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. Artists Yu.A. and V.A. Zavadsky, V.S. Smyshlyaev, M.A. Chekhov, mathematicians A.A. Solonovich and D.A. Bem, scientists N.I. Kiselev, M.V. Dorogova, art historian 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.

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 purpose 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, material, medical, social) did not guess where it comes from.

At the meetings, the knights of the Order were told ancient legends, lectures were given on cosmology and philosophy, about chivalry, the world of spirits, Atlantis, the infinity of universes, about 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 differently. 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 long time was a stronghold, or command, 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 Rus' 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", one cannot but say 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.

Templars(French templiers from “temple” - temple, “templars”) or the Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (lat. Templique Solomonici) - a spiritual and knightly order founded in the Holy Land in 1119 by a small group of knights led by Hugh de Payne after First crusade. This is the first of the religious military orders in the XII-XIII centuries. the order was very rich, it owned vast land holdings both in the states created by the crusaders in Palestine and Syria, and in Europe.

The order also had wide ecclesiastical and legal privileges granted to him personally by the Pope, to whom the order was directly subordinate, as well as by the monarchs on whose lands the Templars lived. The order often performed the functions of a banker, although the main purpose of its establishment was the military protection of the states created by the crusaders in the East. However, in 1291, Christian settlers were expelled from Palestine by 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 cruel persecution by the Roman Catholic Church, large feudal lords and kings, as a result of which the order was abolished and dissolved by Pope Clement V.

History of the Order

The birth of the order

Al-Aqsa 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 perished, and the new crusader states they created in the East did not have enough troops and skilled commanders to properly protect the borders of the new states. As a result, pilgrims, who every year paid their respects to Palestinian shrines, were often attacked by robbers or infidels, 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 the 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 the priest Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was instructed to develop its Charter, which would summarize the basic laws of the order. The medieval historian Wilhelm, Archbishop of Tire, chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, historian - one of the largest in the Middle Ages, in his work documents the process of creating the order:
“In the same year, several noble knights, people of true faith and God-fearing, expressed a 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 leadership 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, who were 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 forced the local population to pin hopes for protection on 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, of spitting on the crucifix, kissing each other in an obscene manner and having a penchant for homosexuality, and also worshiping idols at their secret meetings, etc. In October and November the arrested Templars, including Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order, and Hugues de Peyrot, Examiner General, pleaded guilty almost simultaneously. Many prisoners were tortured. De Molay then publicly repeated his confession before a meeting 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 to personally question 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 persuasion culminated in 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 member of the order. The Council of Vienne was scheduled for October 1310, 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 associated with the French throne, began already in 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 Templar brothers, inspired by two talented priests - Pierre de Bologna and Renaud de Provins - began to consistently defend their order and their dignity in the face of the papal commission.

By the beginning of May 1310, almost six hundred Templars had decided 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, a 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). On April 12, 1310, fifty-four Templars were sentenced to be burned at the stake and executed in the suburbs 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 was finally held, and the pope urgently demanded the dissolution of the order on the grounds that the Templars had so dishonored themselves 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 temporary residence in the southern wing of the palace, near the Temple of the Lord. During the existence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Temple of the Lord was called the so-called "Dome of the Rock", it is also the Golden Dome or, in Arabic, Kubbat al-Sakhra. Al-Aqsa (Extreme) Mosque was called Templum Solomonis - The Temple of Solomon.They - and also, later, the palace of the King of Jerusalem, were built on the territory of the Temple Mount - in the same place where the Jerusalem Temple destroyed by the Romans stood. The main residence of the Templars was located in the southern wing of the palace. medieval plans and maps depicting Jerusalem, up to the 16th century temple mount is called the Temple of Solomon. For example, on the plan of Jerusalem in 1200, one can clearly read the “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 Temple of Jerusalem."

“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 external beauties, 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 first one could contemplate all sorts of Beautiful colors, while in the latter - to 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 crusading knights—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. Restored and dedicated to the Universal cult, the Temple of Solomon was to become the capital of the world. 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 the masons of Zerubbabel to be their biblical model, who worked with a sword in one hand and a stonemason'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? In the words of 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 the 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 1284. 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 estimate by the level of 1100 - when the livre fluctuated between 367-498 g, or by the level of 1318 - livre 72.76 g. Thus, the author of any work can, using data, obtain the result he needs - about the huge amount of wealth of the Templars, for example. It should be noted - due to the high risk financial transactions only certain individuals and congregations earned. 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.

Looked much more solid on this field financial activities Order of the Knights Templar.

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 transactions 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. Manuary 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 financial management of the country,” 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 Knights of the Temple knew Accounting and the principle of double entry, check payments and compound interest; in all Christendom there were no more experienced and honest economists.

The Order led active construction works. 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 temples" in Europe.

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. Li 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.

In 1291 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 powers that be, 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 ill will towards him on the part of the church clergy.

Destruction of the order

Secret negotiations between the King of France and the Pope

Using some accidental 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.

