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Articles and Studies

The Templars and the Hospitallers, Christ and the SaintsFootnote

Tom LicenceMagdalene College, Cambridge
Pages 39-57 | Published online: 17 Feb 2023

  • Konrad Schottmüller, ed., Der Untergang des Templer-Ordens, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1887), 2:156–57.
  • Alan Forey, “The Emergence of the Military Orders in the Twelfth Century,” in Military Orders and Crusades, ed. Alan Forey (Aldershot, 1994), pp. 175–95.
  • Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Crusading as an Act of Love,” History 65 (1980), 177–92, at p.180.
  • Cart Tem no. 141; Anthony Luttrell, “The Earliest Templars,” in Autour, pp. 193–202, esp. p.199.
  • Alain Demurger, Vie et mort de l’ordre du Temple 1118–1314 (Paris, 1985), p. 31; “Qu’est-ce, en fin de compte, que l’ordre du Temple? Une institution originale qui incarne en permanence le modèle de la chevalerie du Christ.”
  • Justin McCann, ed. and trans., Rule of Saint Benedict (London, 1952), prologue, p. 3.
  • Bernard of Clairvaux, “Liber ad milites Templi de laude novae militiae,” in Opera Omnia, ed. Jean Leclercq, Henri M. Rochais and Charles H. Talbot, 8 vols. (Rome, 1957–77), 3:214–39, at p. 221; Rudolf Hiestand, ed., Papsturkunden für Templer und Johanniter, Vorarbeiten zum Oriens Pontificius 1 (Göttingen, 1972) (hereafter Hiestand) no. 3; Peter the Venerable of Cluny, The Letters of Peter the Venerable, ed. Giles Constable (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), no. 172, “Ad Ebrardum Templi Domini” (1148x53), pp. 407–409, at p. 407.
  • Jean Leclerq, ed., “Un document sur les débuts des Templiers,” Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 52 (1957), 81–91, at p. 88; “Si Apostoli dixissent Christo; Uolumus uacare et contemplari … a contradictionibus et contentionibus hominum longe esse … ubi nunc esset Christiani ?” Little doubt can remain that Hugh of Payns is the letter’s most likely author. See Simonetta Cerrini, “La fondateur de l’ordre du Temple à ses frères: Hugues de Payns et le sermo Christi militibus,” in Dei gesta per Francos: études sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard, ed. Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar and Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot, 2001), pp. 99–110; Dominic Selwood, “Quidam autem dubitauerunt: the Saint, the Sinner, the Temple and a Possible Chronology,” in Autour, pp. 221–30 at pp. 223–24.
  • Cart Tem no. 31. Simon was adapting the old Carolingian model by replacing bellatores, for whom he found no role in the Church, with defensores. For Bernard’s comments on monks see “De laude,” p. 214.
  • Giles Constable, Three Studies in Medieval Religious and Social Thought (Cambridge, 1995), p. 279; Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050–1250 (1989; repr. Oxford, 2001), p. 376.
  • “De laude,” p. 214.
  • “De laude,” p. 214, cf. Phil. 1.21; also pp. 215, 236.
  • Morris, Papal Monarchy, pp. 376–77.
  • Bernard does not seem to have known much about the Templars in 1125 when he wrote to their latest recruit, his temporal lord Count Hugh of Champagne, praising his decision to become “a simple soldier”; see Opera, vol. 7, letter 31.
  • Bernard never referred to John 15.13 in “De laude.” As for the rule, Dominic Selwood (“Quidam autem dubitauerunt,” p. 221) has rightly asserted that Bernard’s authorship – another historical myth – “cannot be substantiated.”
  • Gustav Schnürer, ed., Die ursprüngliche Templerregel (Freiburg, 1903) (hereafter Schnürer) no. 6. The Templar “sapientissimo prophetarum in hoc se equipollere ualeat: ‘Calicem salutaris accipiam’, id est mortem, id est morte mea mortem domini imitabor, quia sicut Christus pro me animam suam posuit, ita et ego pro fratribus animam meam ponere sum paratus. Ecce competentem oblationem, ecce hostium uiuentem Deoque placentem.”
  • Cart Tem no. 59 (1133x4); “animas uestras pro Xpistianitatis defensione exposuistis.”
  • Cart Tem Bulls III (1138x42); “relicti omnibus, secuti sunt Christi, et assidue pro fratribus animas ponere sunt parati.”
  • Hiestand, no. 3; “uere karitatis flamma succensi, dictum euangelium operibus adimpletis quod dicitur: ‘maiorem hac dilectionem habet’ …” (John 15.13). See also no. 8 (January 1144), in which Celestine II employs and develops the same text.
