In the Holy Land we witness the appearance of two main military orders: the order of the Hospital of Saint John of God and the order of the Temple of Solomon. These orders arose in the context of the first two crusades – the end of the 11th century, the beginning of the 12th century – specifically after the end of the first. Both were religious-military institutions, originally dedicated to the protection of Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. However, over time, these functions were expanded, since both orders ended up assuming the role of the permanent army of the kingdom of Jerusalem, due to the dispersion suffered by the Frankish armies after the end of the first disputes over Palestine. Only they and other small garrisons remained, for the maintenance of order and the surveillance of the Muslim contingents in the region.
According to the English historian, Christopher Tyerman: “Those orders established on a permanent basis the basic idealism of penitential warfare, a mechanism for its expression and a physical presence throughout Christendom” (TYERMAN 2007, p.322 ).
The military orders of the Holy Land: Hospitallers and Templars
The order of the Hospital of San Juan de Dios germinated from an Amalfi hospital established in Jerusalem in 1080. Being the main objective of the monks who founded it: the offer of medical and food care for the poor and sick pilgrims who arrived in Palestine from Europe and other parts of the world.
After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 by Christian troops, the order continued to care for the throngs of sick and exhausted pilgrims arriving in the Holy Land. What made the Hospital prosper enormously, ascending in condition. Next, the hospitaller monks received a transfer of land from King Baldwin I of Jerusalem in the year 1113. After this, they obtained Papal recognition as a charitable fraternity and assumed its members the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. However, its growth did not end here, since the hospitaller brothers ended up serving in the army of Jerusalem, entrusted to them from 1136 on the quartering and defense of the border fortresses.
However, the members of the hospitaller order quickly went from dedicating themselves to the care and healing of sick pilgrims to ensuring with their weapons the security and defense of Christianity in the Holy Land. In short, the Hospitaller Knights became powerful warrior-monks and the main sword for the defense of Christ in the Near East, which meant a remarkable rise for the order in a short time.
For its part, The origins of the Templars date back to the year 1119. At this time the gentlemen, Hugo de Payns and Godfrey de Saint-Omer, who led a group of Frankish knights quartered in Jerusalem, decided to start a fraternity. Whose objective would be to monitor and protect the pilgrimage routes from the Mediterranean coast to Jerusalem, covering its area of action and protection from there to the lands of Jericho. Thus, after receiving authorization from the patriarch of Jerusalem and swearing the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the knights obtained official recognition from the Christian church during the Council of Nablus, in January 1120.
Initially, the Templars took the vow of poverty to its maximum expression, since they only fed on the alms they received from some noblemen, from pilgrims, from monasteries, etc. Over time and thanks to the support of monarchs such as King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, many European princes and kings decided to lend their help to the newborn order. Progress that was also helped by the long pilgrimage in search of support and alms, carried out by Hugo de Payns, during the early days of the order, through different regions of the old continent. Order that day by day began to be better seen both by the political power and by the ecclesiastical one, since it had been the patriarch of Jerusalem who had certified it canonically.
A) Yes, during the twelfth century the order of the Temple began to prosper without pause. Joining her a good number of men, especially in Europe. Those who were promised God’s forgiveness of their sins through a life dedicated to defending it on the battlefield. It did not take much insistence to attract new members in a Europe where misery prevailed. Being in addition the order, shelter for many second sons of the nobility without access to the inheritance and for wandering knights of the old continent. It was King Baldwin II who gave them “the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which popular legend identified with Solomon’s temple, to become their headquarters, and it is from this building that they took their name” ( EDBURY 2005, p.130, 131).
Over the decades, the order of the Temple took over a large number of properties in various regions of the West –from England, northern France, Languedoc, to the north of the Iberian Peninsula or Italy, among others–, thus the order launched a wide network of farms internationally, which was quickly reorganized into commanderies regional. Finally, in January 1129, at the Council of Troyes, the foundation of the Order of the Temple was confirmed and its Rule was established.. Taking as a model a panegyric of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, De laude novae militiae. Where the new knight of faith -disciplined, obedient, fearful of God and servant of Christ- took precedence over the classic worldly knight -incarnation of malice, greedy, disorganized, greedy for riches and worldly glory–. However, these statements corresponded more to an idealization of the gentleman, which was completely far from the real image.