In the autumn, 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, the investigation obtained the necessary testimony. 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.

Charges:

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 desecrated the Holy crucifix - that is, who committed blasphemy. 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 was ordered to spit on the cross during his initiation into the Order, he spat, then went to confession to one Franciscan, who reassured him and ordered him to fast three Fridays as atonement.
The knight Pierre de Cherru 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.

Kissing on various parts of the body. Henry Lee suggests that this may have been either a test of obedience or a mockery of the knight's serving brother. Kisses were usually required only from employees.

Sodomy.

The 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.

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:
the knights worshiped a certain cat, which sometimes appeared to them at their meetings;
in every province they had idols, namely heads (some of them had three faces, and some only one) and human skulls;
they worshiped these idols, especially in their meetings;
they revered these idols as representatives of God and Savior;
the Templars claimed that the head could save them and make them rich;
idols gave all the wealth to the order;
idols made the earth bear fruit and the trees blossom;
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;
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);
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. Li show that if torture was used almost everywhere, except for Cyprus, Castile, Portugal, Trier and Mainz, then they were usually imprisoned:
not suddenly, as in France;
they could take the word of honor and leave it in their castles - as in England and Cyprus;
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:
France:
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, being 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 local accusers, had indisputable evidence of their innocence: Commodore Hugh 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 1309 - 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 13, 1307.
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 San (which then included Paris) was forced, under pressure from Philip IV, to transfer 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. April 3, 1312 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.

Tomar Castle - residence of the Portuguese Templars and their successors.

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 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: "One can easily deceive the Church, but in no case one can deceive God."

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 the 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 absolutely 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 consideration of the case in the face of 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.

Choking in 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 in late XVI 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 are 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 Great Revolution 1789-1799 wrested from the power of the popes and France.

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. Under the same flags, Vasco da Gama sailed to India.

Various hypotheses about the Templars

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

Marble cenotaphs of the Templars in the Round Church of the London Temple.

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.

A rather simple explanation of the origin of the wealth of the Templars was given by A. V. Gultsev, who specializes in working with the archives of the Masonic Lodge of the Great East of France: “Usually, going on crusades, the feudal knights transferred all their property under the supervision of the brothers of the Order. Knowing that, at best, one out of ten returned back - the rest either died, or remained to live in the Holy Land ... or became Templars - one can understand how quickly the Order grew rich.

Some researchers 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: allegedly, 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. The photograph 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 Vézelay. 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 the researchers when they discovered this fact 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.

One of the alleged places where the Templars hid the Holy Grail is Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.

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.

The Knights of the Order of the Temple were professional soldiers and some of the best financiers in Europe.

The ease with which the Templars were arrested in France is somewhat surprising. Breaking into castles and calmly arresting more than a hundred knights - professional military - is impossible. The fact is that throughout the year 1307 there was a question between the Pope and the King of France and the Grand Master of the Order about the removal of various charges from the Order. The master himself demanded a trial to justify the Order. No one could have imagined that everything would happen in this way: they would betray. The opportunity to improve their financial affairs and pushed Philip IV to the process of expelling the Order.

A few words should be said about the size of the Order. There is a trend in historiography that exaggerates the number of his followers: Wilcke believed that there were about 15,000 knights in the Order; Zeckler - 20,000 knights; Malliard de Chambure - 30,000 knights. All these figures are too large and do not correlate with the number of knights who participated in the war between Philip IV and the Order.
In France, 538 knights were arrested, in Cyprus - 75 knights, in Mallorca - 25 knights fought, and all were defeated. France, Cyprus, and Mallorca were all separate guilds of the Order. Obviously, historians also transfer the number of the Order itself, in general, to the number of knights in it.

Researchers pay great attention to the issue of the treasures of the Templars. This does not take into account that at that time incomes were more often in kind, and not in cash. Thus, the Templars received agricultural products, which for the most part went to charitable purposes. Most likely, the Templars did not have significant sums of money in October 1307 - they were preparing for the check, therefore they made all the calculations. This explanation does not claim to be absolute, but perhaps clarifies the matter a bit.

The property of the Order after its abolition was subjected to widespread looting by not only the clergy and kings, but also by private individuals. Many contradictions and inconsistencies are superimposed on the official history of the Order. One thing is certain: according to its official Charter, the Order is Catholic. And there is no evidence that could disprove it. Historians have invented the supposed heresy of the Templars.

The most striking words about the consequences of the fall of the Knights of the Temple belong to Charles William Heckerthorne: “With the Templars, the whole world perished; chivalry, crusades ended with them.

Even the papacy received a terrible blow. Symbolism was deeply shaken. A greedy and fruitless trading spirit arose. Mysticism, which illuminated past generations with such a bright light, found coldness, distrust in the souls of people. The reaction was strong, and the Templars were the first to fall under the hard blows of the West, which sought to revolt against the East, which had hitherto in many respects dominated it, ruled it and oppressed it.

