4 691

Already at the time of its active existence, the Order of the Templars was seen in the eyes of contemporaries as a kind of magical institution. The Knights of the Temple were suspected of magic, sorcery and alchemy. (An era earlier they would have been suspected of shamanism). It was believed that many of the Templars were associated with "dark forces". Back in 1208, Pope Innocent III called the templars to order due to their "non-Christian actions and incantations of spirits."

It is known that the Templars dreamed of establishing on earth the Kingdom of Peace and the Unity of all peoples, for which they were engaged in esoteric research and the search for interfaith churchness based on Gnostic teachings. At the same time, "churchness" was understood in its original sense - from the Greek "ekklhsia", that is, the "community" of people united by an idea.

A few words about the Gnostics. The Gnostics are an Alexandrian sect based on the secret doctrines of early Christianity. The Gnostics interpreted the Christian mysteries in accordance with pagan symbolism. They hid their secret information and philosophical achievements from outsiders and taught only a small group of specially initiated persons.

The Gnostics were looking for (and thought they had found) Truth with a capital T. They considered it to be the basis of Gnosis (Greek “gnosis” - “knowledge”), that is, secret knowledge about God, the world and the true spiritual nature of man, discovered by the prophets and preserved by the esoteric tradition. The possession of such knowledge, which only the elect could be granted, in itself leads to Salvation. Evil in the world was considered to have arisen initially as a result of a “technological error”. Its destruction occurs only gradually, in the course of the world process of restoring the planned harmony, which is again accelerated by the prophets and divine messengers. God, according to the teachings of the Gnostics, is hidden and unknowable. But at the same time it is the supreme true God. The majority of people (not related to the Gnostics) worship the untrue God, whose image they capture in the form of icons and frescoes. Meanwhile, this is only a derivative of the true God, the father is not the world, but "the lies of this world", that is, the Devil. However, for the Gnostics, the Devil was not the father of evil, but only a loser, a victim of his own delusions.

The Templars, in particular, borrowed the symbol of Androgyne from the Gnostics. For them, it was an occult image of universal unity. He was depicted as a figure with wings, seated on a cube. On his head is a torch with three flames. The right hand is male (with the Latin inscription "solve" - ​​"allow"), the left is female (with the inscription "coagula" - "condense"). The trouble is that Androgyn had a goat's head; her horns, beard and ears form a PENTAGRAM (known to us as a five-pointed star). For Christian hierarchs, this head, of course, was associated with the Devil. And subsequently the fact of worshiping Androgyn was blamed on the Templars. Meanwhile, even among the Pythagoreans, the pentagram was a symbol of health and an identification mark of the community.
The androgyne of the Gnostics among the Templars had his own name, called Baphomet.

Baphomet (Baphomet) - read from right to left the word "Temophab", meaning "Templi omnium hominum pacis abbas", that is, "Actor of the temple of peace of all people." By this term, the Templars understood the emanation of the world "We", an astral whirlwind that could lead people along the path of improvement, to universal peace and brotherhood.
All this was in sight. However, later research has shown that, most likely, within the Order of the Templars there was a narrow circle of initiates who developed and protected from outsiders a much deeper occult doctrine than the persecutors of the templars could imagine.
In the 18th century, two documents relating to the Middle Ages were found in Hamburg. They contained a secret code for templars who had reached the "inner circle" of the Order, and supplemented the church charter. These were the Rule of the Chosen Brethren and the Rule of the Comforted Brethren. In his book History of the Order of the Templars and the Crusades, Gerard Sebanesco comments on these texts in detail and proves that they are about instructions, the purpose of which was to keep the secrets of the occult hierarchy strictly separated from the rest of the Order.

There are many versions about the esoteric secrets so zealously guarded by the Templars. To this day, works on this topic continue to appear. In his amazing book Jean de Fodoas, the occult writer Maurice Magre puts forward a hypothesis according to which the Templars used the figure of Baphomet charged with magic during the battles. She allegedly ensured their victory until it was stolen from them during one of the battles of the Christian army with the Mongol invaders in Bohemia.

Maurice Magre adds:
“It is likely that all the great conquerors who left their mark on the destinies of various peoples used magic, which allowed them to control world forces in their interests.”

We do not believe in magic, so we will not seriously consider this last thesis, but it seems that the highest ranking templars did possess esoteric knowledge. While in Touraine, in the dungeon of Chinon Castle, they painted symbolic graffiti on the walls of their cells, which generations of scholars are trying to decipher.

The modern alchemist Eugène Canselier, author of The Two Dwellings of the Alchemists, believes that he has succeeded in interpreting the most mysterious and complex of these drawings. According to his version, the Templars knew how the earth cycle would develop until the Apocalypse.

“On the wall of one of the cells,” Canselier writes, “the Templars, sitting in the keep of the castle of Chinon awaiting execution, left, among other no less interesting graffiti, a brief outline of the development of nature. On the side of the doorway stands out a circle scratched with a stiletto on a soft stone, the right side of which is barely outlined and decisively shaded with vertical lines. Indeed, the golden and silver ages ended when, in 1308, the adepts of the Order of the Temple presented posterity with an image of the ruthless passage of time. That is why the gnomon on the cosmic dial, drawn from a smaller circle with the letter “S” in the center (“S” is the first letter of the French word “soleil” - the sun), divides the upper sector, that is, the Bronze Age, into two halves. One half is the past three hundred years, and the other is the future three hundred years, it still has the letter "B", which among the Romans denoted the number 300. These six centuries are also marked with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F. The letter The "A" is larger than the others and is connected by a curly brace to another "A" directly above it, symbolizing the two ages mentioned. To the right and slightly above the Sun, we see the Moon and the Earth - a circle crossed out by a cross, a life that will end with the end of the Iron Age, indicated in the lower quarter of the circle. The stiletto of the unknown Templar moves inexorably on, so that, having reached the vertical, he marks the great confusion in the noise of the trumpets. Then the Chosen Ones will be able to repeat the prophetic words of the soothsayer from Patmo:
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth; because the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and the sea no longer existed.”

Pretty free interpretation, don't you think? We will meet again and again with how the occultists freely interpret the deeds of their predecessors. In the meantime, let's try to answer the question, what, in fact, did the Templars achieve by strengthening and expanding their Order.
The conspiracy theorist Jean Marquez-Rivier, in his book "History of Esoteric Doctrines", defined the political aspect of the activities of the inner circle of the Order of the Temple:
"It appears that there was a group within the Order itself, inspired by strict esotericism, who had the secret goal of seizing power."

So, the Templars needed power in order to unite the Western world and become its real occult rulers. What means were they going to use to carry out their plan? The actual union of secular and religious power? However, for this it was necessary to reconcile the Cross of Christianity and the Crescent of Islam, turning the Mediterranean Sea from a dividing abyss into a center of unity of world religions.

The Templars, who did not confine themselves to dreams of an ideal society, understood perfectly well that in order for the confrontation between the Christian world and the East to disappear sooner or later, it was necessary to methodically develop commercial contacts between the two sides. The leaders of the Order tried in every possible way to take control of industry, trade and financial relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds. The intention of the Templars was to undermine existing norms, to completely reorganize the traditional structure of human society, with Europe being only an intermediate stage on the way to the implementation of this project.

Although most of the political leaders of that era were treated by the secret circle of the Templars only as pawns and blind executors of their will, there were some exceptions. In particular, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Staufen was perhaps one of those initiated into the audacious plan. In particular, despite the strong indignation of Rome, he established contacts with Muslim adepts, instead of going on a crusade against them. Without a doubt, this emperor of Germany was not a pawn in someone else's game - on the contrary, he reached the highest circles of initiation. It was he who in 1228 presided over the "round table" in Akko, where representatives of all knightly orders, both Christian and Muslim, gathered.

To this day, in the most mountainous and least visited place, in the Italian province of Puglia, on the outskirts of the city of Andria, there is a huge fortified castle built by Frederick II. Some people call this building the Castle of the master of the world. This massive fortress, Castel del Monte, was built according to the exact octagonal plan, like the Templar chapels. Although the castle later served as the residence of high people, it was clearly intended for other purposes, there was not a single room with a utilitarian purpose: no bedrooms, no dining rooms, no living rooms. During the life of the emperor, Castel del Monte, of course, was used only on solemn occasions for meetings and ceremonies. The octagonal plan is also preserved inside the castle: all rooms are located around one central, also octagonal, master's room. This room was probably the Middle Room - the most hidden and therefore the most sacred.

