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The Social Context of the Templars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

M. C. Barber
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Extract

Replying, on 13 January 1308, to letters of Philip IV of France describing the arrest of the Templars, Albert of Habsburg, King of the Germans, after expressing the customary sadness at the turn of events and extolling his own role as the leading prince in defence of the faith, remarked that although a crime of such evil infamy ought to be reprehensible and damnable in all persons, nevertheless it is known to be more reprehensible among the religious, who ought by the splendour of their life to be mirror for others and an example. Throughout the 193 years of its history the Order had indeed been in a position where it was a mirror for others and an example, a position which made it a particularly sensitive indicator and, in its turn, promoter, of social change. This paper is an attempt to tiace this interrelationship.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 34 , December 1984 , pp. 27 - 46
Copyright
Copyright Royal Historical Society 1984

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References

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32 John of Salisbury, 2034. Latin text, II. 25. This was not exclusive to Latin texts. Religious ceremonial associated with dubbing can be seen in vernacular literature during the later decades ofthe twelfth century, although it is not an invariable component. For example, Girart de Vienne par Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, ed. van Emden, W. (Socii des Anciens Textes Francais) (Paris, 1977), 11. 413Google Scholar, 2912, for the religious element, but 1. 2359 for a battlefield dubbing in which it is absent. The text strongly reflects baronial interests. Professor van Emden dates it 11803.

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46 Carriere, V., Histoire et Cartulaire des Templiers de Provins (Paris, 1919), no. XII, pp. 4950Google Scholar. Magnou, p. 390, shows cases of children who actually entered the Order while under-age, but this practice seems to have been confined to the remoter preceptories.

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52 See A.J. Forey, 31745. Moreover, it does seem that the Cistercians, for instance, showed greater self-awareness than the Templars, as a comparison between Stephen Lexington's criticisms ofhis Order in the 1230s and 40s and Jacques de Molay's mmoire on proposals for a union of theMilitary Orders in 1306 7 shows. For Lexington, see Lekai, L.J., The Cistercians. Ideals and Reality (Kent State University, 1977), 80Google Scholar, and for Molay, see Le Dossier de I'Affaire des Templiers, ed. and trans. Lizerand, G. (Paris, 1964), 114Google Scholar.

53 Le Dossier, 122. Nevertheless, it should be stressed that, while many of the proposals described by Dr Forey show discontent with the activities and condition of the Military Orders, the favourite solutionthat of some type of mergerhardly suggests that a belief in the heretical depravity of the Templars was widespread before 1307, since this would only have served to spread the disease still further.

54 Carriere, no. XXX, pp. 63 4.

55 Ibid., no. XVI, pp. 535.

56 Ibid., no. CXLII, pp. 1468.

57 Little, chap. 2. Professor Little's distinctions between a gift and a profit economy and between the characteristics of the early and high middle ages seem to me oversimplified; nevertheless, it does seem likely that the application of pious gifts to profitable purposes was, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, both a greater temptation to the recipients and a greater provocation to potential critics than had previously been the case.

58 See the discussion of Becker, M.B., Medieval Italy. Constraints and Creativity (Bloomington, 1981), chap. 1Google Scholar.

59 Le Dossier, 58.