Warrior-Monks: The REAL History of the Knights Templar | Matthew Weller

[00:00:01]The Templars were the first military religious order of the Catholic Church.

[00:00:06]Hig Palon, this French knight, takes his crusading vow, goes to Jerusalem sometime after the first crusade. Him and a small group of other knights decide that they're going to form this confraternity, and they call themselves poor knights of Christ. They take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with this mission of protecting pilgrims.

[00:00:33]So there's an account by an anonymous pilgrim [music] and he's talking about the Knights Templar. They are the most excellent soldiers. They go in silence.

[00:00:40]Their first attack is the most terrible.

[00:00:42]In going they are first. In returning the last. These Templars live under a strict rule. Obeying humbly, having no private property, eating sparingly, dressing meanly, and dwelling in tents.

[00:00:55]>> Oh man.

[00:00:56]>> Yeah.

[00:00:58]>> [music] >> The myth of the Templars are interesting, right? This is where what gets everybody's attention. You know, did the Templars have treasure? Most likely not. You know, they didn't have a lot of liquid capital. Did the Templars have the Holy Grail?

[00:01:13]Maybe.

[00:01:23][music] >> Today we're going to talk about Knights Templar. Yep.

[00:01:27]>> And I always try to think about like what a first good question is, but I will say that I'm I am proud to be wearing one of my cufflings that is the Night Templar symbol.

[00:01:39]>> Yep.

[00:01:40]>> And uh when I first got these >> at I forget the name of it, but it was like their headquarters in Portugal. I got myself one souvenir and it was the cuff links. I got it out of the box >> and was trying to pull off like a little tag that was on it. And so on this one, I broke it and I can't get it back. So I don't have matching cuff links right now. But that's okay. I got this one [laughter] on the camera. Cross. This is >> pretty sweet, huh?

[00:02:04]>> Cross pate. Uh often associated with the Templars and uh the other military orders also, but yeah.

[00:02:09]>> Awesome. Well, I'm I'm this. So I wore this. This is the only time I ever have worn these and it was a pain to get this sucker on. I had to get my daughter to help me [laughter] get them on. So probably be the last time I ever wear them. But um the question to start this is how in the world did you get into Templars? You are doing a dissertation on Templars which I mean by any stretch makes you an expert. You might not think you are but take us through how in the world you got into this because there is probably no group in history [snorts] >> uh that gets more attention on the History Channel than the Knights Templar. It's so fun. There's so much >> conspiracy and mystery.

[00:02:49]Um, so how'd you get into this?

[00:02:51]>> Yeah, so when I was getting my master's of arts and theology, uh, as part of that program, we took a trip to, uh, Jerusalem and, uh, well, to Israel, to the Holy Land. And uh and during that trip uh you know I was still kind of at that time really leaning into my faith and and building uh you know my knowledge u building this academic interest and we had mass at the church of the holy supplr and inside the church of the holy supplr there is a chapel that's not very well known um and actually I don't know can you pull it up uh church of the holy supplr um crusader chapel should pop up and and I had never participated in mass before as like a lector or anything like that and Father Guile uh great uh professor great uh priest friend of mine uh he said Matt you know I think it'd be really appropriate if you lectured today um knowing that [clears throat] I'm in I was in the military at the Uh yeah, this is it here. Um so this is where we had mass. Uh sorry, I should have pulled this up for you.

[00:04:15]That's good. So So this is the the chapel of the crusaders in the church of the holy supplr.

[00:04:21]>> Wow.

[00:04:22]>> Yeah. Part of the 12th century crusader reconstruction.

[00:04:25]Um, and I lectured there and really really connected with the crusade history uh of Jerusalem. And I ended up changing my thesis topic for my masters to um liturgy and scripture as uh motivation for the first crusade.

[00:04:48]>> Wow.

[00:04:49]>> Excuse me. Yeah. I was looking at the lurggical and scriptural language in one of the first crusade narratives.

[00:04:55]and uh and this was kind of the inspiration for it.

[00:04:59]>> And I can see the Templar sign right there on the chair and also on the um podium.

[00:05:04]>> So, and this is this is important, right? Because the Templars really are a reflection of the crusaders self-image.

[00:05:15]So, this isn't a crusader ch or the correction, this isn't a templar chapel, this is a crusader chapel. But you know, notice how you immediately connected those cross pateses with >> I did >> the Templars. There's this strong association between the Templars and the First Crusade. But before we get on to that, uh I do want to say uh you've not been to the Holy Land, correct?

[00:05:36]>> I have not.

[00:05:37]>> Okay. So, I brought you a gift um and I'm going to give it to you. Now, I got this uh myself when I went to uh Jerusalem. So, I'll let you uh open that up there.

[00:05:47]>> Check this out.

[00:05:49]>> Excuse me. Wow.

[00:05:52]Look at this. All right. So, now the box is nothing special.

[00:05:57]>> Well, it's still pretty cool. [laughter] >> I got the box at Hobby Lobby.

[00:06:00]>> It looks good.

[00:06:01]>> Um, but what that is is water. Been blessed.

[00:06:07]Holy water. Uh, from Mary's well in Nazareth that I drew, collected myself. Uh, so I know that it's from Mary's Well. Wow.

[00:06:20]>> Now, we know archaeologically that this well in Nazareth um it comes from a natural spring and we know archae archaeologically that it was the probably the only source of water in the first century. So, we know pretty definitively that it would have been the place that Mary and Jesus would have been at collect to collect water.

[00:06:46]>> Oh my gosh, that is awesome. Yeah, >> what a gift.

[00:06:50]>> Yeah, >> I think this is a gift that has to stay in the studio like forever. I [laughter] think that's awesome.

[00:06:56]>> Um, >> thank you. Thank you so much. That is amazing. And it's got the sweet seal right there.

[00:07:01]>> Yeah. [clears throat] So, I uh >> this has like a wax kind of covering over the top with >> I I guess the Templar symbol, I >> um So, that is the uh Jerusalem cross.

[00:07:13]>> Jerusalem cross. Yeah. um applied to uh the uh the cristogram IHS. So >> the Latin IHS uh standing for Yesus homum salvatore uh Jesus savior of humanity but that's a common symbol you'll see in Jerusalem.

[00:07:29]>> Um I think right there.

[00:07:32]>> Yeah. So uh now I when I drew the water I just drew it out of like a water bottle.

[00:07:37]>> That's awesome, man.

[00:07:38]>> Yeah. Father Guile had >> the same well that our lady and the holy family would have drank from.

[00:07:44]>> Yes.

[00:07:44]>> Wow.

[00:07:44]>> Um the same well. And so being a place where Jesus touched uh it makes that water a thirdass relic.

[00:07:52]>> Oh yeah it does.

[00:07:53]>> Um and so >> I kind of want to drink it but I won't I won't [laughter] >> I kind of want to drink it.

[00:07:58]>> If you happen to drink it >> if I get real sick I'm cracking that sucker open.

[00:08:02]>> I Yeah. Save it for emergency.

[00:08:04][laughter] Now I did purify the water. I boiled it because it came from this.

[00:08:07]>> That's right. That's all right. It's still It's still good.

[00:08:09]>> That's awesome. Thanks, man.

[00:08:10]>> And I sealed it myself. So, uh, >> did you really?

[00:08:13]>> Yeah. That when I got the water, this I had a water bottle.

[00:08:16]>> It's like this >> is all I had. And so I, uh, >> so you got this wax and everything is sealed. That is awesome.

[00:08:22]>> Yeah. So that's from my private >> holy water collection. [laughter] >> Collection, dude. That's a great gift.

[00:08:29]>> But uh, >> outstanding. So that that church uh is the church of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation.

[00:08:38]Um it was it's also known as St. uh Gabriel's Church. In the Eastern tradition, uh the angel Gabriel uh made his first appearance to Mary while she was at the well.

[00:08:55]>> Really? And then I didn't know that.

[00:08:57]>> Yeah. and then completed the enunciation at her home.

[00:09:00]>> I have never heard of that.

[00:09:02]>> Yeah. So, um in the 3rd century, the church was originally built uh because uh people went there uh in devotion to the Holy Family, knowing that this was the only place they could have gotten water.

[00:09:19]>> Right. Right. Right.

[00:09:19]>> Um so, a church was built. It was later destroyed by uh the Arab invasion in the 7th century.

[00:09:27]Um, and later when the first crusades happened during the 12th century crusader restoration of the Holy Land and reconstruction of the Holy Land where they were rebuilding churches, building new churches, they built a new church uh over the site. And um actually, can you pull that up too? uh pull up um uh Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation Nazareth and maybe Well, >> I got to go there.

[00:10:00]>> Yeah, you got to go there.

[00:10:01]>> We need a Tan pilgrimage and get people to sign up and and take a tan trip. That's what I got to do.

[00:10:08]That's the way to get this done.

[00:10:09]>> Yeah, that'd be great. Uh I mentioned to go back. Uh so if if you happen to go, let me >> Yeah. Well, I will need a partial tour guide. So, maybe there's a way you can uh I could do that.