Treasures of the Templars

On March 18, 1314, it was overcast in Paris. The sonorous heralds, shivering from the morning dampness, walked along the narrow streets, loudly announcing the trial of the vicious Templar scoundrels. On a high platform, under the protection of guards, which separated the crowd from noble gentlemen, monks and lawyers, the ecclesiastical court was held over heretics and villains. The chairman - the king's confessor and doctor of theology from the Sorbonne, the famous Guillaume of Paris, rubbed his chilled hands and finished reading the sentence: "And keep them within four walls until life leaves them." Four convicts in tattered cloaks with a red cross on their shoulders were to humbly and on their knees thank the tribunal for their mercy.

Tall and thin, Jacques de Molay suddenly straightened up, looked into the eyes of Guillaume of Paris and spoke in a weak cracked voice: “We are guilty before the Lord, but we do not plead guilty to the crimes named by the judges. We are guilty of the fact that our spirit was weaker than the flesh, and under torture we slandered the Order of the Temple of the Lord in ". The judges of the tribunal looked at each other. After a short consultation, Guillaume of Paris announced: “Since these heretics have not repented, they continue to persist and spew blasphemy against our holy mother Church, we depart from them and hand them over to the secular authorities.”

On the same day, the Royal Prevost sentenced the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, the examiners Hugh de Peyrot, Geoffroy de Gonville and Geoffroy de Charnay to be burned at the stake. Jacques de Molay went up to the tall woodpile, took off and carefully folded the Templar cloak, and calmly climbed up. When the fire flared up, he loudly said: “Pope Clement V, in forty days, you will come to me. King Philip IV of France, in less than a year you will join us." Jacques de Molay made no more sound. The guards who saw his face later said that the master of the Templars died without pain.

The predictions of the old man dying at the stake were fulfilled exactly. On April 20, Pope Clement went to God in agony. His stomach hurt, and the doctors prescribed to drink crushed emeralds, which tore the guts of the high priest. In November, King Philip IV of France fell off his horse while hunting. Paralyzed, he was picked up and brought to the palace by the courtiers. There Philip the Handsome died, stiff and unable to move. And over the body of the lord of France, the heirs grappled. A year later, the body of the royal lawyer Angerrand de Marigny, who was preparing the process of the Templars, swayed on the gallows. In agony, the knight Guillaume de Nogaret, who led the investigation, died. The sons of Philip IV were unable to pass the throne to their children. Their nephew, Edward of England, went to France in a war that dragged on for more than a century. The country that robbed and killed the Order of the Temple was itself plundered and humiliated.

ORIGIN

Among the founders of the Order of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem was the famous Bernard of Clairvaux - a man by whose word the kings could go on a campaign, and the popes bowed their heads. Bernard, born in 1090 in Troyes, came from a noble family. According to the prevailing by the XI century. tradition, he had to become a monk so as not to disturb his older relatives with claims to inherit the land. He could be an ordinary abbot - economic and moderately decent, he could plunge into political intrigues. However, Bernard got into the Order of the Cistercians - a monastic order engaged in the dissemination of scientific knowledge.

In 1118, nine French knights decided to create a military monastic order - "to protect the pilgrims going to Jerusalem." It was organized along the lines of the Order of John of Jerusalem, whose members were called Hospitallers. As a residence, the generous King of Jerusalem gave them the territory of the former mosque of Kubbat al-Zahra - the Temple of Solomon.

However, 10 years after the founding of the Order, the Knights of the Temple were doing everything except the protection of Christian shrines. They took turns guarding the road from the robbers, but mostly rummaged in the cellars of the temple, apparently hoping to find something there. Bernard of Clairvaux worked hard in the monastic libraries, not disdaining the help of rabbis who understood Hebrew texts. What the knights were looking for in Jerusalem remained a mystery. Investigators during searches, and executioners during interrogations failed to find out anything.

In 1128 (the only case in history!) For official recognition, a special church council was convened in Troyes - on the lands of the Count of Champagne. Recognized by this time as a saint, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a charter for the Order of the Knights of the Temple. The main residence of the Order was in France, in Paris, in the Temple Castle (“Temple”), which gave the knights a second name - the Templars. It was a powerful Order that absorbed the traditions of the early monastic orders. They even buried the Templar brothers according to the monastic rite of the Cistercians - naked, face down on the board. The Order of the Temple immediately received untold riches - secular lords donated land to it. The former order of the Cistercians, with the advent of the Templars, refused to receive donations and increase their savings. It seemed that the old orders decided to transfer their wealth and knowledge to one new one.

From the very beginning, the Order of the Temple was dual: on the one hand, knightly, and on the other, monastic. Even his seal depicted a horse with two riders in the saddle. In the Order there were monk brothers, knight brothers (they did not take monastic vows), sergeants (just warriors in the service of the Temple) and monastic and artisan brothers (people under the auspices of the Temple). Most of the knight brothers were in Palestine and fought with the infidels. They said about knight brothers: "drinks like a Templar" and "swears like a Templar." Pride and arrogance they were not to hold. In contrast, the monk brothers organized a network of commanderies throughout Europe, in which the wealth of the Order was kept. The Templars had their own castles with estates in which grain was not transferred.

Once, during a crop failure, only one commandery fed 10,000 people in a week.

The commanderies were united in bailages (districts), which in wealth and power competed with the king's bailages. But despite the wealth of the Order, captured Templars were forbidden to offer a ransom for their lives and freedom.

The Templars had two major centers - the East Forest between the Baliages of Paynes and Tor in the interfluve of the Seine and Both and the port of La Rochelle. In the first of them, treasure hunters are still trying to find traces of the treasures of the Templars. But the whole forest was swampy in the Middle Ages, and even a sophisticated person cannot find a way, let alone find a hiding place. Roads free from royal inspections led to La Rochelle. The most surprising thing is that in principle there was nothing to carry to this port - America had not yet been "discovered" then. And yet, through all of France, to and from La Rochelle, wagon trains crawled under the protection of the sergeants of the Order.

No duties were taken for this, and any merchant who deposited money in one commandery could receive it in another by a letter of borrowing. This banking system was unique for that time. Even the untold riches donated to the Templars, prudent management and usury forbidden to Christians could not bring them such an amount of silver. It simply was not in the mines of all of Europe in quantities sufficient to cover non-cash payments of merchants. The incomes of the Templars grew steadily, and they were nicknamed "people of silver." Subsequently, versions arose that the Templars were able to get to America and extract silver from the mines of Peru and Mexico. Of course, such wealth could not but arouse envy and anger among competitors.

ROUTE

The richest and most powerful Order had many enemies. Bad relations developed with the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, who, after fleeing Palestine, settled first in Cyprus and then in Rhodes. The white hospital cross with forked ends competed with the Templar red cross with crossbars on the seas and on land. Relations with the Order of St. Mary of the Teutonic Order were also cool: the Templars did not approve of the forced conversion of pagans to Christianity in the interests of the German chivalry and did not transfer their commanderships to the North-East. The Templars quickly quarreled with the new monastic orders. Europe was shaken by uprisings, and the church sought to finally restore order in the affairs of faith. To defeat heresy, the mendicant Order of the Dogs of the Lord, the Dominicans, was founded. The monks girded with ropes in gray-brown cassocks at first actively collaborated with the powerful hospitallers. However, later it was the Dominicans who were instructed to check all theological works for compliance with the teachings of the church and, under the guidance of bishops, to investigate crimes against the faith.

Looked askance at the Order and secular rulers. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II plundered the possessions of the Templars in Sicily. The King of France, Philip IV the Beautiful, who strengthened his power in the country, was unhappy that the Temple fortress was located in Paris, in which the Grand Master sits - a more powerful ruler than himself. The king wanted to receive tolls on the Order's roads and taxes from the Order's lands. There were only two ways to do this: lead the order and make it royal, or destroy it. In 1305, Philip the Handsome wanted to join the Order of the Temple. However, the chapter of the Order answered him that among the brothers there could be no crowned lords. Then Philip made a new proposal. Since the war in Palestine came to an end, and the knightly orders were outside the Holy Land, it is necessary to unite two of them - the Order of the Temple and the Order of John of Jerusalem. At the head of the united Order, in order not to belittle the honor of either the Templars or the Hospitallers, the son of the most Christian king of France, a descendant of the famous crusader Saint Louis, should stand. However, this plan also failed.

And then Philip the Handsome chose the second path. After another intrigue, the French bishop Bertrand de Go was elected pope. His predecessor, the knight Guillaume de Nogaret, was struck in the face with a mail glove and taken away to die in custody. In 1305, for the first time, the Knights Templar were accused of heresy and blasphemy. It was decided to defeat the Order where it was strongest - in France.