  • Peter the Venerable, Letters, p. 408, “Ad Ebrardum” (1148x53); “Estis uere participes illius summe et precipue caritatis de quo saluator ‘maiorem hac dilectionem habet’ …” (John 15.13).
  • Cart Tem no. 363; “quod uni ex minimis meis fecistis, michi fecistis” (Matt. 25.40).
  • Schnürer, no. 50; “quasi Christo eis [the sick] seruiatur, ut euangelium: ‘Infirmus fui et uisitastis me’ memoriter teneatur” (Matt. 25.36).
  • Schnürer, nos. 14, 13 and 10.
  • The ideas in their rule (Schnürer, no. 46) combined elements from chapters 2 and 5 of Benedict’s rule, on the abbot and obedience respectively.
  • Schnürer, no. 10; Henri de Curzon, ed., La règle du Temple, Société de l’histoire de France (Paris, 1886) (hereafter Curzon) no. 26; Schnürer, no. 13; Curzon, no. 28.
  • Curzon, no. 49; Schnürer, no. 33; Curzon, nos. 39, 40 and 41. The first was described in the French as “said by Jesus Christ through David’s mouth” and the second became “that saying of Jesus Christ.”
  • Schnürer, no. 6; Curzon, no. 63; Schnürer, no. 6; Curzon, no. 56 and 63.
  • Anthony Luttrell (“The Earliest Templars,” p. 197) suggests that the Templars first adopted this symbol in 1120, following the date given by the chronicler, Bernard the Treasurer. From the order’s foundation, some of the brethren may indeed have been crucesignati as crusaders, but had their order consciously adopted the cross as an official symbol prior to 1129 it would surely have featured in their rule, which discussed their dress in detail. William of Tyre’s date of 1147 is more likely.
  • See Sylvia Schein, “Between Mount Moriah and the Holy Sepulchre: the Changing Traditions of the Temple Mount in the Central Middle Ages,” Traditio 40 (1984), 175–95. Aryeh Grabois (“La fondation de l’abbaye du Templum Domini et la légende du Temple de Jérusalem au XIIe siècle,” in Autour, pp. 231–37) has summarized some further evidence which supports Schein’s findings.
  • Robert Fawtier and E.C. Fawtier-Jones, “Notice du Manuscrit French 6 de la John Rylands Library, Manchester,” Romania 49 (1923), 321–42, at pp. 331–40. See also Keith Sinclair, “The Translations of the Vitae Patrum, Thaïs, Antichrist and Vision of St Paul made for Anglo-Norman Templars: Some Neglected Literary Considerations,” Speculum 72 (1997), 741–62. For the Latin original see “Epistola Adsonis ad Gerbergam reginam de ortu et tempore Antichristi,” in Sibyllinische Texte und Forschungen, ed. Ernst Sackur (Halle, 1898), pp. 97–113.
  • “Sigillum Militum de Templo Christi.” Ulger, bishop of Angers, can be forgiven for believing that the Templars were in fact based there; “Isti enim sunt … commilitones militantium Christo, in sacrosancto Templo Domini Ierusalem.” Cart Tem no. 21.
  • Antoine Calvet (Les légendes de l’Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, Centre d’enseignement et de recherche d’Oc 11 (Paris, 2000)) argues the legends were composed in Jerusalem between 1140 and 1160 at the latest, and published several versions. See also RHC Oc. 5:401–27 for Hospitaller legends, and Keith Sinclair, ed., The Hospitallers Riwle, Anglo-Norman Text Society (London, 1984), for a twelfth-century version.
  • RHC Oc. 5:407; “per presentiam corporalem ibidem adueniendo, discipulos et apostolos suos fouendo, populis uiam salutis predicando, in infirmis miracula faciendo.”
  • Matt. 22.37 and 19.21; RHC Oc. 5:407, cf. Calvet, Légendes, pp. 120, 152.
  • Acts 5.1; RHC Oc. 5:408, cf. Calvet, Légendes, pp. 112, 121, 133 for variants.
  • Calvet, Légendes, p. 133; italics mine.
  • Calvet, Légendes, p. 110; ibid., pp. 134–35; “seruus Christi”, “seruus pauperum”; Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Knights of St John in Jerusalem and Cyprus 1050–1310 (London, 1967), p. 24.
  • Cf. Luke 10.16; RHC Oc. 5:407.
  • Karl Borchardt, “Two Forged Thirteenth-Century Alms Raising Letters used by the Hospitallers in Franconia,” in MO, 1, pp. 52–57, at p. 54. The pilgrim’s tour appended to the Gesta Francorum placed the Last Supper elsewhere, for which see Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolymitanorum, ed. Rosalind Hill (London, 1962), p. 100. See also Sinclair, Riwle, p. viii. On admission, however, the Hospitallers were told to wear their crosses in honour of Christ’s passion and death for them (like the Templars). Riley-Smith, The Knights, p. 24.