Grand Masters of the Knights Templar

Lord de Killman (1115)
Daniel de Sasogue (1103)
Otto von Kobold (1106)
Hugh de Paynes (1119 - 24 May 1136)
Robert de Craon (June 1137 – 13 January 1149)
Evrard de Bar (1149-1152)
Bernard de Tremele (June 1152 – 16 August 1153)
André de Montbard (1153-1156)
Bertrand de Blancfort (1156-1169)
Philip of Nablus (August 1169 - April 1171)
Odo de Saint-Amant (1171 - 8 October 1179)
Arnaud de la Tourouge (1180 - 30 September 1184)
Gerard de Ridefort (1185 - 4 October 1189)
Robert de Sable (1191 - 23 September 1193)
Gilbert Eral (1194-1200)
Philippe de Plessier (1200 - November 1209)
Guillaume de Chartres (1209 - 26 August 1219)
Pierre de Montagu (1219 - 28 January 1232)
Armand de Périgord (1232 - 17 October 1244)
Richard de Boer (1244 - 9 May 1247)
Guillaume de Sonnac (1247 - February 11, 1250)
Renaud de Vichiers (1250 - 20 January 1256)
Thomas Berard (1256 - 25 March 1273)
Guillaume de Beauje (May 13, 1273 - May 1291)
Thibaut Gaudin (August 1291-1293)
Jacques de Molay (1293 - 13 April 1307)

Reflection in culture

With the defeat of the order, the investigation of the knights and the curse of Jacques de Molay, a series of historical novels by Maurice Druon "Damned Kings" begins.

The theme of the Templars is one of the main ones in Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum.

Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code" and its film adaptation.

THE BIRTH OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLE

The crusades undertaken in Syria and Palestine for the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher for 200 years attracted to the East hordes of brave people of all classes, driven by a sincere religious feeling, longing for feat and glory, or looking for adventure and profit. (See section "Crusades") When in 1099 the crusaders managed to take Jerusalem and establish a Christian state in the Holy Land, the influx of pilgrims to the Holy Sepulcher increased significantly. Taking care of the needs of the pilgrims and protecting them on the way from the seashore to the holy places was taken over by the spiritual and chivalric Orders that arose to fight the Muslims. The most powerful of these Orders was the famous Order of the Knights of the Temple or the Knights Templar.

According to Guillaume of Tyre, the order was founded in 1118. Hugues de Paynes and Godefroy de Saint-Omer came to the court of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and asked permission to guard the pilgrims on the way from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Initially, the order was just a company of 9 knights. Here are their names: Hugo de Payne, Godefroy de Saint-Omer, Andre de Montbard, Gundomard, Roland, Geoffroy Bizot, Payne de Montdidier, Archambo de Saint-Aman. The knights promised to always live like ordinary monks, without property, according to the vows of chastity and obedience. They called themselves "the poor fraternal army of Jesus Christ" and at first did not wear any special clothes, but continued to dress in accordance with their profession. In order to provide them with the means necessary for their existence, the patriarch and the king allocated funds from their treasury to them. Baldwin II gave them a castle in Jerusalem, near the place where, according to legend, the temple of Solomon was located, on the southern slope of the Temple Mount. Therefore, they were soon called the poor knighthood of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, the Knights of the Temple, or simply the Templars.

It is possible that initially Hugh de Paynes and his associates simply wanted to create another monastery or a brotherhood of knights, similar to the Order of St. John, that is, the hospitallers involved in organizing and protecting hospices. The Order of Hospitallers, founded by the merchants of Amalfi, took care of the pilgrims even before the 1st Crusade. The medieval chronicler Michael the Syrian, for example, believed that it was King Baldwin, who was well aware of the fragility of his power in Jerusalem, who insisted that Hugh de Paynes and his comrades remain in the rank of knights and not be tonsured as monks, so that they could "not only engage in salvation of souls, but also to protect these places from robbers.
The decision to remain in arms may have been dictated by the growing instability of life in the overseas territories and the constant threat to the lives of the Latins. IN Easter week In 1119, a group of 700 unarmed pilgrims heading from Jerusalem to the Jordan River were attacked by armed Saracens: they killed 300 people on the spot, and sold 60 into slavery. The Turks made their robbery raids near the very walls of Jerusalem, so it became deadly dangerous even for a short time to leave the city without reliable protection.