The confessor of the king and the Grand Inquisitor of France, doctor of theology Guillaume of Paris, began to collect witnesses from among the exiled knights. By 1307, the accusations had been prepared, and throughout France, secret letters with instructions to royal officials were carried by royal messengers. On September 14, 1307, the royal troops captured the castles of the Templars throughout France. Philip IV for the first time entered the Temple towering in the center of Paris not as a guest and debtor of the Order, but as the master of a conquered enemy fortress. The Templars offered no resistance - the charter of the Order did not allow the knights to raise weapons against Christians. And who would have dared to raise a hand against the most powerful Order before? The brothers opened the gate and let the guards in.

One of the tasks of the royal investigators was to seize the untold wealth of the Templars. However, disappointment awaited them here: the treasury was empty, there were not even holy vessels in the order church. There was talk that a couple of days before the arrest, carts loaded with hay left the Temple gates somewhere. Why it was necessary to take hay from Paris to the village, no one thought. And then it was too late to guess. The same thing happened throughout France. Only in one commandery was it possible to capture relics in the chapel - a bronze head with the stored cranial bones of some saint. The money of the order disappeared without a trace.

Since the order was founded by an ecclesiastical council, a council also had to be convened to try the Templars. However, the Vienna Council of 1312, convened for this purpose, did not wish to bring any charges against the Order. Then the pope issued a bull, which dissolved the Order. However, the matter did not end there. At first it was assumed that the Inquisition would judge the Templars for their atrocities. However, it quickly turned out that this was not the best option. Broken during the interrogations in the hands of the royal executioners, the lay brothers and the knight-monks gave any testimony. However, there was little faith in such an investigation.

Then Pope Clement V decided to take matters into his own hands. Church commissions were set up to try the Templars. They included the bishop of the city and mendicant monks: two Carmelites, two Franciscans and two Dominicans. The Benedictines and Cintercians, who participated in the creation of the Order of the Temple, were removed from the investigation. Clement V demanded that the highest dignitaries of the Order be handed over to the papal court, but the leaders were not taken to the pope: it was announced that they had contracted a contagious disease along the way, and therefore would be temporarily kept in the castle. However, papal commissions were admitted to the arrested and interrogated. During these interrogations, the Templars categorically denied most of the accusations.

The knights unanimously refused the charge of sodomy - homosexuality encouraged by the authorities. However, they did not deny that at the initiation ceremony the newcomer was kissed on the navel, tailbone and lips. Moreover, no one could explain the meaning of these kisses: those who were admitted to secret knowledge were in no hurry to tell, and those who simply copied the ritual did not understand its meaning. During interrogations, the commanders admitted that they were rudely advised to the newly recruited: “If you feel cold, you will warm up with your brothers.” Before the commission, they did not refuse to testify.

Even more serious was the accusation of blasphemy. The Templars, on the basis of the testimony of witnesses and the arrested knights of the Order, were accused of denying the crucifixion of Christ and spitting on the cross. There was nothing to be said against this. Those accepted into the ranks of the monk brothers were told that in fact Christ was not crucified, and that the cross was not a holy revered symbol, but the instrument of death of the criminal - the "king of the Jews" - who had raised a rebellion against the Romans and was convicted for it. After this explanation, the neophytes were asked to spit on the cross. The accusation of sodomy could still be explained by rude military jokes, and male kisses on different parts of the body could be explained by the misunderstanding of the meaning of the rite by the lower knights.

However, blasphemy and heresy are much more serious crimes. These accusations were all the more confirmed by the fact that the objects of worship were idols - the so-called "heads of Baphomet." These were bronze heads, sometimes with three faces, with horns, with bright inlaid eyes. Although for the Templars these heads were considered a symbol of well-being and prosperity, the fertility of the surrounding fields. But for the investigation it was a sign of devil worship. And the horns on their heads, and three faces, and a skull - all these symbols were associated with Kabbalism, witchcraft and alchemy, which undoubtedly spoke of the cult of Satan. Here, compromises were impossible for the Dominicans - devil worshipers, occultists and usurers must be destroyed. And this so coincided with the interests of the pope and the king of France. The investigation continued non-stop. The brothers, tormented on the rack and under the executioner's tongs, testified about their crimes. In March 1314, the king decided: "It's time!"

THE FATE OF THE TEMPLERS

It would seem that after the verdict of the Paris Tribunal, the fate of the Templars was decided everywhere. However, in reality, it was not even possible to seize property everywhere. After the death of Clement V and Philip IV, both Rome and the French kings had no time for the Templars, and on the Iberian Peninsula they were needed for the war with the Moors. Therefore, no one was particularly engaged in the persecution of the Knights of the Temple there. In Castile and Aragon, the knights of the Order of the Temple entered in full force and with all their property into the Order of Calatrava. In Germany, the process broke down: in Frankfurt, the Templars called for trial appeared in full combat attire, with spears in their hands. The court did not sit long and all charges were dropped. Only in remote provincial England in 1311 did the king and the inquisitors manage to hold a trial of the arrested knights.

As for the silver of the Templars, it was not possible to find it. Neither the court, nor the Inquisition, nor the investigators could get to the bottom of the truth. Subsequent generations, stubbornly searching for the riches of the Templars, also did not find the disappeared treasures. They are still looking for them to this day. Will there ever be a lucky person who will solve the mystery of the missing treasures?

Isle of the Templars?

In the book of two historians - the Dane Erlig Haarling and the Englishman Henry Lincoln - "The Secret Island of the Templars" it is proved that the treasures of the Order of the Knights Templars destroyed in the 13th century, including the legendary Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, are not hidden in Ethiopia, Spain, Canada or Scottish Rosslyn, as previously thought, but on the small Baltic island of Bornholm, where about 45 thousand people now live.

As evidence, writes Reuters, historians draw attention to the fact that the medieval temples of the island were built in accordance with the "sacred geometry" of the Templars, who built temples throughout Europe in this way (the most famous of them is Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France) .

Historians are sure that the key is encrypted in the geometry of the cathedrals, which allows, with careful study, to determine the place where the treasures are hidden.

In addition, historians recall that the Danish Archbishop Eskil visited the Grand Master of the Templars Bertrand de Blanchefort in 1162. It was believed that they discussed the future participation of the templars in the baptism of the Baltic pagans - Estonians, Latvians. It is possible, however, that during this meeting the possibility of transferring the overgrown treasures of the Templars to a safe place was also discussed.

The Templars participated in the baptism "with fire and sword" of the northern Baltic peoples and erected cathedrals on Bornholm; the authors of the book are sure that in these cathedrals one should look for the mysterious Holy Grail, which has been haunting lovers of mysticism and conspiracy theories for centuries.

Treasures of the Templars in Scotland?

Recently, in Scotland, archaeologists discovered the ancient chapel of Rosslyn, which once belonged to the Claire family. Perhaps the chapel is the repository of the innumerable treasures of the Knights Templar, including the legendary Holy Grail, the Holy Cross and priceless ancient manuscripts.

In the XIII century, in the book of Robert de Boron "The Romance of the Grail", the Grail is first mentioned - the cup from which Christ drank during the Last Supper and into which Joseph of Arimathea collected his blood in ancient legends about the exploits of King Arthur, they were associated not so much with the search for wealth as with the desire for spiritual perfection And, perhaps, the found castle hides many secrets and mysteries in its ancient walls Archaeologists believe that the castle was last rebuilt during the Crusades was the residence of the Knights Templar in Scotland, as well as a repository of Christian shrines and treasures accumulated by a powerful order during the Crusades chapel column C the shadows of the castle are dotted with magical symbols, by solving which, perhaps, it will be possible to get closer to the secret of the treasures of the Templars

Officially, the order was called the "Secret Knighthood of Christ and the Temple of Solomon", but in medieval Europe it was known as the Order of the Knights of the Temple. The knights themselves were called templars. The residence of the order was in Jerusalem, on the site where, according to legend, the temple of King Solomon was located (tample - temple (French) The seal of the Templars depicted two knights riding one horse, which spoke of poverty and brotherhood The symbol of the order was a white cloak with a red octagonal cross Knights had to take three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience (the same vows were made by members other knightly orders of that time, for example, the Teutonic Hospitallers) From the very beginning of their activity, the Templars become very popular in Europe Despite and at the same time thanks to the vow of poverty, the order begins to accumulate great wealth

Each enterer donated his fortune to the order free of charge. The order received large possessions as a gift from the French and English kings, noble lords. In 1130, the Templars already have possessions in France, England, Scotland, Flanders, Spain, Portugal, and by 1140 - in Italy , Austria, Germany, Hungary and the Holy Land

