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A to Z of the Knights Templar

A Guide to Their History and Legacy

The History Press

The Templar A–Z

A

Aaron

(c. thirteenth century BC)

Aaron is mentioned in the Old Testament book as the elder brother of the prophet Moses, a Levite and the first high priest of the Jews. He mediated between Moses and Pharaoh, and seems to have been influential in Egypt. During the Exodus he is attributed with the making of the idol of the golden calf while Moses was on Mount sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God. Oddly Aaron seems not to have incurred God's wrath, and later served as priest to the Tabernacle, the portable Temple, in which was kept the Ark of the Covenant. Meanwhile, Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu, were destroyed by fire that went out from the Ark, as punishment for offering 'strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not.'(Leviticus 10:1)

AbacusseeBaculus

Abbasids

The Abbasid dynasty reigned as Caliphs in Baghdad. The Abbasids were the spiritual leaders of the Sunni Muslim world, recognized throughout the Middle East as the successors of Mohammed. The Crusaders understood the Caliph to be the Pope of the Saracens, however by this time Abbasid power had waned. In 1055 the Caliph had been reduced to little more than a symbolic figurehead, with a Seljuk Sultan holding the real power. Even so the Caliphs retained an aura of semi-divinity. The Mongols deposed the thirty-seventh and last Abbasid Caliph, al-Mustasim, in 1258, after the sack of Baghdad. The Caliph died along with eighty thousand of his people, who were slaughtered by the Mongol hordes. Hulagu supposedly had al-Mustasim trampled to death beneath horses' hooves, having rolled him in rugs so that none of his sacred blood would splash on the ground. A scion of the Ayyubid dynasty was installed by Baybars as Caliph in Cairo in 1261, to provide a veneer of legitimacy for the Mameluk regime. The Ayyubid Caliphate in Cairo (the former seat of the rival Fatimid Caliphate) survived until 1517.

Abbey of Notre Dame de Mont Sion

The Abbey of Notre Dame de Mont Sion appears to have been the home of a small religious Order operating in the Holy Land during the era of the Crusades. The community served the abbey on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and also had a monastery on Mount Carmel, which later became the seat of the Carmelites. The monks of the Abbey of Sion, according to Jacques de Vitry, were Augustinians, linked to the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre – the same religious Order as that which had custody of the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount, and that supported the foundation of the Knights Templar. The Abbey of Mount Zion itself probably predated the Crusades and originally had an Eastern Orthodox monastic community. It is thought that after the success of the First Crusade the Latin brethren arrived, possibly being the same mysterious Italian monks who had founded the Abbey of Orval and then suddenly departed from it. There is some suggestion that these monks could also have had links to Peter the Hermit and Godfroi de Bouillon. When the Crusaders lost the Holy Land, the monks of the Abbey of Zion evacuated to Sicily and were apparently absorbed by the Jesuit Order in 1617. It is unclear whether this historical Abbey of Sion had any direct links to the Templars, or whether it was connected in any way to the Prieuré de Sion, an organization featuring in various conspiracy theories.

Abbotsford see Walter Scott

Abraxas

The Abraxas (or Abrasax) is an enigmatic figure, depicted as a warrior with a cockerel's head and with snakes for legs. The creature holds a round shield and a flail whip, supposedly representing wisdom and strength. Gnostic sects apparently used small stones, carved with images of the Abraxas, as magical charms, in the first centuries AD. ('Abraxas' may be the root of the magic word 'Abracadabra!') Abraxas images were used by the Basilidean sect of Alexandria, whom the early fathers of the Catholic Church condemned as heretics. Abraxas is said to have represented the supreme deity, from whom emanated the angels, one of which, as the Gnostics thought, was the flawed Jehovah who created the material world. Obviously to medieval Catholics all this would have constituted grave heresy, and the chimera -like image would have appeared outlandish and demonic. The issue of whether there was a secret group within the Templars, which diverged from Catholic Orthodoxy, is perhaps still an open question. An intriguing indication that this might be the case is a version of their seal bearing the image of the Abraxas. Around it is the legend Templi Secretum. Whether the Templars knew the true meaning of the Abraxas, or merely used it as a heraldic device, is hard to assess.

