Templars, page 4

From the research ive done it seems that the Templar Knights were founded by a French Knight by the name of Hugues de Payens from the Champagne region. He and eight like minded Knights swore an oath to the then King of Jerusalem to defend the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, as it was then. How these poor Knights were to acomplish this lofty goal is still a puzzle. But Baldwin II was impressed enough to give them an entire wing of his Palace to use that joined to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. That is were the name " Pauvres Chevaliers du temple " or the " Poor Knights of the Temple " comes from.
Now here is where the first puzzle of the Templars begins. Here we have 9 Knights who were so poor that they apparently had to ask for Alms, or charity if you like, to survive walking into the Palace of the King of Jerusalem and offering their services out of the blue, so to speak, to protect the Kingdom and being given an entire wing of a Royal Palace. Bearing in mind these Knights were unknowns at the time this was quite a coup on their part. So it would not be unreasonable to assume that they had a quite powerful sponser back in Europe. But the problem is that the Templars were founded in 1118 or there abouts and did not become assosiated with anyone of note or influence until 1128 when they joined up with St Bernard and the Cistercians there by adopting the white robes of the Cistercians and adding to it the Red Cross for which they would be come famous.
So the question is who was their sponser in Europe and what did they do between the years of 1118 and 1128? They did no active recruiting in these years and also acomplished nothing of note, no great deeds no nothing.
In the Middle ages it was not unusual for a Knight to ask a favour of his leige Lord but a King didnt give up a full wing of his Palace to a group of poor Knights, they were so poor that they had to ride two to a horse something they were so proud of they adopted a symbol of two knights on one horse as their official seal, unless those Knights had some heavy connections in Europe or if he thought that he would get something back in return.

Now we have the second mystery. By the 1130's the Templars had grown so high in stature that the Pope took them under his wing and made them exempt to all laws exept those of the Holy Roman Church. This as you can imagine didnt go down too well with local Clergy who did their best to curb the growing Power of the Templars, and the other Knightly Orders that came after, but were rebuffed time after time by the residing Pope. This Papal protection made the Templars very powerful indeed, so powerful that the Kings of Europe had no control or juristiction over them at all. Why were the Templars, and to a lesser extent the other Knightly Orders, given so much power and free reign do do more or less what they wanted withing the Laws or the Church? Bearing in mind this is only about 20-30 years after those poor Knights walked into the the Palace of Jerusalem and offered their meager services to Baldwin II. Quite a feat im sure you will agree, a feat i think they had some quite powerful help with. Who was the unseen power behind the Templars? I have no idea but im open to any suggestions anyone may have.

So if we jump forward a couple of hundred years we have the supression and eventual destruction of the Order. Most of what Phillip the Fair and the then Pope got up to is well known and doccumented. ut there are a few things that were not widely known at the time, or now for that matter. In 1311 the Inquisition in England, a no less bloody and vicious orginisation than the ones in France and Spain, was given some interesting info by a Templar Knight called Stepen de Strapelbrugge that he was told in his initiation that "Jesus was a man and not a God." Another Templar by the name of John de Stoke was recorded by the same inquisition as saying that the then Grand Master Jacques de Morlay had told him " he should know that Jesus was but a man, and that he should believe in the 'Omnipotent God' who was the architect of Heavan and Earth, and not the Crusifiction " this as anyone who has studied the middle ages will know is the part of the Cathar religion. Baring in mind these statements were prob made under torture they still raise interesting questions about what connection if any there was between the Cathars and and the Templar Order.

Im sorry about my poor spelling and grammer but it is very late and im very tired. But suffice it to say, the Templars were backed by someone or some powerful orginisation from the very beginning, and i think that same power was instrumental in their down fall. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

EDIT: Edited for corrections and additions

[edit on 3-10-2004 by Janus]