NARRATOR: The Knights Templar. A secret brotherhood born in the throes
of the Middle Ages, only to vanish after
two centuries in existence. (Ominous music playing) Of these men
who left their mark on history remains the legends
that made them famous. Their white overcoats
bearing the iconic red cross. The riches they amassed. Their discipline and ferocity
in battle. These were the elite troops, the special forces
of the 12th century. NARRATOR: After 1,000 years, mysteries
still surround the myth of these soldiers of Christ. FEMALE VOICE: Are they priests?
Are they monks? Are they knights? What are they? An English chronicler called
them "a certain new monster." (Heroic music playing) NARRATOR:
Who was behind the creation of the Order of the Temple? What was its mission? And how did the Templars
become so powerful so quickly? By the end of the 12th century the Templars had become
an international organization. NARRATOR: Thanks to experts
on the Order of the Temple, along with an investigation where the only written evidence
of this period is kept, we discover the birth
of a legendary brotherhood, a unique paradox of men
simultaneously monk and soldier. (Speaking French)
It's truly unheard-of, that there's a military code within a religious rule. (Speaking French)
There were Christian thinkers who felt it was an abomination to try to bring together
prayer and battle. (Epic music playing) NARRATOR:
From the arid lands of the East to the royal courts
of France and England, discover the rise
of the first Templars. See how they rallied the Pope,
kings and people all across Europe
to their cause. People began to offer
huge sums of money, large numbers of donations
to the Templar Order. (Speaking French) The county
of Champagne, Burgundy, Ile de France, saw the birth
of networks of Templar houses and commanderies
ever 30 to 40 kilometers. It was completely unprecedented
to become that powerful, that quickly. NARRATOR: This is the story
of the birth of the Knights Templar, a handful of men who transformed
a simple brotherhood of soldiers into a religious order
prepared to reign over Europe. (Flames crackling) NARRATOR: Jerusalem. It was here,
in the heart of the Middle Ages that the first Knights Templar
emerged. At the time,
only a handful of knights. Nearly destitute. But all are of great piety and have been trained in combat. Sworn to dedicate their lives
to a new cause: protection of the Holy Land, and of the Christian pilgrims
who come there to worship. (Solemn music playing) To understand the origins
of their existence, we must go back to the end
of the 11th century. At the time,
the religious world was divided. In the west,
the vast majority of Europe was under the authority of the
Christian church and the Pope. Islam dominates North Africa,
southern Spain and the Near East while the Turks threaten
the Byzantine Empire and its capital Constantinople, territory
of the Orthodox Church. With Pope Urban II's
call to action the First Crusade witnessed
thousands of Christians marching across Europe
to reconquer the Holy Land. After three years
of violent fighting these crusaders reclaimed
many possessions, in particular
the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ was crucified
and where his tomb lies. They got to Jerusalem
in the summer of 1099 and camped outside the city
walls for about a month, laying siege to Jerusalem, and once they breached the city walls in July,
there was a bloodbath. It was said that blood
was running knee-deep. This could be
a medieval exaggeration. Medieval chronicles
are prone to exaggerate the scale of carnage,
but it was pretty bad. Muslims were slaughtered. NARRATOR:
The First Crusade gave birth to the Crusader States: the county of Edessa,
the principality of Antioch, the county of Tripoli
and the kingdom of Jerusalem. SEAN MARTIN:
The irony was that after this three-year epic journey, with tens of thousands of people
laying waste to various cities, a lot of them just went back
to Europe after that. (Rumble of marching feet) NARRATOR: At the dawn
of the 12th century, the security
of these Crusader states, threatened from all sides, rested on only a few knights
of very diverse backgrounds, who chose to settle there. (Chattering voices) The challenge facing
those who remain in the east
after the First Crusade is to try and turn their
fairly small territorial gains into permanent territories
that can last in the long term. From a military perspective,
they have enemies in Damascus who can raise armies
of several thousand troops. And in Aleppo,
a slightly larger army, and also Fatimid, Egypt which can raise
about 15,000 troops. Given that the Crusader States,
in the early years, can't put together
more than a few hundred knights with a slightly larger
contingent of infantry, that's a very serious challenge. (Dramatic music playing) NARRATOR: In Jerusalem, Christian pilgrimage
is on the rise and is organized by the
authorities of the Holy City: The King of Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch
at the head of the church, and the Canons
of the Holy Sepulcher which govern religious life
in the city. MAN SPEAKING FRENCH:
The Holy Sepulcher is the church that is located at the site
of both the crucifixion and the burial of Christ. It's a church that attracted
Christian veneration early on, and therefore
it's the Holy Sepulcher which happens
to be the main church of Jerusalem. And therefore it's
around the Holy Sepulcher, the Patriarch and the Canons,
that the church of the East is really structured. NARRATOR: At their side
are the members of the Order of the Hospitallers
of Saint John of Jerusalem, to help welcome pilgrims
and care for the sick. But guaranteeing their safety is becoming
increasingly difficult. MAN SPEAKING FRENCH:
Pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem were under constant threat
of guerrilla raids from ambushes, so all pilgrims arriving
in Jerusalem could be attacked in the vicinity
or near the Holy City. The outskirts of this holy land
were by no means safe. (Dramatic music playing) NARRATOR: At the time, the Knights Templar
didn't yet exist. The soldiers charged
with the safety of the pilgrims were called
the Milites Sancti Sepulcri. The Knights
of the Holy Sepulcher. (Speaking French) It's
a brotherhood of armed civilians who organize themselves
to protect the Holy Sepulcher. To protect men,
and to protect property throughout
the kingdom of Jerusalem. The milites sancti sepulcri are neither part
of the Canonical Order of the Holy Sepulcher nor of the Hospitaller Order
of Saint John of Jerusalem. It could be said that
the milites sancti sepulcri, who are committed to protecting
pilgrims, to protecting canons, to defending, if need be, those areas
which may be insecure, are in a kind
of dual dependence. They are dependent on the Canons
who direct their spiritual life, and dependent
on the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem who maintain and nourish them. NARRATOR: Among these
Milites Sancti Sepulcri, one knight will claim
his independence. His goal is to form
a more powerful group. A hybrid order, which no one had ever dared
to imagine before. Soldiers of a new kind,
both religious and warrior. This knight is the founder
of what will much later be known as the Order of the Temple. His identity and history
are mentioned for the first time in a 12th century chronicle
written by Michael The Syrian, patriarch of the Jacobite church
of Antioch. MALE VOICE: At the beginning
of the reign of Baldwin II, a Frenchman came from Rome
to Jerusalem to pray. He had made a vow not to return
to his own country, but to become a monk after having helped the King
in the war for three years. Along with the 30 knights
who accompanied him, he would spend the rest
of his life in Jerusalem. When the king and his barons saw that the Frenchman
and his knights had achieved remarkable things
in battle, they advised the man
to serve in the militia with his 30 knights and defend the place
against bandits rather than become a monk in the hope of saving
only his own soul. Now this man, whose name
was Hugues de Payns, accepted this counsel, and the 30 knights
who accompanied him joined and united with him. NARRATOR: Hugues de Payns. Born in the Champagne region
around 1070, in a small village
that he is named after, located 12 kilometers
from the city of Troyes. He is a knight in the service
of Count Hugues of Champagne. With his suzerain, Hugues de Payns will spend
three years in the Holy Land at the beginning
of the 12th century before returning to Europe. (Speaking French) Hugues
de Payns led a family life. He had a wife and children. And then in 1114, touched by a deep piety that must have inhabited him
for a long time, he went back to the Holy Land, and this time he left
with the idea that he would never come back. (Inaudible) GHISLAIN BRUNEL: Hugues de Payns
is a military strategist, a defender of the Holy Land. He truly experienced
what Jerusalem was, and it must have been
a revelation. In Jerusalem, one could not be
a knight like any other. One could only be a knight turned towards God,
towards the service of Christ, so this idea
must have germinated when he arrived in Jerusalem. NARRATOR:
Over several years, Hugues de Payns
refined his project. And in 1119, one event
will change his destiny. (Epic music playing) On June 28th, 1119, Muslims of the city of Aleppo attack the Principality
of Antioch. The intensity of the fighting
