The Monks of War

by Desmond Seward

  Much of Spanish history cannot be understood without some knowledge of the brethren. They had become the Reconquista itself and helped form their country's military tradition, that compound of unspeakable ferocity and incredible gallantry. It was this spirit and the techniques of the Reconquista which overcame Aztecs and Incas, creating the Spanish Empire, while Portuguese brethren transformed the crusading ideal into a movement of colonization which ended with Europe dominating the world.

  V

  READJUSTMENT

  1291–1522

  The end of the Templars and the Hospitallers' new role: Secularization in Europe – Rhodes – the later Crusades

  Never do they idle or wander where fancy takes them. If not campaigning – a rare occurrence – instead of enjoying a well-earned reward these men are busy repairing their weapons and clothes, patching up rents or refurbishing old ones and making good any shortcomings before doing whatever else the Master and the Community may command.

  Bernard of Clairvaux

  'De Laude Novae Militiae'

  12

  READJUSTMENT AND THE TEMPLAR DISSOLUTION

  In 1303 the island of Ruad was captured by Mamelukes and its Templar garrison taken in chains to Cairo to be shot to death with arrows. The brethren had raided Alexandria unsuccessfully in 1300, while two years later they had tried and failed to reestablish themselves at Tortosa; now the last toehold on the Syrian coast had been lost. Burdened by exorbitant taxes, Europe was reluctant to donate yet more money for Holy Wars and its kings were too busy to go on crusade. None the less, the military orders were blamed for losing Outremer.

  St John's new headquarters were the Hospital at Limassol; the Grand Commandery of Cyprus at Kolossi, a formidable stronghold six miles away, had always been their richest house in the Levant. As the island's chief seaport, Limassol made an excellent base for war galleys – in 1299 the Admiral became a great officer of the Order.1 However, in 1302 the total strength of this Cypriot convent was only sixty-five brother knights, five of them English.2 The Poor Knights also transferred their headquarters to Limassol; apart from the Grand Preceptory, their main house in Cyprus seems to have been Templos, near Kyrenia, and they had nearly fifty estates on the island. Naturally the two great brotherhoods squabbled. Nor was it long before Templars began meddling in Cypriot politics. Forbidden by King Henry to acquire more land, they plotted to replace him with his brother, Amalric; Henry was seized by the brethren and imprisoned in Armenia, an unwilling guest of King Oshin.3 St Lazarus soon abandoned military activities as too expensive for a poor brotherhood, while it is far from clear whether the Master was the prior of Capua or the preceptor of Boigny, though the latter was recognized by English and Scottish brethren. Probably it had never been an exempt Order – i.e. free from episcopal control – like the Templars and Hospitallers, and local bishops may well have been anxious to make use of what revenues it possessed, reducing the role of knight brethren. The Hospitallers of St Thomas suffered a similar decline but managed to maintain a preceptory in Cyprus throughout the fourteenth century.

  The European strength, however, of all Orders was unimpaired. In England, St John possessed thirty commanderies, each possessing a chapel or a church, sometimes patterned on the Holy Sepulchre. Such houses usually contained three brethren (knight, chaplain and sergeant) and novices; postulants entered at sixteen but could not serve in the East until reaching the age of twenty. Conventual life was observed, the Office said in choir every day. Occasionally a lesser commandery was given to a chaplain, more rarely to a sergeant. Several smaller houses or manors were attached to each commandery, often occupied by a steward with a secular priest. In all there were probably forty-five establishments. Whether a commandery was in the depths of the country or in a town, the commander had to entertain the local notables, while remaining a man apart under vows.

  The superior was the Prior at Clerkenwell. His territory included Wales, which had a single commandery, Slebeche, in Pembrokeshire. The Prior of Ireland – whose grand commandery was Kilmainham – came under Clerkenwell's jurisdiction, though this was never very effective as Irish brethren had a lamentable tendency to embroil themselves in tribal warfare. Scotland had only one commandery, Torphichen in Midlothian, though its incumbent was always known as Prior of Scotland. He too was subordinate to London. The Prior of England, 'My Lord of St John's', given precedence before all lay barons, was an important figure in English life, not least because of his magnificent residence with its household of knights and chaplains. Clerkenwell was the second richest monastic establishment in London, owning the great wood of St John's and the manor of Hampton Court.