[00:10:18]>> Yeah. [laughter] Yeah.

[00:10:20]>> So, um so now this is on the back side of the church. I actually didn't draw it from here. I drew it from the well. Uh let's see here. Go to that image on the left there. Uh down one. That one. Yep.

[00:10:32]So, yeah, that's it right there. So now there's a tap that's built into this spring, but the spring feeds out into here and it's in the um uh crypt of this church.

[00:10:45]>> Uh now these stones here, those are original uh 12th century stones that the crusaders sealed or they didn't seal as in cover, but protected the spring with.

[00:10:57]>> Okay. Um and so those are original to the 12th century uh reconstruction and um it was later destroyed uh by uh the Egyptian uh uh one of the Egyptian invasions in but uh in 12 61 I think I can't remember I'm not sure on that but uh and then later again rebuilt um and then given to the Greek Orthodox I think in the 18th century but >> Wow.

[00:11:25]>> Yep.

[00:11:26]>> Okay. [clears throat] Well, thank you for the gift. You bet.

[00:11:28]>> It's outstanding. It's got a permanent spot. It's perfect. Awesome. That is a great story.

[00:11:34]>> So, I'm very grateful.

[00:11:35]>> For 17 years, [music] I've been making ebooks and audio books of this amazing Tan library. And it's always been frustrating to me that I had to go to Kindle or Audible or wherever to get my own books from Tan. But now, finally, we have the Tan digital app. We have 900 plus ebooks and [music] 300 plus audio books. These amazing writings of the saints, these spiritual classics, the most important books ever composed. The TAN digital app is the perfect place to where you can listen to this amazing stuff [music] in the car or when you're on the treadmill or whatever you're doing. I'm personally using this. I love it. I know you will, too. Go to Google Play or the App Store to get the Tan Digital app.

[00:12:22]Who are the Templars? And I think the most important question of all, and I need you to give me a definitive answer because you're an expert.

[00:12:30]>> Do they have the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail?

[00:12:34]>> Yes.

[00:12:34]>> Okay. [laughter] And Matt knows where it is. It's part of the pilgrimage. Yeah.

[00:12:39]>> Matt's going to take us to the Holy Grail.

[00:12:41]>> Yeah. No, that'd be fantastic if we discovered that wouldn't be. Uh maybe that's in my future. [laughter] I don't know. Hey, you got the hat. You know, you showed up with a fedora on. I did. You got a whole Indiana Jones vibe here going on. [laughter] >> You know, um it's really kind of funny. I do tend to dress like that and I've dressed like that for a long time. Uh and when I went to my summer residency this past summer, uh one of the guys I was like, "You really kind of have a whole Indiana Jones thing going on."

[00:13:10]>> Well, he found it. I mean, he found the holy grail.

[00:13:13]>> Yeah. [laughter] Uh yeah. with with top men.

[00:13:17]>> Yeah.

[00:13:17]>> Do you catch that reference? No, that's uh that's Raiders. That's a Raiders reference. Okay. I kind of am a product of uh 1980s and 90s pop culture.

[00:13:26]>> All right. Seriously, I watched I watched Raiders of the Lost Arc like two weeks ago with my kids >> and somehow or another it came up on a feed on Amazon like, "Hey, let's just watch this." I hadn't seen it in years.

[00:13:38]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:39]>> And [clears throat] it's a great movie.

[00:13:42]>> It's such a good movie. They still don't make movies like that anymore. Can I tell you like this has absolutely nothing to do with the Templars, but my favorite scene in it because everything it's like watching a new movie and I'm I'm with my kids and you know I'm watching it and there's a scene where the girl is uh Indiana just got beat up bad. He was in that was in the fight where he was on the plane fighting the guy and he just gets beat to hell and so he's got bruises all over the spot all over his body.

[00:14:08]>> And this is like one of my favorite movies scenes of all time now. and that beautiful girl that kind of follows him around the whole time.

[00:14:15]>> Mhm.

[00:14:16]>> Um she's like trying to bandage him up and he's got his shirt off and he's laying in the in the bed and I'm sitting there saying, "Oh no, I got my kids here. What where's this going?" You know, it's like this is PG. It can't be that bad. [snorts] And she's like ban and he's like, "Ow, stop it. You're killing me." You know, >> and she's like, "Well, stop being a baby." And they're kind of having this little romantic fight cuz he's she's trying to doctor him up.

[00:14:36]>> And she and he's like, "It hurt." She's like, "Well, where can I touch you?" And he said, "Every, you can't touch anywhere. It everything hurts." She says, "No, everything hurts." And he said, "Well, this doesn't hurt too bad."

[00:14:47]And so she kisses his elbow. And then he says, "It doesn't hurt too bad right here." And then he she kisses his forehead. And then [snorts] he says, "Well, it doesn't hurt too bad right here." You know, and then she kisses his lips. And then all of a sudden, the camera's on her and she's getting real romantic and real sensual.

[00:15:07]And then all of a sudden she goes, she's kissing him and you just see like the back of her head and then the camera pans out and she goes, "Indy, Indie."

[00:15:16]And he's like, [laughter] >> he fell asleep.

[00:15:21]And it's like, I don't know why I loved it so much, but he just fell asleep [laughter] with this beautiful woman kissing him.

[00:15:27]>> Yeah.

[00:15:27]>> And I thought that was like the perfect romance scene of all time. I just thought [laughter] that was great.

[00:15:33]>> It's so real though, right? You know, anyway, >> you would be exhausted after >> he would be exhausted. I just thought it was fantastic watching him fall asleep.

[00:15:41]Anyway, so uh we dodged a bullet cuz I was I had the remote in my hand saying, "I don't know where this is going to go."

[00:15:46]>> Yeah.

[00:15:46]>> Anyway, so um so yeah, all the mystique about them with all these treasures.

[00:15:53]We're going to get to talking about how the >> the reputation of them having all these great treasures came about because of their wealth and everything, but in general, who are the Templars? Templars, Templar, Templars, like you know, I don't even know how to say it right.

[00:16:06]Yeah. Who were these guys? How'd they get started? Go. Yeah. So, the Templars were the first military religious order of the Catholic Church. Um, so military religious order is an authentic religious order, right? So we think of religious orders like the Benedicting Franciscans. You know the military religious orders were a fusion of a military mission with uh taking monastic vows and the Templars particularly are really a product of the first crusade. Um so the crew uh first crusade uh uh preached in 1095 by Pope Urban II uh concluded with the taking of Jerusalem in 1099.

[00:16:54]Um the Templars came from their founder who is believed to uh be um Hudong. Huon was a uh French knight. He probably was not a first crusader. Uh he likely took his vows just sometime just after uh the first crusade ended. Uh and when I say take his vows, what crusaders used to do is they [clears throat] used to uh take a temporary vow uh to make this pilgrimage uh from the west uh to Jerusalem in support uh and defense of the Christians.

[00:17:39]Um, when we think about the first crusade, uh, you know, there's a lot of negative kind of conceptions about, uh, the first crusade or crusading in general. Um, >> is it just a Catholic version of jihad?

[00:17:52]>> It's not.

[00:17:52]>> I'm just kidding. I know it's [laughter] not. I know it's not, but that's my face drop a little bit. That's what you hear in eighth grade, you know?

[00:17:58]>> Yeah. You know, and that that's true though, right? That is kind of what you hear. um that it's just uh holy war, uh protomperialism, proto protocol colonialism, uh you know, the church's excuse to uh gain wealth. Um and [clears throat] these were some of the fictions that kind of evolved honestly probably out of uh anti-Christian, anti-atholic rhetoric.

[00:18:25]Mhm.

[00:18:25]>> Um the first crusaders were this was really a religious movement. Um Alexios uh the first comminos the bisantine emperor uh sometime before uh 1095 uh he sent sent an envoy to Pope Urban II requesting assistance. Basically the conditions in the east had gotten so bad because we have to understand you know Christians and Muslims and Jews lived in the Middle East in the Holy Land for quite a while in relatively peaceful conditions. Rel I say relatively peaceful because it wasn't always the case, right? But things had been ramping up to where it was just getting out of control and the violence against Christians was becoming overwhelming.

[00:19:19]And uh what was happening was the Seljic uh Shia I think it was the Seljic Shia uh Muslims, Turks were moving in and conquering everything uh including existing Muslim held territories from other Muslims. And um I want to double check that before I continue. Um well it's not that important I guess but they were conquering all these existing uh um Muslim areas >> right >> and they were really really >> conquering Christian areas >> Christian Christian and Muslim are so >> they were Sunni [clears throat] >> say again >> they were >> they were Sunni okay all right so uh the Sunni uh Seljic Turks were spreading through uh the holy plan >> was their goal to just conquer the Holy Land.

[00:20:17]>> It was to conquer the Holy Land, conquer everything. They were already actually moving through Egypt. You know, a lot of Egypt was Christian, right? They're moving through North Africa and into Spain. So, at the time of the first crusade, the Ricanista is already sort of starting to happen in in in Spain, uh, in the Iberian Peninsula. And so, but things were much more violent than had existed for the previous, you know, several hundred years. And I'll read an excerpt from the activity of what was happening at the time. Pretty graphic.

