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91-566: The Green Man motif has many variations. Branches or vines may sprout from the mouth, nostrils, or other parts of the face, and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit. Found in many cultures from many ages around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetation deities . Often used as decorative architectural ornaments , where they are a form of mascaron or ornamental head, Green Men are frequently found in architectural sculpture on both secular and ecclesiastical buildings in

182-724: A monastic Catholic religious order for the protection of these pilgrims. King Baldwin and Patriarch Warmund agreed to the request, probably at the Council of Nablus in January 1120, and the king granted the Templars a headquarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque . The order, with about nine knights including Godfrey de Saint-Omer and André de Montbard , had few financial resources and relied on donations to survive. Their emblem

273-524: A Swiss engraver, Numa Guyot, created a bookplate depicting a Green Man in exquisite detail. In April 2023, a Green Man's head was depicted on the invitation for the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla , designed by heraldic artist and manuscript illuminator Andrew Jamieson. According to the official royal website: "Central to the design is the motif of the Green Man, an ancient figure from British folklore, symbolic of spring and rebirth, to celebrate

364-500: A document indicating the value of their deposit, then showed that document upon arrival in the Holy Land to claim treasure of equal value to their funds. This innovative arrangement was an early form of banking and may have been the first use of bank cheques ; it protected pilgrims from robbery, while augmenting Templar finances. Based on this mix of donations and business dealings, the Templars established financial networks across

455-628: A force of French, Spanish, and English Templars left France to join the Second Crusade , led by King Louis VII . At a meeting held in Paris on 27 April 1147 they were given permission by Pope Eugenius III to wear the red cross on their uniforms. They were led by the Templar provincial master in France, Everard des Barres , who was later one of the ambassadors that King Louis sent to negotiate

546-668: A leafy beard. Often leaves or leafy shoots are shown growing from his open mouth and sometimes even from the nose and eyes as well. In the most abstract examples, the carving at first glance appears to be merely stylised foliage, with the facial element only becoming apparent on closer examination. The face is almost always male; green women are rare. Lady Raglan coined the term "Green Man" for this type of architectural feature in her 1939 article The Green Man in Church Architecture in The Folklore Journal . It

637-640: A major Templar presence (France, Poitou , Anjou , Jerusalem, England , Spain , Portugal , Italy , Tripoli , Antioch , Hungary , and Croatia ) had a Master of the Order for the Templars in that region. All of them were subject to the Grand Master, appointed for life, who oversaw both the order's military efforts in the East and their financial holdings in the West. The Grand Master exercised his authority via

728-528: A mixed Muslim-Christian heritage who became Christians, or members of the local population in Syria . Sometime in the 13th century, turcopole became a formal rank held by Templar brothers, including Latin Christians. Starting with founder Hugues de Payens, the order's highest office was that of Grand Master, a position which was held for life, though considering the martial nature of the order, this could mean

819-794: A motif has become used more broadly in discussing literature and other narrative arts for an element in the story that represents a theme . Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , mainly known as the Knights Templar , was a French military order of the Catholic faith, and one of the wealthiest and most popular military orders in Western Christianity . They were founded c.  1119 to defend pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem , with their headquarters located there on

910-608: A motif originally developed in India, which travelled through the medieval Arab empire to Christian Europe. There it became a decoration for monks’ manuscripts, from which it spread to churches." A late 4th-century example of a green man disgorging vegetation from his mouth is at St. Abre, in St. Hilaire-le-grand , France. 11th century Romanesque Templar churches in Jerusalem have Romanesque foliate heads. Harding tentatively suggested that

1001-476: A pagan mythological figure , as proposed by Lady Raglan in 1939, despite its popularity with the lay public, is not supported by evidence. Usually referred to in art history as foliate heads or foliate masks, representations of the Green Man take many forms, but most just show a "mask" or frontal depiction of a face, which in architecture is usually in relief . The simplest depict a man's face peering out of dense foliage. Some may have leaves for hair, perhaps with