Absolution

Absolution is the act of forgiving sins. This is linked to the duty of confession. A priest would declare one forgiven after one had confessed and performed any penances imposed. One of the accusations against the Order was that Templar Masters (who were laymen) heard confession and bestowed absolution. This was presented as an affront to the ordained clergy, which claimed exclusive spiritual authority. There may have been some basis of truth in this accusation, but it probably arose through confusion or ignorance of official dogma on the matter, coupled with a failure on the part of the Templars to keep up with doctrinal developments. Galcerand de Teus, a Spanish Templar interrogated in the Kingdom of Naples, admitted that lay absolution was practised in Templar Chapter meetings. He said that the absolving Master of the Temple would pray for God to pardon the brother's sins as he had pardoned St Mary Magdalene and the thief who was on the cross. It is arguable whether such information can be relied upon, coming from a possibly forced confession. (Other Templars' testimony supported this claim, but made no mention of the 'thief'.) Elsewhere, meanwhile, for example in England, there was controversy over whether the presiding Preceptor would say 'I pray to God that he may pardon your sins', which would have been acceptable, or 'I pardon you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit', which would have been illicit.

Accusations against the Order

The Knights Templar in France were arrested on Friday 13 October 1307, three weeks after King Philip the Fair had issued secret instructions for this, saying it was necessary because the Templars were guilty of terrible, supremely abominable crimes. According to the accusations, though the Templars were outwardly a respectable Christian brotherhood, secretly, they were blasphemers and heretics. The accusations were subsequently made public. The definitive list was drawn up only in August 1308 and was probably the work of the King's minister Guillaume de Nogaret. It contained many items; mostly covering practices allegedly taking place during the Templars' initiation ritual. The list was well calculated to besmirch the Order's reputation and to rouse popular revulsion. The main charges were as follows:

That the Templars denied and renounced Christ, and made initiates spit at (or otherwise defile) the Cross during their secret reception ceremony. They taught that Christ was a false prophet and not God.

That the Templars did not perform or believe in the sacraments of the Catholic Church, and their priests failed to speak the proper words during the mass.

That the Templars were guilty of idolatry and unholy worship. They worshipped severed heads (some had three faces, some one, some a skull. The idol had the power to bring them riches as well as to make the trees flower and the land germinate). A black cat also manifested.

That the Templars wore chords around their middles, which had touched these idols.

That at their receptions initiates were made to give or receive obscene kisses by the presiding Master, and afterwards encouraged to engage in sodomy.

That the Templars were sworn to secrecy. Those who refused to go along with these things were killed or imprisoned. The rest were forbidden to confess to anyone except to a brother of the Order.

That the Templars held that the Grand Master and other lay brothers could absolve sins.

That the Order was greedy and corrupt and sought to enrich itself by any means legal or otherwise.

The Templars in France were cruelly tortured by the Inquisition and by royal agents. Confessions (to some or all of the above charges) were secured from many of them by these means. The accusations were apparently first made by a former Templar called Esquin de Floyran. Little if any material evidence could be produced pointing to Templar guilt, and none of the spies apparently sent into the Order by King Philip seem to have been called to testify.

Accursed Tower see Acre

Acre

Acre is an ancient Mediterranean port long seen as the gateway to the Holy Land, if not part of the Holy Land itself. The Crusaders, under King Baldwin I, captured the city in 1104. After the Battle of Hattin in 1187, Acre was one of the many Christian cities that fell to Saladin. The beleaguered Guy de Lusignan, having been captured at Hattin and subsequently released, was turned away from Tyre by Conrad of Montferrat, and so took his meagre forces to besiege Acre, establishing a fortified camp on the beachhead. This was in turn surrounded by Saladin's army, but held firm, and became the nucleus of the Christian fight-back that became known as the Third Crusade. Many died of disease and injury, but supplies and reinforcements continued to arrive from Europe. The English and French Crusaders under Richard the Lionheart and Philip II Augustus eventually joined the Christian camp, and recovered the city in 1191, having successfully kept Saladin's relief force from the besieged Muslim garrison.

The Siege had been long and bloody (it was compared to the mythic siege of Troy). The Grand Master of the Templars, Gerard de Ridefort, had died in the course of the fighting, and Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem and her two young daughters died during an epidemic in the Crusader camp. After the Crusaders' victory, the Muslim prisoners were executed on Richard's orders. With Acre secure, Richard was able to march south, and to defeat Saladin again at Arsuf. Acre, meanwhile, became the effective capital of the vestigial Kingdom of Jerusalem. It lacked the spiritual draw of Jerusalem itself but was more important strategically, and it became the political and economic hub of the Christian territory, also playing host to Muslim merchants, for the Holy Wars did not long put a stop to commerce.

To the north of Acre was the suburb of Montmausars, created to accommodate the Christian refugees from the Muslim conquests who swelled Acre's population during the thirteenth century. The whole city was surrounded by formidable fortifications and was a tough nut to crack for any enemy. The 'Accursed Tower' was part of these defences, on the inner of two walls. The name dated to the costly siege of Acre during the Third Crusade. The outer wall had towers named after their sponsors, including the Towers of the Patriarch, the Legate, King Henry II, the English, the Countess of Blois, the Hospitallers and the Templars.