[00:20:52]So I'll just uh warn your your audience.

[00:20:56]Now this is from Robert of Reigns. So this is from one of the first crusade narratives uh from speech from the speech of Urban II uh when he was preaching the first crusade at the council of Claremont. From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople, a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our ears. Namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, a generation for sooth, which has not directed its heart and has not entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by the sword, pillillage, and fire. It has led away a part of the captives into its own country, and a part it has destroyed by cruel tortures. It has either entirely destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rights of its own religion. They destroy the altars after having defiled them with their uncleanness. They circumcised the Christians and the blood of the circumcision. They either spread upon the altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. When they wish to torture people by a base death, they perforate their navls and dragging them forth the extremity of the intestines, bind it to a stake. Then with flogging they lead the victim around until the viscera have having gushed forth the victim falls prostate upon the ground.

[00:22:16]Others they bind to a post and pierce with arrows. Others they compel to extend their necks and then attacking them with naked swords attempt to cut through the neck with a single blow.

[00:22:26]What shall I say of the abominable rape of the of the women? To speak of it is worse than to be silent. The kingdom of the Greeks is now dismembered by them and deprived of territory so vast in extent that it cannot be traversed in a march of two months. On whom therefore is the labor of avenging these wrongs and of recovering this territory incumbent if not upon you. you upon whom above other nations God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great courage, bodily activity, and strength to humble the hairy scalp of those who resist you.

[00:22:58]So, wow, >> pretty intense language there.

[00:23:00][clears throat] And you know, maybe some of it's inflated, but this is the general idea of what was happening uh in the east and what was communicated to Christians in the west. Um so people really did feel this need to respond um in aid. So when we think of the first crusade especially this is a defensive action right this is not we just want to go and conquer more land.

[00:23:34]Um there was this sort of theory that the first crusade was made up of what was called second sons. Um so meaning uh second sons of the aristocracy, right?

[00:23:50]And who had limited inheritances, right?

[00:23:52]So they were wanting to go to the east, go to the holy land for riches. Um but we know that's really wasn't the case.

[00:23:58][clears throat] And the reason is is one of the reasons is is because to go to the holy land to sponsor your crusade uh required a lot of wealth actually. And so a lot of first crusaders especially sold everything that they had to sponsor their trip because the church wasn't paying for this right people had to sponsor their own their own trips to Jerusalem. And so uh it was a really costly monetarily thing. Um but then it was also understood to be uh or to probably result in martyrdom like [clears throat] there was a there was not a good chance of survival. And in fact uh Pope Urban concluded his speech at Claremont with um the gospel of John.

[00:24:45]Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.

[00:24:50]And so [clears throat] there was this understanding that your job is probably going to be to die uh so that we can you know reclaim uh the land of Christ for Christ for Christians.

[00:25:03]>> You mentioned that uh in dinner the other night that that um this would have looked not so the first crusade would have not looked like an army marching like we think of. It would have been like a monastery and movement.

[00:25:15]Tell us about that.

[00:25:16]>> Yeah. So Jonathan Riley Smith who's one of the great revisionists of the 20th century crusade revisionist. So he starts looking at the crusades uh differently and um without a lot of this anti- uh crusade rhetoric that had existed in the historioggraphy for quite some time. and he takes the narratives as more authentic and then starts looking at more of the evidence. And when you start looking at the evidence, you start seeing, okay, these things that we have thought about the crusades are not necessarily true.

[00:25:53]>> And so he described the first crusade as >> does that revisionist refer to it's like somebody who's just rethinking what the story has been.

[00:26:01]>> Yes. Okay.

[00:26:02]>> Yeah. And so he describes the first crusade uh that it would have resembled a military monastery on the move.

[00:26:10]>> So these group of people, these group of pilgrims uh you see also they they didn't refer to themselves as crusaders.

[00:26:18]Um in fact the word crusade and crusader didn't exist during the first crusade.

[00:26:22]This is a novel idea. Um and they referred to themselves simply as pilgrims. Uh the word crusade actually comes from the term cruch signatus. Uh so one signed by the cross in the Latin.

[00:26:37]Um and they were literally signed by the cross. Uh and this is an interesting idea too. [clears throat] >> So they wore the cross um either on their breast or on their sleeve and then when they returned to from Jerusalem once making the pilgrimage they wore the cross on their back. M >> and so if we think about the imagery right of carrying your cross and this was the idea of the first crusade. So first crusade spirituality was built heavily on Christomis right mimicking Christ through suffering the suffering that was happening on this journey to Jerusalem um and to and in carrying one's cross. And if we think about Christ carrying his cross, right? Think of him like literally walking the cross up to Golgtha, right? He's got it like on his shoulder or he's picking it up in front, you know, and he's on his breast, right? Or maybe he's got it right here and it's hunched over him. Um he's literally carrying his cross. But once he's crucified, >> it's on his back.

[00:27:42]>> It's on his back.

[00:27:43]>> Wow. [clears throat] >> And so for the >> What an imagery. I did not know that.

[00:27:46]And so for the crusader, for the crusader, he's carrying his cross, but the crusade because of this auster environment, because of this um this suffering that's occurring, it's transformative.

[00:28:01]And so the idea is to be crucified with Christ through the journey, right? So once the journey's completed through great suffering uh you you'll be crucified with Christ through this cristo mammis this this this mimicking of Christ and and so there's a lot of imagery that goes uh that connects that idea uh with the crusades.

[00:28:24]>> So first crusades it's not like an army marching as much. It's like even families I think you said you know kind of might have gone with people. It was this monastery on on wheels so to speak.

[00:28:35]Yep.

[00:28:36]>> Um but then the crus first crusades are are over and the Templar kind of rise up after that because more needs are still there and >> Christians who go to pilgrimage at the Holy Land are still getting mugged, beaten, >> killed by essentially the Muslim terrorists.

[00:28:56]>> Yeah.

[00:28:56]>> Um >> so was that the cause for the Templars rising up is to protect the pilgrimage the protect the pilgrims?

[00:29:04]>> Yeah. So uh hug de Paul uh this French knight goes to Jerusalem takes his crusading vow goes to Jerusalem uh sometime after the first crusade >> identifies sees that pilgrims are no longer no longer traveling with this military monastery move right >> they have no protection >> so they have no protection and once they enter into these territories further east it becomes really dangerous I mean it was dangerous traveling through western Europe also but it gets really dangerous once they sort of enter into this uh this eastern area and he identifies this need to protect pilgrims uh him and he either goes back to France and returns or stays that's kind of unclear but him and a small group of other knights uh decide that they're going to form this confraternity uh this small group of knights loosely organized to accomplish that mission uh to to protect pilgrims and they call themselves the poor knights of Christ.

[00:30:09]>> Would they have been like stationed along major routes to uh so it's like almost like police stations along the way or were they like walking? I mean h how would a small group do anything?

[00:30:20]>> Yeah. So they established a uh it's either it was either a bridge or a tower um on in the northern part of the Holy Land. Uh, and I can't remember off the top of my head where it was located and what they called it. Um, but it was like their original headquarters. And so >> it was a watchtower.

[00:30:41]>> It was basically a watchtowwer.

[00:30:42]>> So as people were getting close to the Holy Land, >> they would report there, get some help from these poor knights of Christ and then they would get an escort into the Holy Land.

[00:30:51]>> Okay. So they were kind of like escorts to the the final leg, at least in the beginning. Yeah.

[00:30:55]>> They were that like final leg, you know, bodyguards.

[00:30:59]>> Yeah. And so Hugh was [clears throat] accompanied by um some of his knight friends. Uh one of them actually being um uh Bernardo Clervo's uncle.

[00:31:12]>> Oh yeah.

[00:31:13]>> Um and uh and even his lord uh his uh higher knight that he was under uh uh Hugh uh Huda Champaga. Uh yes. So uh so he really had a lot of influence because I mean if you think about back then you know being under a higher aristocratic you know knight uh for that guy to give up what he's doing to go follow your cause.

[00:31:43]>> Uh it must have been really worthy cause must have been a really worthy cause and and Hudong must have been um really a strong motivator.

[00:31:52]>> Yeah. A great recruiter.

[00:31:53]>> Yeah. because they blow up very quickly.

[00:31:55]>> Yeah. Um so in 119 um or 1120, that date, there's some dispute over the date. Uh they make their first vows uh to the um patriarch of Jerusalem >> and the uh king of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, I believe. And uh they take vows of uh poverty, chastity and obedience um with this mission of protecting pilgrims. [clears throat] And they do this uh with in front of the the patriarch of Jerusalem and uh in association with the uh Augustinian cannons of the holy supplr. So they were kind of attached to the holy supplr. So they're they're already sort of living this religious life. Uh and as that develops, they make this vow. Um a couple years later, uh Baldwin II moves out of his residency and uh he moves into the Tower of David and uh he gifts the poor knights of Christ the Alaka mosque. And the Alaka mosque was identified as the original site of the temple of Solomon.