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1092-464: A painting - is a specific person, group, or moment in a narrative, that should be referred to as the "subject" of the work, not a motif, though the same thing may be a "motif" when part of another subject, or part of a work of decorative art - such as a painting on a vase. Ornamental or decorative art can usually be analysed into a number of different elements, which can be called motifs. These may often, as in textile art , be repeated many times in

1183-607: A pattern. Important examples in Western art include acanthus , egg and dart , and various types of scrollwork . Geometric, typically repeated: Meander , palmette , rosette , gul in Oriental rugs, acanthus , egg and dart , Bead and reel , Pakudos , Swastika , Adinkra symbols . Figurative: Master of Animals , confronted animals , velificatio , Death and the Maiden , Three hares , Sheela na gig , puer mingens . In

1274-709: A tenth were actual knights. There was a threefold division of the ranks of the Templars: the noble knights, the non-noble sergeants, and the chaplains. The knights wear white mantles to symbolise their purity and chastity. The sergeants wore black or brown. All three classes of brothers wore the order's red cross. Before they received their monastic rule in 1129 at the Council of Troyes, the Templars were referred to only as knights ( milites in Latin), and after 1129 they were also called brothers of their monastic order. Therefore

1365-600: A tort et a péché. Il va bientôt arriver malheur à ceux qui nous ont condamnés à mort" ("God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death"). Clement died only a month later, and Philip died while hunting within the same year. The remaining Templars around Europe were either arrested and tried under the Papal investigation (with virtually none convicted), absorbed into other Catholic military orders, or pensioned off and allowed to live out their days peacefully. By papal decree,

1456-592: A very short tenure. All but two of the Grand Masters died in office, and several died during military campaigns. For example, during the Siege of Ascalon in 1153, Grand Master Bernard de Tremelay led a group of 40 Templars through a breach in the city walls. When the rest of the Crusader army did not follow, the Templars, including their Grand Master, were surrounded and beheaded. Grand Master Gérard de Ridefort

1547-535: A work. A motif may be an element in the iconography of a particular subject or type of subject that is seen in other works, or may form the main subject, as the Master of Animals motif in ancient art typically does. The related motif of confronted animals is often seen alone, but may also be repeated, for example in Byzantine silk and in other ancient textiles. Where the main subject of an artistic work - such as

1638-526: A year earlier), was sent to retake the town after it was captured by Muslims. They were initially successful, but the Muslims regrouped outside the town and were able to take it back from the Templars. The Order's mission also developed from protecting pilgrims to taking part in regular military campaigns early on, and this is shown by the fact that the first castle received by the Knights Templar

1729-576: Is thought that her interest stemmed from carvings at St. Jerome's Church in Llangwm , Monmouthshire . The Green Man appears in many forms, with the three most common types categorized as: In terms of formalism , art historians see a connection with the masks in Iron Age Celtic art , where faces emerge from stylized vegetal ornament in the "Plastic style" metalwork of La Tène art . Since there are so few survivals, and almost none in wood,

1820-521: The British captured it from the Ottoman Empire . The Templars were forced to relocate their headquarters to other cities in the north, such as the seaport of Acre , which they held for the next century. It was lost in 1291, followed by their last mainland strongholds, Tortosa ( Tartus in present-day Syria ) and Atlit (in present-day Israel ). Their headquarters then moved to Limassol on

1911-413: The Council of Pisa in 1135, Pope Innocent II initiated the first papal monetary donation to the Order. Another major benefit came in 1139, when Innocent II's papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes and were exempt from all authority except that of

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2002-748: The Golden Legend . According to the Christian author Stephen Miller, author of "The Green Man in Medieval England: Christian Shoots from Pagan Roots" (2022), "It is a Christian/Judaic-derived motif relating to the legends and medieval hagiographies of the Quest of Seth – the three twigs/seeds/kernels planted below the tongue of post-fall Adam by his son Seth (provided by the angel of mercy responsible for guarding Eden) shoot forth, bringing new life to humankind". This notion