  • Curzon, nos. 306 and 685.
  • Ibid., nos. 339, 401, 537, 542, 660, 668, 675 and 676.
  • Jules Michelet, ed., Procés des Templiers, 2 vols. (Paris, 1841–51), 1:122–23.
  • Schnürer, nos. 10, 13 and 7.
  • Hubertus P. J.-M. Ahsmann, Le culte de la Sainte Vierge et la littérature française profane du Moyen Âge (Paris, 1935), p. 24.
  • Bede Lackner, “The Liturgy of Early Citeaux,” in Studies in Medieval Cistercian History, ed. Basil Pennington (Shannon, 1971), pp. 1–34, at p. 32.
  • For example, Cart Tem no. 9; “Deo militibusque Templi Salomonis,” and no. 17; “militibus Xpisti.”
  • Cart Tem no. 43 (Toulouse, 1132); “Deo omnipotenti et beate semper virginis Marie et sancte militie Iherosolimitane Templi Salomonis,” and no. 95 (Toulouse, 1134); “Domino Deo et beate Marie et militie Iherosolimitani Templi.”
  • Charter dedications to Mary become noticeable in March 1136; January 1144 is an arbitrary date chosen for this sample.
  • For example, Cart Tem nos. 129 (Toulouse), 120 (Provence – Richerenches), 170 (Provence – Roaix), 128 (Roussillon), 281 (Arles), 124 (England) and 180 (Barcelona).
  • Ibid., no. 139 (Mas-Deu – Roussillon, May 1137).
  • For example, ibid., nos. 119 and 125.
  • See ibid., no. 170 (Roaix), but also nos. 125, 152 and 164 (Richerenches).
  • Lackmer, “Liturgy,” p. 17.
  • Christina Dondi, “The liturgy of the Holy Sepulchre in Western Europe, c.1100–c.1500. With special reference to the practice of the order of St John of Jerusalem,” unpublished PhD thesis (London, 2000), pp. 112–15. (The thesis has since been published: see Bulletin, page 205.)
  • Jonathan Riley-Smith, “The Origins of the Commandery in the Temple and the Hospital,” in La commanderie: institution des ordres militaires dans l’Occident médiéval, ed. Anthony Luttrell and Léon Pressouyre (Paris, 2002), pp. 9–18, at p. 12.
  • Cart Tem nos. 520, 469 and 470. For the church at Roaix see nos. 527 and 586.
  • Ibid., no. 43 (Toulouse, 1132). Douzens was founded in 1133 and must have administered the Templars’ early estates in this region. This particular charter was included in its cartulary, which produced six Marian grants out of twenty-five between 1136 and 1144. For the church of St Mary Deaurate, given to the Templars by Raymond of Toulouse, see no. 19 and, for the priory, no. 93.
  • Ibid., nos. 98 and 339, cf. no. 152 (Richerenches).
  • For example, ibid., nos. 128, 139 and 295.
  • Some of these Marian grants could have been random. Mary occurs rarely and randomly in Hospitaller charters.
  • Curzon, nos. 16 and 56.
  • Michelet, 2:458; “Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi, quod per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.”
  • Michelet, 2:460; “adiciens quod dicti fratres omnes et singuli eiusdem ordinis adorant solum Deum unicam Dominum Jhesum Christum.” Adiciens in this text usually precedes personal commentary by its subject.
  • Michelet, 2:229.
  • Michelet, 1:647, cf. Schottmüller, 2:392–93; Schottmüller, 2:158.
  • Schottmüller, 2:157–58.
  • Bernard is described as the order’s founder and instigator of customs in Michelet, 1:120, 122, 145 and 615. For the three formulae of admission see Curzon, nos. 1, 274–78 and 657–74.
  • Heinrich Finke, Papsttum und Untergang des Templerordens, 2 vols. (Münster, 1907), 2:336–37. Hugh of Payns never appears in Michelet or Schottmüller.
  • Michelet, 2:400. Surprisingly, this is the only instance in the extant trial proceedings when this inherently likely explanation occurs.
  • Schottmüller, 2:47.
  • WT 15.6, p. 683.
  • WT 14.3, 18.32, pp. 634–35.
  • Gesta Francorum, p. 69.
  • John of Montfort’s cult was first attested in the fifteenth century, but the Count of Nevers’s cult was observed at Acre in 1265. For the former (he was not a Templar as the Acta Sanctorum suggests) see AASS May 5:270–71 and Nicholas Coureas, The Latin Church in Cyprus, 1195–1312 (Aldershot, 1997), p. 206. For the latter see Laura Minervini, ed., Cronaca del templare di Tiro (1243–1314) (Naples, 2000), p. 104; “et sachés que Nostre Seignor fist pour luy miracles, car tous malades quy atouchoi[en]t a son monyment estoient tant tost guaris de lor maladie.”
