Military Orders
Origin of the Templars
In 1118, Hugh de Payens and eight other knights were in Palestine. They had observed the conditions on the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, the road most commonly traveled by pilgrims, and had seen how dangerous the passage was. The danger was not so much from Muslim armies as from local bandits who found the unarmed pilgrims easy prey.
Hugh and the other knights took a vow to live a monastic life: to be celibate, to forsake wealth, to live a common life. They vowed further to defend the pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. Defense of Jerusalem itself was of course the proper business of King Baldwin, but the pilgrims were a special case. The Palestinian nobles could not be expected to guard the road continually, and Hugh sought to fulfill the need.
Hugh's little band was unique in conceiving of the idea of fighters who lived according to the rule of monks, but it was unique in another sense as well. The Palestinian barons were feudal lords living on and defending their estates. The Crusaders who came were warriors come to fight in a war and to return home again. But these nine knights were in a sense dedicated to continual crusading. In Hugh and the others, Outremer had the nucleus of something like a standing army.
Hugh made a strong impression on everyone around him. The number of the brothers increased quickly. Within a few years, King Baldwin had granted to Hugh a portion of what the Crusaders called the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Thus did they become known as the Knights of the Temple, or the Templars. By 1127, Hugh was in Europe, drumming up support for his new order. He gained a powerful advocate in Bernard of Clairvaux, the greatest preacher of his day.
It was St. Bernard himself who wrote (or at least helped to write) a Rule for the new order and gained papal recognition of it. He also wrote a famous tract, De laude novae militiae: In Praise of the New Knights. With Bernard, not only was the idea of a warrior-monk permissible, it was laudable. His advocacy helped to popularize the Templars in Europe, and the order grew rapidly. It was formally approved by the pope in 1139, and by the time the Second Crusade came along, it was well established and indeed played a key role in that Crusade.