The goal of the members of the order was “to the extent possible, to take care of the roads and routes, and especially the protection of pilgrims.” However, the templars not only guarded the pilgrims, but also considered it their direct duty to attack trade caravans and rob them. , owned shipyards, ports, had a powerful fleet They lent money to impoverished monarchs and thus could influence state affairs By the way, it was the Templars who were the first to introduce accounting documents and bank checks Knights of the Temple encouraged the development of science and it is not surprising that many technical achievements ) were in their hands Among the knights were also experienced surgeons

But arrogance brought a lot of harm to the "warriors of Christ" and was one of the reasons for the defeat of Christians in Palestine. In 1191, the collapsed walls of the last fortress of Saint-Jean-d'Acre defended by the Templars buried not only the templars and their Grand Master, but also the glory of the order as an invincible army Gradually the Templars moved to Europe, having spent some time in Cyprus before that. The powerful financial resources that the templars had at their disposal and the presence of representatives of the highest circles of society in their ranks forced the governments of Europe to reckon with them and, naturally, hate and fear them. When in the XIII century the Pope announced the a campaign against the heretics of the Cathars and Albigenses, the Templars, the support of the Catholic Church, almost openly came out on their side, imagining themselves to be omnipotent and having made themselves another terrible enemy of the XIV century, the King of France Philip IV the Handsome decided to get rid of the obstinate order, which, for lack of business in the East, began interfere in state affairs in Europe , besides, the monarch owed a lot of money to the Templars and did not want to repay the debt. At first, the king tried to act by cunning, he asked (to accept him into the order, and when the Grand Master Jean de Male politely but firmly refused him, knowing full well that Philip was striving to take his place Pope Rimsky, at the suggestion of the king, offered the Templars to unite with their eternal rivals, the Hospitallers, which was also refused. keeping the secret of his deeds After seven years of torture, the templars confessed to everything, but at the trial they recanted their testimony. Before his death, the Grand Master cursed Philip IV and Pope Clement and soon suffered a terrible death. It is possible that the Pope and the king were poisoned by templars, skilled in making poisons.

Although the power of the order was undermined, its symbols continued to be used by Christopher Columbus discovered America under the flag of the Templars with a white cloth with a red octagonal cross

We do not know what awaits researchers inside the mysterious castle of powerful knights. With complete certainty, we can only say that the ancient chapel of the knights of the templars today, like thousands of years ago, remains a symbol of true faith and selfless service to one’s cause. The answer to the eternal question about the search there is no spiritual ideal yet Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, because the unraveled mystery ceases to be a mystery

Natalia VORONOVA

The history of the order of the templars is filled with many mysteries about their appearance, activities in the east and financial transactions in Europe. The secrets of the Templars become an occasion for all sorts of hoaxes - from The Da Vinci Code to The Iron Knight. Did the order exist after the dissolution? Did its members practice magic and were they the keepers of the Holy Grail?

Where did the treasures of the order go?

The main problem that at various times worried both historians and adventurers is the fate of the treasures of the Templars. .

On their coat of arms, the knights were depicted as being so poor that they could not even afford their own horse. Two riders were on the same horse. But in reality, by the time the order was dissolved, thanks to their successful financial activities, they had accumulated significant wealth, some of which, according to legend, was taken out and hidden by them somewhere outside of Paris. Wealth was never found, but the very idea of ​​their existence gave rise to many other legends - about the financing by the Templars of Masonic organizations, English banks, and even the construction of the New World with these funds.

Another cycle of legends was initially associated with the American continent - about the sources of the order's wealth. According to the hypothesis of Jacques de Maillet, the American Indians were well acquainted with the Templars as early as the 12th century. The knights allegedly sailed to the opposite shores of the Atlantic and actively developed local silver mines there. The path to the American continent was their main secret, hidden from the "uninitiated".

What did the Templars have?

The main knowledge, the possession of which is often attributed to the Templars, is the location of the Holy Grail and the use of the benefits that it brings. The latter include inexhaustible abundance, eternal life, and sometimes just an image of an unattainable ideal goal. According to biblical legend, Christ ate from the sacrificial cup at the Last Supper. And in Dan Brown's famous novel The Da Vinci Code, it contained the blood of the descendants of Christ and Magdalena, who were the medieval Templars.

Another legendary relic is the Ark of the Covenant. Real historical circumstances are connected with the legends about him (as well as with the story of the Holy Grail). During the period of foundation and the beginning of its activity, the Knights Templar stayed in the east - in the Temple of Solomon. It was there, according to the Bible, that the Ark was kept. The famous tablets with the ten commandments, the manna from heaven, which the Jewish people fed in the desert, and the staff of Aaron, were supposedly taken out by the Templars from the Temple upon their return to Europe.

In the battle at the foot of the Hattin horns in the late 12th century, the Templars, according to other versions, also got a piece of the life-giving cross. According to some testimonies, they also owned the head of the Christian Saint Euphemia the All-Praised, who is especially revered in the Orthodox Church. According to legend, during one of the early medieval cathedrals, the relics of this saint were used to determine who shares the correct beliefs about the nature of Christ - the Monophysites, who denied his human principle, or the Orthodox. A scroll was placed on the body of Euphemia. After the coffin was re-opened, it ended up in her right (pre-set for the Orthodox) hand.

The image of Euphemia in the story with the Templars arises from the “head”, which, according to the materials of the Inquisition, the knights allegedly worshiped.

To whom the Templars paid honors was never found out.

In some descriptions, the two-faced Janus was guessed, in others - Pan, in the third - just something demonic, in the fourth - a cat. One of the variants of the "head" of the Templars was the head of "Euphemius". But several times in the description of the accusation the word Baphomet appears, which is called either one of the names of the devil, or an incorrectly transmitted or distorted sound of the name of the Muslim prophet.

Who did the templars worship?

The third, largest, block of mysteries of the Templars is connected with the religious component. Were they a Christian, Catholic, or occult organization with elements of ancient pagan, native, or Eastern teachings? The basis for various kinds of hoaxes were the materials of the case, in which the Templars “deny Christ,” “spit on the crucifix,” and give many other “signs” that this spiritual order belongs to satanic cults. But so the arrest of the Templars was in the interests of the king, and the method of accusing them of heresy and connections with the devil under torture was a popular tool of the Holy Inquisition , it is not possible to trust these versions.

But similar conjectures were already actively used by European mystics in the late Middle Ages, modern and recent times. Many founders of the occult teachings exploited the symbolism and secrets of the Templars in substantiating their doctrines. And after the designated historical continuity of the Rosicrucians and the Portuguese templars, the legends about the role of the Templars in the organization of Masonic lodges became even more established, since they found some confirmation in reality.

Another guess, based on real historical conditions, is the possible connection of the Templars not only with Islam, but also with European Christian sects. Especially often they are prescribed Manichaeism and agreement on a number of positions with the Cathars, who professed a dualistic doctrine of the struggle in the world of good and evil principles and the possible salvation from the earthly “devilish” life through the sending of Christ.

However, most historians agree that the Templars were precisely the Catholic spiritual and knightly order.

Although, it is quite possible that some of the organizations also practiced some mystical practices “on the ground”, which was the emerging trend of the time.

Legacy de God

Like many other medieval orders, the Templars had their own system of signs, with which they transmitted to each other, including secret (for example, on the movement of capital) information. The walls of Chinon Castle, covered with these signs, became the basis for the emergence of new legends. In the 18th century, a German archivist reported that he had discovered documents containing information about the treasures of the Templars. According to them, the jewels and secret archives of the order before his death, his last master Jacques de Molay handed over to the nephew of his predecessor, Guichard de Gode. A descendant of de God allegedly took out and hid the received inheritance, which later, already in the middle of the 20th century, was found in the castle of Arginy and awakened the “spirits of the Templars”. But this was not the last hoax of the history of the medieval order….

Ksenia Zharchinskaya

The Knights Templar and its fate is one of the most dramatic and mysterious mysteries of medieval history. The official story goes that a brotherhood of knight-monks, devoutly devoted to the Christian faith, whose honesty was trusted even by their Muslim enemies, gradually mired in vices and greed, and eventually fell into heresy.

But was it really so?

The history of the Knights Templar dates back to the time of the first crusade, that is, to the end of the 11th century.

So, imagine Europe at the end of the eleventh century. Fragmented into small feudal states (kingdoms, duchies, counties), it had only one common rallying force - religion. In whatever country a person lives, he professed one religion - Christian and had one ideological mentor - the Pope. His power was enormous. He was superior to any sovereigns, because through an extensive network of churches and monasteries he could instantly bring any of his decisions to every village, to every inhabitant of medieval Europe. He easily managed with the rulers of European countries that he did not like and had only one headache - the Eastern Roman Empire with its center in Byzantium, namely, in Constantinople. Eastern Christianity, which took shape as Orthodoxy, did not allow it to spread its influence to the east of Europe - to Greece, Byzantium and Russia.

