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ORDO SUPREMUS MILITARIS TEMPLI HIEROSOLYMITANI®
The Magistral Grand Priory of The Holy Lands
(Notre Dame, Saint Mary of Magdalene)
A
Living Document on Templar
Quotes, Statements and Writings
“And this place is very dreadful and
dangerous. Seven rivers flow from this town of Bashan and great reeds grow along
these rivers and many tall palm trees stand about the town like a dense forest.
This place is terrible and difficult of access for here live fierce pagan
Saracens who attack travellers at the fords on these rivers. And lions are found
here in great numbers. This place is near the River Jordan and a great
watermeadow lies between the Jordan and the town of Bashan and the rivers flow
from Bashan into the Jordan and there are many lions at that place”.
Written
by a Russian Abbot named Daniel 1106-1107
“You, indeed, renouncing your own wills and others with you fighting
for the high King for the safety of your souls to that end with horses and arms,
in pious and pure affection should strive universally to hear matins and the
whole of the divine service, in accordance with canonical institution and the
custom of the regular masters of the holy city. For that reason it is especially
owed by you, venerable brothers, since despising the light of the present life,
being contemptuous of the torment which is of your bodies, you have promised in
perpetuity to hold cheap worldly matters for the love of God: restored by the
divine flesh, and consecrated, enlightened and confirmed in the Lord’s
precepts, after the consumption of the divine mystery no one should be afraid to
fight, but be prepared for the crown”.
“We have heard that certain of you have been troubled by persons of
limited wisdom, as if your profession, to which you have dedicated your life, to
carry arms for the defence of Christians against the enemies of the faith and of
peace, as if, that profession is either illicit or pernicious, that is either a
sin or an impediment to a greater achievement”.
“In a council recently held at Reims 19th October 1131 by
the common counsel and assent of our venerable brothers the bishops, the abbot
of Clairvaux and many other religious persons, we established and confirmed
that, in the chapel of Ypres, in the place which is called Obstal, every year on
the three rogation days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day) and
the five other days continuously following, solemn masses should be celebrated,
and whatever is made in oblations during these eight days, will be for the
knighthood of the Temple of Jerusalem; however, at other times no other divine
offices will be celebrated there, except by the canons of the church of St.
Martin of Ypres”.
“Therefore, after my death I leave as heir and successor to me the Sepulchre of the Lord which is Jerusalem and those who observe and guard and serve God there, and to the Hospital of the poor which is of Jerusalem, and to the Temple of Solomon with the Knights who keep vigil there to defend the name of Christendom. To these three I conceed my whole kingdom. Also the lordships which I have in the whole of the lands in my kingdom, both over clerics as well as over laity, bishops, abbots, canons, monks, magistrates, knights, burgesses, peasants and merchants, men and women, the small and the great, rich and poor, also Jews and Saracens, with such laws as my father and I have had hitherto and ought to have”.
“Although we submitted to your departure at the petition of the lord
king of the Franks, as you have heard, we are constrained on all sides by lack
of knights and sergeants and money, and we implore your paternity to return to
us quickly, so that, with God’s help, supplied by this means with arms and
money, knights and sergeants, we can relieve our mother, the Oriental Church,
miserably weighed down”.
“These men, brave and vigorous in
arms, have kept the commission prudently and faithfully up to the present day.
They have struck hard against the town of Ascalon with frequent attacks both
secretly and openly , so that those who previously terrorised us by overrunning
and plundering the whole region, now regard themselves as most happy if, through
prayers or payment, they are permitted to live in peace within the walls and
quitly go about their business, temporarily untroubled”. Written
by William of Tyre 1153
“For the Knights of the Temple with the pope’s approval claim for
themselves the administration of churches, they occupy them through surrogates,
and they whose normal occupation it is to shed human blood in a certain way
presume to administer the blood of Christ. Not of course that I would call those
– almost alone men – who wage legitimate war ‘men of blood’, since even
David was called a man of blood not because he enraged in wars which were
legitimate but on account of Uriah, whose blood he criminally shed. For as is
provided by the canons, none of the power of the ecclesiastical sphere may be
seen to be ascribed by laymen, even if they are religious men. Above all it
would be a sign of true religion if they refrained from the administration of
those things which by God’s prohibition it is not permitted for them to touch.
Still it is entirely wicked that, enticed by the love of money, they
open churches which were closed by bishops. Those suspended from office
celebrate the sacraments, they bury the dead whom the Church refuses, and they
act once a year so that during the rest of the year the erring people are deaf
to the voice of the Church; and he who cannot be coerced seems to be corrected.
Therefore, they travel around to churches, they praise the merits of their own
Orders, they bring absolution for crimes and sometimes they preach a new gospel,
falsifying the word of God because they preach living not by grace but by a
price, by pleasure and not by truth. And in the end, when they convene in their
lairs late at night, ‘after speaking of virtue by day they shake their hips in
nocturnal folly and exertion’. If one moves in this fashion towards Christ,
then the doctrine of the Fathers which teaches that the narrow and steep path
heads towards the true life of man is false and vain.”