In another order of things, the members of these orders had characteristic clothing and equipment, differentiating themselves from the mundane knight by their absolute austerity, since there was no room for ornamentation in their garments. These outfits were characterized by being of a single color: hospitallers with a black habit and cloak, and Templars with a white cloak and habits, a symbol of purity. Both, moreover, initially wore similar military equipment: chainmail that covered the knight from head to knees in most cases; cone-shaped helmet, which covered the entire head except for the face, a helmet that over time evolved to also cover the face; double edged sword; kite-shaped shield; a long lance for charges; and war horse, usually a charger.
They only needed the minimum to fight, using their skill and their faith in God more than the force of arms. Something that led them to occupy the most risky positions in combat, generally leading the vanguard. Protecting and guarding, in addition, the rearguard during the long marches through the Holy Land. Always in competition with the other order, since both disputed the safeguarding of the most delicate positions of the column for the greater glory of God and of the order, something that led both to take turns in the positions and in the exercise of these defensive functions. All this meant that these warrior-monks were seen by many monarchs as true religious fanatics, but useful fanatics that everyone wanted to count among the ranks of their military contingents, since they were feared by their rivals and their courage won battles.
In addition, the disorder of the battlefield seldom affected them, since the members of the orders rarely lost their organization and rectitude, despite counting among their ranks with mercenaries and volunteers recruited by themselves, and placed under their banner by a certain period of time.
The freires were led by the maestres, who were in charge of each of the squads into which the knights were divided when entering combat. The cohesion of these knights in the fight, all uniformed and under the same sacred flag, influenced the armies to come and their future models, laying the foundations for the armies of modern times.. After the squads mentioned above were the squires, who were in charge of running after the squad and helping the knights after charging –especially in the case of the Temple–. This way of fighting, through charging squads, was characteristic of both military orders, as was never giving up in the fight as long as the order’s flag remained hoisted.
Without a doubt, the prosperity and power enjoyed by these orders ended up inspiring others, leading to their imitation and the birth of new orders in different kingdoms. Thus, during the 12th century several new military orders arose in Castile to defend the peninsular borders from the Islamic push, we have here: that of Calatrava (1164) and that of Alcántara (1176). Also, León and Portugal followed in the footsteps of their neighboring kingdom, emerging the order of Santiago (1170) and Avis (1176) respectively.
As we can see through the above narration, from the middle of the 12th century and throughout the 13th century, both Hospitallers and Templars became powerful ecclesiastical-military corporations, whose strength and influence on a global level reached a formidable proportion. Their wealth and successes on the battlefield gave them significant political and military power, equal to that of many Frankish barons in the Holy Land and even comparable, especially in 13th-century Central Europe, to many of the main lords.
Hospital and Temple ended up becoming international organizations of great prestige and command, counting on their charge with an enormous amount of land, manors and wealth. Especially the Temple was consolidated in France as one of the main pillars of power together with the Church and the Capetian Monarchy, even coming to guard and control the French Treasury. Showing off a great combination of religious, economic, political and military power that the great spheres of power did not like, which began to feed dark, heretical and satanic legends about the Temple. With the sole purpose of undermining his authority and having a valid excuse that would hasten his end.
Fall from grace that took place during the fourteenth century, due to the corrupt judicial process carried out by King Philip IV of France against the order of the Temple. Something that, according to legend, cost the monarch dearly, since just before dying burned at the stake, the last grand master of the order, Jacques de Molay, cursed the king and his entire Capetian lineage. Putting as a consequence in motion the famous curse of Philip IV of France.
However, although the order of the Temple was completely destroyed after the judicial process and the previous execution, some modern testimonies feed the…