will be of such violence that the event will be baptized
in Latin as the Ager Sanguinis: the battle
of the Field of Blood. (Clatter of swords) It is Baldwin II,
the new king of Jerusalem, who will come in person
to repel the invaders. This battle reinforced
the sovereign's belief that the threat to the Crusader
States was becoming too great. (Speaking French)
The new king, Baldwin II, realized that he needed
more military presence than he had on the ground. He needed border guards, escorts on the roads
to protect the pilgrims. He needed additional forces. NARRATOR:
It was on January the 16th, 1120 in the small city of Nablus north of Jerusalem, that a council was to take place that would change
the course of history. Assembled around
the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, and the Patriarch
Gormond de Picquigny, the council brought together
the main clergymen and nobles of the kingdom. On that day, the two men approved the project
conceived by Hugues de Payns: The formation
of a new order of knights, both religious and military, dedicated entirely
to the defense of the Holy Land. (Speaking French)
The opportunity was seized by the King
and the Patriarch together, to gamble that these knights
could be operative, and the Patriarch
played this game, which was not
a foregone conclusion, because these knights who had gathered in the shadow
of the Holy Sepulcher were empowered. They detached themselves
from the Patriarch, they claimed to lead
a religious life of their own, to no longer obey the directive
of the Holy Sepulcher, but a master chosen
from among themselves without ceasing
to be what they were, that is to say,
knights and warriors. (Dramatic music playing) NARRATOR:
It is King Baldwin II himself who will offer the members
of this new order of chivalry a place to settle. This place is mentioned
in another manuscript written by William of Tyre, known for being the first
historian of the Crusades. MALE VOICE: Over the course
of the same year, some noble knights
devoted themselves to the service of Christ, and professed to live forever
in chastity, obedience and poverty. As they had neither church
nor fixed residence, the king granted them
accommodations in his palace which was located
near the Temple of the Lord. PHILIPPE JOSSERAND:
King Baldwin II made a very strong gesture by offering his palace to them
in Jerusalem. Baldwin's palace
actually extended south of the Esplanade of the Mosques, south of the Temple Mount. It extended
into the area of al-Aqsa Mosque, the former palace
of King Solomon. And so Hugues de Payns
and his associates somehow took on the name
by association, by calling themselves "The Poor Fellow-Soldiers
of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon." NARRATOR: The Poor
Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. Later,
this name will be shortened and the group will become one
of the most significant orders in all history: The Order of the Temple. (Dramatic music playing) Faced with the ongoing conflicts
in the Holy Land, the members
of this new brotherhood must now find a way to grow. The Templars in the 1120s,
if they were going to expand what they really needed
was troops, high quality recruits, money,
and land in Western Europe that would supply the resources
to carry on their vocation. NARRATOR: Hugues de Payns
decides to return to Europe to embark on a vast recruitment
and fund-raising operation. GHISLAIN BRUNEL:
He went from country to country: France, Champagne,
Flanders, England, to try to recruit
and promote his project. NICHOLAS MORTON:
Seeking crusaders for the King of Jerusalem, he went into all the major
courts of Western Europe. People began to get curious
about who he was, what his order
was trying to achieve, and when they found out, they were immensely impressed
and began to offer huge sums of money. Large numbers of donations
to the Templar order. So much so that it became very,
very wealthy, very quickly. (Epic music playing) NARRATOR:
But Hugues de Payns and the founders
of the Order of the Temple know that to bring more men
and money to the Holy Land, they need to be recognized by the highest authorities
of the time. In the beginning people were asking questions
like, "Are they priests? Are they monks?
Are they knights? What are they?" Because a priest, a monk,
is not supposed to kill, but they are fighters,
they are knights. GHISLAIN:
There were Christian thinkers who considered it
an abomination to want to unite prayer and combat
under the same religious order. In his desire
to consolidate the community, to transform it into an order, Hugues de Payns
had to obtain the permission of the Roman Church
and therefore of the Pope. NARRATOR:
To obtain the Pope's approval, Hugues de Payns
will use his connections in a region close
to his birthplace: Burgundy. His first wife,
Emeline de Touillon, is a relative
of the De Montbard family, in which we also find
another man in ascendancy
within the Christian church and recognized
throughout Europe: Bernard de Fontaine, who later becomes
Bernard de Clairvaux, and after he is canonized, Saint Bernard. GHISLAIN BRUNEL: Saint Bernard
entered the order of Cîteaux and in 1115 he founded
a new abbey, the abbey of Clairvaux. He also came from chivalry, from the border of Burgundy
and Champagne. So he had
all the characteristics of a man of combat, with a great strength
of conviction, a very great orator
eager to lead an ascetic life, a rigorous life
in the order of Cîteaux which was the figurehead
of the church in the 12th century. Saint Bernard was already
in 1129 a considerable figure
in the church, a sort of moral figure
of the kingdom of France, both for the clergy
and for the common people. He saw in the Knights Templar
not only a chance to support the continued
defense of Jerusalem, but he also wanted to reform
Western European Knights. For over 100 years,
before the First Crusade, one of the biggest problems
facing the Catholic Church was to reform
Western Knighthood. Knights were troublemakers. They fought vendettas
against each other, they caused trouble,
they were arrogant and proud. And so Bernard of Clairvaux saw
in the Knights Templar the idea of using the Templars as a role model
for Western Knights: "This is how you should be." Tried to steer them away
from their internal feuds and into what he perceived to be
a more Godly form of vocation. Convinced that this new Order
of the Temple represented an opportunity
for the Christian church, Bernard de Clairvaux
wrote a manifesto which would go down in history, entitled, "In Praise
of the New Chivalry." MALE VOICE: This is
a new kind of militia, which fights a dual battle
against flesh and blood, and against evil spirits. They live
without wives or children, dwell under one roof, have no property of their own. They have no fear of sin
by killing an enemy, because it is for the sake
of Jesus Christ that they give or receive
the blow of death. They are more gentle than lambs, and fiercer than lions, so much so, that we do not know whether to call them monks
or soldiers. (Bell tower ringing) MARINA: What is stated in his
De laude novae militiae was of course justification
of the killing of the enemy, but it wasn't just that. What is most important is the opposition that he makes
between two types of chivalry. The profane chivalry,
where the knights are rich or seek after richness
and fight for it, and love
their beautiful dresses, their beautiful horses, and another kind
of new chivalry. This new chivalry
was impersonated by the Templar Knights, that really don't care
about richness, individual richness,
of course... And they put their lives
and all they have in support of Jerusalem,
the Holy Land, and Christianity in the end. NARRATOR:
On January 13th, 1129, the authorities
of the Christian church, under the direction
of Bernard De Clairvaux, organized the Council of Troyes, bringing together
a representative of the Pope, members of the clergy, nobles and representatives
of the Order of the Temple. During this council, the very first rule
of the Temple was enacted and put down in writing. Today, only ten original copies
remain in the world. Among them is this work,
written in old French and kept in the National Library
of France. (In French) The manuscript
first contains the Rules of the Temple, which continues
through page 13 and 14. Then there's
a list of celebrations that the Templars received
from the Pope, and then the bulk
of the manuscript is formed by the rules of the Temple. So, for all of
the Temple's legislation. This allows us to say
that the manuscript belonged to the Templars. It most probably even belonged to an important house
of the Order, because
it is a beautiful manuscript, with a beautiful layout, with the watermarked letters
in red and blue. So this is something important. (Pounding drum beat) NARRATOR:
In the beginning of the book we find the names of those
who participated in the council. The first is perhaps
the most important: Cardinal Matthew of Albano,
a representative of the Pope. The following
is a list of people gathered in the cathedral
of the city of Troyes, among them,
important religious leaders: The archbishops
of Reims and Sens, the bishops of Soissons, Paris,
Troyes, Auxerre and Beauvais, eight abbots,
including of course, Bernard de Clairvaux, noblemen such as
Count Thibaut of Champagne, and William,
the Count of Nevers. At the end are named
the six Templars present
at the council of Troyes, among them,