[00:33:26]>> And so from then uh forward they become known as the order of the temple.

[00:33:31]>> That's where they got their name.

[00:33:32]>> And that's where they get their name.

[00:33:33]>> Solomon's temple.

[00:33:34]>> Solomon's temple. Yep.

[00:33:36]>> Would these guys in the beginning were they more like knights that became monks and then later on they were more like monks that became knights? So, um, they [clears throat] were knights that became monks. Uh, and they were always kind of that way. They weren't they they weren't really monks that became knights. So, most people that entered the order had an existing background >> military training.

[00:34:00]>> Yeah. Of military training. And so, but they weren't it's it it's difficult to describe because there's this strong fusion between their military uh profession and then their desire to live a monastic religious life. And so I don't think that they really would have viewed themselves as uh knights who became monks or uh eventually just monks. I think they really probably thought of themselves as something different.

[00:34:37]>> But authentically religious.

[00:34:39]>> But if they retired, like once you're 60 years old, you're probably not fighting with the sword anymore, >> right?

[00:34:44]>> What do they do in retirement?

[00:34:46]>> Uh so some of the retired uh if they made it to retirement >> without dying. Yeah, they uh did receive a pension.

[00:34:52]>> Um but they would have probably lived in some of the western houses.

[00:34:58]>> Um because they were monasteries.

[00:35:00]>> Yeah. They became more monks probably in retirement.

[00:35:02]>> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That make >> it's not a good way to describe it.

[00:35:05]>> Not bad life, you know.

[00:35:07]>> No. Yeah. Not at all.

[00:35:08]>> Fight and then pray.

[00:35:09]>> Yeah. And a lot a lot of people did that. And in fact there's a tradition uh with a lot of the aristocracy where they made vows uh to the order even sometimes on their deathbed. So >> uh there was this idea that to be in the order was a worthy vocation uh and and was a just uh just endeavor. So >> all right. So tell us more about they get started >> they set up these watchtowers.

[00:35:37]>> Yeah. Um and then they just grew so quickly and then eventually they >> they got monasteries all over the the world.

[00:35:46]>> Um or all over Europe I guess.

[00:35:47]>> Yeah.

[00:35:48]>> And then they also kind of become known as wealthy for a particular reason. So I don't know how you want to get there but take us through the story.

[00:35:54]>> Sure.

[00:35:55]>> I just skipped [clears throat] I probably skipped like a 100 years.

[00:35:57]>> That's okay. Yeah. So Hudal, excuse me. Hudal uh makes a trip uh in about 11:27 through Western Europe um to build recruits and to build patronage. At the same time he is uh petitioning the pope to be recognized as a religious order and uh with the help of San Bernardo clvo uh at the council of Troy in 1128 uh they get that endorsement as a religious order and that's where they develop their rule. So a rule being uh the the religious guidelines that a religious order has to follow. Um Hud submits a um a primitive version of it and then uh Bernard of Clairvo uh helps complete it and and refine it. And it's really interesting because at the time this is sort of also the church's way of reigning in the knighthood, right?

[00:37:09]Because being a knight meant being in the service of Christians. This is the church's perspective, right? Um but this is not how knights were behaving. And so, uh, Bernard really contrasts, uh, this secular knighthood with what he calls the new knighthood, uh, in his daude, uh, in praise of the new knighthood. Uh, and I'll read actually from that. [clears throat] So, I'll read first concerning secular the secular knighthood. So, this is the criticism of knights of the time.

[00:37:46]>> Um, what therefore is that?

[00:37:48]>> Sorry, is this by Bernard? Yeah, this is Bernard. [clears throat] >> What therefore is the end or result of the secular malitia? He says malitia. So I do not say militia.

[00:38:00]If the killer sins, so he's talking they're bad, right?

[00:38:04]>> If the killer sins mortally and then killed dies eternally. Indeed, to cite the words of the apostle, he who plows ought to plow in hope. I think I pronounced that right. Po in hope. And he who threshes does so in the hope of receiving the fruits. Oh knights, what is this error so stupendous? What is this madness so unacceptable to fight at such great cost and effort with no rewards other than those of death or crime? You cover your horses in silks and put over your coats of male. I know not what sort of clo hang cloth hangings. You paint your spears, shields, and saddles. You decorate your bridles and spurs with gold, silver, and jewels. And you hurry to your deaths with such great pomp, with shameful madness and shameful rashness. Are these military insignia, or are they women's bobbles?

[00:38:59][laughter] >> Perhaps. So, he's really he's really laying into the secular knighthood.

[00:39:05]>> Perhaps the enemy's blade will respect the gold, will spare the jewels, will be unable to pierce the silk clothes. It's like these things don't matter to the enemy.

[00:39:15]>> Right.

[00:39:16]>> Finally, as you as you yourselves has have learned from experience on numerous occasions, there are three things essential to any warrior. A knight should be energetic, strong, and vigilant in protecting himself. Free in his movements and ready to strike. You, on the other hand, wear your hair like a woman, so that it obstructs your eyes.

[00:39:37]Your long flowing robes hamper your steps and your two delicate hands are hidden in voluminous envelope enveloping sleeves. He's really calling them, you know, >> bunch of boys.

[00:39:51]>> Bunch of sissies. Yeah. Over beyond >> care more about what they look like than actually being good at their job.

[00:39:56]>> Yeah. So they're so the secular knighthood's concerned with this vanity.

[00:39:59]Yeah.

[00:39:59]>> Right. and this uh and uh and the position of being a knight more so than what should be considered their duty in protecting Christians. So to contrast that with the new knighthood, he says, "However, the knights of Christ fight the battles of their lord peace of mind in no way fearing to sin in killing the enemy or at his hands since indeed death, whether inflicted or suffered, tainted by crime, but is marked by a large degree of glory. In on its acquired for Christ while in the other it is Christ who is acquiring Christ who willingly accepts the death of his enemy in revenge even more willingly offers himself to the knight in consolation. I say the knight of Christ kills in safety and dies in greater safety obtains an advantage for himself when he dies. I've got it cut off there so I'm not going to wreck it any further. But he's really comparing he's really contrasting this new knighthood with the secular knights.

[00:40:58]Yes.

[00:40:59]>> Um >> and >> who are just much more serious about their job, >> right?

[00:41:04]>> And so when this comes out, >> people are really inspired. They're like, "What is this new knighthood?

[00:41:09]>> I've got to be a part of it." And so very quickly, the Templar Order >> gains a lot of support. Um, not only because now see Bernard's kind of playing here too on on existing knights pride, right? And he knows this.

[00:41:25]>> Yeah.

[00:41:25]>> And so he's calling him out and well, you can't you can't call me out. I'm going to call your bluff and I'm going to go join the order and prove myself a worthy Christian knight. And so they gain a lot of support very rapidly.

[00:41:38]>> He did the same thing with monks and monasteries. Mhm.

[00:41:40]>> He was a master recruiter because he would he would say, "You monks, you're you're fat and happy."

[00:41:45]>> And he talks about you go shopping for your garments and your your habit, your black habit, the Benedict monasteries, nice, smooth, comfortable >> and and then you go back and you have a big dinner with wine and you eat a lot of meat every night. And then you sit in a comfortable choir stall and look at beautiful pictures and listen to beautiful Latin uh uh chant. And then you go to your bedroom and you have a nice nice sleep. Or you could come over to the Cistersians, which you know he was kind of a quasi founder of, and you could live the life of a desert father and suffer and be hungry and cold and go to heaven for eternity. Choice is yours.

[00:42:24]You know, he was kind of masterful at this.

[00:42:26]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:27]>> And he I I knew he did that with the monks. I did not know he did that with the knights. And I think that helps explain how the the their enrollment took off. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I love Bernardo.

[00:42:38]>> And there's a lot of Cistersian influence in the Knights Templar. Um not just visually, right? Because Cistersians wore a white habit.

[00:42:47]>> Yes.

[00:42:47]>> Um and Templars wear a white habit.

[00:42:49]Templar knights wear white habit.

[00:42:52]>> Um but the austerity that the cisters followed was the same in the Knights Templar.

[00:43:00]um in the order of the temple. Uh they um didn't have possessions. Uh they bathed infrequently.

[00:43:09]>> They didn't shave their beards, but they kept their hair short.

[00:43:13]>> Yeah.

[00:43:13]>> Um they uh only had one habit. They weren't allowed to have uh or maybe they had like a winter and a summer habit, but that was it.

[00:43:22]>> Yeah. [clears throat] And so there is this idea that they need to really reject a lot of the distractions um that lead people away from Christ uh so that they can focus on their mission.

[00:43:42]>> Wow, that's cool. Yeah, I mean it's kind of they're like the Navy Seals or the Spartans of the uh Middle Ages, you know.

[00:43:47]>> Yeah, they were um and they really were sort of these crack troops of their day.

[00:43:53]Um, in fact, one of the things that they were known for and one of the things that set the Templars apart from not only secular knights but even some of the other military orders was that they were expert expert horsemen and trainers, horse trainers. Um, and they were so well known for their ability in training horses actually that a lot of people would bring horses to the to the knights to train.

