A Brief History of the Knights Templar

James Burnes

• Publisher: Ozymandias Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781531288877
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

It was in the year 1119, the twentieth of the Christian dominion in Syria, that nine pious and valiant Knights, the greater part of whom had been the companions of Godfrey de Bouillon, formed themselves into an association, the object of which was to protect and defend Pilgrims on their visits to the holy places. These Knights, of whom the two chief were Hugo de Payens and Godfrey de St. Omer, vowed, in honour of the sweet Mother of God, to unite Monkhood and Knighthood; their pious design met with the warm approbation of the King and the Patriarch, and in the hands of the latter they made the three ordinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; and a fourth, of combating without ceasing against the heathen, in defence of Pilgrims and of the Holy Land; and bound themselves to live according to the rule of the canons of St. Augustine, at Jerusalem. The King assigned them for their abode a part of his palace, which stood close by where had stood the Temple of the Lord. He and his barons contributed to their support, and the abbot and canons of the Temple assigned them for the keeping of their arms and magazines the street between it and the royal palace, and hence they took the name of the soldiery of the Temple, or Templars. When Fulk, Count of Anjou, in the year following the formation of the society, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Order was even then in such repute that he joined it as a married brother, and on his return home remitted them annually thirty pounds of silver to aid them in their pious labours, and his example was followed by several other Christian princes.

APPENDIX

DISCOURS DE L’AMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH,

AU CONVENT GENERAL LE 27 JANVIER 1837.

S. A. le Lieutenant-Général d’Asie demande la parole. Ce vénérable frère s’exprime ainsi qu’il suit.

“Sérénisme Grand-Maître, et vous tous mes nobles frères:

“Justement et infiniment sensible à l’honneur qui m’a été conféré, par suite de ma nomination, à la haute dignité de Lieutenant-Général d’Asie, je dois vous en témoigner toute ma reconnaissance.

“A mon âge avancé, je puis prétendre à être considéré comme exempt d’ambition: je vois par conséquent dans cet acte de la haute confiance du Grand-Maître, une charge onéreuse et un lourd fardeau, plutôt qu’un avantage: mais, je l’accepte avec respect. Mes soins et mes efforts constans seront toujours employés pour prouver que je n’ai pas fait en vain le serment de fidélité et de soumission à l’ordre et à son chef suprême.

“Je vois dans cette nomination une preuve de la vraie libéralité du Grand-Maître éclairé de cet ordre, essentiellement cosmopolite, où toutes les nations chrétiennes se confondent et co-opèrent ensemble pour le maintien de la paix du monde et de l’harmonie entre les sectes religieuses, par la tolérance, la charité et la protection pour les pélerins en Terre Sainte, contre les pirates et brigands; premier but de sa fondation, qui précéda les autres ordres de la chevalerie moderne, ordres qui n’ont été et ne sont que ses imitateurs: car le notre ne demande que l’occasion de remplir son devoir sacré. Aussi est-ce avec une vive satisfaction que je vois enfin un Grand-Maître apprécier l’importance de l’ordre, et pour la premiére fois, appeler pour un de ses lieutenans, je ne dis pas un anglais, mais un templier de la langue d’Angleterre. Honneur au Grand-Maître qui a fait un tel acte, et qui montre ainsi à toutes les nations, que toutes ont des droits égaux à remplir les diverses charges du Temple: Honneur à ce chef qui a si longtemps et si loyalement conservé le feu sacré, et les traditions, malgré les orages et les persécutions, suite d’une révolution dont l’origine remonte pour nous, a Philippe-le-Bel et au Pape Clement V. Mais espérons qu’enfin nous rentrerons dans tous nos droits; et qu’au lieu de dresser la tente magistrale dans une langue excentrique, un jour nous la dresserons au lieu de notre crèation, dans la ville qui nous appartient, dans la sainte Jérusalem!

“Honneur aux très nobles chevaliers qui se sont montrés penétrés du sentiment de leurs devoirs, et ont donné constamment des preuves qu’ils sont incapables d’oublier leur serment de fidélité et d’obéissance!......

“J’ai déjà communiqué verbalement à S. A. E., devant témoins, ce que j’ai consigné dans mon testament, la disposition formelle, pour la restitution au chef du Temple, d’une croix de l’ordre qui est très ancienne, à en juger par sa forme et la monture des pierres, laquelle croix a appartenu à un de ses Grand-Maîtres, et fut du temps des croisades portée dans la guerre sainte par le roi d’Angleterre Richard I^er, dit Cœur-de-Lion. Ce roi l’a laissée en dépôt entre les mains de l’archevêque de Chypre lors de son départ de cette ile, dont il était Souverain par conquête. J’ai été personnellement décoré de cette croix en 1799, par les mains du dixhuitième archevêque, successeur du dépositaire, qui l’a plaçé sur ma poitrine, en reconnaissance de la réussite de mes efforts, pour rétablir la paix et la protection due à la population chrétienne de l’île, contre l’insurrection des troupes Asiatiques qui avaient assassiné leur chef, appelé le Patrona Bey, et commençaient déjà à se livrer au pillage et au massacre des habitans: désastres que j’ai empêchés par ma présence au milieu de ces furieux, sans armes, le firman du Sultan Selim en main, et par la nomination d’un successeur a Patrona Bey, en vertu de l’autorité supréme qui m’avait été déléguée dans le temps par la Porte Ottomane, sur les forces combinées de terre et de mer dans le Levant.

