar - members of one of the most powerful political and religious organizations of medieval Europe.

Despite the rather short period of existence, the activities of the Order have acquired many legends that continue to disturb the community of historians, religious scholars and theologians to this day. The main questions that are of interest to the historical and scientific community today are as follows:

• did the Knights Templar actually exist;
• what is the secret knowledge that the Templars possessed;
• where did the templars get huge wealth;
• where did the countless treasures of the Order go after its abolition.

Who are the Templars? Where does this movement originate?

The history of the spiritual and knightly order of the Knights of the Temple is closely connected with Christianity, which at the turn of the first and second millennia was going through difficult times. The Christian world in the early Middle Ages was in an extremely fragmented state. After the collapse of the Empire of Charlemagne, civil strife reigned in Europe. On the fragments of the once mighty Frankish empire, new kingdoms, duchies and principalities arose, which tried to take a leading position in European and world politics. At this moment, the influence of the church, which had previously acted as a cementing material for any monarchy, significantly weakened.

The Catholic Church urgently needed a new idea that would not only restore the influence of the church, but also become a unifying factor for the entire Christian world. Such an initiative was soon found. In 1096, at a church council in Clermont, Pope Urban II proclaimed the idea of ​​liberating Jerusalem and the entire Holy Land from Muslim rule. From this moment in the history of Europe begins a new stage of development associated with the beginning of Christian expansion.

It was during this period that the Templars appeared on the political arena on a wave of religious enthusiasm. At the same time, under the flags of the struggle for the Christian faith, other knightly orders appeared - military-political organizations of a religious persuasion. Each of the newly formed orders pursued its own goals, but it was the Templars who secured the glory of the true defenders of the Holy Sepulcher.

The created orders were both monastic and knightly at the same time, i.e. had a religious connotation. However, unlike the Order of St. John (Hospitallers), which was directly subordinate to the Pope, the new religious-military organization was independent. The knights, united in a religious-knightly congregation, did not obey either the Pope or fell under the influence of secular power. The creation of the Knights Templar coincides in time with the current events taking place in the First Crusade, which turned out to be the only one of all subsequent such events. In the Middle East, the crusaders managed to defeat individual Seljuk detachments, weakening Muslim rule for a short time.

Historians attribute the foundation of the Knights Templar to various historical figures. According to one version, in 1099, Gottfried of Bouillon, who proclaimed himself king of Jerusalem, initiated the creation of a new military-religious organization.

According to another version, the initiative to create a knightly order belongs to the associates of the King of Jerusalem Baldwin II - the French knights. In 1118, nine knights, led by Hugh de Paynes and Saint Omer, offered their services to the King of Jerusalem to protect the shrines. The first later became the master of the order. By the way, these figures appear in the Charter of the order as the date of foundation of the brotherhood.

First of all, the emphasis was placed precisely on the military component of the new organization, since it was necessary to create some kind of royal guard, a powerful and well-trained paramilitary unit. The origin of the new military organization, despite the propaganda of high ideals, is explained by banal needs. Christian shrines on the land of Palestine and thousands of pilgrims needed constant protection not only from Muslims, but also from the attacks of robbers and robbers who appeared on these lands with the arrival of Europeans. The new order became a real military force capable of defending the gains of Europeans in the Middle East.

Corresponds to the stated goals and the name that the order received. Initially, the knights united in a brotherhood in the name of a lofty goal - the protection of Christian shrines. King Baldwin II, accepting the proposal of the poor knights, determined the location of the new brotherhood to be the place where the temple of Solomon was supposedly once located. The new spiritual brothers equipped their headquarters and barracks on the site of the former Muslim mosque Al-Aqsa. The population of the city, in view of this location, quickly dubbed the new brothers templars. As a result, the Europeanized name of the order appeared. The temple in French is called "Temple". Accordingly, the subsequent name of the participants in the new brotherhood follows from here - the Knights of the Temple, the Templars or the Templars.

Officially, the order had a number of other names, one way or another related to the main mission - the protection of the Holy Sepulcher and other shrines. At different times and in different places, the templars were called the poor knights of Christ or the poor warriors of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. The name Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem sounded less often.

A Brief History of the Organization of the Templars

The word "poor" deliberately emphasizes the ascetic way of life of the members of the brotherhood, who put the service of Christ above the earthly goods received during life. This is echoed by the legend surrounding the history of the creation of the order, according to which 9 poor knights became the founders of the organization. The symbol of the brotherhood was the emblem, which depicts two horsemen sitting on one horse, which once again emphasizes the image of the poor champions of Christ.