[00:44:18]>> Uh, because they had this method and this method really relied on their obedience, right? Their ability to follow instructions without deviation.

[00:44:30]uh where they would ride their horses in parallel and have like this shock attack on a battlefront um and just push through enemy lines and then circle around and do it again and they just kept doing this and doing this and doing this um and it was made them really really effective cavalry.

[00:44:52]>> Well, you know, Spartans were the same way. I mean they were so they dominated because they functioned like one unit.

[00:44:58]Yeah. perfect, perfectly synchronous, perfectly harmonious. It was just like one mind moving on the battlefield. But I can see a religious order uh instills that ability to function as one.

[00:45:12]>> Yeah. So there's an account by an anonymous pilgrim and he's talking about the Knights Templar and he says, "They are the most excellent soldiers. They go in silence. Their first attack is the most terrible. In going they are first.

[00:45:26]in returning the last. These Templars live under a strict rule, obeying humbly, having no private property, eating sparingly, dressing meanly, and dwelling in tents.

[00:45:37]>> Oh man. Yeah.

[00:45:38]>> Gosh, that's really good stuff. So, that that that's a great way to kind of introduce the Templars because it's it's showing these guys were the real deal.

[00:45:47]They were really good. And I I love hearing Bernard's influence on that.

[00:45:50]That's awesome.

[00:45:53]>> Hey guys, real quick. [music] We noticed 80% of you that watch the episodes are not subscribed. So, please do me the favor and subscribe and hit the bell for notification. That helps you get the content, but it also helps this amazing stuff get spread to other people just like you. Thanks for your help. Now, let's dive back in.

[00:46:12][music] So as they grew um what happens like you know by the time the second crusades come around which I know Bernard kind of helped preach or recruit preaching means getting resources and getting you know noblemen to support it and getting men to sign up.

[00:46:30]>> Y >> um and put up their life savings and sell their property to go fight and die.

[00:46:35]You know what was the status of the Knights Templar as an order by the time second crew crusades came around and like and how big of a gap between the first and second?

[00:46:45]>> Yeah. So >> roughly I don't remember the dates.

[00:46:47]>> Uh 12 1146.

[00:46:51]>> Yeah, I think we talked about that last night actually. So the second one was in the 40s.

[00:46:54]>> Yeah. Um >> because Bernard would have been 50some.

[00:46:58]>> Let me >> And then the first crusades were I think you already said that date 10.

[00:47:02]>> Yeah. The first crusade I know well because I spent so much time on it, right? Let's see. So the first crusade was uh 1096 to 1099. Preached in 1095.

[00:47:10]Second crusade starts in 1148 and goes to 1149.

[00:47:14]>> Okay.

[00:47:14]>> And this was in response to uh the fall of Adessa.

[00:47:18]>> Yeah. Yeah. So okay. So explain why did the second if the first crusades were successful why do we have a second one?

[00:47:24]>> Yeah. So it was really challenging to maintain uh the states, the crusader states uh with limited resources and with limited manpower. After the first crusade, everybody went home and so >> the Muslims just start attacking again.

[00:47:42]>> And so they just started getting attacked again >> and eventually they started losing some of this territory. Um so the second crusade happens. um between the second crusade and the third crusade we see some really impactful negative uh battles that happened that really caused this is like the downfall of the crusades and this is why most of the crusades after this uh were unsuccessful >> so the second one my understanding from Bernard is that they really got their butts kicked >> and that was kind of a stain on Bernard's reputation a little bit but why did we lose the second crusades and what was The ramifications of that does that mean like a bunch of churches became mosques? I mean what does that mean we lose?

[00:48:26]>> Yeah. So um the loss of when we say we lose really what we're talking about is we don't regain the territory that we're after back.

[00:48:35]>> Okay. Okay.

[00:48:36]>> Yeah. And so what it looks like is we just don't have Adessa.

[00:48:40]>> Mhm.

[00:48:40]>> Um but we still have other crusader territory.

[00:48:43]>> And what was Adessa? I mean I recognize the name but I don't know what it is.

[00:48:46]>> Yeah. It's a city in uh the Holy Land.

[00:48:49]>> Okay.

[00:48:50]>> Yeah. Well, correction, Muslims had taken it.

[00:48:52]>> Yeah, it was a county. It was the county of Adessa. So, it's more than just a city, but it's it's like a it's just a small territory.

[00:48:58]>> So, you got, you know, for 40 something years, >> you got the Christians kind of celebrating from the first crusade, but then slowly there's there's there's creep and they they lose the city or the county of Adessa and then Bernard and others say, "Hey, we need another crusade."

[00:49:14]>> And so, they try to get the Templars played a major role in that.

[00:49:17]>> They Yeah. So they play a major role in all of the crusades. So the Templars really acted like not only protectors of the Holy Land in the sense that they're doing their original mission of protecting pilgrims while they're there and protecting these territories while they're there. Uh but they're also military advisers and they are supplementing uh royal armies. So uh these states that start sending uh like the second crusade in templars supplement that manpower the ongo the followong crusades the templars supplement that manpower and play a large role in supplementing those armies uh particularly as military advisers because they were so familiar with the holy land. In fact, this ends up being one of their criticisms. Uh because the Templars were said to be too friendly with the Muslims.

[00:50:08]>> Yeah. And you know, you think about, let's think about special forces, right?

[00:50:13]Because we just said that they're uh like the crack troops and you referred to Navy Seals, right?

[00:50:18]>> Uh well, the way special forces works is uh >> it's to win hearts and minds, right? And to free the oppressed is the is is the >> they're giving out candy to the little kids everywhere. That's one of the things you see like when the troops are over there. Oh, sure.

[00:50:33]>> They're always trying to ingratiate themselves into that community to some extent. So they say, "We're not the bad guys. We're helping we're trying to help you, too."

[00:50:39]>> So they they really build rapport with local populations. Yeah.

[00:50:44]>> And uh the Templars did the same thing.

[00:50:47]And so there was this kind of heavy criticism that they were too friendly with Muslims. And this ends up being uh part of part of their downfall. Um but uh but this is one of the ways in which they help with incoming uh armies is as advisor of of the cultural impacts uh that they're going to experience and uh how to navigate through um the the environment. So um is this where the like between the first and second or maybe right after second is that when the knights have become wealthy because of how they're handling international banking or how how did they go from military monks warrior monks to a a a massively wealthy community?

[00:51:36]>> Yeah. So in gaining all that support right and so this is this is sort of a misconception of the Templars right. So there's this belief and this is what gets uh put in popular uh media right like TV shows that the treasure of the Templars um they get all this support all throughout Western Europe but a lot of this support comes in the form of land holdings. So their wealth isn't really liquid capital although that existed it was in the form of these land holdings that produced income. Uh and we have to remember, you know, they were focused on their mission. And so it's not quite like they were hoarding treasure in their uh castles or precepties or uh manners or whatever properties they had. Uh they were sending that money back to the east to support the mission in the Holy Land.

[00:52:31]>> Yeah. Um can you explain though? I I think that they set up a currency system.

[00:52:36]>> Yeah. Sorry. So uh international banking.

[00:52:39]>> Yeah. That see that's the reason I'm curious about it is my understanding is is they really helped shape an international banking system.

[00:52:46]>> Yeah. So they had one of the like a primitive model for international banking and uh lending money and this really didn't exist uh before the Templars. And one of the things that made it so successful is that it was a single organization throughout Western Europe. And it allowed somebody to take like a note and deposit their money in one place and then take that note to the other location >> and withdraw the money.

[00:53:16]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:53:16]>> And uh it was really popular because instead of getting robbed on the highway >> Yeah.

[00:53:23]>> of your gold or whatever whatever money you had, uh you know, all you carried was this note. And you know, nobody's after a note. They're after they're after currency.

[00:53:33]>> It makes a lot of sense. I mean, if you're like moving somewhere or whatever, you got to travel. When you travel back then, you travel for months or years at a time. Who wants [clears throat] to load up a bunch of gold in your wagon?

[00:53:42]>> Right. Right. That's too >> Yeah. That would that would be a really big problem because you're going to get mugged on the on the highway.

[00:53:47]>> Yeah.

[00:53:48]>> Um I bet you they helped with exchange rates because I mean the gouging of exchange rates was always a major problem. I mean, that's what one of the things that was that pissed Jesus off so bad in the in the New Testament is is the exchange rates at the temple. They were just gouging everyone. They were just they were you know you had to change in your your currency from wherever you were coming for temple currency and they were just skimming off the top badly. Yeah.

[00:54:11]>> So I bet you I would I'm I'm guessing that the Knights with their international banking system had a way for you to get local currency without getting gorged by you know greedy bankers.

[00:54:22]>> Yeah. I don't know a lot about that but uh yeah surely >> it would sense. But one of the things that made that whole thing so successful, this internationally international banking process was the Templars were uh master administrators.

[00:54:39]And the reason they were master administrators is because in their order they had uh three different kinds of uh well really four different kinds of uh person or brother of the order. They had the knights. Everybody's familiar with the knights. Uh they wear the white, you know. Uh you want to pull up that picture of a of a Templar? Maybe the one of uh Jacqu de Mole. It shows him in white, I think.