2093-608: The Holy Land . The Templars were closely tied to the Crusades. As they became unable to secure their holdings in the Holy Land, support for the order faded. Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of France , deeply in debt to the order, turned this distrust to his own advantage. In 1307, he pressured Pope Clement V to have many of the order's members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at

2184-627: The Holy Land . Although the city of Jerusalem was relatively secure under Christian control, the rest of Outremer was not. Bandits and marauding highwaymen preyed upon these Christian pilgrims, who were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey from the coastline at Jaffa through to the interior of the Holy Land. In 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem , and proposed creating

2275-518: The Nativity of Jesus in art , the detail of showing Saint Joseph as asleep, which was common in medieval depictions, can be regarded as a "motif". Many designs in Islamic culture are motifs, including those of the sun, moon, animals such as horses and lions, flowers, and landscapes. In kilim flatwoven carpets, motifs such as the hands-on-hips elibelinde are woven in to the design to express

2366-542: The Temple Mount , and existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages . Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church by such decrees as the papal bull Omne datum optimum of Pope Innocent II , the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. The Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross , were among

2457-502: The Vatican Archives by Barbara Frale , apparently after having been filed in the wrong place in 1628. It is a record of the trial of the Templars and shows that Clement absolved the Templars of all heresies in 1308 before formally disbanding the order in 1312, as did another Chinon Parchment dated 20 August 1308 addressed to Philip IV of France , also mentioning that all Templars that had confessed to heresy were "restored to

2548-620: The reborn Sunni regime in Egypt . Dissension arose among Christian factions in and concerning the Holy Land. The Knights Templar were occasionally at odds with the two other Christian military orders , the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights , and decades of internecine feuds weakened Christian positions, both politically and militarily. After the Templars were involved in several unsuccessful campaigns, including

2639-424: The turcopolier commanded auxiliary forces, and the prior was the head of the church at the headquarters. The headquarters and its most senior officials were known as the convent and its role was to assist and advise the Grand Master with running the administration of the Order. No precise numbers exist, but it is estimated that at the order's peak, there were between 15,000 and 20,000 Templars, of whom about

2730-636: The Cross, but only from my mouth and not from my heart"). The Templars were accused of idolatry and were charged with worshipping either a figure known as Baphomet or a mummified severed head they recovered, amongst other artefacts, at their original headquarters on the Temple Mount. Some have theorised that this head might have been believed to be that of John the Baptist , among other things. Relenting to King Phillip's demands, Pope Clement then issued

2821-591: The Crusaders states of Antioch, Tripoli , and Edessa his vassals between 1137 and 1142. Templar knights accompanied Emperor John II with troops from those states during his campaign against Muslim powers in Syria from 1137 to 1138, including at the sieges of Aleppo and Shaizar . In 1143, the Templars also began taking part in the Reconquista in Iberia at the request of the count of Barcelona . In 1147

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2912-408: The Grand Master. These were held as temporary appointments rather than for life. The second-in-command of the Order was the seneschal . The highest ranking military official was the marshal , while the preceptor (who was also sometimes called the commander) was responsible for the administration and provisions. The draper was responsible for their uniforms, the treasurer was in charge of finance,

3003-474: The Holy Land. With the order's military mission now less important, support for the organization began to dwindle. The situation was complex, however, since during the two hundred years of their existence, the Templars had become a part of daily life throughout Christendom. The organization's Templar Houses, hundreds of which were dotted throughout Europe and the Near East , gave them a widespread presence at

3094-627: The Latin East. In the kingdoms of Castile and León, they obtained some major strongholds (such as Calatrava la Vieja or Coria ), but their vulnerablility along the border was exposed during the Almohad offensive. In Aragon, the Templars subsumed the Order of Mountjoy in the late 12th century, becoming an important vanguard force on the border, while in Portugal they commanded some castles along

3185-516: The Levant still under Muslim control. Gaza was given to the Knights Templar, becoming the first major Templar castle. In 1152 Everard stepped down as the Grand Master of the Order for unknown reasons, and his successor was Bernard de Tremelay . In January of the following year, Bernard led the Templars when King Baldwin III led a Crusader army to besiege Ascalon . Several months of fighting went by until