Some sources claim that the reason for the appearance of such an emblem is more of an economic motive. Due to the difficult financial situation, the templars could not afford to have their own horse. This fact is actively disputed today because the knighthood implies the obligatory presence of one's own horse. Probably the combination with two riders on one horse is a successful publicity stunt that the Templars resorted to, deciding to create around themselves an aura of asceticism and disregard for material values.

During the period of persecution of members of the brotherhood, the emblem of the Knights Templar was used by opponents of the templars as evidence of a deadly sin - sodomy, which is a link between members of the brotherhood.

The number of members of the order at the time of its foundation was small. The founders included nine French knights who were members of the first crusade. Among them, along with Hugh de Payne, de Saint-Omer and André de Montbar, were other comrades-in-arms of Gottfried of Bouillon.

As befits any serious organization, its activities were regulated by the charter of the Knights Templar, which was adopted in 1128. The text explicitly states that this document was adopted 9 years after the creation of the brotherhood of knights, i.e. all the previous 9 years the order existed in a semi-legal position. The leading role in the formation of the brotherhood was played by St. Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux, to whom the knights turned for help in organizing a new order. He took an interest in the undertakings of the knights who took the vow of monasticism. The abbot developed a charter for the brotherhood of warrior monks and took on the hassle of the Pope for the legalization of the new institution.

Among the merits of the abbot of Clairvaux is the commitment of the templars to wear white capes over their armor with a red eight-pointed cross in the region of the heart. White vestments strikingly distinguished the Templars from the knights - the monks of the Order of the Hospitallers in black cassocks. The abbot kept this promise and in 1128, at a council in Troyes, Pope Honorius II announced the formation of the Order of the Knights of Christ and the Temple of Jerusalem. The new monastic and military order was headed by Hugh de Paynes, who received the status of Grand Master.

Emphasis should be placed on the existing hierarchy in the Order. The head of the brotherhood (Order) is the Grand Master, followed by the following positions and titles:

• commander of the Order - he is also the head of a large military unit;
• priors - the level of the governor or commandant of a certain region (territory);
• officers - military commanders of the middle level;
• sergeants are ordinary members of the order.

Promotion through the ranks was carried out taking into account military and other merits to the order. The knights formed the basis of the military units and administration of the order. The service of the brotherhood was carried out by servants and grooms, who performed the functions of squires during campaigns. In less than 200 years, 23 Grand Masters have been chosen.

If we talk about the content of the charter of the order, then it more than accurately conveyed the entire organization of the brotherhood from the inside. The usual monastic vows of obedience were based on a commitment to worldly poverty and chastity. It is these two aspects that have become the main motto of the brotherhood of the templars. In the charter, instructions were given regarding the abstinence from earthly goods and excesses. Along with the obligatory attendance of mass, the brothers had to regularly engage in physical exercises and military affairs. Meat was allowed to be consumed three times a week, while maintaining the purity of spirit and thoughts.

Along with the main provisions set forth in the charter of the order, there was an oath that all members of the brotherhood took. The main provisions of the knightly oath were as follows:

• help the poor;
• at the cost of their own lives to help brothers in the order who are in trouble;
• do not respond to insults and provocations of a knight of the Christian faith;
• be able to take on three opponents at once.

Violation of this oath was severely punished, up to the use of corporal punishment. It should be noted that it was the Knights of the Temple who were considered the most consistent in their beliefs. Thanks to the contribution of Abbe Bernard, the Catholic Church received a powerful military and political tool in its hands. We can say that Bernard managed to achieve the impossible. Using the militant ardor and enthusiasm of the knights, Bernard managed to direct these qualities to the service of the holy cause. From now on, the knights not only fought for honor, but were forced to go into battle for religious reasons.

The heyday and power of the order. Secrets and mysteries of the templars

With the continuation of the Crusades, the authority of the monk-knights of the Order of the Temple only grew stronger and stronger. Templar warriors in white cassocks with a purple cross on their chests took part in all major battles and battles of that time, often appearing in the most dangerous areas. Many of them became legendary figures, going down in history as consistent and brave soldiers of Christ. With the end of the crusades, which ended with the expulsion of Christians from Palestine, the activities of the order did not stop. After the loss of the last Christian strongholds in the Middle East in 1291, the Templars briefly settled in Cyprus, where they stayed for less than 20 years.

It was no longer a religious-military brotherhood of poor knights. For almost a hundred and fifty years of its existence, the order has transformed into a huge corporation, where, along with military craft, other services were provided, including financial and transport services. This led to the fact that the religious-military brotherhood was able to turn into such a powerful and powerful organization. Many historians and theologians associate the power of the Templars with the finds made by the monks during their stay in the Holy Land. According to some historians, possession of the Ark of the Covenant allowed the Templars to find a way to countless treasures. The sudden appearance at the disposal of the Order of huge financial resources is the main secret of the Knights Templar.