[00:55:04]>> Big red cross on the front and back.

[00:55:06]>> Yeah. Cross.

[00:55:07]>> Uh yeah. So this is a illustration of Jac Mole, the last Grandmaster of the Temple. But you know, this is maybe what they would look like, right?

[00:55:16]>> That's what I see on History Channel all the time.

[00:55:18]>> Yeah. So these are just the knights.

[00:55:19]Now, the knights only were like probably about a third of the order, maybe even a little bit less than that.

[00:55:26]>> Uh, the order, the whole order, the brothers of the order were made up also of chaplain. Now, the chaplain didn't wear white. Uh, chaplain wore a black tunic um or a the rule the rule says unfortunately donkey brown. I think they the rule even says unfortunately unfortunate to say you must wear black or donkey brown. Uh, so, uh, they wear a different color. Uh, you want to pull up the picture of a sergeant. Uh, so that's a rendition of Antioch. That's, uh, Yeah. There we go. So, this is maybe something how a a Templar sergeant might look.

[00:56:04]>> He looks scarier.

[00:56:05]>> I kind of [laughter] like the black and red.

[00:56:07]>> Yeah. My wife just got me a uh, cuz, you know, I was a sergeant in the army.

[00:56:10]>> Oh, okay.

[00:56:10]>> But my wife just got me a polo, a black polo with a Templar cross on it. Sweet.

[00:56:15]That's awesome.

[00:56:16]>> Valentine's Day gift.

[00:56:17]>> Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.

[00:56:18]>> Um but [clears throat] uh so the the sergeants actually made up a large large portion of the order. Now the sergeants there were two different types. Uh uh brothers of service or brothers in arms.

[00:56:33]Uh now the brothers in arms this would be a portrayal of a brother in arms.

[00:56:39]They were the fighting military element of the sergeants. But the others the sergeants of service were administrators. So they came from a lot of merchant class. Uh so they knew the books, they knew exchange, they knew they had these skills. There were also uh masons, carpenters, uh cooks, uh everybody that you would need to support the order. And so unlike a lot of other military organizations at the time that were kind of, all right, everybody, come on, we're going. Uh the temple, the [snorts] order of the temple really had a strong structure that facilitated um just being really good at everything.

[00:57:23]>> Yeah. They had they had all the bases covered for a well-run machine.

[00:57:26]>> Yeah. Just like our modern army has uh combat arms and then it has combat service support. Uh the Templars had the same thing.

[00:57:35]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:36]>> Yeah.

[00:57:37]>> That's awesome. Um so what's the next thing kind of in the story? Is it um how they started running into conflict with you know with >> yes >> royalty or people started getting jealous of them or what?

[00:57:52]>> So they do develop this uh this perception that they're wealthy right because they're storing this money they're storing money for royalty. So the Paris temple uh the king of France kept the royal treasury in the Paris temple. Uh for a long time the king of England held the English treasury in the new temple London.

[00:58:19]>> But would have these been more like banks that have a bunch of money in it versus their like their own wealth? Cuz it's one thing to say the the bank is wealthy. Well, that's other people's money.

[00:58:29]>> Yeah. So it's the same concept. Yeah. It wasn't theirs.

[00:58:32]>> It wasn't theirs.

[00:58:33]>> Yeah. the their their wealth. Now, they were wealthy, but that wealth came from their land holdings. Their land was valuable and they rented out their land as well. So, they did receive income, but like I said, all that money they were making was going back to the east.

[00:58:48]They weren't >> just storing this. They weren't just accumulating this wealth outside of the landold.

[00:58:53]>> It sounds like this were a very honest organization. It was not a corrupt organization >> for the most part. Yeah. Now, there probably was some corruption, right? We see that in any organization.

[00:59:04]>> So there was probably an element of corruption that existed. Um where [clears throat] they continue to get their criticism outside of this idea of avarice is um the in 11 um in 1139 they receive uh their full papal privileges and what it does is it allows them to uh not have to pay tithes, right? And so this reputation of avarice of being greedy >> it uh starts developing because one this bull also allows them this papal bull allows them to not be subordinate to local bishops right so the bishops can't say anything about it and also they don't have to pay tithe to the bishop so you can see how some animus would be created between uh the church broadly right uh and the order.

[01:00:02]>> Yeah.

[01:00:03]>> Um and so they develop this kind of reputation for for Avarest and this this continues to build and grow. Where they start receiving more uh criticism is uh in the battle of Hatine between the second and third crusade. And what is that? So the battle of Hatine is this uh really really big battle that happens that results in the loss of Jerusalem. Um so the master of the order at the time [clears throat] um he basically advises uh uh Guz he's becomes the uh king of Jerusalem and he advises Gidus to um go and aid uh the county of trip or the crusader state of Tripoli where that it's being attacked >> and uh Guz actually gets advice from the hospitalers and um uh um some of the other people in Jerusalem to not do that like hey this is going to weaken Jerusalem it's going to make us vulnerable we can't leave so Raymond of Tripoli uh says we shouldn't go to uh uh Tripoli and and defend it. Uh and uh Gerard of Ridford, the Templar master says, "No, we need to go." Now, they did not like each other. Uh Gerard of Ridford and Raymond of Tripoli. And uh Guzon uh thought that Raymond of Tripoli was trying to give him bad advice. So he doesn't listen to him and instead listens to the master of the order at the time >> and they leave Jerusalem and it weakens uh >> weakens Jerusalem. They get attacked on the way. They run out of water and eventually um uh Saladine uh the Egyptian um uh Sultan attacks Jerusalem and this is where we lose Jerusalem. Okay.

[01:02:23]>> And so it's a massive failure for the Templars. Did we like ever get Jerusalem back? Like I don't even know what the status is today. Like how would we even talk about it in today's terms?

[01:02:33]>> So we didn't get it back back, but uh some like treaties were signed that allowed the Christians back in.

[01:02:40]>> I see. Okay. That's how they got back in.

[01:02:42]>> Yeah.

[01:02:43]>> Okay. All right. So after this failure and losing Jerusalem based off of the advice of the master of the temple, uh it is really looking really bad for the order.

[01:02:56]Shortly after that, well not shortly after, but in 1291 we lose the last crusader say of Acra and the Templars are heavily criticized because their whole purpose in life is to protect the Holy Land.

[01:03:09]>> Right. Yeah, that's bad. Yeah. when your whole purpose is to protect it and we keep losing battle after battle.

[01:03:16]>> Major battles.

[01:03:16]>> Major battles.

[01:03:17]>> Yeah.

[01:03:18]>> Do you have any idea why we lost?

[01:03:20]>> Yeah. So, I don't I don't think it's so much a result of the Templars so much >> because they sound like they're a really good army.

[01:03:26]>> Yeah. It is the result of key individuals, right? So, bad leadership, right? That's usually the cause of failure for anything, right? uh Gerard in for the battle of Hatine, Gerard the Ritford uh gives bad advice to Gdeluzion. They leave Jerusalem. Uh and this is really based off of personal prejudice against somebody else, right?

[01:03:50]Pride. Um and it results in in bad decisions.

[01:03:54]>> Later on with the fall of Acra and the rest of the crusader states, >> same thing. Royal animus between uh different rulers and uh and less a result of the Templars. In fact, we could probably even say that >> because the Templars were so obedient, right? They just kind of Yes, sir. and drive on like, you're you're in charge.

[01:04:17]I'm here as an adviser. Um, all right.

[01:04:20]We'll go to we'll we'll go to this battle. And then, you know, ultimately you lose because >> there's no water or something like that.

[01:04:27]>> So, does that bring us up to how they eventually came to an end?

[01:04:31]>> Yeah. So, that brings us up to how how they they come to an end. So they lo we lose uh Acra in 1291. Um and now people are upset. Uh in 1307 uh rumors of um impropriety start spreading.

[01:04:52]>> What I read is like sodomy.

[01:04:55]>> Yeah.

[01:04:55]>> Embezzlement.

[01:04:56]>> So rumors of embezzlement. Uh sodomy. Uh cursing Christ. Oh, that's right. There was one that they say like they threw a like a cross on the ground and spit on it and like all these weird things.

[01:05:09]>> Spitting on the cross, stepping on the cross. Um, and a lot of these rumors were said to have come from as be like part of their initiation ritual. Um, but they're not true.

[01:05:20]>> Secret society kind of stuff.

[01:05:21]>> Yeah. So, this is also where a lot of this modern day myth of the Templars starts coming from >> where that the Masons Masonic orders come from them, >> right? uh which and that that's that didn't come around until I think the early 18th century.

[01:05:36]>> Is there any historic connection between Masons and these guys?

[01:05:39]>> No. No. Uh, in fact, the Templar connection actually came after well after the creation of the Freemasons and it was an anti- Freemasonry um book that came out that took exist existing Templar rumors and applied them to make the Freemasons look even worse.

