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

This New Temple was adapted for the residence of numerous military monks and novices, serving brothers, retainers, and domestics. It contained the residence of the superior and of the knights, the cells and apartments of the chaplains and serving brethren, the council chamber where the chapters were held, and the refectory or dining-hall, which was connected, by a range of handsome cloisters, with the magnificent church, consecrated by the patriarch. Alongside the river extended a spacious pleasure ground for the recreation of the brethren, who were not permitted to go into the town without the leave of the Master. It was used also for military exercises and the training of the horses.

The year of the consecration of the Temple Church, Geoffrey, the superior of the order in England, caused an inquisition to be made of the lands of the Templars in this country, and the names of the donors thereof, 106 106 Anno ab incarnatione Domini MCLXXXV. facta est ista inquisitio de terrarum donatoribus, et earum possessoribus, ecclesiarum scil. et molendinorum, et terrarum assisarum, et in dominico habitarum, et de redditibus assisis per Angliam, per fratrem Galfridum filium Stephani, quando ipse suscepit balliam de Anglia, qui summo studio prædicta inquirendo curam sollicitam exhibuit, ut majoris notitiæ posteris expressionem generaret, et pervicacibus omnimodam nocendi rescinderet facultatem. Ex. cod. MS. in Scacc. penes Remor. Regis. fol. i. a.; Dugd. Monast. Angl. vol. vi. part ii. p. 820. from which it appears, that the larger territorial divisions of the order were then called bailiwicks, the principal 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.” 107 107 Quorum res adeo crevit in immensum, ut hodie, trecentos in conventu habeant equites, albis chlamydibus indutos: exceptis fratribus, quorum pene infinitus est numerus. Possessiones autem, tam ultra quam citra mare, adeo dicuntur immensas habere, ut jam non sit in orbe christiano provincia quæ prædictis fratribus suorum portionem non contulerit, et regiis opulentiis pares hodie dicuntur habere copias. — Will. Tyr. lib. xii. cap. 7.

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.

It was granted to the Templars, in perpetual sovereignty, by Baldwin king of Jerusalem. 108 108 Dominus Baldwinus illustris memoriæ, Hierosolymorum rex quartus, Gazam munitissimam fratribus militiæ Templi donavit, Will. Tyr. lib. xx. cap. 21. Milites Templi Gazam antiquam Palæstinæ civitatem reædificant, et turribus eam muniunt, Rob. de Monte , appen. ad chron. Sig. p. 631.

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. 109 109 Marin. Sanut , p. 221. Bernard Thesaur. p. 768. Radulph Coggleshale , p. 249. Hoveden, p. 636. Radulph de Diceto, ut sup. p. 623. Matt. Par. p. 142. Italia sacra, tom. iii. p. 407. The Templars purchased the castle of Beaufort and the city of Sidon; 110 110 Tunc Julianus Dominus Sydonis vendidit Sydonem et Belfort Templariis, Marin. Sanut , cap. vi. p. 221. 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.