  Like St John, the Poor Knights had houses from Sicily to Scandinavia, grouped in provinces; all obeyed the Temple of Jerusalem – now at Limassol – but were also subordinate to the Master of the Paris Temple where the 'Chapter of the West' was held. Under the Provincial Masters, usually known as Grand Preceptors, came the priors who commanded groups of preceptories. The Grand Preceptor of England – second senior officer in Europe – was in charge of the Grand Preceptors of Scotland and Ireland but had little control in practice. Life in British preceptories was very like that in Hospitaller commanderies, though, apart from houses for elderly brethren, they did not maintain hospitals. 'Red Friars' took an even more prominent part in public life than St John, and Temples always outshone Hospitals in splendour. The London house derived an income of £4,000 from its preceptories, an enormous revenue for the period. However, avarice earned the Templars much unpopularity. The most notorious incident was the Eperstoun affair. A husband had bought a corrody (board and lodging annuity) at the preceptory of Balentrodach with his life interest in his wife's property. When he died the Poor Knights claimed the widow's house. She refused to leave, clinging to a door post, so a brother hacked off her fingers with a knife. Edward I restored the unfortunate woman's property, but later her son was murdered by Templar troops, whereupon the brethren took possession. They also took part in civil wars, Irish brothers joining in the local chieftains' squabbles while Scots brethren helped Edward I defeat Wallace at Falkirk.

  By contrast St John maintained many hospitals, dispensing food and accommodation to pilgrims and the sick poor. There were also nearly 200 leper hospitals in medieval England, perhaps twenty of them administered by the Burton Lazars' preceptory, where there was provision for a Master and eight brethren as well as leper brothers. Usually houses dedicated to St Lazarus or Mary Magdalene belonged to the Order of St Lazarus but not all have been identified. Its London house was at St Giles-outside-the-City. The preceptor of 'La Mawdelyne' at Locko in Derbyshire depended directly on Boigny.4 St Thomas had its Master and twelve brethren at the headquarters in Cheapside5 besides hospitals at Doncaster and Berkhamsted.6

  Even during the days of St Bernard and Hugues de Payens there had been criticism of the Templars. At the end of the twelfth century a German, Otto of Blasien, accused both Templars and Hospitallers of having reached a secret understanding with the Moslems and, as time went by, criticism of all military orders became widespread. Towards 1250 the English chronicler Matthew Paris wrote that the Templars and Hospitallers received such enormous revenues 'merely for defending the Holy Land' that they were in danger of being dragged down to Hell; he also alleged that they deliberately discouraged fresh Crusades which, if successful, might put them out of a job. In 1258 the Teutonic Knights were accused of trying to prevent the conversion of Prussians or else of enslaving those who had converted, charges which almost certainly emanated from their hostile Polish neighbours. During the 1260s the Franciscan Roger Bacon argued that the same order's aggressive attitude impeded the preaching of the Gospel, a charge which would also be made against the Templars by Archdeacon Walter Map in 1289. None of these attacks appears to have done the military orders any harm. They were far too much a part of the establishment of the Roman Church.

  However, everything changed when Acre fell. The brethren had always insisted that they alone could sa
ve the Holy Land and now, very unfairly, they were blamed for failing in their self-appointed task. Pope Nicholas IV said publicly that the quarrels between Templars and Hospitallers had contributed to the disaster, suggesting that the two Orders should be merged. At least one Christian king began to turn covetous eyes on their vast wealth.

  For many years there had been strange rumours about the Templars, who had developed a mania for secrecy. Minds darkened by hostility were only too ready to credit sinister accusations; 'suspicions among thoughts are like bats among birds – they ever fly by twilight', and the brethren became enveloped in a miasma of poisonous gossip. In France the Poor Knights were especially pretentious. Their Master, Fra' Jacques de Molay, was godfather to Philip IV's son and, though in 1287 Philip had declared forfeit all Templar property acquired since 1258, he did not implement the decision. They supported him against Pope Boniface VIII, confirming a secret treaty for alliance in 1303, while in 1306 the king took refuge for three days in the Paris Temple to escape a furious mob. This sanctuary was also the royal treasury. Perhaps Philip's enforced sojourn aroused his cupidity; he had already organized a vicious pogrom against the Jews, seizing their property, besides extracting forced loans from the Lombards. Indeed he had good reason to appreciate the brethren's wealth, having borrowed large sums (on special terms), including a dowry for his daughter, Isabella, the 'she-wolf, when she married the future Edward II. The Paris Temple constituted something like a European money market. Preceptories were the safest banks available and credit rates compared favourably with those of Jews or Lombards, Templar bills of exchange being accepted everywhere. It seems that the brethren preferred money to landed property; in about 1250 Matthew Paris estimated the Hospitallers' wealth at 19,000 manors, the Poor Knights' at 9,000. Yet the latter was undoubtedly the richer order. All orders had confratres, who led an ordinary life but spent certain periods in the houses, coming to the brotherhoods' assistance in a crisis. Both Templar and Hospitaller rules made provision for married confratres to live at preceptories with their wives in special quarters, though in practice this was very rare. All confratres received valuable privileges, and consequently there were several thousand honorary Templars in Europe, many of them rich men.

