"Knightfall,"
a TV series aired by the History Channel, is fictional drama filled with
inaccuracies and misinformation. + Real Crusades
History + is running a "counter series" in the form of ten blog
posts -- Ten True Tales of the Knights Templar -- which appear the
day after each episode of "Knightfall."
Today, however, Rand Brown II highlights one of the best books about the Knights Templar available.
Trans. by Henry Taylor
Ignatius Press, 2009
“History is a novel that has been lived” the French literary aficionado
Edmond de Goncourt once wrote. For sure,
the historical narrative offers a staggeringly rich selection of the very best
drama, tragedy, intrigue, and even horror to be found – provided one bothers to
look for it. However, there are not a
few stories in which fiction has thoroughly eclipsed the truth – so much so
that it is nearly impossible to encounter those stories without being
overwhelmed by centuries-worth of misconception and outright fantasy. So it is with the Poor Knights of Christ and
of the Temple of Solomon, more widely known in both their day and our own as
the Knights Templar.
Founded in 1118AD by a poor knight-pilgrim from Champagne for the sole
purpose of defending the pilgrim routes in and out of the Holy Land freshly
claimed by the Latin crusaders, the Order would experience a swift rise and
fall in fortunes rarely seen in human history.
Attracting thousands of knights to its cause, the Templars would become
one of the most elite military forces in Latin Outremer due to the potent
combination of a strict rule of discipline often not seen in standard medieval
armies, a tightly-knit organizational structure, and an operational
independence from any other party’s command other than the Pope himself. In addition, their counterparts back in
Europe established a financial support network that quickly became the first
supranational banking system in the West.
At the height of their operations, the Templar Order served as the
custodians of entire royal treasuries deposited within their commanderies.
However, after not even two centuries of existence, the Order was beset
upon from all sides by both secular rulers (one in particular) and the very
Church it had so faithfully served. In
1312, the last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake in Paris
on spurious charges of heresy and the Knights Templar vanished almost as
quickly as they appeared.
Human nature has an inherent attraction to the mysterious and the
fantastical and the embers of de Molay’s pyre had not even gone cold before all
sorts of conspiracy theories and esoteric myths about the doomed Templars began
to circulate. This phenomenon only
gained momentum as the centuries went on – by the time of the so-called
Enlightenment, the Templars were the at the center of all sorts of bizarre and
ahistorical mythologies, all bent on uncovering gnostic “secrets” and treasures
wholly fabricated by the very cultists peddling them. In our own times, the grotesque esoteric
nonsense surrounding the Knights Templar continues seemingly unabated as seen
in various Masonic pseudo-occultism, best-selling fiction novels, the film
industry, and even popular video game series.
In all this pathetic fiction, the serious student of history may be
tempted to despair that there is anyone who can push aside the fantasy so that
the real Knights Templar can indeed stand up.
Fortunately, such a person did exist.
Régine
Pernoud (d. 1998) was perhaps one the foremost medievalists both in her native
France and far beyond. She wrote on a
wide variety of medieval topics, including St. Jeanne d’Arc, the role of women
in medieval society, and the Crusades - usually with the stated goal of
clearing up modern misconceptions regarding them. In 1974, she sought to confront head-on the
gross misconceptions surrounding the Templar Order and to historically
rehabilitate them as the impactful organization that they truly were.
In doing so, Pernoud sticks strictly to the historical facts drawn from
primary source materials, of which she was a master of in her life. She covers in detail the origins, rule, and
daily operations of the Order – shedding light on the dually religious and
military life these knightly monks led, unique even in their own time. In recounting their service in Frankish Outremer, Pernoud helps the reader see
the Templar through the eyes of both their fellow Latin Christians and their
Islamic foes – both of whom simultaneously feared and admired the Order’s
impressive reputation on and off the field of battle. She also uncovers the fascinating details of
the Templar’s banking activities back in Europe and the how various powers in
Christendom, both secular and clerical, became financially beholden to the
Order in one way or another – something that would play a major role in their
downfall.
Pernoud ends her richly detailed, but concisely worded work with a
masterful analysis of the Order’s sudden collapse at the dawn of the 14th
Century. In a narrative that reads
almost like a crime thriller, Pernoud reveals the deliberate coup against the
Templars orchestrated by King Philip IV of France and his even more dispicable
apparatchiks. These were the devious
Keeper of the Seals, Guillaume de Nogaret, who harbored an obvious hatred for
the Order and possibly the Church as a whole, and the Machiavellian chamberlain, Enguerrand
de Marigny, who shared his king’s neo-statist desire for consolidated royal
power. The independent and powerful
Templars were viewed a sincere threat. There
was the additional allure of the Order’s vast financial holdings – a tempting
acquisition King Philip, mired in several costly and indecisive wars with
England and Flanders, simply couldn’t resist.
Throughout the ordeal, the Church was outmaneuvered and outright dominated
by French royal power-politics. Ultimately, the Pope shamefully abandoned the
very knight-brothers who had so faithfully served the Church for nearly two
hundred years.
Pernoud’s excellent assessment of the Templar’s fate and the injustice
behind it was later vindicated by the discovery and translation of the Chinon
Parchment in 2007 that prompted Pope Benedict XVI to formally absolve the
Templar Order of the charges levied against it exactly eight hundred years
prior. No matter how long the truth is
obscured by obscene myth and misconception, eventually, the truth will pierce
the veil. Régine Pernoud accomplishes just that and her work is
a must-read for anyone who wishes to speak with authority on the Poor Knights
of Christ and the Temple.
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