In 1127, King Baldwin II sent Hugh de Paynes and William of Boers on a diplomatic mission to Western Europe. They were given the task of persuading Fulk of Anjou to marry Melisende, the daughter of Baldwin, to become the legitimate heir to the throne of Jerusalem, and to lead the planned armed campaign against Damascus. In addition, Hugh was going, with the permission of the pope, to recruit candidates for entry into his order of the Knights of the Temple. It is difficult to say exactly what the number of the Templar Order was at that moment - the chroniclers speak of nine Knights Templar. However, the fact that it was the Master who was chosen by King Baldwin for such a responsible mission - and he took a retinue of several armed knights - suggests that by the standards of overseas Latin territories, the order was already quite strong by that time.
After the crusaders took over the important fortress of Tire on the coast, the Latins were already seriously thinking about attacking the deep Muslim rear. In 1124 Baldwin laid siege to the city of Aleppo; in 1125 he defeated the army of the Saracens in the battle of Aizazeo and made several raids on the lands subject to the emir of Damascus. At the very beginning of 1126, he penetrated even deeper into the Damascus territories with great forces, making several successful operations and capturing abundant booty. It seemed that the capture of Damascus itself was not far off: one more effort - and this richest city would fall, providing the knights with rich trophies. And at the same time, the constant danger of Muslim invasion will be eliminated and another Frankish state will arise in the Middle East.
Since the king of Jerusalem had no son-heir, but only three daughters, in order to maintain stability, it was vital for Baldwin to marry his eldest daughter Melisende to some high-ranking nobleman.

The king's messengers had a letter of introduction to Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, who was an admirer of the Templars. On January 31, 1128, Hugh de Paynes appeared before the council of the city of Troyes, which included the archbishops of Reims and Sens, ten bishops and several abbots, among whom was Bernard of Clevros. Cardinal Albano, papal legate, presided over the council. The council gave the Templars the right to wear white cloaks, own and rule lands and vassals (regardless of the vow of poverty), and receive tithes as alms.

Having thus founded the Order of the Temple, Hugues de Paynes and his knights set off, each separately, in search of associates and donations. April and May 1128 Hugh spent in Tours and Le Mans at the court of Fulk V, Count of Anjou, where he, on behalf of the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, negotiated his wedding with the daughter of the King of Jerusalem, Melisande. Hugh then went to Normandy, where he was received by Henry of England. After Normandy came England and Scotland, then Flanders. Guillaume of Flanders granted the Templars the so-called "Flanders relief" - a payment levied from each heir who came into possession of his fief, and this gift of the sovereign received the approval of the Flemish and Norman barons. Another brother of the Order of the Temple, Geoffroy Bizot, settled in Languedoc, where he received gifts.
In Germany, Emperor Lothair donated to the order part of his family estate in the county of Supilinburg. July 4, 1130 brother Hugo Rigaud, knight of the Order of the Temple, in Barcelona receives gifts from the Count of Barcelona and Provence Raymond Berengaria III himself, who takes the vow of a Templar, swearing an oath from now on to live in obedience and without property that would constitute his property, at the same time he cedes his castle of Granien in Saracen March with the consent of his son and the barons. Another Spanish lord, Count Ermengarde VI of Urgell (1102-1154), swore, putting his hands into the hands of Robert Seneschal and Hugo Rigaud, to transfer his castle of Barbara to the Templars. At about the same time, the knights received under their responsibility the first fortress in Castile. King Don Alfonso of Castile laid siege to Calatrava, the fortress of the Kingdom of Toledo, from where the Moors went to plunder the possessions of the surrounding Christians. When the fortress was captured, the king handed it over to the archbishop of Toledo with the right to use the full power there, provided, however, that he assume responsibility for its defense. The prelate, considering himself incapable of defending the city, entrusted its protection to the Templars, who began to exercise the rights of an archbishop there. Somewhat earlier, between 1126 and 1130, Alphonse I of Aragon and Count Gaston of Bearne, inspired by the example of the knights of the Order of the Temple, founded an order of a similar kind, to which the king granted the city of Montreal and half the royal revenues of six cities between Daroca and Valencia. But the prestige of the Templars was much higher, and the Order of Montreal soon merged with the Order of the Temple.
On March 19, 1128, two months after the Council of Troyes, Teresa, Countess of Portugal, gave the Templars the possession of Sur on Mondego, along with a castle blocking the south route from her county. A few years later, Alphonse of Portugal ratified his mother's gift (March 4, 1129) and granted the order the vast forest of Sera, still in the hands of the Saracens. After fierce battles, the knights, having liberated a piece of land, founded the cities of Coimbra, Rodin and Ego. The churches of these cities were directly subordinate to the Pope of Rome, without the right to interfere with any bishop.
In Italy, the affairs of the order were not so successful due to the fragmentation of the country, and the Templars settled mainly in ports such as Barletta, Bari, Brindisi, Messina and others, maintaining trade relations with the Holy Land. In total, about 600 donations were made to Hugo de Payne alone. Half of them were property in Provence and Languedoc, about 1/3 - in northeastern France and Flanders, and the rest - in other areas of France, Spain, Portugal, England. They gave not only land, but also markets, fairs, income from land and various households, even serfs with families. Not surprisingly, the order's coffers soon filled up, and they were able to expand their operations to full strength in Palestine. The importance of the order also increased when it was able to provide numerous knightly detachments at the service of the secular rulers of Palestine. De Payne returned to Palestine in 1130. with a magnificent retinue of knights and accompanied by Fulk, Count of Anjou. All the lands belonging to that time in Europe were left under the protection of the new knights of the order.