Brother Hugues de Payns, master of chivalry. (Orchestral music playing) On the 12 pages of manuscript, written on goatskin parchment, are all the recommendations
of the Council of Troyes for members
of the Order of the Temple. The rhythm of prayers
when they're in battle, the care required
to give their horses, or the food
they are advised to eat. MALE VOICE: You are to eat meat
three times a week. NARRATOR:
Everything is accounted for down to the last detail. Because unlike monks, the knights cannot fast
or be lacking in sleep. They must maintain
their strength to be ready for battle. MALE VOICE:
The brothers who are exhausted from the great services
rendered to the order can avoid getting up
for the night prayers, with the permission
and discharge of the master. It's a really incredible
and innovative thing, the fact that inside
a religious code, there is a military part... There's even a military code
which is integrated perfectly inside of a religious order. A little further, reads... that the participants
in the Council of Troyes, will bring the Christian church
into a new era. MALE VOICE: We believe that
this new kind of religious life was born in the holy land thanks to divine Providence. This means that this
armed knighthood can, without committing a sin, kill the enemies of the cross. For this reason,
we deem that you have the right to be called
"Knights of the Temple." For the first time,
the church formalizes the idea that one can kill
in the name of Christ, and that its armed branch
in the holy land has a name: The order of the temple. It was the Council of Troyes which marked the birth
of the Order of the Temple, and transformed the community gathered around Hugues de Payns
in Jerusalem, into a structure
of the Latin church. To some people
the idea of the Knights Templar was actually almost heretical. One of the English chroniclers by the name of
Henry of Huntington called them,
"A certain new monster." The Council of Troyes
therefore marks a new era
for the Order of the Temple. And the fame
of these new knights of God immediately spreads
throughout Europe. After the council of Troyes
everything changed, rapidly, because this new order
looked interesting to the western world. Especially of course
to the aristocracy of the western world that had found a way to invest their donations in something that was different from the traditional
monastic orders. Donations began to grow,
began to increase. They grew constantly and quickly in very few years and in the 30's already they are powerful in the East. They are starting to build
power in the West, too. They became Europe's
first standing army since the days
of the Roman Empire. Rome had collapsed
in the fifth century so it's the first
standing army in about six or 700 years. This was a really radical shift. You had a permanent
military force in the East defending Christendom, defending Christian interests. Once the donations of land
and money came in, they were able
to train men up to fight. A medieval knight
was the equivalent of a modern-day
tank or something. A fully armed knight
on a warhorse was an awesome
figure to behold. You needed to run. These were the elite troops.
The crack troops. The Special Forces
of the 12th century. It was at this time, the first symbols of recognition
of the Templars were born on which their legend
of outstanding fighters would gradually be built. The initial knights weren't
visually impressive at first, the Poor Fellow Soldiers
of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. They were literally poor.
They had nothing. Just the clothes they wore, their swords and a few horses. So after the Council of Troyes, you get massive donations
of land and money and all of a sudden
they become vastly wealthy. So the white surcoat
is part of this new look. We would call it
maybe a rebranding but to a medieval person
white would symbolize purity. This long white mantle
with the Red Cross on it is precisely the mark of the
commitment that was made, since this Red Cross
recalls the blood shed by Christ
for the redemption of humanity, therefore the commitment
of a brother of the Temple in his turn to lay down his life and shed his blood
to defend the land of Christ and the kingdom of Jerusalem. The mission of
the Knights Templar is to defend the Holy Land. They must not only
know how to fight, but also how to make new weapons organize their movements, and build strongholds
to defend pilgrims. Thanks to the donations, the Order of the Temple
recruits. The Templar Order
essentially has three grades. The most famous
are the brother Knights. To be recruited as a brother
Knight in Western Europe someone would normally be
of Aristocratic background... they'd have been
trained as a Knight, so they'd already have
the skills to perform the functions of
a Templar Knight. If you were not from
an elite background, but from a free background,
perhaps from an artisan family or from a family of merchants you would generally
enter the Templar Order as a Templar Sergeant. Templar Sergeants could fight, but it's from their ranks
that Templars recruit their ship builders,
their carpenters, their estate managers, people
with specific trade skills. The third type
is brother priests who have been
ordained as a priest, and act as chaplains
to the order. When the applicant
enters the Temple he commits himself
to a number of things and the obligations take place
in the framework of a ceremony. The absolutely decisive moment is when the Templar's mantle is put around
the neck of the candidate. Here, he truly enters
the brotherhood of the Temple. And then, immediately, he swears to respect
the vows of chastity, poverty, obedience and he also swears to fight
by all means in his power, for the holy land. We sometimes refer to this
as the fourth vow, it's something quite essential
because a Templar of any kind, knight, sergeant, or chaplain, whether in the West
or in the East, ideally competes in the defense
of the Holy Land. It's an entry into brotherhood, an entry into an Order, hence the importance
of the mantle, the importance of the sword
and the importance of the oath. Gradually, Templar houses
called "commanderies" were created in Western Europe. The brothers live there
by scrupulously respecting the guidelines of the Temple
by pursuing only one mission: To prepare to fight in the East and to grow the wealth
of the Order to finance the Holy War. A commandery is a large building
with a residence, with common buildings,
a granary to store crops, and above all, a chapel. The commandery is where
the chaplain officiates, and performs the canonical
services for all the brothers. The county of Champagne, Burgundy, Provence, Auvergne, Ile de France saw the birth of networks
of Templar houses and commanderies
every 30 to 40 km. The network formed quite quickly
during the 12th century. The commanderies and
Templar houses are also used to recruit locally. Their establishment,
their impact, their daily relationship
with the populations also served to feed
this recruitment. In 1136, Hugues De Payns,
the first grand master Templar dies after returning
to fight in the East. He is replaced
at the head of the Order by Robert de Craon who brilliantly organizes
the operation and management
of the commanderies which continue to develop
thanks to donations. 10 years after
the Council of Troyes, events are accelerating. On March the 29th, 1139, Pope Innocent II
writes a papal bull which will go down in history. A document which bears
his seal and is baptized "Omne Datum Optimum," the 3 Latin words
with which it begins. MALE VOICE: Every good grace
and every perfect gift descends from above, from the Father of Light,
with whom there is no change or shade of variation. We exhort you to fight the
enemies of the Cross with ardor, and as reward, we allow you
to keep for yourselves all the spoils
that you have seized, without anyone having
the right to claim a share of them. And we declare that
the order of the Temple, with all its assets acquired
by the bounty of the popes, the kings and the princes,
remains under the protection and guardianship
of the Holy See. According to this text, not only can the Templars
preserve the wealth accumulated during battles against
Muslims in the Holy Land but they place themselves under
the authority of one person: The Pope himself. MALE VOICE: No one can force you
to pay tithes, but we confirm to you
the possession and enjoyment of the tithes given to you
with the consent of the bishops. So that you may have
the fullness of salvation and care for your souls, for the practice of
the Divine Offices and giving of the
ecclesiastical sacraments, you may admit clerics
and priests. We grant you the power
to build chapels in all the places
attached to the temple, so you and your relatives
may attend services and be buried there, for it is bad for your morals
if the brothers of the temple, on their way to church, should mingle
with crowds of sinners and those who keep
company with women. The order of the Temple will
no longer pay tax to the church, will have the right
to collect tax without going through
the bishops, train its own priests, build its own churches, and anyone who questions
this protection of the pope will be excommunicated. The Templars were not subject to the authority
of other churchmen, no Archbishops, no Bishops, except for the Pope himself. This gave the order a great deal
of freedom of movement, at least within
the church hierarchy. It also stirred up resentment among the Archbishops, and