[01:06:05]So, you know, there was this idea that the Templars were really bad based off these rumors that have kind of stuck in history. Um, and it was applied to the Freemasons saying, "Oh, the Freemasons came from the Templars. This is why and they're bad and they do these terrible things. Look at the things the Templars did. All these heresies and stepping on the cross and and all this blasphemy."

[01:06:28]And so, uh, that's kind of where that connection gets made. But that is a like 200 years after the development of the Freemasons. And so there really is no good historical evidence for a Templar Freemason connection.

[01:06:41]>> What were Freemasons doing before the Reformation?

[01:06:46]>> I'm not sure.

[01:06:46]>> Yeah. Before I mean before I don't know anything about that because we think of them now as like a a Protestant organization, you know, but I wonder what they were doing before. I mean were they >> some kind of military order? I I I don't know. I don't know. I don't think >> I don't think so. I think uh I need to do an episode on like the history of the Masons. I don't know. I don't know anything about it. You know, I hear a lot about what happens today, >> right?

[01:07:08]>> But anyway, so um th this this slander is spreading and it goes viral.

[01:07:15]>> Yeah. So, Philip IV in 1307, King of France, owes a lot of money to the Templars.

[01:07:24]>> Why would he owe money to them?

[01:07:26]>> Uh he took out loans for >> Cuz it's a bank. because it's a bank, right? And so he owes them a lot of money. Um now, uh Jacqu de Mole, the grand or the last master of the order, he kind of sees the writing on the wall.

[01:07:43]He's already kind of trying to hold off these rumors and he actually requests from the pope uh an investigation be done.

[01:07:52]>> Uh and he >> of his own order.

[01:07:54]>> Of his own order. Yeah.

[01:07:55]>> He's like, "Come to an audit."

[01:07:56]>> Yeah. That's exactly what that's exactly what he was doing. And he gave Philip IV all his treasury back. So he says, "Here's the treasury. They put it back in the LO and the Paris temple no longer has any money in it."

[01:08:14]>> Not good enough for Philip IV. And once he hears that there's going to be an investigation on the Templars, he orders the arrests of all the Templars in France. I think it's something like 3,000 Templars. A lot of Templars all across France simultaneously >> under the guise of they're corrupt.

[01:08:37]>> Under the guise of the existing group, they're sodomites blah blah blah.

[01:08:42]>> Yes. And has them all arrested in France. Now the pope at the time is arguably very upset. Uh he [snorts] wasn't expecting Philip IV to take such drastic measures but the damage is kind of done. And so the pope then orders the arrests of the Templars all across Europe. Well, all across Latin Christian.

[01:09:07]>> Why would he? But did he believe Philip?

[01:09:10]I mean, do you think he believed him?

[01:09:11]>> I don't think he did. I don't think there's not a lot of good evidence that he did. And >> so why would he go arrest the other nights?

[01:09:17]>> And I I'm not sure. I I can't answer for him. I can't I'm sorry, >> but he he there's evidence that he wasn't really even taking the accusations very seriously and that when um Malay requested the investigation, he's like, "Okay, I'll get to it."

[01:09:36]Right. So it really wasn't a strong [clears throat] he wasn't really motivated to arrest the Templars until Philip IV arrested them.

[01:09:46]And it you know he could have had some influence from Philip IV you know he could have said hey you need to arrest the rest of the Templars. I don't I don't know that's speculation but >> they get arrested throughout Latin Christendom. Now of the Templars arrested in France almost all of them are tortured.

[01:10:04]They're almost all interrogated using torture techniques. And >> we're not talking waterboarding. We're talking about something that really Yes.

[01:10:12]sucks.

[01:10:13]>> Right. So, um, now I'm not familiar with all the torture techniques, but they were bad.

[01:10:17]>> I thought your dissertation was on. I'm just [laughter] kidding. No, no.

[01:10:20]>> Uh, so >> this is probably this is probably drawing and quartering and stuff like that. Yeah.

[01:10:26]>> Yeah.

[01:10:27]>> And so, of the Templars that can't resist the torture, which you can't blame them for not resisting the torture, right? They make confessions.

[01:10:37]38, I think, maybe 76. I can't remember the number, but it was a good handful of Templars resist the torture and die because the torture was so extreme, never having made a confession. M >> and so and then interestingly where we find in other areas where the Templars were arrested and interrogated but torture was not used there were no confessions made.

[01:11:04]>> Yeah.

[01:11:05]>> And then Jacqu de Malay himself he's also arrested in 1307 with the rest of the Templars.

[01:11:10]He's heavily tortured and interrogated and he makes a confession.

[01:11:20]comes back after recovering from the interrogation and retracts his his confession two year that's in around 1307.

[01:11:32]In 1312, after this has been going on for a few years across Latin Christendom, the Pope says, "Okay, enough. We're going to conclude this investigation." He has his own papal inquiry. Finds no wrongdoing of the Templars and uh but he can't keep the order going. So, he uh he uh suppress >> suppresses the order. It dissolves the order. So, Philip the fourth though, that second round of of torturing Jacques, what do you call how what's his name? The >> demo demo.

[01:12:08]>> He resists the second time around and dies from the torture. Is that right?

[01:12:11]>> I think so. Yeah.

[01:12:12]>> Yeah.

[01:12:13]>> Two years later though, now this is two year in 1314, two years after the papal investigation concludes, Philip IV goes aheads and burns him at the stake. Anyway, >> that's what it was. That's what it was.

[01:12:28]I knew he ended up dying. Yeah. And I I think I read that he just he at his [snorts] dying breath at the stake he just cursing Philip IVth. I mean it was just like yeah you scoundrel. Yeah.

[01:12:40]>> Um [clears throat] >> and >> it's pretty consistent historical uh opinion that the Knights were not guilty of these things. I mean it seems like that's a consensus.

[01:12:52]>> Yeah.

[01:12:52]>> This was all fake be started by Philip IV to get money.

[01:12:56]>> Yes. And >> what a punk.

[01:12:58]>> Yeah. And also, interestingly, where interrogation was used, all of or many of the confessions are identical, suggesting that they were being words in their mouth.

[01:13:10]>> Yeah. They were being led by the interrogators. And so, >> Wow.

[01:13:13]>> Yeah.

[01:13:15][music] >> Hey guys, did you know that the Connor Gallagher show is also on Spotify and Apple Podcast? Be sure to go over there and give us a [music] follow. Thanks so much. Now, back to the episode.

[01:13:29]All right. So now they're like the greatest military order in the history of the world has a pretty short life.

[01:13:36]Now they're suppressed by Rome. And I'm in the Pope's position. It's like we got to just close this sucker down and restart something else.

[01:13:43]>> Yeah.

[01:13:44]>> So what do they start in their place?

[01:13:46]>> Yeah. So in 1319 we see So a couple different things are happening with the Templars who are not killed, right? Um the pope orders all the possessions of the Templars to go to the hospitalers um >> which is night of Malta >> which are now called the night of Malta.

[01:14:05]Yeah. So they have existed unbroken since um 11 uh 39. What year did we say for the uh uh when the paper bull come out giving the paper privileges? 1139 >> 1139 with a datim optimum. Uh it also grants the hospitalers who had already existed as an order. It grants them the authority to gain a military mission.

[01:14:33]>> And so the pope orders that all the Templar properties be given to the hospitalers.

[01:14:39]And uh this is a kind of an ongoing process for a while because a lot of these Templar properties were in royal possession. Um, but the Templars themselves, the actual brothers of the order, they had the opportunity to either go to the hospitalers or go to another religious order, whoever would take would take them, or to just go live off in private obscurity somewhere.

[01:15:02]>> And a lot of the brothers did go to other religious orders, >> uh, including the Knights of Malta.

[01:15:11]In 1319 though in Portugal, King Denise, he says, "I want another military order that's like the Templars um because there's a strong Templar presence in Portugal." And they create then the Knights of Christ and they're a continuity uh of the Templars. Um small break between 1312 and 1319, but they're basically a continuity.

[01:15:40]>> They're relaunched. They're Templars 2.0.

[01:15:42]>> Yeah.

[01:15:43]>> Uh do they continue today?

[01:15:44]>> So the Knights of Christ do continue today. Uh but they're like an honorific sort of order. Um not a military order in the same way that you know the Knights of Malta are.

[01:15:57]>> You know, our our parents are Malta night and day of Malta. So shout out to mom and dad. But if I recall, there's some old statue on the books that says uh my dad can ride his horse through the square of St. Peters's um because they never removed it. So I totally encourage him to do that. [laughter] He might get shot down, but you know, I think that would be a really awesome thing to do, you know. So uh no. Okay.

[01:16:22]So they closed down, but they're kind of restarted by night as Knights of Christ.

[01:16:26]>> Yeah. [snorts] Um, and you know there was at their peak, do you have any idea of how many Knights of Knights Templar there were at their peak?

[01:16:34]>> So [sighs] I don't I'm not sure how many Knights Templar there were, but there were something about there were some somewhere around like 870 Templar properties. Um, and some of them held a lot of knights, right? So I mean we're talking definitely in the in the thousands of nights. The one place I went to in in in Portugal, I think there was 2,000 residents in the monastery.