In 1095, for the power-hungry and cruel Pope Urban, the finest hour suddenly came. The Byzantine Emperor Alexei, concerned about the increasing pressure from the Seljuk Turks, requested military support. Shortly before this, the Seljuks converted to Islam, and this had a beneficial effect on their development, which alarmed Alexei. There was no direct military threat yet, the peoples lived peacefully, but to maintain balance, Alexy would not have interfered with an additional force of one or two hundred knights. He did not know that this modest request would turn into a bloody tragedy.

Urban, on the other hand, instantly appreciated the chance given to him, and within a few weeks, his agents in all the churches of Europe were gathering an "army" for a campaign in the Holy Land to the Holy Sepulcher. Only in knightly ballads and in some school textbooks can one hear about the noblest knights who went on a crusade. However, in fact, the most vile scum of Europe moved into the first crusade. Thousands of thieves and bandits, driven by a passion for robbery, received absolution of sins both past and future. By small streams, this rabble moved east, gathering into a huge army along the way. There were more than 15,000 wagons in this column alone. It is easy to imagine what remained in its path in the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. When Emperor Alexei saw who came to him "to help", he was horrified, but it was too late to do anything. The only thing he managed was to organize the crossing of this rabble across the Bosphorus to Asia Minor, where the bloody massacre began.

A good example is the city of Lycia, in which not a single inhabitant, including small children, remained alive. Medieval chronicles quite colorfully describe what the "defenders" of the Holy Sepulcher from Europe did. The worst thing is that the entire population of Lycia were the same Christians. A similar fate befell the cities of Antioch and Marrat. The massacre continued all the way to the Holy Land. Finally, in 1099, the campaign reached its goal - Jerusalem. At that time it was a flourishing cultural and commercial city inhabited by representatives of three religions - Orthodox Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Islam in those years was a relatively peaceful religion. At this time, many books were published in the Arab countries, sciences (astronomy, mathematics, physics, medicine, philosophy) developed. We know many great Arab scholars of that time. The rich and peaceful city of Jerusalem had no military power. The people themselves came to his defense. For several weeks, a bloodthirsty mob stormed the city. And the city fell. The "liberators" plundered the city to the ground and drowned it in blood. Thus ended the first crusade.

A year or two passed under the weight of the loot, the "knights" gradually went home. Who is left after them? Pilgrims are naive and gullible people who have been deceived by religious propaganda. Those who actually believed that their duty to God is to visit the Holy Land. And while the armed robbers returned home, really peaceful travelers came to their place. The roads of Asia Minor have become one of the busiest. The Seljuk Turks did not forgive what the "liberators" did. Not having a large military force, they began to operate in small detachments, intercepting and exterminating groups of pilgrims. On other days, hundreds of pilgrims perished. The revenge of the Turks was cruel.

It was then that to protect the pilgrims from attacks, two military-religious orders were created - the Order of the Knights Templar and the Order of the Hospitallers. The founder of the Knights Templar was the noble French nobleman Hugh de Paynes. In 1119, the order offered its protective and guard services to the king of Jerusalem, Baudouin the First. Nine people formed the core of the future organization. With their personal courage and courage, they so quickly gained respect and recognition that the order began to grow.

All members of the order took monastic vows of "purity", "poverty" and "obedience". Soon they began to talk about the knights of the order as selfless and fearless people, ready to help a person in trouble. That is what they really were. A few years later there was no place in Europe where the exploits of the Templars would not be admired. It so happened that in the minds of ordinary people the word "Templar" has become synonymous with "protector of the offended." Very soon, the order received the blessing of the Pope, and its prosperity began.

The first step was a massive collection of donations for the benefit of the order. His agents easily found access to the heart of every Christian. Even the poorest sought to help people who voluntarily took on a heavy burden. Donations amounted to colossal money at that time. Wealthy people who did not have heirs left estates, castles, and estates to the order. The Aragonese king Alfonso the First, after his death in 1134, left to the order a third of his kingdom in northern Spain (now there are the provinces of Aragon and Catalonia). In 1141, the Duke of Breton, Conan, left an entire island off the coast of France to the order. By the middle of the twelfth century, many hundreds of land plots with castles and estates were already in the hands of the Templars. Each was ruled by a person appointed by the order. Thus a network was formed that swept Europe. The Order became higher than any European state. And in the end, Pope Innocent took the order out of subordination to local sovereigns. In whatever country the node of the network spread by the order was located, it did not obey local laws, but acted on the direct instructions of the supreme master or the pope himself.

The order reached its heyday by the end of the 12th century. In the Holy Land alone, he kept 600 knights, 2,000 sergeants, and more than 5,000 ordinary horsemen. Such military force had to be reckoned with. Battles and skirmishes took place almost daily. The charter of the order forbade its members to retreat before the enemy, if the number of the enemy did not exceed three times.

However, soon the Templars turned from defenders of people into defenders of their capitals. Entrusting his life to the Templars, the pilgrim was always ready to entrust his wallet to them. There was no paper money at that time, and traveling with a bag of gold was not easy and dangerous. Thus, a network was formed, which would now be called banking. Since representatives of the order were in almost every city, it became easy to travel around Europe. Having handed over money in one city, a person received a receipt, according to which he could receive it back in any other. If it was necessary to transport cash or jewelry, the Templars were also hired for this.

The Templars also took over financial matters for the ransom of prisoners. If, for example, a German knight was captured by the Saracens, it was not necessary to wait for months until a ransom was brought for him. In Germany, money was paid to the local master, and in Jerusalem it was paid in exchange for the captive. Not money was transported, but only letters.

But the most powerful source of income was usury. The Templars provided loan loans to the major royal families (always on strong collateral). By the end of the thirteenth century, 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. The Order knew everything about everyone. The ideological power over the states still remained in the hands of the pope, but it was no longer he who had political and economic power in Europe, but the supreme master of the order. He could decide who, when and with whom to fight, who to rule where, and who to obey.

It seemed that there was no force capable of resisting the great order. However, there is such power. The financial activities and exorbitant wealth of the order aroused the envy and enmity of the powers that be. Among these was the French king Philip IV the Handsome, who feared the strengthening of the Templars and, experiencing a constant shortage of money, longed to seize their property. The king prepared the operation against the order for a long time and carefully. First, Philip placed “his” pope, Clement V, on the papal throne, after which he achieved the transfer of the papal throne from Rome to Avignon (a city in southern France) and then dealt the final blow.

Early in the morning on Friday, October 13, 1307, a lightning raid on the bases of the order was carried out. Hundreds of Templars were captured and thrown into jail. In Paris, the castle of the Templars was taken and the supreme master, Jacques de Molay, was arrested. Since then, the day is considered especially unlucky if Friday falls on the thirteenth day of the month. Strictly speaking, all these arrests were illegal, since the Knights Templar was accountable only to the pope, and not to the kings. It took as many as five years of torture and interrogation to collect material that allowed in 1312 to excommunicate the order from the church and retroactively justify the actions of Philip IV.

Not being able to administer the court of the state over the Templars, Philip handed them over to the church court - that is, the Inquisition. And for the church court and the charges must be appropriate. First of all, this is an accusation of heresy and apostasy. They were charged with idolatry. Thus, in the materials of the investigation, reports appeared about a certain three-faced idol of Baphomet, who was allegedly secretly worshiped by the Templars.

Most of the Templars confessed under torture to the charges. There is an assumption that recognition was wrested from them not because of personal weakness, but by permission of the supreme master, who hoped at this price to save the organization from total destruction. Jacques de Molay himself also confessed to the charges and was sentenced to life imprisonment. But when in 1314 the verdict was read in Notre Dame Cathedral with a huge gathering of people, he publicly announced that all confessions were extracted by torture, were lies, and the order was innocent. The unrepentant Templars were hanged on Mount Montfaucon, and the prior of Normandy and Jacques de Molay were burned at the stake, on an island in the middle of the Seine. Before his death, Jacques de Molay cursed the king, the pope and the knight Guillaume de Nogaret: “Pope Clement, King Philip, not even a year will pass before I call you to the judgment of God and you will be rewarded with a just punishment! A curse! A curse on your family up to the thirteenth generation! .. "

Two weeks later, Clement V died of bloody diarrhea in terrible convulsions. And in November of the same year, Philip the Handsome died of an unknown disease. Legends claim that the Templars were skilled at making powerful poisons. Belief in the secret powers of the Templars and in the fact that de Molay's curse came true received new food. And yet, with the death of the Templars, their order also disappeared, which took with it many secrets.

The history of the Knights Templar, founded in the 12th century to protect pilgrims, turned out to be closely connected with European socio-economic policy. Creditors of kings, all-powerful bankers, warriors and heretics who lost their conscience - who were these monk-knights in reality? And is it true that it was money-grubbing that killed them?