other members of the church, who felt the order had
too much independence, and wasn't responsive
to their leadership. Over the following years,
successive popes will further strengthen
the privileges given to the Templars. In 1144, the faithful were expressly
asked to contribute to the mission
of the Knights Templar. It was stipulated that the Pope
would grant his forgiveness to the benefactors
of the Order of the Temple. MALE VOICE: He who has
provided them with the goods God has entrusted to them and who has established a bond
with such a holy brotherhood and allowed them to make
a profit each year, will receive a reduction
of one seventh on the penances he has incurred. Huge tracks of land were given
them by kings all over Europe. But even small grants of land
like estates, farms, water mills,
things like that. If somebody wanted
to donate to the order, they would accept everything. No donation was too large
or too small, because it was all
with the greater good of keeping the Christian
kingdom in the East going. It was very good for a Christian to donate to an order
like the Templars, it was good for your soul
and your afterlife, it minimized
your time in purgatory and ensured you went
to the right place when the time came. In 1145, a new papal bull
gave the Knights Templar the right to bury their brothers
in their own cemeteries and to travel freely
throughout Europe. So from 1129 to 1146 we could compare them
to a corporation or a business going from a small startup
to a multinational in 17 years. Even today
that is quite impressive. It was completely unprecedented for a small group of people
to become that powerful so fast. It had never happened before. But while the Templar enterprise
develops quickly in the West, in the East, the situation
in the crusader states has deteriorated. Defeated in Damascus in 1129, in Ba'rin in 1137, in Tecua in 1139, and especially in Edessa in 1144 where it is said that 30,000
Christians were massacred. The failures of the Crusaders
mount one after another. These weren't the setbacks
of the Templars but of the army
of the kingdom of Jerusalem which were starting
to integrate within it perhaps a few dozen Templars, but these setbacks were bitter. The Templars still lacked
influence within the army and the qualities of Order and
discipline that we know of them were not really imposed. In the face of these defeats and the threats to Christians
in the East, Pope Eugene the Third
decided to act. With the papal bull
"Quantum Praedecessores", he called for a new crusade. Bernard de Clairvaux himself is in charge of mobilizing
the population. On March the 31st, 1146, at Vézelay in Burgundy, he preached the journey
to the Holy Land by promising to those
who would take up the cross, the absolution of all sins. Among the many sovereigns
from all over Europe who joined the 2nd crusade, was Louis the Seventh,
King of France, and his wife
Eleanor of Aquitaine. To help in their endeavor, they turned to those
with sufficient means: The Knights Templar! In 1147, Louis the Seventh
requested funding from the order of the Temple
and he entrusted them for the first time
with his treasure. They already have resources to help the king
with his crusade, arming ships, etc. These are the Templars
who served as scouts, protectors, guides,
along the road, and the crusade route
is challenging for Louis VII. They suffered very harsh
Turkish attacks and it was the Templars led by marshal Evrard des Bars who will become grand master, who saved the royal army. Louis VII is not the only one
to embark on the Second Crusade. Conrad the Third,
King of Germany, also made his way
to the Holy Land with nearly 20,000 men
at his side. But from the first
months of combat, the armies of the two kings
suffered great setbacks against the Muslims. Mount Cadmus... Dorylaeum... Inab. Defeats follow,
one after another. And the deaths pile up. Financing these losing battles is beginning to cost
the two kings dearly. So, to find the necessary money, Louis VII needs help. He will turn once again
to his new allies, the Knights Templar. When the Crusade
gets into difficulty in 1148, Louis turns to the master
of the temple and says, "Can you help us?" So the Grand Master
goes off in his ship and gets the money
from a Templar stronghold. This is the first time
we see the Templars acting effectively as bankers
supporting European kings. They're not just supporting the interests of the Church and fighting for Christ
and defending souls. They are now, by the time
of the Second Crusade, also financially very powerful. And literally
funding the Crusade. Despite financial assistance
from the Knights Templar, the troops of the King of France
and the King of Germany were unable to recover any
territory from their enemies. After three years of fighting, the two sovereigns give up. A crusade for nothing. Which will nevertheless benefit the Order of the Temple. The second crusade
was a total failure. It ended with nothing at all. Mostly because the presence of Conrad III
and the King of France revealed to be a problem. They disagreed
on almost everything. They made all the possible
wrong choices like taking the siege
of Damascus which ended up badly
for the King of France with a lot of money spent. He had to ask
the Templars for money in order to go back to France. The defeat of the second crusade probably helped the Templars. They had lent money to the King. They were the forces that surely ended well
in the local situation. The Knights Templar had shown by loaning money
to the King of France, and also reorganizing
his army at one stage, they had shown how
effective they could be. This would not be forgotten
by future Kings of France. The Second Crusade will be
a resounding military failure. And Louis the Seventh
returns to France in 1149 greatly weakened financially,
and diplomatically. However, his ordeal contributes to the growth
of the legend of the Knights Templar. He returned from the Holy Land with a lofty idea of what the
knights of the Temple were like. For him, this order shines
over the whole of the earth, and it has no equivalent
in his mind. He gives them income
in money from his tax revenues, he cedes to them
the villa Savigny that becomes the great
commandery of Savigny le temple. This is a king who shows
the same fascination of the sovereigns for
the beginnings of the Temple, since it is less than 30 years
after its creation, and the King of France
is truly an unconditional ally of the Knights of the Temple. During the Second Crusade, the Templars were able to supply their own contingents
to go on crusade, whilst continuing their work
in the crusade estates they were also able to afford massive loans
to the King of France to support the King of France's
Crusade to the Holy Land. By the end of the 12th century the Templars had become a
huge international organization. We don't know precisely
how many members they had but there were probably about
600 fighting brother Knights in the crusader states. But with a much larger
contingent of infantry and other employees
and followers. In Western Europe
they'd have had possibly an even larger
number of brother Knights, brother Sergeants,
and other personnel all there to facilitate
the supply of resources to the Holy Land. The Templars developed
this reputation for avarice, but I think they were just
very good businessmen. At the beginning of the
2nd half of the 12th century, the order of the Temple
will grow even more powerful. Supported by Popes and Kings, the Order accumulates
considerable wealth, building commanderies
in the West, and castles in the East. Its ranks
will not cease to grow. The reign of these
new knights of Christ was only beginning. Jerusalem, mid-12th century. Since the taking of the city
in 1099 by the Crusaders, the Christian armies attempt
to preserve their possessions in the Holy Land. At the time,
the eastern Latin states, located
along the Mediterranean Sea, consisted
of the principality of Antioch, the county of Tripoli
and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Surrounded on all sides and facing
increasingly powerful enemies, fighting in the region
is permanent. Among the knights
present on the battlefield, certain warriors
donning white coats emblazoned with a red cross
stood out: the Knights Templar. Both monk and soldier, they are members
of a brotherhood created at the beginning
of the 12th century under the high authority
of the Pope himself: the Order of the Temple. - (Horses neighing)
- (Men shouting) Their mission: to defend Christians
on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In just 30 years,
this new breed of knights had become increasingly popular among the kings and peoples
of western Europe. NICHOLAS:
In western Europe at this time, knights were extremely competent
on the battlefield, but they were also
perceived to be arrogant. They might embark on things like single-handedly attacking
an enemy's line, they might refuse
to adhere to orders. The Knights Templar
weren't like that. The fact that they were also
religious by their vocation meant they were a lot more sober
in their conduct of war. They were just as competent,
they trained the whole time, but they were a much more
disciplined formation of troops. They didn't break ranks. They were expected to work
in very close formation, to fight in a sober
but very intense manner. They weren't there to show off, they were there
to conduct that role. The various Muslims commanders