Entering the order, the knights simultaneously became monks, i.e. took monastic vows of obedience (submission), poverty and celibacy. The Charter of the Knights Templar was developed by Bernard of Clevros himself and approved at the Church Council in the French city of Troyes by Pope Eugene III in 1128. The basis of the Charter of the Templars was the charter of the monastic order of the Cistercians (not military-monastic, but simply Catholic monastic), the most strict and rigid charter. The knight, joining the Knights Templar, renounced not only all worldly life, but also his relatives. His only food was bread and water. Meat, milk, vegetables, fruits, wine were forbidden. The clothes are just the simplest. If, after the death of a knight-monk, gold or silver items, or money were found in his things, then he lost the right to be buried on consecrated ground (cemetery), and if this was found after the funeral, then the body had to be removed from the grave and thrown to be eaten by dogs .

Members of the Knights Templar were divided into three classes: knights, priests, sergeants (servants, pages, squires, servants, soldiers, guards, etc.). Unlike, say, the Teutonic Order, monastic vows among the Templars were accepted by all classes and all the strictness of the Charter applied to all members of the order.
The distinctive signs of the Knights Templar were a white cloak for knights and brown for sergeants with a scarlet eight-pointed cross (also known as " Maltese cross”), a battle cry: “Bosean”, a black-and-white flag (standard). The coat of arms of the order was the image of two knights riding one horse (a symbol of poverty of the Templars). According to some sources, the image of the cross among the sergeants was incomplete and it looked like the letter "T". It should not be assumed that a white cloak with a red cross was something like the uniform of the Templars and they all dressed together in the same way, like modern officers or soldiers. The cut, style, size and location of the cross - all this was determined by the knight himself. It was quite enough to have a white cloak in general and to have a red eight-pointed cross on the clothes. In general, it was customary for the Crusaders (not only the Templars) to wear a cross on their chest, going on a crusade, and on their backs when returning from a campaign.
Only the French (and later the British) of noble birth could become knights of the order. Only they could hold the highest leadership positions. However, with regard to nationality, this was not observed too strictly. Among the knights there are also Italians, Spaniards, Flemings. Both wealthy citizens (they held the positions of squires, accountants, stewards, storekeepers, pages, etc.) and simple people(guards, soldiers, servants). Priests of the order could become priests of the Catholic Church, however, joining the order, such a priest became a member of the order and obeyed only the master of the order and his highest dignitaries. The bishops of the Catholic Church and even the pope himself lost power over them. Priests performed spiritual duties in the order, although the knights of the Order were endowed with the rights of confessors. Any member of the order could perform his religious duties only before the priests of the order (confession, communion, etc.).
The knights were called "brothers chevalier", the servants - "brothers sergeants". Women were not allowed to membership in the order (to avoid temptations). Chastity, that is, celibacy, for the knights was one of the first requirements:

“Temperance is peace of mind and health of the body. Those of the brothers who do not take the vow of abstinence, may they not find eternal rest and not be able to contemplate the Most High, for the apostle called: “Bring peace to everyone and keep purity,” and without this no one can see our Lord.

Married knights were accepted into the order, but they could not wear white robes. After the death of married Templars, their property went to the order, and the widow was paid a pension. She had to leave her husband's estate itself, so as not to catch the eye of the templars and, again, not to tempt them. Initially, priests were not accepted into the order, but gradually there were quite a lot of them, they formed a special category of members (for the priest still could not shed blood).
Following the charter and, probably, in order to avoid other forms of sexual vice, in the bedrooms where the knights settled for the night, lamps were to be lit until the morning, and the Templars were supposed to sleep in a shirt, trousers, shod and with a belt. Perhaps this was also done so that they could quickly join the battle in the event of a surprise attack. The dresser was not supposed to "distribute robes that are too long or too short, but must select appropriate robes for those who will use them, in accordance with the size of each." All knights had to cut their hair short, but they were not allowed to shave, so all the templars were bearded. In appearance, no fashionable attributes were allowed - it was prescribed by a general decree that "no permanent brother should ever have fur clothes or blankets made of sheep or ram fur", and "do not wear pointed shoes and laces ... for all these abominations stick only pagans."
Like the monks, the knights had to eat in the refectory and in silence. And since, “as you know, eating meat is a way of corrupting the flesh,” meat was allowed only three times a week: its complete ban could undermine the physical strength of the soldiers. On Sundays, knights and priests were allowed two meat dishes each, and squires and sergeants only one. On Monday, Wednesday and Saturday the brothers received two or three vegetable dishes with bread. Fridays were fasted, and for about six months, from All Saints' Day (in November) to Easter, food was severely restricted. Only the sick and wounded were released from fasting. A tenth of the food of the Templars and all that was left after the meal was given to the poor.