“L’autorité qui maintenant m’est déléguée par le sérénissime grand-maitre sur le continent d’Asie, pourra en temps et lieu être employée utilement pour protéger la population chrétienne de ces contrées, et le maintien de la hiérarchie de l’ordre. Croyez, que pour la plus grande gloire du Temple, je me ferai un devoir d’employer l’influence que les antécédens m’ont donnée. Les templiers fidèles peuvent compter sur moi.“

Le grand-maitre exprime au lieutenant-général d’Asie, les sentimens dont lui et ses frères sont animés pour un Chevalier qui a conquis l’admiration du monde par ses hauts faits maritimes, et a mérité par ses vertus sociales et templières, l’estime et l’affection de tous ses frères. Le grand-maitre lui donne au nom de l’ordre l’accolade fraternelle.

Le Convent Général ordonne que le discours de l’Amiral Sir Sidney Smith soit inséré textuellement au procès-verbal.

The following account from the pen of the learned Biographer of the gallant Admiral, of the Investiture of Sir Sidney Smith, as a Knight Commander of the Bath, by his contemporary and brother in arms, the great and illustrious Wellington, and the “very extraordinary” document which follows, will, no doubt, be read with much interest:

Towards the termination of this year, 1815, our officer was honoured, in a most particular manner, by his Sovereign.

His Grace the Duke of Wellington having received the gracious commands of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent of the United Kingdoms, through his Royal Highness the Duke of York, Grand-master of the most honourable order of the Bath, to invest Vice-Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, Knight-commander-grand-cross of the Royal Military Order of the Sword, with the insignia of commander of the aforesaid, his Grace fixed on the 29th of December for the performance of the ceremony, which took place accordingly at the Palace Elisée-Bourbon, the Knights-grand-crosses, Knights-commanders, and Companions being present, as also his Grace the Duke of Richmond and the Right Honourable the Earl of Hardwick, both Knights of the most noble Order of the Garter.

At six o’clock the Commander elect arrived at the palace, and being conducted and supported into the presence of the noble Duke representing the Sovereign on the occasion, by the two junior grand-crosses, Sir James Kempt and Sir Henry Colville, after the usual reverences in advancing, (the Commander elect being already a Knight, the usual ceremony of dubbing him as such was formally dispensed with,) his Grace proceeded, according to the order of his Royal Highness the Grand-Master, which he first read, and invested the Commander with the insignia of the Order: after which his Grace embraced Sir Sidney Smith twice most cordially, with every demonstration of the feelings of esteem and regard, feelings which the Knights, Grand-crosses, and Commanders, many of whom had served in Egypt as his juniors in rank, also testified; and it certainly may be said to be a proud day for England when such a scene took place in the evacuated palace of Buonaparte, between these two British officers of the two services, one of whom first checked, and the other of whom finally closed, the career of that ambitious chieftain.

The banquet being announced, his Grace desired his Excellency the British ambassador, Sir Charles Stuart, G.C.B., to conduct the new Knight Commander to the hall of the same, where the members of the Order, including some foreigners of distinction, amongst whom were Don Michael Alava, General Muffling, and Count Demetrius Valsamachi, a nobleman of the Ionian Islands, were entertained most sumptuously in the usual style of the Duke’s elegant hospitality.

After the health of the King and Prince Regent had been drunk, the Duke gave the health of “Sir Sidney Smith:” the company hereupon rose, and followed his Grace’s example in greeting the new Commander with the most cordial acclamations. When silence was restored, Sir Sidney Smith rose, and addressed the company nearly as follows:—

“My Lords, noble Knights, Grand Crosses, Commanders, and Companions!—I should not do justice to my feelings, were I not to endeavour to express them in returning you my thanks for the honour you have done me by this reception: at the same time, I feel I cannot do justice to them by any mode of expression I can make use of.

“The language of compliment must die on the lips of any man in the presence of the Duke of Wellington; first, from the inadequacy of all language to express what every man must feel when speaking of such a highly distinguished chief; next, from the recollection of the noble simplicity of his character which disdains it. It will, I trust, be readily believed, that I must be most truly gratified to be invested by a knight of such high renown and glorious achievements; and the more so in this particular place, and in an assembly of so many illustrious and highly distinguished Knights-Commanders and Companions. A combination of circumstances, which could only happen in the present times, and are mainly owing to the successful result of the battle of Waterloo. Noble and illustrious Knights, I beg you to accept the expression of my humble thanks for the honour you have done me.”