generally viewed the Templars as the most dangerous troops
in the crusader states. An indicator of just how feared
they were as soldiers is that often, after a battle,
all the Templars were executed. The Muslim commander
couldn't keep them alive, they were too dangerous. VO: At their head, is a knight
referred to as the Grand Master. The first of them,
Hugues De Payns, founder
of the Order of the Temple, died in 1136. Robert de Craon and then Evrard des Barres
succeeded him. In 1152, a fourth Grand Master
was elected at his turn: Bernard de Tremeley. It was he, who in 1153, was to distinguish himself
in a battle that became famous: the capture of Ascalon. At the time,
the city was a Muslim enclave within the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Attacks could therefore
be easily launched from Ascalon against the Christian states. For five months, the army
of the Kingdom of Jerusalem tried to retake the city. The troops were composed of
a motley mix of Latin soldiers who occupied the Holy Land, and members of military orders
of the time. Among them,
several hundred Knights Templar had come to lend a hand to the army
of the King of Jerusalem. (Dramatic music) (Distant shouting) PHILIPPE (in French):
Ascalon was a Fatimid shield that protected Egypt, in a way. And the Christians
really wanted to consolidate the southern border of Jerusalem and had long held the idea
to take it over. NICHOLAS: In 1153, the Kingdom of Jerusalem
besieged the city. The siege, at the start of this,
went very badly. It was when the commander
was beginning to discuss whether it could succeed at all. They decided to stage
a final assault. The Knights Templar
went in first. (Distant commotion) PHILIPPE (in French):
The Templars entered through a breach,
but they entered alone. The Muslims, once the Templars
entered the city, closed in around them. It is believed that about
40 Templars died in Ascalon following their master
Bernard de Tremelay. (Tense instrumental) (Shouting) (Final grunt) (Eerie music) PHILIPPE: So, the Templars
paid a very heavy price to take Ascalon. But Ascalon was obviously
an important moment and since so much
has been said about this battle, no doubt much has also been said about the driving
and leading role the Templars played there. VO: The Second Crusade
and the taking of Ascalon would further advance the fame
of these Knights of Christ, ready to die
to protect the Holy Land. PHILIPPE (in French):
In the second half of the 12th century, the Templar began to take
an increasingly important place in the armies
of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and other eastern Latin states. The Knights Templar from the middle
of the 12th century onwards gained considerable popularity
in the West. For the faithful,
praying in a Temple church, being buried
in a Temple cemetery, associating with a brotherhood
linked to the Temple are all pious deeds,
they are meritorious acts. One hopes in this way
to achieve one's salvation, all the more so
if the Order of the Temple is committed to the defense
of Christ's heritage, to the defense
of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. We see more and more donations
coming in, a heritage is being built up and networked commanderies
are being set up in many parts of the West, which is proof
of the popularity of an Order that more and more writers
and thinkers in the West are beginning to talk about. (Mysterious music) VO: In Paris, in the vaults
of the National Archives, there are millions of documents,
classified by date and relating
the history of France. Perfectly preserved documents
have recently been found from reserves
dating back to the 12th century. They have provided new evidence of the frenzy of donations
to the Templars that took hold in Europe very soon after
the creation of the Order. (Fast-paced stringed music) The first document
dates from 1144. It is an appeal for donations
from Pope Celestine II. GHISLAIN (in French):
Here was an edict from the Pope indicating that the Templars are the defenders of the faith
in the East but that they don't have
enough income. And that in order
to carry out their expeditions, they need the faithful
to contribute to providing them
with what they need. It allows all those who give
of their own possessions, their own goods, their own money
to the Order of the Temple to have a pardon
of one seventh of the penances they would have to make
for their sins. This is the purpose
of this appeal to the people, a generalized contribution
incentivized a little bit. VO: The Order of the Temple
thus receives donations from all parts
of the population. The Templars themselves contribute to the development
of their institution by renouncing their possessions
in favor of the Order. This document shows a knight who has just entered the Temple
in the Holy Land and who decides
to give up his lands in Picardy. (Reads) "In the name of the holy
and inseparable Trinity. Amen. I, Raoul de Ressons, for the salvation of my soul
and my family, have pledged to God and to the house
of the knighthood of the Temple, 80 hectares of land. I have conceded that
they freely possess it forever, in peace. From here, I receive
the garments of this same house and give myself as its servant." GHISLAIN (in French):
This document is very rare, it's both the contribution
of a small knight from Picardy and also the entrance
to the Temple of this knight. This act indicates that he entered
into the Order of the Temple. We have someone
who was on a crusade, he left with
all the king's army, with his Count Raoul,
Count of Soissons and then he entered
into the Order of the Temple. He gave what he had,
a land very far from Jerusalem. So, it's really a document that came back
from the Holy Land. It's super spectacular,
extremely rare. (Arabic style music) VO: French nobles also
participate in the fundraising. The proof is this document
dating from 1159 and signed by Henri II,
Count of Champagne. He decides to make
his contribution in cash. (Man reads) "I, Henry,
Count Palatine of Troyes, notify the present and future, that my father Count Thibaud had given seven silver marcs
to the brothers of the Temple. I, for the salvation
of his soul and mine, have given to them £24
from the tax of Troyes, 12 from the Saint-Remi fair
and 12 from the Saint-Jean fair. I granted them that they shall
possess these in perpetuity. And in order
that this may be established, I have commanded
that it be written down and that it be confirmed
by the imprint of my seal." GHISLAIN (in French):
The ' tonlieu' is the tax that weighs on sales
and purchases. It's a trade tax, in fact. Champagne fairs are booming,
they are very rich and it gives them
a very precise annual income, which allows them
to accumulate cash each year. VO: The people, the knights,
the nobles but also the kings. Richard I,
known as Richard the Lionheart, King of England
at the end of the 12th century, will also be a fervent defender
of the Templar cause. GHISLAIN (in French):
It is one of the rare documents of Richard the Lionheart, King of England,
Duke of Normandy. who validates of all the goods
of the Order in Normandy since
he's the Duke of Normandy. (Man reads)
"Richard, by the grace of God, King of the English,
Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou. We confirm the donations made to the brothers
of the Knights Templar of Solomon's Temple
in Normandy: land, villages, or men. They will pay neither tax duty
nor tolls on passage. This act is addressed
to the archbishops, bishops, seneschals, my agents and my faithful
throughout Normandy." GHISLAIN (in French): This act
was implemented in this form or in the form
of authentic copies to all the financial
and administrative institutions of the Duchy of Normandy. (Dramatic music) This set of documents clearly shows
the convergence of protections. In each kingdom the sovereigns
provide protection and donations and within each principality,
each county, there are particular donations
that are made according to the income
that can be mobilized for the Templars. A whole system that is both
political and economic set up
and emanating from authorities at very different levels. VO: Thanks to these donations, the network
of Templar commanderies, where the members of the Order responsible for growing
the assets of the Temple live, is being rapidly expanded. Over time, the leaders
of the Order of the Temple learn to function as administrators
of these properties and land holdings. (Dramatic music) GHISLAIN: There were many donors
with varied types of properties: a plot of land here, a large farm there, sometimes
with geographical variations. And so they had to manage this
in an organized way, so over time, we see there are
regroupings of properties, exchanges of land. There's a parcel
that suits us better here, so we give up another one there. It was something very common. The commanderies
were also established near land
that could be easily developed. They used the road networks,
the river networks, not only
for hydraulic equipment, but also for navigation, possibly on rivers. The roads allowed them
to move their goods more easily to the Holy Land through the ports of Marseille,
Aigues-Mortes, Montpellier, the equipment,
the horses and all the men. They still had to be close
to transportation networks because the ultimate goal
was to draw all these products to the ports
of the Mediterranean. NICHOLAS: We don't know how many
