TEMPLARS, KNIGHTS. A religious and military order of the Middle Ages, the great rival of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem. In 1119 Hngues de Payens and Geoffrey de Saint Ademar (Saint-Omer), with seven companions, formed a military band to protect pilgrims in Palestine. They adopted the rule of Saint Au gustine, and took the name Knights of Christ. But as quarters were assigned to them in the palace at Jerusalem, known as Solomon's Temple, they soon were called Knights of the Temple, or Knights Templars ( mi/itcs tcfnp/i). In 1128 at the Council of Troyes a rule, inspired by Saint Bernard, and closely following the Cistercian, was given them.
The order grew rapidly. At the end of the thirteenth century it had about fifteen thousand members, and in the middle of the same century it is said to have owned nine thousand castles and manors. It was free from all taxes and was under the jurisdiction of the Pope alone. As the order had to make regular trans fers of supplies and money from Europe to Pal estine, they developed an effective banking sys tem. Their strong and well-manned 'temples' were the safest places for depositing treasure and documents and for a time the Templars were the bankers of Europe. There were three ranks in the order, knights, chaplains, and servants. The knights. few in number, were the real Templars. They directed the affairs of the or der, and they alone could wear the white mantle with its red cross. At the head of the order was the grand master. The capital of the order was at Jerusalem till 1187, and then successively at Antioch, Acre, and Caesarea, and after the ex tinction of the Christian power in Syria (1291), in Cyprus. The standard of the order, called Beauseant, was half black, half white, with the motto Non nobis Domine. The Templars' wealth, pride, and power brought them into con flict with Church and State. With the decay of the crusading spirit their activity was more feared, and in the latter half of the thirteenth century opposition grew rapidly. They had made
enemies in other military orders and among the monastic orders. Their adoption of Oriental customs and the secrecy of their rites impressed popular imagination. They were charged with many evil and sacrilegious practices. The direct attack on them Caine in France. Philip IV., un der the influence of Guillaume de Nogaret, saw his chance to be rid of an insubordinate order, and to.inerease his wealth. He got Pope Clement V. to aid him. On October 13, 1307, the grand master, Jacques de Molay (q.v.), with all the Templars, was arrested without warning. Their trial was in charge of the Inquisitor for France. Most of them under torture confessed to some or all of the charges against the order. Many of them afterwards retracted, including Molay. A large number were burned at the stake, Molay himself being spared for a number of years. In 1311 Clement called the General Council of Vienne, chiefly for the purpose of sup pressing the order. When the council persisted in demanding that the question should be tried strictly as a judicial question without any re gard for policy, Clement held a secret consistory, Alareb 22, 1312, at which the suppression was decreed. On April 3d the bull Vox in exeelso was published declaring the reasons for the Papal condemnation. On May 2d the bull Ad providam was issued decreeing the final abolition of the order. Its property went to the Hospitalers; but the seizures of Philip were confirmed to him. Jacques de Molay was burned in 1314.
Consult: Curzon, La- regle du temple (Paris, 1886) ; Gmelin, Sehuld oder Unsehuld des Tem pclordens (Stuttgart, 1893) ; Lea, History of the Inquisition, vol. iii. (New York, 1888).