The Templars had their compound in a fortress by the sea in the south-western corner of the promontory on which the city stood. According to the Templar of Tyre, the towers of the Templars base at Acre were topped by four gilded lions, which were 'a noble sight to look upon'. A grand palace for the Grand Master also lay within the enclosure (perhaps indicative of the onset of a degree of decadence). The Templars' compound had as neighbours the districts controlled by Genoa, Venice and Pisa, the Venetian quarter dominating the harbour. Each mercantile group had a fondaco or market square. The Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights also had their headquarters in the city.

The Bishop of Acre, Jacques de Vitry, newly arrived from France, found the city full of vice and corruption. Acre was also often the scene of acrimony between various Christian factions. There would be strife between supporters of the French, German and Cypriot claimants to the throne, and the Palestinian Frankish barons, as well as between the Italian merchant communes. The Military Orders became embroiled in some of these internecine quarrels, symptomatic of the Christian state going into meltdown before its final destruction. Despite being without stable government and being torn by factionalism, however, the city survived until the siege commenced by the Mameluks in 1291. Even today it contains Crusader remnants, including parts of the Hospitaller Citadel and a Templar tunnel. The Templar fortress by the sea at Acre was the last part of the city to fall under the Mameluk onslaught. Its ruins are now under the water.

The Siege of Acre of April to May 1291 was effectively the Christians' last stand in the East. The Mameluk sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil, the son of Qalawun, brought a mighty army out of Egypt and the defenders of Acre, largely abandoned by the West, perished on the walls. The Grand Master of the Templars, Guillaume de Beaujeu led a daring sortie out and he and his brethren subsequently fought off sustained assaults on the fortifications. The city's moat filled with dead bodies as the Muslims pressed the offensive. When the Accursed Tower fell, Guillaume rushed to lead the counter attack, where he was mortally wounded. At last the Mameluks gained entry to Acre. As desperate street fighting raged, many of the citizens streamed to abandon the doomed city by sea. The Patriarch, Nicholas of Hanape, took so many refugees onto his boat that it capsized and he was drowned, while the unscrupulous Templar captain, Roger de Flor, founded a career in piracy by extorting vast sums from any who would flee on his own ship. Other Templars fought on, under Peter de Sevrey their Marshal. They guarded the citizens who could not escape in their citadel by the sea, once the Muslims cut off the harbour. On 18 May 1291, they made such a determined resistance that al-Ashraf offered terms, and the Templars agreed to surrender in return for the safe passage away of the refugees among them. On 25 May, a Mameluk Emir with a hundred warriors was dispatched to oversee the surrender, and raised his banner over the citadel. His men at once began to molest the women and children, provoking the Templars to kill the Mameluks and tear down their banner, hoisting again their own flag, the Beauseant.

That night De Sevrey ordered Theobald Gaudin to take the Templars' treasure to Sidon by boat, and most of the civilians were also evacuated by sea, though others volunteered to stay to help in the fight. The next morning de Sevrey and his staff left the citadel under a flag of truce, having been invited to renewed negotiations. When they reached Al-Ashraf's camp they were seized and beheaded. The remaining Templars fought on against the final Mameluk assault for three more days, until the undermined walls collapsed around them and the Mameluks poured in to finish them off. The Mameluks then systematically demolished much of Acre. Those citizens who survived the massacre but who failed to escape were taken as slaves. The fall of the capital so demoralised the remaining Latin Christians that soon afterwards Sidon, Tortosa and Pilgrim's Castle were evacuated for Cyprus. After this time Acre went into steep decline, and it is today little more than a backwater.

Adam de Wallaincourt

(died c. 1310)

Adam de Wallaincourt was a Templar referred to in a document produced by the Templars during the Paris trials, defending the Order from the accusations made against it. The document claimed that this brother Adam de Wallaincourt had wished to find a harsher religious Order and had entered the Carthusians, for a while. However he had found it unbearable, and had returned to the Order of the Temple, subjecting himself to humiliating penances in order to be accepted back. (His penances had included fasts, eating on the ground, being flogged by the priest and crawling naked before the altar during masses). The brothers defending the Order called for this man to be brought to testify in its defence, as it was unlikely that someone would have suffered all that to return to an Order guilty of all that the Templars were charged with.

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Excerpted from A to Z of the Knights Templar by Gordon Napier. Copyright © 2011 Gordon Napier. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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