TEMPERING OF STEEL. [STEEL MANUFACTURE; CUTLERY.] TEMPLARS, KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, or KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLE, are the popular designations for the Brethren of the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, also called the Soldiery of the Temple Templi) and the Soldiers of Christ. The three great religious military Orders, the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (commonly called the Knights Hospitallers), the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary of Jerusalem (or German Knights of the Cream), all originated in the 12th century ; the two former towards its commencement, during the first crusade, the last not till near its close.
The founders of the Order of the Templara, which is held to date from the year 1118 or 1119, were nine knights, all French, of whom the two chief were Hugues de Payens (or de Paganes) and Geoffroi de St. Omer (or St. Ademar). One account makes all the nine to have been pre viously members of the Order of St. John ; but it is at least duubtful if this were the case. At all events, the Hospitallers were not yet a military order; their distinguishing profession was to entertain pil grims and to attend the sick and wounded : the idea of adding to the three common vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, an engagement to fight against the Infidels, appears to have been first put in practice by De Payens and his brethren. Up to this time, when a knight entered the society of the Hespitallers, he seems to have laid aside his arms. Nor probably did the nine knights forming the new association at first contemplate either the extensively military character which their order eventually assumed, or even the establishment of an order which should extend and perpetuate itself. Their original vow was simply to maintain free passage for the pilgrims who should visit the Holy Land ; and they did not proceed to add to their number till six or seven years after their association. In another respect, also, their early condition and pretensions were remarkably contrasted with their subsequent state ; for at this time they made the greatest show of poverty, even De Payens, who was styled Master, and his friend De St. Omer, keeping only one horse between them, a circumstance commemorated in the seal of the order, which represents two armed knights mounted one behind the other on the same horse. Indeed, the name which they took, and by which they were commonly known, was the Pauper Soldiers (Pauperes Commililones) of the Temple of Solomon ; and they professed to have no source of subsistence but the alms of the faithful. The king of Jerusalem, Baldwin II., gave them their first place of residence—a part of his palace ; to which the abbot and canons of the church and convent of the Temple, which stood adjoining, added another building for keeping their arms, whence they acquired the name of Templars.
The new principle of their association, however, immediately drew general attention ; so much SO, that in 1120 the Hespitallers got their order remodelled by Pope Calixtus II. on the same principle. The first regular embodying of the Templars was by Honorius II., who in 1128 confirmed a rule for them which had been drawn lip and decreed that same year by the Council of Troyes, on the requisition of Hugues do Payens and several of his brethren. Honorius at the same time, to
distinguish them from the Hospitallers, who were arrayed in a black mantle, assigned the brethren of the new order a white mantle for their peculiar dress, which they wore plain till Eugcnius III., in 1146, appointed them to wear a red cross ou the left breast, in imitation of the white cross worn by the Hospitallers. This bloody cross was also borne upon their banner, which was formed of cloth striped black and white ; whence it was called Bauseant, an old French term applied to a horse marked with these colours. This word consequently became the famous war-cry of the Temple chivalry.
The new order speedily rose into consideration. Members of the noblest families in every nation of Christendom eagerly sought to be joined to it ; legacies and donations in lands and money were showered upon it by persons of all ranks ; and in course of time it acquired ample possessions in nearly every country of Europe. At the head of the order was the Master, or Grand Master (31agister, or Magnus Mayisier), who was, however, not only elected by the Chapter, or general body of the Knights, but very much controlled by that body. The Grand Master had immediately under him his Seneschal, or lieutenant, and other high officers were the Marshal, the Treasurer, &c. The several countries in Asia and Europe in which the order had possessions were denominated Provinces ; and each of them was presided over by a resident chief, called, indifferently, a Grand Prior, Grand Preceptor, or Provincial Master. Under the provincial masters were the Priors, otherwise called Bailiffs, er Masters, who had charge each of one of the districts into which the province was divided ; and, finally, under the priors were the Preceptors, each of whom presided over a single house of the order (or sometimes over two or three adjoining houses which were considered as one establishment), hence called a Prcceptory. The head province was that of Jerusalem ; the affairs of the order, in fact, were for the most part directed by the chapter of this province, which was invested by the constitution with all the powers of a general chapter at all times when such a chapter was not assembled. The Grand Prior of Jerusalem Was ex-officio treasurer of the order ; and in this province the Grand Master resided so long as the Christians retained any footing in the country ; and on the fall of Acre, and the final extinction of the Latin power in Palestine, in 1192, the Knights took refuge in the town of Limisse (otherwise called Limasol) in Cyprus. The other provinces in the East were Tripolis and Antioch ; to which Cyprus, till then included in one of these, was added after that island became the head-quarters of the order. The western pro vinces were Portugal, Castile and Leon, Aragon, France and Auvergne, Normandy, Aquitaine or Poitou, Provence, England (in which Scotland and Ireland were included), Germany, Upper and Central Italy, Apulia, and Sicily.