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The Foundation of the Order
The order of warrior monks, who became one of the most powerful organisations
in European medieval history, were known by many names;
The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon,
La Milice du Christ or,
more commonly, The Knights Templar.
Specifically how the order was found has never been detailed.
However the main source used by historians are the documents written by Guillaume de Tyre some seventy years after the event which are commonly accepted as the true account, although alternative versions do exist.
According to Guillaume de Tyre the Order was founded by a vassal of the Count of Champagne, Hugh de Payen with the collaboration of André de Montbard, the two knights along with seven companions presented themselves to the King Baudoin I of Jerusalem.
They announced to the monarch that it was their intention to found an order
of warrior monks to keep the roads safe, with a special regard for the protection of pilgrims.
The new order took vows of personal poverty and chastity and swore to hold
all their property in common.
The king granted them accommodations, which included the stables of what was believed to be the Temple of Solomon and he also granted the order the right to wear the double barred Cross of Lorraine as their insignia.
The original nine knights
Hugh de Payen, a vassal of Hugh de Champagne
André de Montbard, another vassal of Hugh de Champagne
Geoffroi de St Omer, a son of Hugh de St Omer
Payen de Montdidier, a relative of the ruling family of Flanders
Achambaud de St-Amand, another relative of the ruling house of Flanders
Geoffroi Bisol
Gondemare, Cistercian monk
Rosal, also a Cistercian monk
and Godfroi
The Cistercians Monks and the Knights Templar were so closely linked by ties of blood,
patronage and mutual objectives that many Templar scholars believe that they were one and the same.
When Hugh de Champagne joined the order, in 1124, and swore obedience to its Grand Master Hugh de Payen he came under the direct control of a man who in the normal social order of things was his own vassal. Something that had disturbing repercussions in medieval Europe’s feudal system.
Even though Hugh de Champagne may not have been among the original nine men to create the order he was however a prime mover behind the scenes and he, as all those involved in both founding and promoting the order, was linked to the other members by a complex web of direct family relationships.
Differing from their original purpose for founding the order the actions of the knights were not to patrol the dangerous roads of the Holy Land to protect the pilgrims, but to spend their first nine years as an order excavating and mining a series of tunnels under their residence on the Temple Mount.
These strenuous tasks was completed with the benefaction of the King of Jerusalem.
What this tunnels were used for was most likely to hide their treasures.
The entrée tunnel descends vertically downwards for eighty feet through
solid rock before radiating in a series of minor tunnels horizontally under the site of
the ancient temple itself.
There are also secret rooms carved in the solid rock beneath the temple site, one of which has a passage leading from it to the Mosque of Omar.
When the temple tunnels were excavated in 1867, some of the items found were a spur, remnants of a lance, a small Templar cross and the major part of a Templar sword.
These artefacts are now preserved for posterity by the Templar archivist
for Scotland, Robert Brydon of Edinburgh.
On the exterior of Chartres Cathedral, by the north door, there is a carving on a pillar representing the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark is depicted as being transported on a wheeled lorry.
Legend tells us that the Ark of the Covenant had been concealed deep beneath the Temple in Jerusalem centuries before the fall of the city to the Romans. It had been hidden there to protect it form yet another invading army who had laid the city to waste.
Hugh de Payen had been chosen to lead the expedition mounted to locate the Ark and bring it back to Europe.
Legend also tells us of how a considerable quantity of other artefacts had also been hidden by the order, such as scriptural scrolls, treatises on sacred geometry, and details of certain knowledge, art and science, some of which had been in the hands of ancient initiates of the Judaic/Egyptian tradition.
With the increasing knowledge of the order and also their monetary funds Count Fulk of Anjou sped with all haste to Jerusalem where he took the oath of allegiance to the new order.
He immediately granted the order an annuity of thirty Angevin livres before returning
to Anjou.
he acts of Anjou can be explained by the fact that he was not only the Count of
Anjou and a member of the Templar order but also married to the sister of the King of
Jerusalem who died childless, which lead to him later becoming King of Jerusalem.
The next notable figure to arrive in Jerusalem was the Count of Champagne who,
as we have mentioned earlier, took the oath of membership in 1124. Behind the
scenes in Europe Bernard of Clairvaux, who had become a senior advisor to the pope,
consolidated his position within the Church. Bernard began to persuade the pope that
the new military order which was already active in the Holy Land should be given papal
backing and a formal position within the Church.
But for this they would need a decree, a formal charter stating the aims and objectives of the order, the obligations of its members to it and the rules of membership as well as the establishment of a formal command structure.
The main excavations of the tunnels in Jerusalem were completed in late December of 1127.
Hugh de Payen and his knights then returned to France.
The Grand Master Hugh de Payen and his principal co-founder of the order,
Andre de Montbard, travelled to England to see the King who granted them self conduct, by when they headed of to Scotland, where the two knights stayed at Roslin with the St Clairs, who were Hugh's relatives by marriage.
The lord of Roslin made an immediate grant of land to the new order which became their headquarters in Scotland. The oldest Templar site in Scotland, once known as Ballontrodoch, is now called Temple after the order.
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