Such a harsh Rule was dictated by the fears of Bernard of Clairvaux and other church fathers that, without strict monastic restrictions, the Knights Templar could again be reincarnated as sinful laymen. The order received the right to use land holdings, houses and people, pledging to "rule them with justice." Templars were also allowed to collect tithes granted by secular or spiritual authorities. Hunting, including falconry, was prohibited. An exception was made only for hunting lions, which, like Satan, "go around in circles, looking for someone to devour." The ban was imposed not only on pointed shoes and laces, but also on gold and silver jewelry on weapons and horse harness, and it was prescribed to have a hiking bag for food only from linen or wool.
The brothers should have refrained from frivolous remarks in their conversations - "speak simply, without laughter and humbly a few, but reasonable words and not shout," for "there is always a vice in verbosity." It was forbidden to brag about one's past exploits. The poor soldiers of Christ were instructed to “avoid rivalry, envy, malevolence, murmuring, gossip, slander, and flee them like some kind of plague”, and as a prophylactic against envy, it was forbidden “to ask for a horse or weapon that belonged to another brother”, and “only the master is allowed to give horses or weapons to anyone, and in general to anyone, any thing.”
It was obvious that the knights would inevitably have to come into contact with the laity, but they were forbidden "without the permission of the master ... to go into the villages, except to pray at night at the Holy Sepulcher and at other prayer places that are within the city of Jerusalem." But even in these cases, the brothers were ordered to walk in pairs; and, if it were necessary to stop at an inn, "none of the brothers, or squires, or sergeants, may enter the chambers of another to see or converse with him without prior permission."
Like the abbot of the monastery, the master had unlimited power. The master, if desired, could consult with the most wise and experienced of the brothers, and in serious matters to collect general advice in order to hear the opinion of the whole assembly and "do what is best and more useful, in the opinion of the master." The master and the order assembly - the so-called "general chapter" - had the right to punish brothers who violated the vow.

Among the seventy-three articles of this order charter, approved at the Council of Troyes, about thirty are based on the rules developed at the time by Benedict of Nursia. Bernard and other church hierarchs were more likely to turn knights into monks than to make knights out of monks. Of course, some military provisions are also found in this charter - in particular, determining the number of horses that a knight can dispose of; there is even a paragraph about the admission - due to the hot climate of overseas lands - in summer time replace woolen shirts with canvas ones. However, the entire document is clearly aimed at "saving knightly souls", and not at organizing an effective security service. The Catholic hierarchs did not seem to have foreseen that the introduction of strict monastic discipline among professional soldiers - and for the first time since the fall of the Western Roman Empire - would lead to the emergence of a highly organized and disciplined heavy cavalry, noticeably superior in power to military units based on a very unstable personal loyalty to the lord or recruited from mercenaries.

The popes issued several bulls granting certain privileges to the order. The bull on March 29, 1139 granted them autonomy from local secular and ecclesiastical judiciary, allowed to turn trophies into the ownership of the order. On January 9, 1144, a bull gave indulgence to those who donated to the order. On April 7, 1145, a bull allowed the Templars to build special, order churches and arrange cemeteries for members of the order in their fences.

13.04.2016 - 14:36

By the beginning of the XIV century in Europe there were about a dozen spiritual and chivalric orders. The Order of the Templars (Knights of the Temple) was by no means the richest, the Hospitallers had much more significant land holdings. And yet the most powerful was precisely the Order of the Knights of the Temple. Only the Templars, relying on material resources, created from their organization a gigantic economic and financial structure, turned it into a transnational corporation, which had no equal in medieval Europe.

Order of the Poor Knights of Christ

In 1099, the crusaders conquered part of Palestine from the Arabs and took Jerusalem. This was especially surprising because preparations for the First Crusade were carried out very badly. There was no money, no organization, no prepared plan. At the call of the Pope, thousands of Christians in a fit of religious ecstasy with cries of "Let's recapture the Holy Sepulcher from the infidels!" spontaneously moved to Palestine, having absolutely no idea where it is, how to get there and what awaits them all there.

And, nevertheless, the campaign achieved maximum results, Jerusalem and part of Palestine were conquered. Four Christian states arose in the recaptured territories: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Thousands of pilgrims flocked to Palestine, eager to see the Holy Land. However, not all the trip left pleasant memories. Travelers were robbed and stripped in the Holy Land as often as in sinful Europe.

And then the crusaders, who settled in Palestine, began to organize detachments that took on the function of protecting the pilgrims and providing them with comprehensive assistance. The first were the Italians, who founded the Order of the Hospitallers. The French knights said, “Why are we worse ?!” and in 1119, 9 warriors of Christ announced the emergence of a new order - the "Poor Knights of Christ", better known to us as the Order of the Templars.

They were really poor. This poverty was even reinforced by a charter, which directly forbade a knight to have more than three pack units, regardless of whether it was a horse or the Symbol of the Order was the image of two knights sitting on one horse (they say that they only have money for one mare). However, if the Knights of the Temple remained poor, then the order itself did not remain poor for long.