The won and well-deserved prestige that the brotherhood gained is the main reason why, over time, the Templars became the most popular monastic order in medieval Europe. This became possible thanks to the strict observance of the hierarchy within the order and the very organization of the brotherhood. High military skill and valor only enhanced the achieved effect. Almost all French nobility and aristocracy were members of the Order. Many of the secular gentlemen preferred the attire of a simple monk and the ascetic life of a warrior to a rich and prosperous life.

France was not the only country in Europe where the Templars settled. Throughout Europe, the templars built their castles and fortresses. Great was the influence of the Templars in other countries, especially in Spain and Portugal. The order had political weight in England and in the German states. Their financial empire entangled all the royal houses of Europe with its networks. The templars had the broadest legal and religious powers, which were granted to the order by the popes and sovereigns, on whose lands the brotherhood had its possessions and interests. In the XII-XIII centuries, the Knights Templar became the envy of many powerful people of this world, the main banker of Europe. Material values, huge land holdings and usury were the main factors that led to the subsequent destruction of the Knights Templar.

The return of the Templars to France marked the beginning of the end of their reign as the military, political, and financial power of medieval Europe. The fact is that, despite the patronage of the Pope, the Order in some aspects exceeded its powers, becoming a state within a state, living by its own laws and often ignoring the interests of the sovereign master.

Defeat of the Knights Templar

Despite the fact that the order had colossal power and influence throughout Europe, this organization had many opponents and enemies. Although initially the main purpose of establishing the brotherhood was the military protection of the Christian states created by the crusaders in the East, the order in its subsequent actions went far from this. Having moved to Europe, the knights - monks made their main headquarters in Paris. The French port of La Rochelle, located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, the order made its main naval base.

Although the Templar empire had a fairly strong position, in Europe there were many opponents of the influence of the order. During its existence, the brotherhood repeatedly fought against conspiracies, the purpose of which was to achieve the abolition of the order or reduce its influence. This trend was especially pronounced in France, where King Philip the Handsome decided to do away with a powerful organization.

The reasons that prompted the French monarch to start persecuting the templars are banal. The French kingdom at the beginning of the XIV century experienced a deep economic crisis. The royal treasury was empty, and Philip IV had to constantly borrow funds. One of the main sources of funding was the Order. As a result, the debt of the royal court to the Templars reached enormous proportions. To destroy the order was the only solution for the French monarch to get rid of creditors. Not having his own forces to fight directly with the Templars, Philip turned to the Vatican for help. The Roman Catholic Church had its own accounts with the templars, and therefore the Roman high priests zealously seized on the idea to put an end to the recalcitrant brotherhood once and for all. Despite the fact that the order was officially under the auspices of the Roman Church, Pope Clement V quickly responded to the request of the French king by joint efforts to destroy the order.

The beginning of the drama falls on October 1307, when, by order of the king, the top of the Order, headed by Grand Master Jacques de Molay, was arrested. The Temple Castle in Paris, the main headquarters of the Order, was also captured. The day after the arrests began, Pope Clement V ordered all the abbots and bishops in France to start arresting the knights and to confiscate the property of the Templars. The repressions against the representatives of the order initiated by the King of France were supported not only by the authorities of the Vatican. Many large feudal lords of Europe supported the French monarch and opposed the Templars. The persecution of members of the order in France was the most severe. Throughout the country, the Inquisition's trials began on the arrested Templars, which resulted in the torture of the Templars and subsequent death sentences.

The main accusation, voiced at the trials and brought against the Templars, was the support of heresy, Satanism and the spread of sodomy. Despite the fact that initially many of the arrested high-ranking Templars admitted their guilt, the tragedy of the destruction of the order did not end there. In France, the actions of secular authorities and the Vatican were opposed by many supporters of the order, including those in the Vatican itself. The period of persecution and struggle against the Templars falls on the years 1307-1314. In 1312, Pope Clement V with his bull abolished the Order of the Temple and transferred all its property and powers to the Order of St. John - the Hospitallers.

The last Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, being under investigation and torture for four years, was burned at the stake on March 18, 1314. As a result of the destruction of the Order of the Knights of the Jerusalem Temple, neither the king of France, nor other persons from among the persecutors of the Templars, were able to unravel the great mystery of the brotherhood - where did the enormous wealth of the Order come from and where did it disappear.