“Lord, do not believe the advice of the Count. For he is a traitor, and you well know that he has no love for you, and wishes you to be shamed, and that you should lose your kingdom. But I counsel you to start out immediately, and we with you, and thereby overcome Saladin. For this is the first crisis that you have faced in your reign. If you do not leave this pasturage, Saladin will come and attack you here. And if you retreat from this attack the shame and reproach will be very great”.
Letter written by Gerard of Ridefort to King Guy 4th July
1186
“On this morning of May 17 rabi II, two days after the victory, the Sultan sought out the Templars and Hospitallers who had been captured and said “ I shall purify the land of these two impure races.” He assigned fifty dinar to every man who had taken one of them prisoner, and immediately the army brought forward at least a hundred of them. He ordered that they should be beheaded, choosing to have them dead rather than in prison. With him was a whole band of scholars and surfis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics; each begged to be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back his sleeve.”
Recorded by Imad-ad-Din, Secretary and Chancellor to Saladin 1187
“How
many and how great the calamities with which the anger of God has permitted us
to be scourged at this present time, as a consequence of our sins, we can
explain neither by letters nor by tearful voice. O sadness! For the Turks,
assembling an immense multitude of their people, began fiercely to invade our
Christian territories, against which we brought together phalanxes of our men,
fighting them during the octave of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. To begin
with we set out for Tiberius, which they had captured, having abandoned their
camp. When they had pressed upon us in some very bad rocks, they attacked us so
fiercely, that they captured the Holy Cross and the king and killed a great
number of our men, so that in truth we believe on that day 230 of our brothers
were beheaded, not counting the sixty who were killed on the first of May. The
Lord Count of Tripoli, the lord Reginald of Sidon, and the lord Balian of Ibelin,
and ourselves, were scarcely able to escape fropm that pitiable field. Then the
pagans, raging without control in the blood of our Christians, did not delay in
coming to the city of Acre, with all their multitude, and when thay had
violently captured it, they invaded almost the entire land. Only Jerusalem,
Ascalon, Tyre, and Beirut remain to us at the present time. Moreover, we can in
no way retain these cities, in which almost all the inhabitants have been
killed, unless we immediately receive divine aid and your help. They do not
cease to attack us violently by day and night, for the city of Tyre is being
unrelentingly besieged at the moment, and so great is their army that they cover
the entire face of the land from Tyre to Jerusalem and beyond to Gaza, like
ants. Therefore deem it worthy to send help as soon as possible to us and to the
Christians of the East, at present all but lost, so that through God and the
distinction of your brotherhood, the remaining cities may be saved by means of
the support which you provide”.
Letter
written by Brother Terricus, Grand Commander to Pope Urban III and Philip of
Alsace, Count of Flanders 10th July 1187
“After Jerusalem had been captured, Saladin had the cross taken down from the Temple of the Lord and, beating it with clubs, had it carried on display for two days throughout the city. Then he caused the Temple of the lord to be washed with rose water, inside and out, above and below, and, with an astonishing commotion, had his law acclaimed from on high in four places”.
“It
is well known to me’, said his host, ‘that many formidable fighting-men
dwell at Munsalvaesche with the Gral. They are continually riding out on sorties
in quest of adventure. Whether these same Templars reap trouble or renown they
bear it for their sins. A warlike company lives there. I will tell you how they
are nourished. They live from a Stone whose essence is most pure. If you have
never heard of it I shall name it for you here. It is called “Lapsit exillis”.
By virtue of the Stone the Pheonix is burned to ashes, in which he is reborn.”
“Next
to the troops of Walter of Chatillon was brother William of Sonnac, Master of
the Templars, with those few brothers who had survived Tuesday’s battle. He
had built a defence in front of him with the Saracen engines which we had
captured. When the Saracens came to attack him, they threw Greek fire onto the
barrier he had made; and the fire caught easily, for the Templars had put large
quantity of deal planks there. And you should know that the Turks did not wait
for the fire to burn itself out, but rushed upon the Templars among the
scorching flames. And in this battle, brother William, Master of the Templars,
lost an eye; and he had lost the other on the previous Shrove Tuesday; and that
lord died as a consequence, may God absolve him! And you should know that there
was at least an acre of land behind the Templars, which was so covered with
arrows fired by the Saracens, that none of the ground could be seen”.
Written
by John of Joinville 11th February 1250
“I JEAN de VERGE, lord of Fouault and Seneschal of Burgundy, make known to all those who shall see or hear this letter that I, at the request of my beloved and faithful JEAN, lord of Trichateal, confirm for me and my heirs the grant to the Friars of the House of Chivalry of the Temple of Fontenottes near Trichasteal, the gift and alms which the said JEAN has made to them of the usage of the wood of the forest of Velort and the right to use the same for the said house of Fontenottes and its appurtenances, as is agreed in letters which they have of this gift, sealed by the seal of the said JEAN, and promise before the said friars for myself and for my heirs that I shall not oppose the said gift or the said alms for reason of lordship or fief or for any other reason whatsoever, and shall not permit any other to oppose it, in testimony of which I have placed my seal on this letter, with the seal of the said JEAN, lord of Trichasteal.This is done in the year of grace one thousand two hundred and seventy-four, in the month of May.”
Ancient Document of La Fontenotte
“If some among them are innocent, it is expedient that they should be assayed like gold in the furnace and purged by proper judicial examination.”
Royal
letter opening the Enquiry into the Templars 1307
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