The Order grew, moved its activities to Europe, branches of the Order appeared in France, England, Spain, Italy. As the population grew, so did its wealth. Everyone who joined the ranks of the Templars donated to the organization part of their property, often quite significant. Kings, barons, counts presented the Order with a gift of significant land, bequeathed considerable values. All this was a common practice for all orders that existed then. However, the Templars, unlike others, moved away from the practice of simply accumulating wealth. They themselves began to "make money."

Moneylenders

XI-XIII centuries, deaf Middle Ages. And yet, trade develops, the beginnings of the future industry appear, but they cannot live without credit. The Christian tradition does not welcome usury, so this area was given to the Jews of other faiths. It was a risky business, since it was not considered a sin not to repay a debt to a Jew. Therefore, interest rates were exorbitantly high - 40%! It is not known what excuses before God the Templars found for themselves, but the Order began to actively give money at interest.

The Templars were lending at "divine" 10%. Initially, the excess amounts were formalized as a voluntary donation or donation. Subsequently, the templars cried to the pope, and he allowed them to engage in usury officially.

All of Europe was covered with a network of comturias - branches of the Order, where one could turn for help. By the beginning of the XIV century there were already more than 5,000 of them. All these "branches" were interconnected into a single network, which allowed the Templars to introduce an interesting innovation into the financial system of Europe - a check. Today, few people think about who invented it and when. Well, the Templars invented the check.

Templar "check" and other "chips"

Every knight who decided to go to fight in Palestine needed money: to buy weapons, armor, a horse, and he had to feed on the road, he couldn’t carry food with him all the way! The knight counted on returning the debt at the expense of military trophies. (It was assumed that the infidel Muslims would be happy to reimburse the Christian knight for his expenses on the expedition.)

The loan was issued on the security of property (usually ¾ of the value of the pledge), and the knight received in his hands ... a piece of parchment. According to this document, the bearer in any comturia could cash out the amount indicated in it (in whole or in part) and receive it in any currency popular in the area. The "check" was "long-playing" - if desired, the amount lying on it could be replenished. How convenient! It is interesting that the Templars, who had no idea about fingerprinting, certified each “check” with the owner’s fingerprint.

The Templars built roads. Merchants, pilgrims, travelers - everyone will prefer to move along the paved route, and not wade through the thicket. At the crossroads, another comturium was set up, where travelers could rest, spend the night, have a snack, and buy food for horses. Here you could even hire an armed escort to accompany you. Any entrepreneur will say that such a “point” on a busy highway (a hotel, a cafe, a gas station, a shop, a currency exchange office - all under one roof) is a super-profitable business, and the templars created a whole network of inns in Europe “Relax with the Templars”. And this is the XII-XIII century!

The Templars also invented the safe deposit box. Anyone could deposit with them the valuables that were placed in the casket. And no one could open it in the absence and without the permission of the owner. Safe as in a Swiss bank. Even the kings trusted their values ​​to the Templars. At the request of the owner, these valuables were transported to anywhere in Europe. Safety guarantee - 100%. An attack on a Templar, on the people of the church is sacrilege, they are under the protection of the pope! Whoever does this will be cursed and excommunicated. However, they transported valuables under heavy guard, relying not only on the intercession of the pope, but also on the power of arms.

The Templars were the largest real estate dealers in Europe. The knight who did not always return from the campaign brought with him enough funds to pay off his debt. And sometimes it didn't come back at all. In such cases, castles with lands became the property of the Order. Becoming owners of estates, the Templars traded lands and agricultural products.

In 1139 Pope Innocent II with his bull brought the Order out of the jurisdiction of secular authorities. The Templars were no longer subordinate to royal officials, and even to the king himself! Above them is only God and the Pope - the vicar of God on Earth. In practice, this meant that the templars received the right to move freely throughout Europe (super Schengen!) and complete exemption from all taxes and duties. Every businessman's dream! Yes, in such conditions only the lazy will not get rich! And the Templars were not lazy.

Significant sums were accumulated in their hands. Kings borrowed money from them. When Edward I of England came to power, the Templars presented him with two thousand IOUs from his father. And Edward paid for everything. TO early XIII century, one of the largest debtors of the Order was the King of France, Philip IV. Only, unlike the English king, Philip did not want to repay his debts.

Philip's police operationIV

He went down in history as the Iron King. From his country, he cobbled together a single power, in which there is only one opinion - the opinion of the king. He crushed the internal opposition and replaced the obstinate Pope Boniface VIII with the “pocket” Clement V. Philip looked at the Knights Templar with lust and apprehension, realizing what a dangerous adversary this organization with its financial and military power could become (the Order remained a military organization, its elite consisted knights). And besides, how do not want to give money! And a plan was born in Philip's head how to solve all the problems with one blow.

On September 22, at the Royal Council, it was decided to arrest all the Templars in France. Messengers rode to all ends of France. Royal officials, local inquisitors, commanders of military detachments received double envelopes, which indicated: open on the morning of October 13, Friday.