The Duke of Wellington having acceded to Sir Sidney Smith’s request to be allowed to propose a toast to the company, he proceeded to say—"I beg leave to call to remembrance that this day (the 29th of December) is the anniversary of a re-union of illustrious knights of various orders, which took place at Vienna, where many Sovereigns were present, and when the toast I shall have the honour to propose to you was drunk by them with a manifestation of their conviction, that the object of it intimately concerned knighthood as such, in all nations. I beg leave to propose the health and deliverance of the white Slaves in the Barbary States.”

The toast was received with the most marked approbation, and drunk with the usual demonstrations thereof, by three times three regular and hearty cheers, when the company adjourned to the ball-room, preceded, on the indication of the Duke of Wellington, by the new Knight-Commander, supported by his Britannic Majesty’s ambassador, in the same order as on entrance, where a brilliant assembly of ladies, English, French, Spanish, Russian, &c. &c. continued to increase till a late hour; his Royal Highness the Duke of Berry, the French, and the foreign ministers, were also present, and all joined in cordial congratulations of, and compliments to, the cosmopolite chieftain, President of the Knights Liberators of the white slaves in Africa; who, we observed, was decorated with the various orders of the nations he has contributed by his endeavours to release from the yoke of the former inhabitants of the palace where this extraordinary assembly was held; then a prisoner on the top of a rock in the Southern Atlantic. These circumstances reminded the Parisians of the prophetic inscriptions left by Sidney Smith on the window shutter of the Temple prison, when he escaped, of which many copies were taken and are now again in circulation, and read with great interest since the accomplishment has taken place: we have been favoured with a translation, of which we give our readers a copy, the original having been in French, and respected by various successive guardians of the tower, till the Prince de Rohan, afterwards Duke de Rohan, subsequently a prisoner in that tower, removed it for its preservation, and we are assured he now possesses it.

“SIDNEY SMITH TO BUONAPARTE.”

“Fortune’s wheel makes strange revolutions, it must be confessed; but for the term revolution to be applicable, the term should be a complete one, for a half turn is not a revolution; (see the Dictionary of the Academy;) you are at present as high as you can mount. Well! I don’t envy you your fortunate situation, for I am better off than you; I am as low in the career of ambition as a man can descend; so that let fortune turn her wheel ever so little, and as she is capricious, turn it she will, I must necessarily mount, and you as necessarily must descend. I do not make this remark to you to cause you any chagrin; on the contrary, with the intent to bring you the same consolation I have at present when you shall arrive at the same point where I am; yes! the same point; you will inhabit this prison, why not as well as I? I did not think of such a thing any more than you do at present, before I found myself brought hither. In party wars ‘tis a crime in the eyes of opponents for a man to do his duty well; you do yours now, and consequently you by so much irritate your enemies; you will answer me.

“‘I fear not their combined hatred, the voice of the people is declared for me, I serve them well:’ that is all very good talking; sleep in quiet, you’ll very soon learn what one gains by serving such a master, whose inconstancy will perhaps punish you for all the good you do him. ‘Whoever,’ (says an ancient author, Pausanias Atticus,) ‘puts his entire confidence in public favour, never passes his life without pain and trouble, and seldom comes to a good end.’

“Finis coronat opus.”

“In fact, I need not prove to you that you will come here and read these lines, because here you must be to read them. You will certainly have this chamber, because it is the best, and the keeper, who is a very civil good sort of man, will, of course, treat you as well as he does me.”

N. B.—These lines having appeared in the Parisian papers in 1799, and having been put into Buonaparte’s hands at Cairo, on his return from his unsuccessful Syrian expedition, where he was foiled and worsted by the writer of them, he exclaimed, ‘It is very extraordinary;’ and on his return to Paris, fearing the accomplishment of the remainder of the prediction, after having procured through Regnauld de St. Jean d’Angely the sight of a copy in the hands of Baruel Beauvert, he forthwith ordered the building to be levelled to the ground.

After this display of his country’s gratitude to Sir Sidney Smith, which became so much the more enhanced, as it may be said to have taken place almost in the presence of so many Sovereigns, Sir Sidney had little else to do but to enjoy his richly-merited rewards, the universal admiration, and the approbation of his own mind, ever active in doing good, not only for his country, but for the whole human race.

He prosecuted with ardour his plans for the abolition of white slavery, even after the destruction of the pirates’...

Table of contents

• THE HOSPITALLERS
• THE TEMPLARS
• PERSECUTION OF THE TEMPLARS
• CONTINUATION OF THE ORDER
• TEMPLARS OF SCOTLAND
• APPENDIX