  Philip 'le Bel' of France was famous for his good looks, but beneath the thick yellow hair his pale blue eyes reflected a chilly inhumanity. Secretive by nature, he was an enigma to his courtiers. His ambition was that France should take the empire's place; for this he needed a subservient papacy and money.

  Several writers had produced plans for the Holy Land's recovery; the most practical came in 1305 from the Aragonese Dominican, Fra' Ramon Llull: European kings were to pool resources under a single 'war-leader king', the Rex Bellator, who would organize the campaign, while military brethren were to be combined in a single order 'the Knights of Jerusalem'. This scheme received very serious consideration and the papacy contemplated the appointment of Fra' Foulques de Villaret, Master of St John, as head of the new brotherhood. An earlier project had been Pierre Dubois' De Recuperatione Sanctae written about 1300, also advocating the union of military Orders; a secret appendix showed how the king might obtain control of the whole Church through the cardinals. Philip solemnly proposed to Rome that he himself should become Rex Bellator, that the French kings be appointed hereditary Masters of the brethren of Jerusalem, that the surplus revenues of all Orders be placed at the Rex Bellator's disposal, and that the new Master should have four votes at the conclaves which elected popes. The brethren, however, firmly rejected any suggestion of amalgamation.

  The fall of the imperial monarchy had opened the way for national monarchies; never again could a pontiff depose princes, arbitrarily summon Europe to a crusade or protect clergy against an irate king. Philip's destruction of Boniface VIII marked the final collapse of papal pretensions. They quarrelled over clerical dues, the conflict ending with Boniface's death after his seizure by French troops. Clement V, a former archbishop of Bordeaux, who became pope in 1305, moved the papal court to Avignon where it remained for over seventy years – 'the Babylonish captivity'. This new Vicar of Christ, weak, racked by ill-health, was desperately afraid of his former sovereign who had secured his election by heavy bribes.

  The decision to destroy the Templars was probably made by Philip's chancellor, Guillaume de Nogaret, a lawyer whose parents had been burnt at the stake as Albigensian heretics. He had little love for Rome and, during the struggle with Pope Boniface, was the king's chief instrument. He was also responsible for the royal finances. Suggestions that Philip feared a Templar coup d'état are unrealistic; the Order's combat troops were in Cyprus. Nogaret needed 'evidence'. His first source was Esquiu de Florian of Béziers. This medieval Titus Oates, once Templar prior of Montfaucon, had been expelled for irregularities and during his efforts to obtain 'justice' had committed at least one murder. In 1305 Esquiu offered to sell King Jaume of Aragon his former brethren's 'secret', accusing them of blasphemy and horrible vices. The king was unimpressed, but French agents saw possibilities in Esquiu, who was asked to make a legal deposition. Next year royal officials recruited twelve spies to join the Order. By 1307 Nogaret had sufficient material – of a sort – on which to base a prosecution.

  Clement was weak and credulous but not dishonest. A crusade was being considered and on 6 June 1306 the pope wrote in all sincerity to the Masters of the Temple and the Hospital: 'We wish to consult you about a crusade with the kings of Cyprus and Armenia.' The Templar Master, Jacques de Molay, answered with a detailed memorandum, announcing that he would visit Clement to discuss the matter in detail; no doubt he hoped to wrest the crusade's leadership from the Hospital. He landed at Marseilles in early 1307 with sixty knight brethren and rode to Paris in great state. Among their baggage were twelve pack-loads of gold and silver, including 150,000 gold florins; later they were to regret this ostentation. King Philip gave them a warm welcome, but the Grand Preceptor of France knew something was in the wind. However, after seeing the pope at Poitiers and asking for a papal commission to investigate and dispel any hostile rumours about his Order, Jacques returned to the Paris Temple. On the night of Thursday, 12 October 1307, Philip's troops broke in to arrest Molay with sixty brethren, incarcerating some in royal prisons, others in the Temple's own dungeons. By the morning of Friday, 13 October, 15,000 people had been seized: knights, chaplains, sergeants, confrates and retainers – even labourers on the Order's farms. Probably not more than 500 were full members, fewer than 200 were professed brethren. By the weekend popular preachers were denouncing the Poor Knights to horrified crowds all over France.