commanderies the Templars had but somewhere in the region
of 900 seems reasonable. These would have been spread
across Europe from Scotland in the North right the way down
to southern Italy or the Christian Kingdoms
of Spain. GHISLAIN:
In each of these commanderies, you have 30, 40, 50 people so we're talking
about literally thousands. SEAN: We could think
of the Knights Templars as having some eastern
and western flanks to it. The Order in the East
was a military operation designed to defend
the Christian Holy Land. In the West, however, the Templar properties
weren't military bases at all. They were financial centers
where they'd generate the wealth to support the operations
in the East. There was kind of a combination
of military in the East and business in the West,
effectively. They were sheep farmers. They were very heavily involved
in agriculture and the cloth trade. They ran orchards,
tile factories, water mills. You name it,
the Templars were involved. If there was a way
of making money in the West, the Templars would be involved. It sounds like
they're very financially greedy but they weren't. They were astute businessmen and did everything to support
their crusading in the East. VO: In England today, there are still today traces of
the many Templar commanderies such as the Cressing Temple. One of its barns is known to be
the oldest wooden barn in the world. PHILIP: Cressing Temple
was the first domain that was given in England
to the Templars. It was donated in 1137
by Queen Matilda. It quickly became
one of the biggest and perhaps the most important
domain in England. It comprised
of 700 acres of land. It's situated in a strategically
important point, it's in Essex. so it's halfway between London
and the port of Harwich. It was one of the most
important ports in that period. (Dramatic music) VO: After the Cressing Temple, donations
from English aristocrats to the Temple Order
continued to flow in. Commanderies then appear
in the counties of Essex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and then gradually throughout
the English territory. PHILIP: It was the 13th century that saw the peak
of the donation period. Henry III of England,
in particular, was a keen supporter
of the Templars and more and more nobles were mimicking
the royal behavior. We can say that the Order possessed
the single largest number of landed estates in England. They had 141 domains
all over England and Wales. We're talking about something that comprises
at least 60,000 acres, out of which 30,000 acres
were under direct cultivation. The Templars were
one of the richest institutions in England. They were really trying
to maximize profits of productivity
on local domains. They were exhibiting
a similar mentality and behavior to what we see today
in the 21st century. These were
very rational corporations that were bound to invest
and maximize the profits through very rational types
of behavior. On each manor,
you would have a special officer called a bailiff or a steward that was in charge
of agricultural activities and sowing local crops,
overseeing livestock. He was also responsible
for marketing the produce, both the arable produce
and the livestock produce. (Mysterious music) VO: In the National Archives
of England, located in Kew near London, are the only archives
from this period that give a precise idea of the holdings
of the Templar commanders and the money they generated
each year. This information,
written in Latin, was kept on scrolls
of sheepskin parchment that have been preserved
over the centuries. Much like accounting ledgers, these scrolls
contain all the details: the quantities produced and the sums of money spent
and collected by the commandery. PHILIP:
Every domain has its own clerk recording
what was going on there. The bailiff would tell him
how much was made this year, how much was spent this year, how much was harvested
this year, how many new animals were born,
how many animals died, how many animals were purchased,
how many were sold, and how many were transferred
to other places. The clerk would just record it
in a very meticulous manner. Those clerks
were very well-trained writers. They would be usually
using a goose feather. They would dip it into an ink,
usually a brown color, and they would execute it in very fine
calligraphic script. Once the entire membrane
would be covered, they would be given
another membrane. Once the whole account
would be ready, they would just stitch
several membranes together and would create this huge roll. VO: Here the accounts
of the commandery of Temple Bruer in Lincolnshire
in the east of England. PHILIP: The domain
of Temple Bruer in Lincolnshire is located on
a little bit of infertile land which is much better suited
for livestock rearing rather than crop production. (Man reads) "We harvested
73 quarters of wheat, three quarters of rye,
40 quarters of barley, 46 quarters of dredge,
and 162 quarters of oats." PHILIP: Even there, we see that
they were able to diversify the crop production. There were some pockets
of wheat, barley, rye, and especially oats, because on this type of land you really want to concentrate
on oats as much as possible. But it was the livestock sector that played
an enormously important role on that particular manor. Temple Bruer
was the single richest manor in terms of the number of sheep. It stocked 4,500 sheep which was
a really remarkable number. Sheep were very, very profitable
because English wool was one of the most
sought-after commodities. It was both
relatively inexpensive and of fine quality. It attracted lots of merchants,
especially from Italy. VO: Another account roll
from an area also located in Lincolnshire
shows that the English Templars were not content
to sell their products only in local markets. They were also present on
the international trade market. (Man reads) "We produced
3,002 fleeces of wool which together
weighed 5,000 pounds." On this scroll, for example, the buyer of the wool
is specified: the company, Ballardi, "one of the most important
Italian wool merchant families of the time." With the sales
of these products, each Templar commandery generated
considerable revenues. (Man reads)
"In that year, we made £315, eight shillings,
eight pence and a quarter." PHILIP: If we take
all the landed estates of the Templars in a given year, in an average year,
you would expect the Templars to generate the income
of approximately £4,500 a year. This is something
that can be translated into a six-digit figure today
in contemporary money. We're talking about something
that could, in some years, actually exceed
how much the king would've made. NICHOLAS:
The Knights' possessions in western Europe
and in the Crusade estates were truly substantial. They had enormous land holdings making them
one of the largest landowners anywhere in Western Christendom. Their incomes
were truly substantial, far greater
than that of most kings. VO: The income
of each English commandery was transferred
to the headquarters in London at Temple Church, where the Order's possessions were consolidated
and accounted for. Over the years, the members
of the Order of the Temple improved their expertise
in economic development and the management
of their money. So much so, that they became
bankers to the kings. (Tense instrumental) SEAN: They kept their accounts
with scrupulous care. They were very cautious
with their investments etc. And they also worked really hard
as well. The Templars have been described as being
the one medieval institution that did the most for the rise
of modern capitalism. That sounds a bit materialistic,
but if you think about it, the Templars were sworn
to defend the Holy Land and everything they did
had that aim in mind. That was
their official raison d'être, defending the Holy Land. NICHOLAS: The Order
didn't just bring together people who wanted to fight,
it brought together people from a range
of different backgrounds including people
who had various trades or artisan skills,
and indeed skilled with money. With this, they were able
to develop their estates, conduct huge building programs, but also to become
very able financiers, so able, in fact, that they were employed by
the kings of France and England to run their treasuries. PHILIP: The Temple Church,
in the eyes of the Templars and also in the eyes of
the royal family and nobility, would be considered
as a safe deposit box. You could either deposit
your own valuables, your money, your jewels here, and you can be quite sure
that they're in good hands, but also all the profits
in money flowing from different estates
would end up here. GHISLAIN (in French): Obviously,
there were escorted convoys with safes, hutches,
as they were called, made of wood
with the cash inside which were transported
from financial center to financial center. VO: In France, as in England, money circulated
from the commanderies to the regional
financial centers and then to Paris. This is where the headquarters
of the Order was located, in the Temple tower. GHISLAIN (in French):
There was a central treasury at the headquarters of the Order where they had both cash
and precious materials, relics. The great tower
of the temple in Paris served as a sort of safe
for several depositors, the king first of all. Everything that was not spent
on site in the provinces and that came back
from the bailiffs and the guards of the kingdom, went back to Paris and was stored
in the Temple tower. The policy
