Chivalric / Chevaleresque

Notice: There are more than 1700 groups in the world that call themselves ‘Templars’ or ‘Knights Templar, which is a name they can freely use. Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici  Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and  the Temple of Solomon Pauvres Chevaliers du Christ et du Temple de Salomon Non-Nobis, Domine, Non-Nobis, 

A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Greek hippeis and hoplite and Roman eques and centurion of classical antiquity. 

A military order (Latin: militaris ordo) is a Christian religious society of knights. The original military orders were the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of Saint James, the Order of Calatrava, and the Teutonic Knights. They arose in the Middle Ages in association with the Crusades, both in the Holy Land and in the Iberian peninsula; their members were dedicated to the protection of pilgrims and the defence of the Crusader states. They are the predecessors of chivalric orders.

Most members of military orders were laymen who took religious vows, such as of poverty, chastity, and obedience, according to monastic ideals. The orders owned houses called commanderies all across Europe and had a hierarchical structure of leadership with the grand master at the top.

The Knights Templar, the largest and most influential of the military orders, was suppressed in the early fourteenth century; only a handful of orders were established and recognized afterwards. However, some persisted longer in their original functions, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Order of Saint John, the respective Catholic and Protestant successors of the Knights Hospitaller. Those military orders that survive today have evolved into purely honorific or ceremonial orders or else into charitable foundations.

Most orders created since the late 17th century were no longer societies and fellowships of knights who followed a common mission but were established by monarchs or governments with the specific purpose of bestowing honour on deserving individuals. In most European monarchies, these new orders retained some outward forms from the medieval orders of chivalry (such as rituals and structure) but were in essence, orders of merit, mainly distinguished from their republican counterparts by the fact that members were entitled to a title of nobility. While some orders required noble birth (such as the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary, established in 1764), others would confer a title upon appointment (such as the Military Order of Max Joseph, established in 1806) while in yet other orders only the top classes were considered knights (such as in the Order of St Michael and St George, established in 1818). Orders of merit which still confer privileges of knighthood are sometimes referred to as orders of knighthood. As a consequence of being not an order of chivalry but orders of merit or decorations, some republican honour have thus avoided the traditional structure found in medieval orders of chivalry and created new ones instead, e.g. the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria, or the Legion of Merit of the United States.

• The Order of Saint Lazarus, founded in 1098 at a leper hospital in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and is one of the lesser known orders.

• The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society c. 1190 in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

• The Order of Saint Stanislaus, founded by King Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski of Poland in 1765

• The Ludwigsorden (Order of Louis) of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, founded in 1807, abolished in 1874, was founded by Queen Victoria in 1861 and has not been awarded since the independence of India in 1947

• The Order of the Indian Empire was founded by Queen Victoria in 1878 and has not been awarded since the independence of India in 1947

• The Order of the African Star, founded by King Leopold II of the Congo Free State on 30 December 1888, became a Belgian order in 1908 and has not been awarded since the independence of Congo in 1960

• The Royal Order of the Lion, founded by King Leopold II of the Congo Free State on 9 April 1891, became a Belgian order in 1908 and has not been awarded since the independence of Congo in 1960

• The Order of the Norwegian Lion, founded in 1904, abolished in 1952

• The Order of Pahlavi, founded in 1928 by Reza Shah, was abolished in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution. There were two classes. The first class, the Grand Collar, was worn by the Shah, crown prince, and awarded to heads of state. The second class, the Grand Cordon, was worn by princes and princesses.

In twelfth-century Europe, there was a strong appreciation of the feminine, especially in Provence, where women held fief and manor by right of inheritance as early as the tenth century. The cult of Mary Magdalene heralded her as the patron saint of gardens and vineyards, the mediatrix of fertility, beauty and the joy of life. She filled the role of the love goddess of antiquity. During this time, Jerusalem was recaptured, and the Order of the Knights Templar, which has become well-known through The Da Vinci Code, flourished.

The Gospel of Mary of Magdala:  Jesus and the First Woman Apostle by Karen L. King

Excerpt from:

The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle by Karen L. King (Polebridge Press, Santa Rosa, California, 2003), pp. 3-12

Templars

Trial timeline in France

• October 13, 1307, Templars were arrested in France

• October 14, 1307Guillaume de Nogaret lists original accusations against Templars.