  The arrest was illegal; the civil authority could not arrest clerics responsible only to Rome. But Philip hoped to substantiate certain charges: denial of Christ, idol worship, spitting on the crucifix and homosexuality – unnatural vice was a practice associated with the Albigensians, and all these accusations were the stock-in-trade of heresy trials. The French Inquisition, staffed by Dominicans, 'Hounds of the Lord', was expert at extracting confessions. The brethren, unlettered soldiers, faced a combination of cross-examining lawyers and torture chambers whose instruments included the thumbscrew, the boot and a rack to dislocate limbs. Men were spreadeagled and crushed by lead weights or filled with water through a funnel till they suffocated. There was also 'burning in the feet'. Probably the most excruciating torments were the simplest – wedges hammered under fingernails, teeth wrenched out and the exposed nerves prodded. The Templars would have resisted any torment by Moslems but now, weakened by confinement in damp, filthy cells and systematic starvation, they despaired when the torture was inflicted by fellow Christians.

  It is not surprising that thirty-six brethren died, or that, out of 138 examined, 123 confessed to the least nauseating charge, spitting on the crucifix, for medieval man was accustomed to swearing oaths under duress and then obtaining absolution once he was safe. Even Jacques de Molay stooped to this stratagem, humiliated by a charge of homosexuality which he furiously denied.
However, though his 'confession' may have been politic it unnerved the brethren, while Fra' Hugues de Peyraud frightened them still more by admitting every accusation; 'made of the willow rather than the oak', the wily Treasurer co-operated with gusto, declaring he worshipped an idol in chapter. At Carcassonne two brethren agreed they had adored a wooden image called 'Baphomet' while a Florentine Templar named it 'Mahomet' and another brother said it had a long beard but no body. Royal agents hunted frantically for Baphomet and 'discovered' a metal-plated skull suspiciously like a reliquary. (The Baphomet story may have been inspired by the Hospitaller practice of venerating a representation of the severed head of their patron, John the Baptist; sometimes, flanked by the sun and the moon, this was painted on a panel like an icon, while it was also the seal of the Hospitaller Priory of England.)

  These avowals of idolatry only served to discredit other evidence, for in extremities of pain and anguish men will say anything. Yet only three brethren would confess to homosexual practices, a refutation of 'indecent kisses'. It was alleged that in the rite of profession, postulants were required to kiss their superior on the navel or the base of the spine – possibly a few preceptors indulged in mumbo-jumbo, but it is highly unlikely. And intensive searches failed to find 'the secret rule'.

  When one considers how the Templars fought and died throughout the crusades it seems hard not to believe in their innocence. Yet, until the discovery of documents relating to the trial of Aragonese brethren, most historians were inclined to find them guilty. Even today no less an authority than Sir Steven Runciman remains suspicious. At the end of his History of the Crusades, referring to the charges against the Order, he writes: 'It would be unwise to dismiss these rumours as the unfounded invention of enemies. There was probably just enough substance in them to suggest the line along which the Order could be most convincingly attacked.'7 In The Medieval Manichee Sir Steven suggests the possible influence of Dualist ideas and usages. This indeed may be the clue. It is surely more than coincidence that the most strident accusations came from the heartlands of the Albigensian heresy; Nogaret was a Provençal, Fra' Esquiu a Catalan. Local brethren in these regions could well have turned isolated preceptories into Cathar cells during the previous century when the heresy was at its height, while the Order's bankers would have been quite capable of protecting fugitive heretics in order to obtain the Cathar treasure which disappeared just before their last stronghold fell in 1244. Admittedly Catharism was almost extinct by 1307; but vague memories from years before of heresy hunts within the Order, kept secret to avoid scandal, may have been the origin of tales of devil-worship, secret rites and sodomy which were all charges which had been made against the Cathars. Perhaps Pope Clement's confusion is not so surprising after all.