of the French sovereigns towards the Templars didn't change one iota throughout the 12th
and 13th centuries. That is to say, for Philip II, who entrusted them
with his treasure definitively, and all the other sovereigns
like Saint Louis, the king's treasure
was kept in the Temple tower. That's where the money was taken
and where it was brought to. And also, in the only accounting
that remains for the end of the 13th century, we see that apart from the king,
there were about 60 depositors. So, private depositors put
their money in the Temple tower out of convenience, as the management
was also carried out by the Temple brothers on site. VO: This document
dating from the 13th century is one of the rare few
that survived. (Man reads)
"I, Brother Jean de Tour, treasurer of the house
of the Temple of Paris, certify that we have received
and kept in deposit from the executors of the will of Mr. Jean,
Cardinal of Sainte-Cécile, the sum of £9,000, a sum which the same cardinal
bequeathed in his will on condition
that £3,000 be allocated to support operations
in the Holy Land." VO: This is a receipt, signed by the treasurer
of the Tower of the Temple, which certifies
the deposit of £9000, a sum equivalent
to 250,000 euros today. These few lines
are enough to imagine the amount of money
that the Templars managed. GHISLAIN (in French):
We never knew how many people, but some receipts show that there were probably
several accountants on site, apart from
the king's accountants who were still there
managing the king's money. But the brothers of the Temple
had several agents on site who daily take care
of collecting and disbursing
the necessary sums to their so-called clients. (Fast-paced drum instrumental) VO: The purpose
of this financial organization is to fund the needs of the war
in the Holy Land. GHISLAIN (in French):
These funds are sent to the East from Paris. So, they go through
the Mediterranean ports, they're sent to Marseille
or Montpellier and from there,
they're shipped by boat. VO: The establishment of secure
financial transport networks and safes
within depository banks enabled the Templars
to set up an innovative system, specifically intended
for pilgrims to use on their journey
to the Holy Land. SEAN:
They developed credit notes where you could
treat the Templar's as a bank. You could deposit money
in a Templar preceptory in Paris and when you went on pilgrimage,
you could go to Jerusalem. You go to the Templar house
in Jerusalem and say: "I've deposited certain numbers
of livres in Paris. I need to get money out to fund
the rest of my pilgrimage." VO:
Thanks to this deposit system, the pilgrim could travel
without risking being robbed on his journey. (Arabic style music) And in this way, the Templars make pilgrimage
to the Holy Land simpler and, above all, safer. With a network of strongholds
scattered throughout the region, the Templars are able
to fight against enemy attacks. SEAN: They were able to hire
the best architects and masons and they ended up building
what are masterpieces of medieval
military architecture. Castles like Atlit,
for instance, possibly the Templar's
most celebrated castle, was actually
a fortified peninsula. It was completely impregnable and it even withstood attack
while it was still being built. That was how strong
it was physically. The walls were something
like 15 feet thick. This was a way of announcing
that the Templars were the mightiest power
in Christendom that wasn't a king. They were a real force
to be reckoned with. These castles
were incredibly strong. NICHOLAS: Templar castles
take many forms. (Heroic music) You've got
the really big frontier castles, which were there
to protect against attack or to act as staging points
for invasion. You've also got many castles
away from the frontier too. Often these could act
as estate centers, the middle
of large agricultural lands, and a consolidation point
for those areas. VO: Trapessac, Chastel Blanc, Chastel Hernault,
Château Pèlerin, Safed. There are dozens
of Templar fortresses throughout the region. Today, remains
of the Templar Knights can be found
in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan,
Syria and Turkey. These traces
testify to the power of the Order of the Temple
in the Holy Land at that time. PHILIPPE (in French):
The most exposed border crossing in the 12th century, where the Knights Templar
had many fortresses, was located in the north
of the principality of Antioch, in a region
called the Amanus Mountain, on the borders
of what is now Turkey and Syria, where the Knights Templar
had established at least half a dozen castles. On the pilgrimage route that connects the port of Jaffa
to Jerusalem, the Templars are known to have
separated their fortresses in a regular fashion - about a day's walk
between each of them. VO: But despite
the large sums of money accumulated in the West, the need for funding for the war
in the East continues to grow. The Latin states are under
constant threat of attack. And with more threats
comes the need for more knights, more food, more weapons, and more castles
to build, fortify and protect. NICHOLAS:
The cost of maintaining the numbers of Knights,
the Crusade estates as well as
their engagements elsewhere was absolutely enormous. The build cost
of a single Templar castle was 1.1 million bezants. In modern day money that
would run to billions, but we're looking at sums substantially larger than
the incomes of an average king to build that one castle. The Templars
owned tens of castles in the Crusade estates. That's before we start talking about the ports
they have to maintain, the pilgrimage routes,
the troops, their estates and the other things that
have a call on their finances. (Arabic style singing) VO: At the end
of the 12th century, the military situation
is increasingly tense. Especially because in the midst
of all the Muslim forces tearing each other apart
in the region, a new leader is on the rise: Saladin. Born in present-day Iraq, Saladin is the founder
of the Ayyubid dynasty that succeeded
in unifying Egypt and Syria and in conquering Yemen. He quickly establishes himself
as the main threat to the eastern Latin states, and in particular,
to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. MARINA: Probably
the Kingdom of Jerusalem was not his main goal. But when he conquered Egypt, of course, this strip of land that included
the Kingdom of Jerusalem was already surrounded
by the Muslims. So, it seemed really difficult
to provide defense for it. VO: At the time,
the King of Jerusalem was called Guy de Lusignan. The kingdom is composed
of several fiefdoms, each controlled by its own lord. Among them,
the Lordship of Oultrejordain. At its head,
Renaud de Châtillon, known for his acts of violence. In 1187, he attacked
a Muslim caravan of civilians who passed through his territory on their way
from Cairo to Damascus and plundered
all their property. This event triggers the anger
of Saladin himself. To take revenge, he orders an attack
on the fortress of Kerak, capital of Oultrejordain. The King of Jerusalem senses that the situation
could escalate. He turns to his closest advisor. Gérard de Ridefort, 10th Grand Master
of the Order of the Temple. PHILIPPE (in French):
Gérard de Ridefort was a very important man
in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Faced with the threat
posed by Saladin, Guy de Lusignan
sent Gérard de Ridefort as his ambassador
to the Count of Tripoli. VO: The king of Jerusalem
aims to form an alliance with the Count of Tripoli
to confront Saladin. But on his way,
Gérard de Ridefort will prove to be reckless. (Horses neighing) Over-confident,
he attacks a Muslim contingent by mobilizing only 140 knights. Badly underestimating
the situation, he finds himself
up against a force of 7,000 men. The battle, named after
the Springs of Cresson where it takes place, is a true massacre. PHILIPPE (in French):
The defeat was total, most of the Templars engaged
- about 80 brothers - died, and very few escaped,
including the Master. VO: Gérard de Ridefort, far from the teachings of
his distinguished predecessors at the head
of the Order of the Temple, decided to listen
only to his pride. Offended to have been defeated
in battle, he pushes Guy de Lusignan,
King of Jerusalem, to counterattack. As Saladin's troops
besiege Tiberias, the Christians make their way
to the city to challenge them. PHILIPPE: Guy de Lusignan
therefore went on the offensive, deciding to go after Saladin with the entire Jerusalem army,
up to 20,000 men maybe. They engaged
in very steep, very dry regions in the middle of summer
between Sepphoris and Tiberias. And there,
they were surrounded by Muslims. VO: It is in Hattin,
near Lake Tiberias, that one
of the bloodiest battles of the 12th century
will take place. Exhausted and parched, the Christian troops
are far too weak to hold their own
against Saladin's men. PHILIPPE (in French):
On July 4, 1187, the battle opened at Hattin in the worst conditions
for the Christians. (Distant neighing) (Distant shouting) The Templars
showed a certain heroism but their defeat was total. There were many dead,
and even more prisoners. MARINA: We know that a lot
of the courtesans around Saladin took an order to behead Templars that had fallen
into their hands. (Solemn music) This is probably because
they were perceived as fanatics for their religion,
for Christianity. PHILIPPE: The Templars
were executed by Saladin, but the master was taken
into captivity in Damascus for Saladin to use him