3276-695: The Middle East are vague, though it appears their first battles were defeats, because the Seljuk Turks and other Muslim powers used different tactics than those in Europe at that time. In later years, the Templars adapted to this and also became strategic advisors to the leaders of the Crusader states. The first recorded battle involving the Knights Templar was in the town of Teqoa , south of Jerusalem, in 1138. A force of Templars led by their Grand Master, Robert de Craon (who succeeded Hugues de Payens about

3367-710: The Order of Solomon's Temple, and mainly the Knights Templar ( French : Les Chevaliers Templiers ), or simply the Templars ( French : Les Templiers ). The Temple Mount where they had their headquarters had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon . After the Franks in the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in

3458-436: The Order on 26 February 1310: Henri Zappellans or Chapelain, Anceau de Rocheria, Enard de Valdencia, Guillaume de Roy, Geoffroy de Cera or de La Fere-en-Champagne, Robert Harle or de Hermenonville, and Dreux de Chevru. Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in the trials , but in 1310, having appointed the archbishop of Sens , Philippe de Marigny, to lead the investigation, Philip blocked this attempt, using

3549-587: The Sacraments and to the unity of the Church". This other Chinon Parchment has been well known to historians, having been published by Étienne Baluze in 1693 and by Pierre Dupuy in 1751. The current position of the Roman Catholic Church is that the medieval persecution of the Knights Templar was unjust, that nothing was inherently wrong with the order or its rule, and that Pope Clement

3640-643: The Tagus line. One of these was Tomar, which was unsuccessfully besieged by the Almohad Caliphate in 1190. Due to the expense of sending a third of their revenues to the East, Templar and Hospitaller activities in the Iberian Peninsula were at a disadvantage to the Hispanic military orders expended all their resources in the region. The details of the Order's early military activities in

3731-624: The Templar Order controlled vast wealth even beyond direct donations. A nobleman participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management during his absence. Accumulating wealth in this manner throughout Christendom and the Outremer, in 1150 the order began to issue letters of credit for pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land: pilgrims deposited their valuables with a local Templar preceptory before embarking, received

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3822-593: The Templars considered their ships to be mainly for commerce rather than military purposes. From 1139, chaplains constituted a third Templar rank. They were ordained priests who cared for the Templars' spiritual needs. These Templar clerics were also referred to as priest brothers or chaplain brothers. The Templars also employed lightly armed mercenaries as cavalry in the 12th century that were known as turcopoles (the Greek term for descendants of Turks). Its meaning has been interpreted as either referring to people of

3913-613: The Templars were charged with numerous other offences such as financial corruption, fraud, and secrecy. Many of the accused confessed to these charges under torture (even though the Templars denied being tortured in their written confessions), and their confessions, even though obtained under duress , caused a scandal in Paris. The prisoners were coerced to confess that they had spat on the Cross. One said: "Moi, Raymond de La Fère, 21 ans, reconnais que [j'ai] craché trois fois sur la Croix, mais de bouche et pas de cœur" ("I, Raymond de La Fère, 21 years old, admit that I have spat three times on

4004-563: The Templars were indicating an interest in founding their own monastic state, just as the Teutonic Knights had done in Prussia and the Baltic and the Knights Hospitaller were doing in Rhodes . The Templars were accused of enabling corruption in their ranks which often allowed them to influence the legal systems of Europe to act in their favor and gain influence over local rulers' lands at

4095-569: The Western tradition. In churches in England, the image was used to illustrate a popular sermon describing the mystical origins of the cross of Jesus . "Green Man" type foliate heads first appeared in England during the early 12th century deriving from those of France, and were especially popular in the Gothic architecture of the 13th to 15th centuries. The idea that the Green Man motif represents