On the dark night of October 13, 1307, a cavalcade of knights hastily left from the small Flemish town of Saint-Leger. Their path lay to the north, where the power of Philip IV of France did not extend, and nothing threatened them. The royal prevost, who foresaw this maneuver, decided to "cut off" Saint-Leger just from the north and moved to intercept the departing cavalcade with an armed detachment. The official was afraid to be late, but - amazing! - footprints on the road showed: in the last hours no one left the town. On the contrary, it turned out that several horsemen from the north had galloped along his own course about half an hour ago. Are the arrogant templars so distraught that they called for help, deciding to defend themselves from the legitimate authorities? Only when he discovered the deserted commandery of Saint-Leger in the morning and learned that the Templars had been reforging horses the night before, the provost realized how cleverly he had been tricked ...

“The further fate of the Templars from Saint-Leger is unknown to us,” researchers often have to say when it comes to the knights of this Order, who left history just like from Saint-Leger, into the unknown. However, we can tell who these elusive knights were and why they were pursued by the French king.

Where do monks get money from?

Several decades passed after the formation of the Order, and the white cloaks of the templars with a red cross began to inspire horror in the East and envy in the West. After the Order was officially recognized at the Council of Troyes in 1128, the Templars did not immediately go home to Jerusalem. First, they dispersed throughout Europe, opening branches of the Order, and most importantly, accepting donations for noble service in the Holy Land. The gifts were different: from a copper penny to huge estates, which were endowed by the Order of the Queen of Portugal, the French king, the Count of Barcelona ... Alfonso of Aragon won the "Generosity Competition", bequeathing his kingdom equally to three orders (Templars, Hospitallers and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher).

The Catholic hierarchs did not stand aside: European prelates transferred lands, churches, and the right to collect tithes to the templars! Merchants and artisans did not lag behind, giving houses, shops, parts of land to the Order, among the donations there is also the right to use hay from some meadow, part of a swamp, a barn, cattle, horses ... In return, donors received joy from doing a charitable deed and the prospect of lying after death at the Order Cemetery. The Templars formed dozens of their economic units - commanderies - from donations. The money came in very handy: the maintenance of combat-ready troops and castles in Palestine was fabulously expensive, you won’t get by with trophies and indemnities alone. To financially support actions in the East, the Templars created an international financial corporation in Europe - according to all the rules of medieval banking, which will be discussed below. The chronicler Matthew of Paris in the 13th century estimated the number of commanderships at 9,000, and this number is clearly overestimated, but there is no doubt about the figure of 800-900. Commanderships were unevenly distributed, the Order had not yet acquired "internationality", the lion's share of economic cells fell on the territory of modern France. In the beginning, these were typical farms run by a few brothers or rented out. Later, the templars were able to choose places for commanderies where it was necessary to protect the pilgrims.

After the founding of the crusader states in the East, thousands and thousands of people embarked on long and expensive journeys, and not always voluntarily: obedience could also be imposed by the church - on a repentant heretic, for example. These journeys, however, were not safe, and an organization like the Templars was very fitting. In the then Christian world, there were two main pilgrimage routes: to Jerusalem from Western Europe through the ports of Marseille, Pisa, Genoa, Bari or Brindisi, and to Santiago de Compostella - to the place of the alleged burial of the Apostle James - through Languedoc, Biscay and Asturias. The routes coincided with the main trade communications of the era, so the commanderies were located at a distance of a day's march from each other. By creating a network of such strongholds, the Templars helped the pilgrims not only in matters of personal protection and comfort, but also in the safety of property during the journey, as well as travel loans. Soon such loans and the transfer of land to the templars in the "trust" became popular ways to borrow money. It is not surprising that the Order has become one of the wealthiest proprietors in Europe.

Drang Nach Osten from the 11th century

In 1095, in the provincial French city of Clermont, Pope Urban II, from the square in front of the Cathedral, called on bishops, barons and knights to go on a campaign against the Muslims who occupied Palestine and return the Holy Sepulcher.
The reason was the egregious facts of the oppression of Christians, which the Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnenos wrote about, and Urban's appeal made a huge impression. Europe responded passionately: tens of thousands of townspeople and peasant families left their homes, artisans and merchants sold shops, monks abandoned monasteries and rushed to Jerusalem. They were followed by a more serious force: in 1097, knightly detachments, led by the most noble barons, invaded the territories of the Middle Eastern emirates and a year later took the Holy City. The Kingdom of Jerusalem and three Christian principalities arose: Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli. Their territories were divided into seigneurial feuds (fiefs), and some warriors, of course, got the “best pieces”, others - worse, and some - nothing at all.
It was the “loser” knights who formed the chivalric communities - brotherhoods, one of which eventually turned into the Order of the Knights Templar.

Financiers "from God"

The order was supposed to unite respectable knights who did not seek profit through deceit: monks, by definition, are deprived of personal property. But the author of the charter of the templars took into account the "human factor", and the articles that regulated the brothers' relationship with money looked more than harsh. An ordinary knight or sergeant was forbidden to use any public funds without special permission, and if, after the death of a templar, hidden coins or other evidence of his financial uncleanliness were found, it was ordered not to read prayers for the dead and not to bury him in consecrated ground. The charter did not make exceptions even for the master. There were also special conditions that hindered the commercial activities of this first "world bank": the Order could not give money on interest - the church condemned usury. But the Templars found a way out! They hid the net profit from the operation received and did not formally receive loan interest. The first documents about such financial affairs date back to 1135 and tell about a loan to a certain elderly couple who went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There is no agreed percentage in the contract - upon the return of the spouses to France, the Templars were going to receive back the same amount that they had given out. And while the pilgrims traveled, the Order received all the beneficiaries from their possessions.

And how was the issue of landless people resolved? Initially, their documents indicated a larger loan amount than the one that went to the recipient. At the same time, a pledge was required, for example, in the form of jewelry. The rates of such hidden lending were not advertised, but some historians (for example, Piers Paul Reed in The Templars) believe that they were initially moderate - about 12% per annum - despite the fact that the most reliable and famous bankers of that era, the Lombards, demanded 24 ! How did the latter not go bankrupt in the face of such dumping competition? It's simple: fearing accusations of usury, the templars issued loans only for charitable deeds. And that was more than enough for them.

The loss of Jerusalem by the crusaders in 1187 made the master think about alternative sources of income, and the commanderies are deploying full-fledged banking activities: they issue loans, guarantee other people's financial transactions, and carry out what we call money transfers. A current account was opened for each client: everyone, having deposited a certain amount, say, in Normandy, could easily receive it somewhere in Acre, and already converted: in stamps, livres, maravedi. No need to tremble before the robbers on your travels, it is enough to have only a loan letter with you, encrypted for fidelity. Apparently, the treasurers of the commanderies were able to recognize the authenticity of such letters, but we do not yet know exactly how. Knights-financiers also carried out non-cash payments, making appropriate entries in books. Contracts were even signed on the provision of audit and supervision services for the receipt of funds by the client. In general, contemporaries said: "there are more accounting books in the commanders than spiritual ones." It cannot be said that the Templars invented banking: they borrowed a lot from Lombard bankers and Italian merchants, but one thing is indisputable: thanks to the network of commanderies that covered almost all of Europe, the Templars first created a transnational financial system.

They managed to solve the main trading problem - the safe movement of funds. The Order had competitors, and not only the Lombards: other monastic orders also provided financial services to clients, but only the templars managed to create a single financial corporation. By the way, one of the main creators of the financial empire of the Templars, brother Eustache, who became the treasury adviser to the French king Louis VII in 1165, was a Lombard.

The chain of commanderies, densely "implanted" on the most important trade routes, allowed the Order to provide non-financial services - for example, for the delivery of urgent correspondence. The Templars even set a record - a letter from Acre arrived in London 13 weeks after being sent - an unheard-of speed for the Middle Ages. There were other strongholds: in La Rochelle, Genoa, and the main one - in the famous Temple Castle in the center of Paris. It was the residence of the French master - the largest commandery with an area of ​​​​more than six hectares, with a huge donjon tower where funds were stored, surrounded by a powerful wall with special windows. Through these "cash windows" numerous "operators", modest clerks of the great Order, received and transferred coins, bills, letters of guarantee - day after day, year after year.