  • For literacy in the Temple see Alan Forey, “Literacy and Learning in the Military Orders in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries,” in MO, 2, pp. 185–206.
  • Christina Dondi, “The liturgy of the Holy Sepulchre,” pp. 102–3. Hagiographies are usually our only evidence of such cults and many must have disappeared from record for lack of them.
  • Simonetta Cerrini, “I Templari: una vita da fratres, ma una regola anti-ascetica; una vita da cavalieri, ma una regola anti-eroica,” in I Templari, la guerra, e la santità, ed. Simonetta Cerrini (Rimini, 2000), pp. 19–48, at p. 35; “L’obiettivo di un cavaliere di Cristo non è di diventare un eroe, ma di obbedire!”
  • From Giacomo Bosio et al., “De B. Gerlando, equite Hierosolym. Templarione an Hospitalario? Calatagironi in Suracusana Siciliae diocesi,” AASS, Jun. 3:651–55.
  • Giacomo Bosio, Le imagini dei beati e santi della sacra religione di S. Giovanni Gerosolimitano (1622; repr. Rome, 1860).
  • For German and Polish Templars and their donors in the 1230s and 40s see Winfried Irgang, ed., Urkunden und Regesten zur Geschichte des Templerordens im Bereich des Bistums Cammin und der Kirchenprovinz Gnesen (Cologne, 1987), especially nos. 6, 7 and 34.
  • Anon., “B. Gobertus, Ordinis Cisterc.,” AASS Aug. 4:370–95.
  • Ibid., 382E; “Contra duplicem quippe hostem, uisibiliter scilicet et inuisibiliter, arma arripuit.”
  • Ibid., 380B.
  • Ibid., 380B; Gobert is likely to have observed the canonical hours when accompanying the military orders, although “horasque canonicas” can refer to either the monastic or canonical offices.
  • Ibid., 380C; 370B.
  • See Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Hospitaller Spirituality in the Middle Ages,” Sovereign Military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta, Journal of Spirituality 2 (Rome, 2002), pp. 2–3. Hugh of Genoa died in c.1230 and his fifteenth-century hagiography appears to be based on a contemporary life commissioned by Gregory IX and the archbishop of Genoa, for which see Anon., “De S. Hugone Confessore,” AASS Oct. 4:362–64. Ubaldesca (died c.1207) was a servant in a nuns’ hospital in Pisa which affiliated to the order during her lifetime. For her, see Anon., “S. Ubaldesca, Virgo,” AASS May 6:854–59 and Gabriele Zaccagnini, Ubaldesca, una santa laica nella Pisa dei secoli xii–xiii (Pisa, 1995). Toscana, a Hospitaller consoeur, died “many years” before her translation in 1343, but her earliest extant Life dates from 1474, for which see Celsus Mapheus, “De S. Tuscana Vidua,” AASS Jul. 3:860–66. For Flora, a Hospitaller sister who died in 1347, see AASS Jun. 6, “appendix ad diem XI Jun.,” 97–117. The remains of blessed Gerard (whose skull now resides on Malta) were being venerated at Manosque in 1283, for which see Anthony Luttrell, “The Rhodian Background of the Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta,” in The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta: the Order’s Early Legacy in Malta, ed. John Azzopardi (Valletta, 1989), pp. 3–16, at p. 9.
  • Riley-Smith, “Hospitaller Spirituality,” pp. 3–4.
  • RHC Oc. 5:404; “Ille ordo multotiens postea pauperibus christianis uictum et uestitum pariter et hospitium exhibuit, mortuosque honorifice sepeliuit multaque alia charitatis opera exercuit. Fratres etiam Hospitalis hostes fidei christiane uictoriosissime debellauerunt, et multa grauamina eis intulerunt.”
  • William de St Stephano, “Comment la sainte maison de l’hospital de S. Johan de Jerusalem commença” (c.1303), in RHC Oc. 5:422–27.
  • Anon., “De primordiis et inuentione sacrae religionis Jerosolymitanae,” in RHC Oc. 5:428–29, at p. 429.
  • AASS Oct. 4:363F; “Qui credit in me, opera, que ego facio, et ipse faciet.” Ubaldesca also followed Christ’s example by changing water into wine, for which see AASS May 6:858B.
  • AASS Oct. 4:363F and 364A.
  • AASS Oct. 4:363D; “gestans crucem foris in pectore, quam intus cordi insculpserat.”
  • AASS May 6:855D–E and 858D; “Veni sponsa Christi, accipe coronam, quam tibi parauit Deus ab origine mundi.”
  • AASS May 6:858C and E; AASS Jun. 6:109E and 111F.

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