4186-525: The armour of steel. He is thus doubly armed, and need fear neither demons nor men. ― Bernard of Clairvaux , c.  1135 De Laude Novae Militae – In Praise of the New Knighthood Although the primary mission of the order was military, relatively few members were combatants. The majority acted in support positions to assist the knights and manage their financial infrastructure. Although individual members were sworn to poverty,

4277-680: The centre of the 4th-century silver salver in the Mildenhall Treasure , found at a Roman villa site in Suffolk , England; the mask is generally agreed to represent Neptune or Oceanus and the foliation is of seaweed. In his lectures at Gresham College , historian and professor Ronald Hutton traces the green man to India, stating "the component parts of Lady Raglan's construct of the Green Man were dismantled. The medieval foliate heads were studied by Kathleen Basford in 1978 and Mercia MacDermott in 2003. They were revealed to have been

4368-659: The devastating defeat at the Battle of Hattin. The last Grand Master was Jacques de Molay , burned at the stake in Paris in 1314 by order of King Philip IV. Bernard de Clairvaux and founder Hugues de Payens devised a specific code of conduct for the Templar Order, known to modern historians as the Latin Rule . Its 72 clauses laid down the details of the knights' way of life, including the types of garments they were to wear and how many horses they could have. Knights were to take their meals in silence, eat meat no more than three times per week, and not have physical contact of any kind with women, even members of their own family. A Master of

4459-399: The enemy lines ahead of the main army. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard , where some 500 Templar knights helped several thousand infantry to defeat Saladin 's army of more than 26,000 soldiers. A Templar Knight is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armour of faith, just as his body is protected by

4550-454: The expense of the rulers. In 1305, the new Pope Clement V , based in Avignon , France, sent letters to both the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and the Hospitaller Grand Master Fulk de Villaret to discuss the possibility of merging the two orders. Neither was amenable to the idea, but Pope Clement persisted, and in 1306 he invited both Grand Masters to France to discuss the matter. De Molay arrived first in early 1307, but de Villaret

4641-464: The foliate head motif is not ‘an ancient figure from British folklore’, as the Royal Household has proclaimed, but a European import.' Motif (visual arts) In art and iconography , a motif ( / m oʊ ˈ t iː f / ) is an element of an image . Motifs can occur both in figurative and narrative art, and in ornament and geometrical art. A motif may be repeated in a pattern or design, often many times, or may just occur once in

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4732-456: The hopes and concerns of the weavers: the elibelinde symbolises the female principle and fertility , including the desire for children. Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs are a familiar type of motif in the eastern portions of the United States. Their circular and symmetric design, and their use of brightly colored patterns from nature, such as stars, compass roses, doves, hearts, tulips, leaves, and feathers have made them quite popular. The idea of

4823-532: The image of the Green Man enjoyed a revival in the 19th century, becoming popular with architects during the Gothic revival and the Arts and Crafts era, when it appeared as a decorative motif in and on many buildings, both religious and secular. American architects took up the motif around the same time. Many variations can be found in Neo-gothic Victorian architecture . He was popular amongst Australian stonemasons and can be found on many secular and sacred buildings, including an example on Broadway, Sydney . In 1887

4914-402: The influence of Philip & the crown. Under his protection, Templar organizations simply changed their name, from "Knights Templar" to the reconstituted Order of Christ and also a parallel Supreme Order of Christ of the Holy See ; both are considered successors to the Knights Templar. In September 2001, a document known as the Chinon Parchment dated 17–20 August 1308 was discovered in

5005-436: The island of Cyprus, and they also attempted to maintain a garrison on tiny Arwad Island , just off the coast from Tortosa. In 1300, there was some attempt to engage in coordinated military efforts with the Mongols via a new invasion force at Arwad . In 1302 or 1303, however, the Templars lost the island to the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate in the siege of Arwad . With the island gone, the Crusaders lost their last foothold in

5096-402: The lack of a continuous series of examples is not a fatal objection to such a continuity. The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore suggests that they ultimately have their origins in late Roman art from leaf masks used to represent gods and mythological figures. A character superficially similar to the Green Man, in the form of a partly foliate mask surrounded by Bacchic figures, appears at