In 1118, nine knights, led by Hugh de Paynes and Geoffroy de Saint-Omer, approached King Baudouin II of Jerusalem with a proposal to create a special guard, a kind of "bodyguard" agency to protect pilgrims to the Holy Places. The monarch allocated plots of land to the disposal of the new organization, including part of the royal residence, which adjoined the so-called Temple of Solomon. The temple had nothing to do with the biblical king - it was an Arab building, but the knights were convinced of the opposite, and the name “templars” (templiers from temple, “temple”) was soon assigned to them.
Another decade passed, and in 1128 six Templars appeared at a church council in Troyes, France, where they were received with extraordinary honor: the fame of the Palestinian "militia" reached Europe. The role and patronage of influential persons, such as the counts of Champagne and Anjou, played a role, and the nephew of one of the founders, Bernard of Clairvaux, the head of the powerful Cistercian order, also developed the charter according to the Cistercian model. First, the charter included 72 articles that regulated not only the monastic aspects of the life of the Order, but also the military ones. The brothers were divided into knights and sergeants, depending on their origin ("pure" priests were added later). Both of them took vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. The Grand Master with headquarters in Jerusalem was declared the main figure, and he was elected by a special assembly - the convention. Below in the hierarchy were the grand seneschal, the grand marshal and the commanders of the largest fortresses in the East, and in Europe (divided into order provinces) - the regional masters and the grand visitator ("taskmaster"), something like the "permanent representative" of the grand master in Europe. Soon the Order acquired its own distinctive sign - a red cross on a white field, a symbol of purity and faith.

Seniors in bondage to vassals

One of the common misconceptions is that the templars formed a kind of "shadow government" structure for all of Europe, holding ministers and kings in their hands. This is not so: the monarchs of England, Germany, France most often treated the Order without reverence. History has preserved examples of how these monarchs simply appointed masters from among their close associates, and the convention put up with this. (Thus, Richard the Lionheart put his admiral Robert de Sablé in this position, and Renault de Vichier and Guillaume de Gode were protégés of the French court). Eminent persons robbed the Order, and even publicly humiliated their master, although they were equated in position with the cardinals and obeyed only the pope. It is known that the disgraced and repeatedly excommunicated German Emperor Frederick II completely expelled the Templars from his possessions, transferring a significant part of their property to the Teutonic Knights, after the templars did not support him in the Crusade, and according to some reports, even tried to organize his murder.

But even after losing some positions, the Knights of the Temple remained the largest players in the financial market of Europe in the 12th-13th centuries. They were the creditors of many European rulers, which, in the medieval political situation, however, did not allow them to dictate terms to high-ranking debtors. The way out was to become treasurers of these debtors. In 1204, brother Aymar was appointed "Minister of Finance" of Philip Augustus of France, and in 1263 brother Amaury de La Roche held the same position at the court of Louis IX. The Templars helped collect direct and extraordinary taxes, escorted caravans with collected money to Paris, and were responsible for collecting special bribes for new crusades. The knights did their best to ensure that none of the brothers abused the trust of the kings: if the Templars were accused of embezzlement, this would be an excellent reason to confiscate their enviable wealth. Faced with malicious non-payments, they turned on heavy artillery: the bull of Pope Lucius III is known, where he requires the bishops of the South of France to repay the Temple's debts within a month.

With all the outstanding successes of the Order, by the end of the 12th century, its general reputation had deteriorated. First of all, because of the events in the Holy Land, where the templars, who had two dozen powerful castles and an army of 300 knights and several thousand sergeants, could not defend Jerusalem. The interests of the Templars often ran counter to the interests of the crusading states and other orders. As a result, they frustrated diplomatic agreements, fought in internecine wars, participated in the wars of the Italian republics, even raised a sword against the hospital brothers! Everyone remembered how, after the fall of Jerusalem, the victor Saladin offered favorable conditions for the ransom of pilgrims and residents who remained in the city, but the fabulously rich Order, created to protect these people, did not give a penny. Sixteen thousand Christians then went into slavery!

What about treachery? Here, the templars provide asylum to the influential Arab sheikh Nasreddin, a contender for the throne in Cairo, who even wished to convert to Christianity, but then he was ... sold to his enemies at home for 60 thousand dinars. The unfortunate was immediately executed. When in 1199 the Templars refused to return the deposited funds of the Bishop of Sidon, he in a rage anathematized the entire Order, and the scandal made a lot of noise. Rumors of shameful deeds spread throughout Europe. Pope Innocent III even wrote to the Grand Master in 1207: "The crimes of your brothers make us extremely sad ... their [monastic] clothes are pure hypocrisy."

Water was poured into the same mill by the strategic mediocrity of the command. Everyone knew about the sad role of master Gerard de Ridfort in the decisive battle with the Muslims at Hattin, where all the Templars who took part in it died: Ridfort persuaded Guy de Lusignan, the last king of Jerusalem, to commit a suicide march. Later, when all the templars captured by Saladin were executed, this unfortunate adviser remained alive and, being in captivity, ordered the fortress of Gaza to be handed over to the enemy.

Friday the thirteenth

... But still, no one expected such a cruel denouement: early in the morning, on Friday, October 13, 1307, all the templars of France were arrested. Royal agents broke into the Temple, where they arrested the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, the great visitor Hugh de Peyrot, the treasurer and four other high dignitaries of the Order. The action had been prepared for a long time: two months before the fateful day, all the royal balls and prevos received secret letters with detailed instructions, and notaries made an inventory of the property of the doomed in advance. Official accusations against the templars sounded terrible: heresy and idolatry, mass sodomy and desecration of shrines. They announced that they spit on the cross, eat the bodies of dead comrades and babies, serve masses to the devil, whose name is Baphomet. The full list was 117 charges. According to Inquisitorial procedure, the templars were tortured. Later, one of them testified before a papal commission about dozens of brothers who died in dungeons, and as evidence even showed his heel bones, which were exposed after roasting on a brazier. Another "under investigation" admitted that if the tortures he had already experienced were repeated, he would confess that he had killed Christ himself.

Under torture, those arrested admitted only some of the charges from the list, but almost everyone confessed to the blasphemous desecration of the cross. However, when the pope created his own commission of inquiry, most of the templars said that their confessions were made under torture, and retracted their previous testimony. When, on the orders of King Philip the Handsome, 54 Templars were burned near Paris, who renounced forced confessions as “secondary heresy,” the Order lost the desire to fight. By decision of the Council of Vienne in 1312, it was dissolved.

Under French pressure, Pontiff Clement V unconditionally renounced the Order: “we ... forbid the order of the Templars, its charter, clothes and name ... we completely forbid it; anyone from now on who calls himself his name, or wears his robes, or behaves like a Templar, will be excommunicated. In addition, we will confiscate all the property and lands of the Order ... ”All the possessions of the Templars were transferred primarily to the Hospitallers, as well as other knightly orders, or returned to the donors of values. The trials of the templars took place in almost all European countries, but outside of France, most of them simply disappeared or moved to other orders, and in Portugal the local “branch” was completely preserved, giving it a new name - the Order of Christ.

Chronology
. 1118 - the first mention of the brotherhood of knights, which would later become the Knights Templar
. 1120 - the brotherhood receives as a residence part of the al-Aqsa mosque, which was considered the Temple of Solomon
. 1128 - the church cathedral in Troyes accepts the official charter of the Order, the Order receives various possessions in France
. 1129 - the brotherhood receives the first possessions in Europe - from Queen Teresa of Portugal
. 1134 - death of Alfonso, King of Aragon, who bequeathed his kingdom to three orders: the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Order of the Holy Sepulcher
. 1135 - the first evidence of the financial activities of the Order
. 1137 - The Order receives the first possessions in England from Queen Matilda
. 1139 - the first papal bull granting privileges to templars
. 1165 - Templars become financial advisors to the French court
. 1170 - The Templars receive the first possessions in Germany
. 1187 - Battle of Hattin, the army of the Order is completely destroyed. Saladin captures Jerusalem
. 1191 - The Templars settle in their new headquarters in Acre
. 1204 - Templars become treasurers of the French kingdom
. 1204 - the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders. The order receives various possessions in Greece
. 1248-1254 - the crusade of the French king Louis IX of the Saint in Tunisia. Almost all the Templars who took part in it died
. 1291 - Fall of Acre. The Templars are losing their last stronghold in the Holy Land
. 1307 - a large "Templar pogrom" in France and the beginning of the trial of the Order
. 1312 - Pope dissolves the Order
. 1314 - the trial of the highest dignitaries of the Order

Miserly and beggar knight

And now, having before our eyes the external outline of events and given the almost complete absence of sources, we will try to understand the true reasons for the fall of the Templars. The most circulated version says: the greedy king Philip IV inspired the beating of the templars in order to seize their treasures and lands. Why not? A little earlier, in approximately the same way, the French king dealt with the main financiers of the era - Jews and Lombards. However, upon closer examination, the scheme "greedy Philip against rich templars" is not confirmed by anything. Therefore, we ask ourselves: was the Order so rich in 1307? The powerful financial organization discussed above would seem to automatically suggest a positive answer, but the development of a system that tried to combine incompatible principles - economic genius and religious charter - led to its collapse.

