The Order in the Light
The chronicle’s historical account of the Order before its suppression in 1307.
c. 1119: Hugues de Payns and Godfrey de Saint-Omer found the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ in Jerusalem to guard the pilgrim road from Jaffa; quartered on the Temple Mount.
1129: Council of Troyes recognises the Order and gives it a Rule; Bernard of Clairvaux writes In Praise of the New Knighthood. 29 March 1139: Omne datum optimum makes the Order answer to the pope alone.
The Rule: knights (white mantle), sergeants (black or brown), chaplains; married confratres could not wear white; Grand Master, Seneschal, Marshal, Commander of the Kingdom and others in the Convent. Twenty-three Grand Masters 1119–1314.
1139–1187: lands and privileges in the West, frontier castles in the East, the Second Crusade, a house in London.
1187 Hattin and the fall of Jerusalem; Third Crusade; the thirteenth century; the fall of Acre, May 1291.
The Temple as a bank: deposits, letters of credit, the treasuries of Paris and London.
1291–1307: exile in Cyprus, the loss of Ruad (1302), Philip IV's debts and his war with the papacy, the informer, and the sealed arrest orders opened at dawn on Friday 13 October 1307.
Historical anchors used later: 17–20 August 1308 Chinon absolution; 22 March 1312 Vox in excelso suppresses the Order by apostolic provision, not a verdict of guilt; 18 March 1314 Jacques de Molay, 23rd Grand Master, retracts before Notre-Dame and is burned.
Record source
VOID-KNIGHTS:event/templars-in-the-light · Canon