• October 19, 1307 Hearings in Paris begin.

• October 24, 1307, Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Temple, confesses for the first time.

• October 25, 1307, Jacques de Molay repeats his confession before the members of the University of Paris.

• October 27, 1307, Pope Clement V expresses indignation at their arrests to Philip.

• November 9, 1307, Confession of Hugues de Pairaud.

• November 22, 1307, Jacques de Molay retracts his confession before the cardinal sent by the pope.

• February 1308, Clement V suspends the inquisitors involved in the Templar affair.

• August 17–20, 1308, Chinon parchment shows pardons for leadership of the Templars, including Jacques de Molay and Huges de Pairaud.

• March 14, 1310, 127 Articles of accusation read to the Templars who are prepared to defend their order.

• April 7, 131, Defense of the order led by Pierre de Bologna and Renaud de Provins.

• May 12, 1310, 54 Templars were burned at the stake.

• December 17, 1310, the remaining defenders were told that Peter of Bologna and Renaud de Provins had returned to their confessions and that Peter of Bologna had fled.

• March 22, 1312, The Order of the Knights Templar is officially suppressed.

• March 21, 1313, Hospitallers agree to pay Philip IV 200,000 livres tournois compensation.

• March 18, 1314, Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney are burned at the stake as relapsed heretics.

After commissions of the Council of Vienne had reviewed all documents regarding the Templars, on March 22, 1312, Clement V issued the Papal bull Vox in excelso suppressing the Order of the Templars. In May 1312, by the bull Ad Providam, he provided that all assets of the Order of the Temple were to be given to Knights Hospitaller, to maintain the original purposes of the gifts to aid the Holy Land. It further made a distinction between Templars who remained unrepentant and those not found guilty of any crimes or who had been reconciled to the Church. Philip IV, however, confiscated a huge sum from them in "compensation" for the "costs" of the proceedings against the Templars. Also, in England, where inventories were made of Templar lands and assets, the papal order had no immediate effect. There were so many delays and stalling in handing over these lands that even as late as 1338, the Hospitaliers had only nominal control of former Templar lands.

The Chinon Parchment

Pope Clement V absolved 72 of the Knights Templar in July 1308 at Poitiers after hearing their confessions. However, King Philip still withheld access to the leaders of the Order and it was not until August 1308 that a papal commission was finally allowed to hear from them and also grant them absolution. The evidence of these hearings has been based on indirect evidence until the discovery of the Chinon parchment in September 2001 by Barbara Frale in the Vatican Archives. The document had been previously overlooked by Vatican researchers for some time due to its damaged condition and being misfiled, among other unrelated documents. The importance of the Chinon parchment is that it is an authentic copy under the seal of three of the cardinals sent by Clement V, Bérenger Frédol, Etienne de Suisy and Landolfo Brancacci, who were authorized to judge the Templars in his name. There was another account of the trials at Chinon, namely a second-hand report held in the French Chancery, described in the register of Pierre d'Étampes, which was the only available account up until the discovery of the original parchment (and its authentic copy) in the Vatican archives. A comparison between the two shows the French copy provides a somewhat different account of events at Chinon. The Chinon parchment shows the hearings were held by the Church only and that royal lawyers were not present, while the French document gives a different impression, that the official proceedings were held under the auspices of the Pope and the French king. Other discrepancies between the two lead to the conclusion that the French document was an indirect copy based on verbal accounts and not from having access to the original parchment. There is one unresolved question as to the chronology, however. In the bull Faciens misericordiam (showing mercy), Clement V announced to Philip IV that Jacques de Molay and the other Templar leaders were absolved and reconciled to the Church; and that any power to judge them again was reserved to the Pope alone. This bull was dated 12 August 1308, eight days before the hearings with these leaders were actually held. Whether this was an internal error in dating or the Pope was certain of the outcome before the hearings are not known and needs to be investigated further. While it remains less than clear as to what exactly happened at Chinon castle between August 17–20, 1308, further investigations may provide new answers