[01:16:58]Now, they weren't all knights. They were their servants and everything else, but >> 2,000 guys in a in a building. Serious serious monastery.

[01:17:05]>> Yeah. So, pretty pretty large number uh for a single order. Um but uh yeah and those properties those 870 some odd properties uh were all sorts of different ranging from castles, manners, other rural properties. Um >> and do you think those got consumed by the Knights of Christ or just like given?

[01:17:31]>> So the ones in Portugal did get consumed by they got get excuse me they got given to the Knights of Christ, >> right? Um, other areas of Europe, they got given to the hospitalers. Okay.

[01:17:40]>> Or they were they were retained by royal authorities, >> right?

[01:17:44]>> Um, >> so what do you think their [sighs] their legacy is? You know, and like they end up on every History Channel, like we said, Oak Island.

[01:17:51]>> Yeah, >> I love that show.

[01:17:52]>> Yeah, I love it, too.

[01:17:53]>> There's a there's a treasure in there somewhere. I want them to keep digging.

[01:17:55]>> They're going to find it. You know, something happened on that island.

[01:17:58]Whether or not it's connected to the Templars is is maybe another matter, but uh there's something that hasn't been written down in history that that happened on that island. So tell me about their legacy.

[01:18:06]>> Yeah. So um do you want to pull up that uh um Templar seal?

[01:18:16]>> Yeah. So this is the Templar seal. Um and so part of their legacy is symbolic, right? uh they were because they were the first military order they were responsible for the generation of uh more orders the hospitalers Tutonic Knights and um they existed well beyond like the Knights of Malta still today. Yeah.

[01:18:43]>> U beyond the lifespan of the Templars and so part of their legacy is uh these other these other orders.

[01:18:51]>> Sure. And so symbolically the religious marshall form is is part of their legacy, right? Uh I love this image of the Templars. Um it's uh Cypiy Sigulum uh Militum uh the Knights uh Christ's uh the sign of the Knights of Christ. Um on it you see two Templars sharing a horse symbolic of their uh poverty.

[01:19:20]>> Oh, nice. Yeah. Um so yeah, so symbolically uh they left thus the religious marshall form. They left the church the religious marshall form.

[01:19:30]Uh materially they left a lot of uh Templar properties. Um I'll show you some examples of this. Uh can you pull up the uh Bishum Abby?

[01:19:45]That's uh we can stop there. That's New Temple London. So, New Temple, London is was the premier Templar location in England. Um, >> you can see Templar's up on that horse.

[01:19:59]I think there's two people on that horse right there.

[01:20:00]>> Yeah, that's the Templar from the Templar seal.

[01:20:03]>> Yeah.

[01:20:03]>> Um, made into a statue there. It's now so it has been used for hundreds of years as a legal center.

[01:20:12]>> Um, and so, uh, and it's still used as a legal center today. Uh so they left us these this architecture. Uh if you notice here uh for New Temple London, the church is round, right? And so >> they were really responsible or heavily responsible for importing um models of the holy supplr into the west uh through this ratunda style church construction.

[01:20:41]>> Yes. Yes. And so what they left uh and England has a high concentration compared to other countries of these ratunda style holy supplicer churches.

[01:20:53]And so what they did is they symbolically brought the holy land and placed it within the west through this architecture.

[01:21:00]>> That's cool.

[01:21:01]>> Yeah. And so for a pilgrim going to maybe new temple London, it allowed them to be in the holy land in England.

[01:21:10]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, they're bringing that kind of influence over here so that people who can't ever get to the Holy Land kind of get a little taste of it.

[01:21:17]>> Right. Exactly.

[01:21:17]>> That's awesome.

[01:21:19]>> Excuse me.

[01:21:19]>> That's [clears throat] awesome.

[01:21:20]>> Um, what else do we have here? Uh, go to Bishop. Yeah, there we go. This is Bishop Abby, one of the Templar manners. Um, this [clears throat] was a abbey for the order in England. Uh, it was later retained. Um, >> it probably had some huge walls around and everything back then. It's probably just what's left.

[01:21:41]>> Yeah, they they probably didn't have walls, so not all the properties were defensive >> castles and stuff.

[01:21:46]>> I mean, they were abbies, right? They were for a religious order, >> right?

[01:21:49]>> And so, uh, although they probably had like hedges.

[01:21:52]>> Oh, you got the flag up at the top. Nice to up there. There it is.

[01:21:56]>> Uh, you know, I don't think I've noticed that flag. I've seen this picture a hundred times. I don't know if I've ever noticed that.

[01:22:00]>> There you go.

[01:22:00]>> But that's actually the uh uh flag of England. Uh, >> with the red cross on it.

[01:22:05]>> Yeah.

[01:22:06]>> Oh, >> yeah. So, the one you're used to seeing is probably Yeah.

[01:22:09]>> Sorry. Never mind.

[01:22:12]>> Uh, yeah, that's St. George's flag.

[01:22:14]>> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I guess similar. I can't really see it close, >> right? And so, you know, that kind of begs the question, too. What was the Knights or the Order of the Temple's influence on England? So, that's kind of that's some of the stuff I'm working on right now.

[01:22:27]>> Oh, that's cool. Um but [clears throat] uh um so this property was actually retained by um I think uh Wilm William uh Montiku uh and he ended up founding a order of Augustinian cannons at this location.

[01:22:45]>> Okay.

[01:22:45]>> Uh which is also interesting right because of the temple's original association with the Augustinian cannons of the holy supplr in Jerusalem.

[01:22:54]>> So uh they left us some of those types of things. Go to the cresc picture.

[01:23:02]There we go. Uh, this is from Temple Cresc.

[01:23:06]Um, and one of the things that left us in their material remains are some interesting church frescos. Uh, so this is from one of their temple properties in in France. And we see here a a Templar knight up top left um engaged with other uh crusaders uh against uh against Muslims.

[01:23:30]>> But uh yeah, so they they left us part of their story. Yeah.

[01:23:34]>> Uh in visual form >> uh through some of these fresco, which is is pretty interesting. Um and then of course you know they left us uh uh some functional forms the international banking you know that's uh that's part of their that's part of their legacy.

[01:23:53]>> Um and uh >> they also left us these great myths.

[01:23:59]Yeah >> uh which I enjoy seeing. So [laughter] >> the myths of the fun it's fun. Why not?

[01:24:04]I mean it's just fun to see.

[01:24:05]>> Yeah. Um the myths of the Templars are interesting. Right. This is where what gets everybody's attention. Uh but you know, kind of like we discussed, you know, did the Templars have treasure? Um >> most likely not.

[01:24:18]>> Most likely not. You know, they didn't have a lot of liquid capital. Did the Templars um have the Holy Grail?

[01:24:26]>> Maybe. So there is a large there was a a big culture of relic transmission in the military orders and whoever had the most and the best relics uh was more worthy of them. Right? And so they did transfer a lot of relics from the east to the west. In England, there was a they were in possession of a holy blood relic of Christ, a vial of Christ's blood.

[01:25:00]>> Oh, wow.

[01:25:00]>> Um Yeah. That uh that was a major uh relic that they had there.

[01:25:06]>> Yeah.

[01:25:07]>> And but things like this. So, did they have the Holy Grail? I don't know.

[01:25:12]Maybe. Uh there's no historical evidence for that, but there is a there is a tradition of of relic transmission, >> major relics. Yeah. Yeah. Um and then uh did they go underground? Let's see. So this after their suppression, did the Templars go underground? Now there is a little bit of evidence for that. Um not a lot. [clears throat] Now we know most of the Templars went to other military orders or religious orders. Uh in England particularly, there are two caves that suggest that the Templars may have gone underground or at least some of them. Uh, one of them's kind of been written off as not being really from the Templars, but there's another one and I forget the name of it right now, but uh, it has on it a lot of Templar iconography and so that's interesting and that's still being actively uh, interrogated or uh, examined by archaeologists. Um, and then there's a new cave that's come out in uh Brazil that someone uh uh researcher claims uh is belonging to the Templars.

[01:26:23]>> Nice.

[01:26:24]>> But uh I haven't seen any academic uh publishing on that yet. So >> we'll see.

[01:26:29]>> It's exciting. It's awesome.

[01:26:31]>> Yeah.

[01:26:32]>> Well, thanks, man. I mean, this is uh I I Who doesn't like the stories of the nice Templar? That's it's awesome. So, and you're doing your dissertation, so good luck. You got a couple more years to go, but uh >> yeah, >> you're going to end up being the world expert on the nice Templar. That's pretty awesome.

[01:26:47]>> So, [laughter] I have a lot more to to learn. So, >> we'll get there, though.

[01:26:51]>> I know a publisher. [laughter] >> Thanks, Matt. This was fun.

[01:26:55]>> Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you having me on.

[01:26:57]>> All right, bud. Thanks a lot.

[01:26:58]>> Thanks. God bless you.

[01:27:02]>> [music] >> Hey, thanks guys for checking out the Connor Gallagher show. Please take a moment to like, subscribe, or comment or whatever you got to do to support [music] it. And I appreciate that very much.