The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple. Addison Charles Greenstreet

of which were London, Warwic, Couele, Meritune, Gutinge, Westune, Lincolnscire, Lindeseie, Widine, and Eboracisire, (Yorkshire.) The number of manors, farms, churches, advowsons, demesne lands, villages, hamlets, windmills, and watermills, rents of assize, rights of common and free warren, and the amount of all kinds of property, possessed by the Templars in England at the period of the taking of this inquisition, are astonishing. Upon the great estates belonging to the order, prioral houses had been erected, wherein dwelt the procurators or stewards charged with the management of the manors and farms in their neighbourhood, and with the collection of the rents. These prioral houses became regular monastic establishments, inhabited chiefly by sick and aged Templars, who retired to them to spend the remainder of their days, after a long period of honourable service against the infidels in Palestine. They were cells to the principal house at London. There were also under them certain smaller administrations established for the management of the farms, consisting of a Knight Templar, to whom were associated some serving brothers of the order, and a priest who acted as almoner. The commissions or mandates directed by the Masters of the Temple to the officers at the head of these establishments, were called precepts, from the commencement of them, “Præcipimus tibi,” we enjoin or direct you, &c. &c. The knights to whom they were addressed were styled Præceptores Templi, or Preceptors of the Temple, and the districts administered by them Præceptoria, or preceptories.

      It will now be as well to take a general survey of the possessions and organization of the order both in Europe and Asia, “whose circumstances,” saith William archbishop of Tyre, writing from Jerusalem about the period of the consecration at London of the Temple Church, “are in so flourishing a state, that at this day they have in their convent (the Temple on Mount Moriah) more than three hundred knights robed in the white habit, besides serving brothers innumerable. Their possessions indeed beyond sea, as well as in these parts, are said to be so vast, that there cannot now be a province in Christendom which does not contribute to the support of the aforesaid brethren, whose wealth is said to equal that of sovereign princes.”107

      The eastern provinces of the order were, 1. Palestine, the ruling province. 2. The principality of Antioch. 3. The principality of Tripoli.

      1. Palestine. – Some account has already been given of the Temple at Jerusalem, the chief house of the order, and the residence of the Master. In addition to the strong garrison there maintained, the Templars possessed numerous forces, distributed in various fortresses and strongholds, for the preservation and protection of the holy territory.

      The following castles and cities of Palestine are enumerated by the historians of the Latin kingdom, as having belonged to the order of the Temple.

      The fortified city of Gaza, the key of the kingdom of Jerusalem on the side next Egypt, anciently one of the five satrapies of the Lords of the Philistines, and the stronghold of Cambyses when he invaded Egypt.

      “Placed where Judea’s utmost bounds extend,

      Towards fair Pelusium, Gaza’s towers ascend.

      Fast by the breezy shore the city stands

      Amid unbounded plains of barren sands,

      Which high in air the furious whirlwinds sweep,

      Like mountain billows on the stormy deep,

      That scarce the affrighted traveller, spent with toil,

      Escapes the tempest of the unstable soil.”

      It was granted to the Templars, in perpetual sovereignty, by Baldwin king of Jerusalem.108

      The Castle of Saphet, in the territory of the ancient tribe of Naphtali; the great bulwark of the northern frontier of the Latin kingdom on the side next Damascus. The Castle of the Pilgrims, in the neighbourhood of Mount Carmel. The Castle of Assur near Jaffa, and the House of the Temple at Jaffa. The fortress of Faba, or La Feue, the ancient Aphek, not far from Tyre, in the territory of the ancient tribe of Asher. The hill-fort Dok, between Bethel and Jericho. The castles of La Cave, Marle, Citern Rouge, Castel Blanc, Trapesach, Sommelleria of the Temple, in the neighbourhood of Acca, now St. John d’Acre. Castrum Planorum, and a place called Gerinum Parvum.109 The Templars purchased the castle of Beaufort and the city of Sidon;110 they also got into their hands a great part of the town of St. Jean d’Acre, where they erected their famous temple, and almost all Palestine was in the end divided between them and the Hospitallers of Saint John.

      2. The Principality of Antioch. – The principal houses of the Temple in this province were at Antioch itself, at Aleppo, Haram, &c.

      3. The Principality of Tripoli. – The chief establishments herein were at Tripoli, at Tortosa, the ancient Antaradus; Castel-blanc in the same neighbourhood; Laodicea and Beyrout, – all under the immediate superintendence of the Preceptor of Tripoli. Besides these castles, houses, and fortresses, the Templars possessed farms and large tracts of land, both in Syria and Palestine.

      The western nations or provinces, on the other hand, from whence the order derived its chief power and wealth, were,

      1. Apulia and Sicily, the principal houses whereof were at Palermo, Syracuse, Lentini, Butera, and Trapani. The house of the Temple at this last place has been appropriated to the use of some monks of the order of St. Augustin. In a church of the city is still to be seen the celebrated statue of the Virgin, which Brother Guerrege and three other Knights Templars brought from the East, with a view of placing it in the Temple Church on the Aventine hill in Rome, but which they were obliged to deposit in the island of Sicily. This celebrated statue is of the most beautiful white marble, and represents the Virgin with the infant Jesus reclining on her left arm; it is of about the natural height, and, from an inscription on the foot of the figure, it appears to have been executed by a native of the island of Cyprus, A. D. 733.111

      The Templars possessed valuable estates in Sicily, around the base of Mount Etna, and large tracts of land between Piazza and Calatagirone, in the suburbs of which last place there was a Temple house, the church whereof, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, still remains. They possessed also many churches in the island, windmills, rights of fishery, of pasturage, of cutting wood in the forests, and many important privileges and immunities. The chief house was at Messina, where the Grand Prior resided.112

      2. Upper and central Italy. – The houses or preceptories of the order of the Temple in this province were very numerous, and were all under the immediate superintendence of the Grand Prior or Preceptor of Rome. There were large establishments at Lucca, Milan, and Perugia, at which last place the arms of the Temple are still to be seen on the tower of the holy cross. At Placentia there was a magnificent and extensive convent, called Santa Maria del Tempio, ornamented with a very lofty tower. At Bologna there was also a large Temple house, and on a clock in the city is the following inscription, “Magister Tosseolus de Miolâ me fecit … Fr. Petrus de Bon, Procur. Militiæ Templi in curiâ Romanâ, MCCCIII.” In the church of St. Mary in the same place, which formerly belonged to the Knights Templars, is the interesting marble monument of Peter de Rotis, a priest of the order. He is represented on his tomb, holding a chalice in his hands with the host elevated above it, and beneath the monumental effigy is the following epitaph: —

      “Stirpe Rotis, Petrus, virtutis munere clarus,

      Strenuus ecce pugil Christi, jacet ordine charus;

      Veste ferens, menteque crucem, nunc sidera scandit,

      Exemplum nobis spectandi cælica pandit:

      Annis ter trinis viginti mille trecentis

      Sexta quarte maii fregit lux organa mentis.”113

      Portugal. – In the province or nation of Portugal, the military power and resources of the order of the Temple were exercised in almost constant warfare against the Moors, and Europe derived essential advantage from the enthusiastic exertions of the warlike monks