5187-477: The late 12th century the Templars were also politically powerful in the Holy Land. Secular nobles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem began granting them castles and surrounding lands as a defense against the growing threat of the Zengids in Syria . The Templars were even allowed to negotiate with Muslim rulers independently of the feudal lords. The Templar castles became de facto independent lordships with their own markets, further growing their political authority. During

5278-499: The legends around Seth , the son of Adam , according to which he plants seeds in his dead father's mouth as he lies in his grave. The tree that grew from them became the tree of the true cross of the crucifixion. This tale was in The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine , a very popular thirteenth century compilation of Christian religious stories, from which the subjects of church sermons were often taken, especially after 1483, when William Caxton printed an English translation of

5369-417: The letter In Praise of the New Knighthood , and in 1129, at the Council of Troyes , he led a group of leading churchmen to officially approve and endorse the order on behalf of the church. With this formal blessing, the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom , receiving money, land, businesses, and noble-born sons from families who were eager to help with the fight in the Holy Land . At

5460-532: The local level. The Templars still managed many businesses, and many Europeans had daily contact with the Templar network, such as by working at a Templar farm or vineyard , or using the order as a bank in which to store personal valuables. The order was still not subject to local government, making it everywhere a "state within a state" – its standing army , although it no longer had a well-defined mission, could pass freely through all borders. This situation heightened tensions with some European nobility, especially as

5551-420: The most skilled fighting units of the Crusades . They were prominent in Christian finance ; non-combatant members of the order, who made up as much as 90% of their members, managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom. They developed innovative financial techniques that were an early form of banking , building a network of nearly 1,000 commanderies and fortifications across Europe and

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5642-411: The new reign. The shape of the Green Man, crowned in natural foliage, is formed of leaves of oak, ivy, and hawthorn, and the emblematic flowers of the United Kingdom." which alluded to "the nature worshipper in King Charles" but polarized the public. Indeed, as the medieval art historian Cassandra Harrington pointed out, although vegetal figures were abundant throughout the medieval and early modern period,

5733-405: The order but were instead outsiders who were hired for a set period of time. The Templars did not perform knighting ceremonies, so anyone wishing to become a knight in the Templar had to be a knight already. Beneath the knights in the order and drawn from non-noble families were the sergeants. They brought vital skills and trades from blacksmiths and builders, including administration of many of

5824-408: The order's European properties. In the Crusader States , they fought alongside the knights as light cavalry with a single horse. Several of the order's most senior positions were reserved for sergeants, including the post of Commander of the Vault of Acre, who was also the de facto admiral of the Templar fleet. But he was subordinated to the Order's preceptor instead of the marshal, indicating that

5915-461: The order, and Ad providam , which turned over most Templar assets to the Hospitallers. As for the leaders of the order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession. Geoffroi de Charney , Preceptor of Normandy , also retracted his confession and insisted on his innocence. Both men, under pressure from the king, were declared guilty of being relapsed heretics and sentenced to burn alive at

6006-406: The papal bull Pastoralis praeeminentiae on 22 November 1307, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets. Clement called for papal hearings to determine the Templars' guilt or innocence, and once freed of the Inquisitors ' torture, many Templars recanted their confessions. Several Templars are listed as having come from Gisors to defend

6097-413: The passage of the Crusader army through the Byzantine Empire on its way to the Holy Land. During the dangerous journey of the Second Crusade through Anatolia , the Templars provided security to the rest of the army from Turkish raids. After the Crusaders arrived in 1148, the kings Louis VII, Conrad III of Germany , and Baldwin III of Jerusalem made the decision to capture Damascus , but their siege in

6188-450: The pivotal Battle of Hattin , Jerusalem was recaptured by Muslim forces under Saladin in 1187. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II reclaimed the city for Christians in the Sixth Crusade of 1229, without Templar aid, but only held it for a little more than a decade. In 1244, the Ayyubid dynasty together with Khwarezmi mercenaries recaptured Jerusalem, and the city did not return to Western control until 1917 when, during World War I ,