Friday the 13th

Envelopes are opened on the appointed day. They contain a royal order to arrest all the Templars, who can only reach the hand of a royal official. The reason from which the hair stood on end was indicated: it turns out that the Templars have secret rites, practice Sodomy sin, when initiating members of the Order, the candidate must spit on the image of Christ and other horrors. And now another arrested person is being taken, and he breaks out and shouts: “This is a mistake! I'm not to blame for anything! King's order?! It can't be! A year ago, during a mob riot, the Templars hid the king, he owes his life to the Order! But as we have already said, Philip did not consider that he owed something to anyone.

About 1,000 people were arrested. They are immediately tortured. Yesterday these people were members of the most powerful Order, even the king could not order them, they serve only God and the Pope, and today they break their hands, burn them with fire: “Confess, did you worship Satan?”

Grand Master Jacques de Molay himself was arrested. Less than a year later, he arrived in Paris at the invitation of the king. There was a solemn meeting, Philippe asked de Molay to become the godfather of one of his children. Yesterday (yesterday, October 12!) the Grand Master attended the funeral of Princess Catherine, a relative of the king, he stood next to Philip! And Philip IV smiled at him, showed his respect and disposition!!!

And dad! Why is Clement V silent?! And the "pocket dad" on November 22 issues a bull in which he orders all Christian monarchs to arrest the Templars with the confiscation of the lands and property belonging to the Order. The persecution of members of the Order begins in England, Germany, Italy, Spain and Cyprus.

Two weeks after his arrest, Jacques de Molay begins to confess. Most of the Templars repent of their sins and confess everything: yes, Satan flew to the meetings of the Order, with hooves and horns, yes, they spit on the crucifix, yes, they kissed each other in the most obscene places, there was sodomy and bestiality ... what else is needed admit? The executioners are zealous, the legalists are recording. It is necessary to prove that the Order served Satan, then the treasures of the Templars can be confiscated legally.

The Templars tried to organize a defense. Inspired by Pierre de Bologna and Ren de Provins. Both were from the humble (“de” in the 14th century meant “from”). Most likely, Pierre was not just from Bologna, but also graduated from the University of Bologna, where Roman law had been taught since the 11th century. Both jurists ended sadly: Ren de Provin was sentenced to life imprisonment, Pierre de Bologna mysteriously disappeared.

End of the Knights Templar

And in France at this time there is a "processing of the population." Philip is afraid of rebellion. The Charter of the Order ordered the Templars to distribute bread to the hungry three times a week. In lean years (and in Europe there were more of them than harvest years), the templars distributed seeds to the peasants for planting. The Order was the largest charitable organization of the Middle Ages. The Templars fed thousands and tens of thousands of people in Europe. They literally saved many from starvation.

Therefore, Philip organizes and conducts a large-scale campaign to discredit the Order. in Paris and major cities gather representatives of the clergy and carry out "explanatory work", inform about the "sincere confessions" of the Templars. (And the clergy should bring this to their flock.) Separately, they gather eminent citizens and also explain to them who the templars really were. Specialists in conducting black PR campaigns should consider the French King Philip IV as their ancestor.

In 1310 the first executions took place. Moreover, they burned not those who signed confessions, but those who persisted: “There was nothing like that!” In 1312, Clement V convened the Council of Vienne, which was to decide the fate of the Order. The pope suggested that the order be recognized as heretical and, on this basis, dissolved. Representatives of other orders opposed (yeah, today them, and tomorrow us?). They came to a compromise: the order itself is good, but its members stumbled. The repentant were scattered among other orders or sent to distant monasteries to atone for sins (depending on the severity of the sins). Transfer the property of the Templars to the Order of the Hospitallers with the issuance of monetary compensation to the King of France for it. The highest hierarchs of the Order - life imprisonment.

Curse of the Grand Master

In 1314, the process that lasted 7 years was completed. Having listened to the verdict, the Grand Master immediately retracted his testimony and declared the innocence of the Order. This is a relapse into heresy and the fire automatically. March 18, Jacques de Molay was burned. At the behest of Philip IV, the master was fried over a slow fire, so that he had enough time to say everything he thought about the king, and he said it.

From the fire, the Grand Master cursed the king, the pope and the royal seal-keeper Guillaume de Nogaret (the organizer of the process), appointing them (not even a year!) to meet in heaven. As for Nogare, he died back in 1313, so don't believe the novels. But Clement V and Philip IV really died very quickly, the pope in a month, the king in seven months.

As for the innumerable treasures, the king of France was in for a huge disappointment. Only 400,000 livres were found in the chests of the Templars. The amount is significant (combined with debts written off), but Philip expected to find millions. The treasures of the Templars are still being sought to this day, perhaps someday they will be found, or perhaps not: some historians believe that the untold wealth of the templars is a legend, and nothing more. The king got thousands of promissory notes, which, with the dissolution of the order, lost their value. The real treasure of the Order was that magnificent financial system created in the Middle Ages, which Philip IV so unwisely destroyed.

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