By the time of the bloody denouement, two of the three main sources of income of the Order had already been in crisis for a whole century: the service of pilgrims, whose number was steadily decreasing with the loss of the Holy Places, was coming to naught, which means that donations to the Order were also reduced. The fact is confirmed by the analysis of the surviving cartularies (complete codes) of several French provinces: from the beginning of the 13th century, donations to the Templars became significantly less, and from the second half they were reduced to a minimum (as a result of a bad reputation, which we wrote about above).

Did the Order have colossal treasures at that time? The materials of the investigative process do not contain any mention of the return of lands, money and jewelry that were pledged. Obviously, the financial activity of the Order at that time was in crisis, they had nothing to give. Royal agents who monitored the activities of the commanderies, who broke into the cloisters of the Templars on Friday the 13th, of all the treasures they were looking for, found only the usual church utensils indicated in the inventory list mentioned above. Now, as far as policy issues are concerned. Where did the influential defenders of the rich templars (for example, the aristocracy of states remote from France) go? Why didn’t they raise their voice in defense of the “great bank”, because the support of such rich people could turn out to be a considerable benefit for them? Could the hypothetical wealth of the Order be the direct cause of its death?

Let's assume that mythical "treasures" existed, and let's define what we are talking about: naturally, the concept of "treasures" was absent in the Charter of the Order. There was a treasury of the Order, a treasury of the provinces and individual central commanderies. In the year of the dissolution of the Templars, in the same 1312, their main treasury was in Cyprus, which is recorded in the documents of the process of the Cypriot Templars, and its further fate is unknown. The treasury of the "English wing" was largely transferred to the East in the second half of the 13th century and, most likely, was spent there for the natural needs of the Order. The funds of the Portuguese Templars went to the newly minted Order of Christ. As for Spain, given that garrisons and castles were located there, which required large maintenance costs, then, according to indirect evidence, the funds were spent on paying lifetime pensions to the Spanish Templars. This means that we should be concerned about the fate of the largest treasury - the French templars from the Temple in Paris.

Knights and Demon

Historical tradition, and after it mass culture, rush now into the demonization, then into the romanticization of the Templars. In addition to the confusing speculation that the templars delivered to Europe and hid the Grail somewhere (as the infamous Dan Brown claims in his novel The Da Vinci Code, the main ideas of which he learned from the authors of the book Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent and Richard Lee), there are many versions circulating about the accusations of the Templars in heresy. One of the reasons for this was the worship of Baphomet, an "idol" of still unknown origin: after all, some arrested templars confirmed that they worshiped a certain mysterious head. Later, a reliquary in the shape of this head appeared at the trial as material evidence, but the forced descriptions of it were so different from each other and from this head that it turned out to be impossible to identify it. As for the strange name, various characters appeared under it, for example, Masons describe him as a demon of wisdom, crowned with the head of a goat or a rooster, bearded or beardless, with or without wings. The scientific version of the origin of Baphomet is as follows: the test Templars confessed under torture - traitors who had changed their faith, they say, worship Mohammed, that is, they accept Islam. To medieval scribes who knew little about the religion, the name sounded quite "demonic" and they wrote it down as they heard it. Philologists call Mahomet's linguistic adventures an "Old French bastardization of a name", confirming this with a surviving poem from the middle of the thirteenth century, where Mahomet is called Baphomet.

Where is the treasure?

Hypnotized by the "mystery of the treasures of the Templars", the authors are divided into two groups: some write that Philip IV, having seized the treasury of the Order, was significantly enriched, and others that his emissaries did not find a penny in the Temple. In fact, historians do not have a single document that tells about what was in the Temple on the ill-fated Friday. There was no improvement in the financial situation in France in subsequent years. This means that if something was requisitioned from the Temple, then either very insignificant amounts, or all the wealth of the Order were hidden, which is unlikely - the state at that time was in great need of funds. Theoretically, the Order could have treasures, and priceless relics, and important documents, and probably had the opportunity to hide them. The trouble is that the stories wandering from article to article, from novel to novel, either about 15 galleys that sailed away from La Rochelle, or about mysterious wagons with hay that left the Temple on the night before the raid, are not only completely invented, but also not agree on one point. There was no one to hide the money of the Templars: the entire top of the Order at that time was under arrest and actively cooperated with the royal prosecutors.

Here, however, we will please lovers of riddles - the name of the master of France, Gerard de Villiers, one of the most influential dignitaries of the Order, for unknown reasons does not appear in the materials of the trial. What happened to him? Did he suddenly die? Was killed? Or did he ... manage to escape - along with riches and relics? But where and how? This mystery is devoted to a huge number of articles and publications of varying degrees of severity. Sometimes they write about the flight to Scotland and even call the cherished Rosslyn chapel, but in Scotland there were only a few commanderies and a dozen Templars, and the chapel has nothing to do with the Order. Canadian Alan Butler writes about the “Swiss vector”: allegedly, it was the treasures of the Order that after 500 years laid the financial foundation of this future state of bankers, but even a century after the process, the Swiss were considered savages in Europe, and the Order did not have possessions there.

The place where the Templars could evacuate the treasury of the Temple had to be out of reach of the French king and have a powerful paramilitary structure of the Order. Portugal and Spain come to mind: after all, the Portuguese Order of Christ became the heir to the local branch of the Templars. The Templar red cross was depicted on the white sails of the ships of Columbus, and the castle of Tomar, the headquarters of the templars in Portugal, is still amazing in its size and grandeur. These conclusions, however, are hampered by the fact that the Portuguese Templars were not subordinate to the Grand Master, but to the Portuguese king. And yet, who knows - maybe some castle in the Pyrenees still keeps the wealth of knights-bankers in the dungeons?

What killed the order?

So, if not the hypothetical treasures of the Order played a cruel joke with his fate, then what? The soul of banking is not keeping money in safes, but financial transactions. And they, during the time of Philip IV, who strengthened the monarchy, gradually came to a standstill. And although we do not have the opportunity to step by step trace the movement of cash flows at the indicated time, one thing is clear: the money of the Templars "worked", and not least for the French king. For example, the last master Jacques de Molay, who arrived on the eve of the massacre of the Order from Cyprus, discovered that the treasurer of the French Temple gave Philip IV a huge loan ... without asking the permission of the master. Such a violation of subordination was a crime for de Molay, the treasurer was expelled in disgrace, the intercession of neither the king nor the pope helped him. If de Molay insisted on repaying the loan, would the royal treasury have the opportunity to pay off the templars? Wouldn't it have been easier for the king to disperse the Order in order to eliminate an inconvenient creditor? Irreconcilable to the opposition, Philip acted according to the laws of the time: he was not satisfied with the existence of such an independent corporation, he even read one of his sons as a master, but received a daring refusal. So the king had not only financial, but also political reasons for wanting to defeat him.

The complexity of the situation with the templars was aggravated by the fact that they were ministers of the church. The God-fearing Philip began to hate the monks who missed the Holy Sepulcher, odiously famous for their money-grubbing and accused of heresy. Two words about the former protector of the Templars - Pope Clement V, with whom relations were no better than with Philip. De Molay rejected the pontiff's idea, useful for the crusading movement, of uniting the Templars with the Hospitallers, and in general, it seems, he went too far. The chronicler writes: having received a papal letter with a request to pardon the treasurer of the Temple of Paris, de Molay threw it into the fire without reading it. The order set out to act in Europe as the same player as in the East, where it did not take into account either the local church or the aristocracy. The templars overestimated their strength. Their bad reputation and unpopularity, arrogance and unwillingness to submit to secular and spiritual authorities, financial influence, no longer backed by real military power, coupled with exaggerated rumors of wealth, led the Order to an inglorious end.

In 1314, four of the highest dignitaries of the Order were sentenced to life imprisonment. According to legend, having heard the verdict, the Grand Master and Prior of Normandy loudly declared: The Order is holy and innocent, and they themselves are guilty only of having betrayed and slandered him. On the same day, the sentence was changed and they were burned at the stake. Tradition says that the old man de Molay, engulfed in flames, shouted: “The King and the Pope have power over our bodies, but not over our souls!” Cursing his destroyers, de Molay promised to call them to the judgment of God within a year. And no matter how we feel about this tradition, Pope Clement V and King Philip IV really died at the appointed time, and the latter under unclear circumstances. A century and a half of disasters awaited France - the extinction of the royal dynasty, the plague, the Hundred Years War.

Eduard Zaborovsky