6279-427: The pope. However, in practice, they often had to respect the wishes of the European rulers in whose kingdoms they resided, especially in their handling of funds for the local noblility in their banks . With its clear mission and ample resources, the order grew rapidly. Templars were often the advance shock troops in key battles of the Crusades, as the heavily armoured knights on their warhorses would charge into

6370-423: The previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris. With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Clement finally agreed to disband the order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the Council of Vienne in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, including Vox in excelso , which officially dissolved

6461-456: The property of the Templars was transferred to the Knights Hospitaller except in the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Portugal was the first country in Europe where they had settled, occurring only two or three years after the order's foundation in Jerusalem and even having a presence during Portugal's conception. The Portuguese king, Denis I , refused to pursue and persecute the former knights, as had occurred in some other states under

6552-650: The regency after the death of King Baldwin IV in 1185, the royal castles were placed in the custody of the Templars and Hospitallers : the Grand Masters of the two orders, along with the Patriarch of Jerusalem , each had a key to the crown jewels. From the mid-12th century, the Templars were recruited (jointly with the Hospitallers ) to fight the Muslim kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula, in addition to their campaigns in

6643-476: The stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, asking to be tied in such a way that he could face the Notre Dame Cathedral and hold his hands together in prayer. According to legend, he called out from the flames that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God . His actual words were recorded on the parchment as follows: "Dieu sait qui

6734-457: The stake. Under further pressure, Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a major medieval European institution gave rise to speculation and legends, which have currently kept the "Templar" name alive. The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon ( Latin : Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici and French : Pauvres Chevaliers du Christ et du Temple de Salomon ) are also known as

6825-456: The summer of that year failed and ended with the defeat of the Christian army. In the fall of 1148 some returning Templars took part in the successful siege of Tortosa in Spain , after which one-fifth of that city was given to the Order. Robert de Craon died in January 1149 and was succeeded as Grand Master by Everard des Barres, one of the few leaders at the siege of Damascus whose reputation

6916-757: The symbol may have originated in Asia Minor and been brought to Europe by travelling stone carvers. The tradition of the Green Man carved into Christian churches is found across Europe, including examples such as the Seven Green Men of Nicosia carved into the facade of the thirteenth century St Nicholas Church in Cyprus. The motif fitted very easily into the developing use of vegetal architectural sculpture in Romanesque and Gothic architecture in Europe. Later foliate heads in churches may have reflected

7007-453: The three main ranks were eventually known as knight brothers, sergeant brothers, and chaplain brothers. Knights and chaplains were referred to as brothers by 1140, but sergeants were not full members of the Order at first, and this did not change until the 1160s. The knights were the most visible division of the order. They were equipped as heavy cavalry , with three or four horses and one or two squires . Squires were generally not members of

7098-484: The visitors-general of the order, who were knights specially appointed by the Grand Master and convent of Jerusalem to visit the different provinces, correct malpractices, introduce new regulations, and resolve important disputes. The visitors-general had the power to remove knights from office and to suspend the Master of the province concerned. The central headquarters of the Templars had several offices that answered to

7189-565: The vizier of Egypt, when he tried to flee from Cairo to Damascus after losing a power struggle. Abbas was killed and the Templars captured his son, who they later sent back to the Fatimids. In the late 1150s the Egyptians launched raids against the Crusaders in the areas of Gaza and Ascalon. In the mid-12th century, the tide began to turn in the Crusades. The Islamic world had become more united under effective leaders such as Saladin , and

7280-547: The wall of the city was breached in August 1153, at which point Bernard led forty knights into Ascalon. But the rest of the army did not join them and all of the Templars were killed by the Muslim defenders. Ascalon was captured by the rest of the army several days later, and Bernard was eventually succeeded by André de Montbard . After the fall of Ascalon, the Templars continued operating in that region from their castle at Gaza. In June 1154 they attacked Abbas ibn Abi al-Futuh ,

