Knights Templar

Knights Templar Who were the Knights of Templar? They were the earliest founders and followers of military orders, and protectors of pilgrims, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. But they were much more than that, as this paper will point out. They began as very humble warriors, they continued with surprisingly strong growth period but their ending was tragic. This paper reviews the origins, the purposes, the actions and the endings that are attributed to the Knights of Templar.

The Knights of Templar was a Christian organization that was founded during the First Crusade, originally asked to provide military protection for pilgrims that were traveling to visit the Holy land following the conquering of the Holy Land by the Crusades. Most importantly in terms of the Crusades' goals, the holy city of Jerusalem had been taken back from Islam, but the Knights of Templar had a duty to protect believers who were eager to reclaim their Christian heritage in the Holy Land (http://tvtropes.org).

How Did the Knights of Templar Begin? Some of the above-mentioned pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land had to cross through Muslim lands, and some were harmed or killed. So around 1118, a knight from France, Hugues de Payens, founded the military order the Poor Knights of the Temple of King Solomon.

Payens gathered together eight relatives and some friends and with the blessing of the king of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, they established headquarters on the sacred Temple Mount and announced that they would be the protectors of all Christian pilgrims traveling to the holy city. Meanwhile there were some religious leaders who objected to the Knights' protection strategies, but a few years after their founding, in 1129, the Roman Catholic Church gave the Knights their formal approval (Cohen, 2011).

Also, a prominent abbot, Bernard of Clarivaux, also gave an endorsement of the Knights' activities. Once those endorsements were made known "New recruits and lavish donations began pouring in from across Europe," Cohen explains. The Knights as an organization took a "vow of poverty," but the bylaws of the organization allowed the Knights to accrue "wealth and land" (Cohen, p. 1).

About this time, as thousands of recruits took vows and joined the Knights, the group adopted an "…austere code of conduct and their signature style of dress," which was white habits that featured a large red cross on the front of the habit, proclaiming their loyalty to Christianity (and in the process, making sure Islamic raiders knew this was to be a battle for Christian survival and dominance) (Cohen, p. 1).

Once the organization had grown to enormous size, new chapters sprang up in Western Europe and because of the donations that had come in to the Knights' organization, "…they set up a network of banks that enabled religious pilgrims to deposit assets in their home country" and yet be able to withdraw those funds from banks in the Holy Land (Cohen, p. 1).

In other words, the pilgrims moving back and forth from Europe to the Holy Land did not need to carry their money with them (and risk being robbed along the way). Rather, they could rely on the security of the banking system set up by the Knights of Templar.

At the same time they were establishing banks -- which gave the Knights of Templar enormous financial cloud in the region -- the Knights were building a reputation as "fierce warriors" who were absolutely obsessed and motivated by a "religious fervor" (Cohen, p. 1). Their code did not allow them to retreat from any battle "…unless vastly outnumbered," Cohen continues.

Indeed, the Knights Templar were "…skilled, pious, and occasionally highly educated elite fighters," but they were also bankers, living out their passions as members of the so-called "…upper crust of medieval society" (http://tvtropes.org). With the huge funding sources that the Knights Templar had accumulated, they purchased a "…sizeable fleet of ships" and in fact they owned the island of Cyprus, Cohen explains. As a source of massive amounts of money, the Knights Templar actually served "…as primary lender to European monarchs and nobles" (Cohen, p. 1).

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, not only did the Church endorse the purpose of the Knights of Templar, the Knights' property was "…assimilated to the church estates and exempted from all taxation." The Knights' were even given exemptions from "ecclesiastical tithes," which was controversial at that time and brought the Knights' in conflict with many clergy of the Holy Land (Catholic Encyclopedia).

Why did the clergy in the Holy Land object to the tax breaks for the Knights? Clearly, it was based on finances, because those exemptions from tithes (giving ten percent of one's earnings to the Church) led to a reduction of revenue to the churches in the Holy Land; in other words, it came down to being about money, in that sense.

And every time the clergy in the Holy Land tried to "…restrain the exorbitant privileges of the military orders" that gave the Knights much of their political power, the Catholic leaders in Rom ignored those demands by the Holy Land clergy (Catholic Encyclopedia). The Knights of Templar build castles in France, Palestine, and throughout Europe; the castles were both "monasteries and cavalry-barracks," which anyone could see at that time created a dramatic contrast and paradox (Catholic Encyclopedia).

The authors of the Catholic Encyclopedia use a quote from a "contemporary" of the Knights to describe the paradox within those castles: The Knights were "…in turn lions of war and lambs at the hearth; rough knights on the battlefield, pious monks in the chapel; formidable to the enemies of Christ, gentleness itself towards His friends" (p. 2).

They were known as brave warriors that were "first to attack, the last to retreat," and "always docile to the voice of their leader" because while they reflected the discipline of a monk that same discipline was demonstrated on the battlefield (Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 2). The Demise of the Knights of Templar Late in the 12th century, the Knights of Templar began to see their power, influence and authority wane.

In fact Muslim troops retook Jerusalem and forced the Knights out of the city and pushed them around to various locations, Cohen continues on page 1. Using the Knights of Templar as Justification for Mass Killings Certainly it is true that some modern day individuals have linked their outrageous behaviors to the Knights of Templar; apparently because of the charisma and mystery associated with the Knights of Templar, a man like Anders Behring Breivik went on a killing spree in Norway. Breivik shot and killed 77 people on.