7371-424: The whole of Christendom. They acquired large tracts of land, both in Europe and the Middle East; they bought and managed farms and vineyards; they built massive stone cathedrals and castles; they were involved in manufacturing, import, and export; they owned fleets of ships; and at one point they even owned the entire island of Cyprus . The order arguably qualifies as the world's first multinational corporation . By

7462-607: The winter of 1149 and 1150, King Baldwin III oversaw the reconstruction of the fortress at Gaza City , which had been left in ruins. It was part of the ring of castles that were built along the southern border of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to protect it from raids by the Egyptian Fatimid Caliphate , and specifically from the Fatimid troops at the fortress of Ascalon , which by then was the last coastal city in

7553-675: The words: "Dieu n'est pas content, nous avons des ennemis de la foi dans le Royaume" ("God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in the kingdom"). Claims were made that during Templar admissions ceremonies, recruits were forced to spit on the Cross, deny Christ, and engage in indecent kissing; brethren were also accused of worshipping idols , and the order was said to have encouraged homosexual practices. Many of these allegations contain tropes that bear similarities to accusations made against other persecuted groups such as Jews, heretics, and accused witches. These allegations, though, were highly politicised without any real evidence. Still,

7644-541: Was already deeply in debt to the Templars from his war against England , decided to seize upon the rumours for his own purposes. He began pressuring the church to take action against the order, as a way of freeing himself from his debts. At dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307 – a date that helped influence the superstition, but not necessarily the origin, of the popular stories about Friday the 13th – King Philip IV ordered de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested. The arrest warrant started with

7735-487: Was beheaded by Saladin in 1189 at the Siege of Acre . The Grand Master oversaw all of the operations of the order, including both the military operations in the Holy Land and Eastern Europe and the Templars' financial and business dealings in Western Europe . Some Grand Masters also served as battlefield commanders, though this was not always wise: several blunders in de Ridefort's combat leadership contributed to

7826-406: Was delayed for several months. While waiting, De Molay and Clement discussed criminal charges that had been made two years earlier by an ousted Templar and were being discussed by King Philip IV of France and his ministers. It was generally agreed that the charges were false, but Clement sent King Philip a written request for assistance in the investigation. According to some historians, Philip, who

7917-464: Was first proposed by James Coulter (2006). From the Renaissance onward, elaborate variations on the Green Man theme, often with animal heads rather than human faces, appear in many media other than carvings (including manuscripts , metalwork , bookplates , and stained glass ). They seem to have been used for purely decorative effect rather than reflecting any deeply held belief. In Britain,

8008-643: Was located four hundred miles north of the pilgrim road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, on the northern frontier of the Principality of Antioch : the castle of Bagras in the Amanus Mountains . It may have been as early as 1131, and by 1137 at the latest, that the Templars were given the mountainous region that formed the border of Antioch and Cilician Armenia , and included the castles of Bagras, Darbsak , and Roche de Roissel . The Templars were there when Byzantine emperor John II Komnenos tried to make

8099-658: Was not damaged by the event. After the Second Crusade, Zengid forces under Nur ad-Din of Aleppo attacked the Principality of Antioch , and in June 1149 his army defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Inab , where Prince Raymond of Antioch was killed. King Baldwin III led reinforcements to the principality, which led Nur to accept a truce with Antioch and not advance any further. The force with King Baldwin included 120 Templar knights and 1,000 sergeants and squires. In

8190-591: Was of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasizing the order's poverty. The impoverished status of the Templars did not last long. They had a powerful advocate in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux , a leading Church figure, the French abbot primarily responsible for the founding of the Cistercian Order of monks and a nephew of André de Montbard , one of the founding knights. Bernard put his weight behind them and wrote persuasively on their behalf in

8281-402: Was pressed into his actions by the magnitude of the public scandal and by the dominating influence of King Philip IV, who was Clement's relative. The Templars were organised as a monastic order similar to Bernard's Cistercian Order, which was considered the first effective international organization in Europe. The organizational structure had a strong chain of authority. Each country with

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