as a bargaining chip so that the brotherhood
would hand over the fortresses of Gaza and Daron. That's how, in 1187, the Kingdom of Jerusalem
collapsed within a few months, and the master of the Temple
at the time, Gérard de Ridefort, carries in this debacle, a significant share
of responsibility. NICHOLAS: The Kingdom
of Jerusalem only had one army. It didn't have the depth
of military manpower to be able to raise new forces. At Hattin, the Christian army
wasn't simply defeated, it was annihilated. There was nothing
stopping Saladin from conquering the remainder
of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Jerusalem
fell a few months later. VO: Less than a century
after Christians took Jerusalem in the First Crusade in 1099... the Holy City
again fell to the Muslims. NICHOLAS: When news
of the loss of Jerusalem at the battle of Hattin
got to western Europe, it caused a tremendous outcry. The Pope is said to have died
from the shock. (Solemn music) VO: In Jerusalem,
Christians are forced to leave the Holy City and the residence of the Temple
takes on the name: Al-Aqsa Mosque. MARINA:
After the battle of Hattin and the fall of Jerusalem, all the Christian forces,
especially the Templars, were at their lowest point. They needed more people
from the West in order to help
to restore the power locally. So, this was
the first task of the Order. To sustain the few
that were still there and to enforce them. They needed help to survive. (Tense drum instrumental) VO: This help will arrive
thanks to the Third Crusade. Financed by a tax
christened "the Saladin tithe" and collected
by the Templars themselves, this crusade
mobilized thousands of men. Philippe II, King of France, arrives in the Holy Land
in April of 1191 with six boats. Richard the Lionheart,
King of England, arrives in June with 200 ships
and a load of gold. As soon as he arrives, he manages to have
one of his closest advisers, Robert de Sablé,
elected as Grand Master of the Order of the Temple. (Dramatic music) VO: For several months, the crusaders fought
against Saladin's troops to recapture the lands lost
after the battle of Hattin. During this third crusade,
the island of Cyprus fell into the hands
of the Christians who also managed to retake
several cities along the coast: Ascalon, Jaffa, Arsuf, Caesarea, Tortosa, Maraclea and, above all, Acre. But Richard the Lionheart
and his army fail to retake Jerusalem. NICHOLAS: The Third Crusade
was neither a success for Saladin or for Richard. On one hand, yes,
Saladin had retained Jerusalem, and therefore
that was his big goal. But on the other hand, the cost of maintaining his hold
on Jerusalem had been extreme. Viewed from
Richard's perspective, it also wasn't a success. He hadn't gained Jerusalem,
that was the big objective. VO: On September 2, 1192, Richard the Lionheart
and Saladin signed the Treaty of Ramla. The Kingdom of Jerusalem
is restored but without Jerusalem. Acre becomes its capital. (Mysterious music) Saladin dies the following year. Throughout the 13th century,
the Templars in the East tried at all costs to defend
this strip of Christian land along the Mediterranean coast
between Antioch and Ascalon. NICHOLAS: While the Templars
are trying to defend what's left
of the crusader states, the West continues to flourish, at least
in the early 13th century. The Templars are able therefore
to send more money, more troops to the East. However, in the second half
of the 13th century, particularly with the rise
of a new force called the Mamluks in Egypt, increasing pressure
is put on the crusader states, slowly they begin
to fall into decline. SEAN:
They'd been slowly losing land throughout the 13th century ever since Saladin
took Jerusalem in 1187. In fact, the Christian kingdom
had been shrinking. VO: Despite their prestige
in the West and their devotion
to defending the Holy Land, despite the money and troops that continue to arrive
in the East, the Templars lose more
than they gain. In the West, the first rumblings
of criticism emerge. Matthew Paris,
an English Benedictine monk and renowned historian
of the 13th century, recounts some events during which
the courage of the Templars was indeed called into question. In this text, Mathew Paris claims
to re-transcribe the words of the Count of Artois, who was engaged in the attack
on the city of Mansourah. According to him, the Templars refused
to lead the attack at his side, preferring to wait for the rest
of the troops to join them, sparking his fury. (Man reads)
"Oh, ancient Templar treachery! Oh long-concealed fraud,
how openly it erupts now! This whole land of the Orient
would have been won long ago, if the deceit of the Temple and others who proclaim
themselves religious, had not impeded us laymen. The Knights Templar
and their accomplices are afraid that their dominance,
fattened with rich incomes, will eventually expire." VO: In the West,
the wealth of the Templars is beginning to vex. Several archives
attest to the tensions between the aristocrats
and the Templars. Here, Louis IX, King of France, recounts a conflict
between the Knights Templar and Thibaud IV, King of Navarre
and Count of Champagne, over their acquisitions
in the county of Champagne and Brie. (Man reads) "I, Louis the IX,
King of France, declare that peace
has been restored between our dear cousin,
Thibaut IV, King of Navarre, and the Templars. And that the Templars shall
never again make acquisitions in his county
of Champagne and Brie, nor in his fiefdoms
without his consent." VO: In this additional document, Amaury de la Roche, commander
of the Temple in France in 1268, agrees to pay a tax
which was, until now, exempted. (Man reads)
"I, Brother Amaury de la Roche, Commander of the Temple
in France, declare that Thibaut IV,
King of Navarre, Count of Champagne and Brie, has granted us
an exemption from tax on the transport of
40 barrels of wine to Provins. We accept that if
these 40 barrels are exceeded, we will pay the tax according
to the custom of Provins." NICHOLAS:
During the 13th century, the donations
continue to come in, but criticism
also begins to take root. Some landholders
become very antagonistic towards the Templars. They see the Templars
as pushy landowners. Infringing their rights,
causing trouble in the West. (Men shouting) The Templars
are also being defeated a lot on the crusades and that too
doesn't pass unnoticed. Why should we send money to them
when they keep losing? Their vacation, the conquest
or retention of Jerusalem, is slipping away. So, the Templars task is to prove that they still
have a reason to exist. VO: At the end
of the 13th century, the Knights Templar, who still have considerable
resources in the West, want to believe that
a Christian presence in the East is still possible. Created to protect
the Holy Land, the Knights Templar
must continue their mission at any cost. If they fail, the Temple Order might
simply disappear... forever. Acre. A city
in the eastern Mediterranean, situated north of Jerusalem. In the month of April, 1291, the Mamluk Sultan,
Al Ashraf Khalil, lays siege to the city
with his army of 220,000 men. Inside, are 30,000 inhabitants
including 14,000 soldiers and a few hundred
Knights Templar. These fighters are members
of the Order of the Temple, a brotherhood born at
the start of the 12th century. Their mission: To defend Christians
in the Holy Land. But nearly 200 years
after their creation, and despite eight crusades, Christian holdings in the east
have largely disappeared. Surrounded by Mongols and Muslims
of the Mameluk Dynasty, they are under constant attack. Acre is one of the last major
Christian cities in the east. And it is here that the seat of the Templars
has been for a century. (horse whinnying)
(swords clanging) On May 18th, 1291, the Sultan's soldiers
launch the assault. Guillaume de Beaujeu, Grand Master of the Order,
dies in battle. Ten days later,
Acre falls to the Muslims. The Holy Land was lost.
The last Christian stronghold. It was at its greatest extent
probably in the early 1140's. Ever since it had been getting
less and less Christian as they lost land
and lost cities. The loss of Acre was a disaster. Everybody was slaughtered. The fall of Acre in 1291 is
the end of the crusader states. The few towns that are left
to the crusaders on the coast, they are evacuated
almost immediately afterwards. At the end
of the summer of 1291, the Muslims retake all Christian
holdings in the Holy Land. The surviving Templars retreat
to the island of Cyprus, which becomes
their new headquarters. The Templars' retreat to Cyprus was not the end of their
struggle for the holy land. They soon started to lay plans seeking for options
for getting back. When they left Acre, the Knights had already
planned their departure, and the Order's treasury
had been evacuated. The Order's archives
had also been evacuated. And in Cyprus,
a new Grand Master was elected
in the early spring of 1292, Jacques de Molay. Jacques de Molay. 23rd Grand Master
of the Order of the Temple. Now, in his 40's, having spent 20 years
fighting in the Holy Land. Jacques de Molay is a warrior, this is not a man of diplomacy, he is not good at politics,
he is a soldier. He believes the Temple Order
can have only one mission: The war to defend Jerusalem,
and the faith. As the Knights Templar
suffered a total rout, Jacques de Molay now has
an immense task ahead of him. The Templars were founded
as a crusading order to defend the Holy Land, so the loss of the Holy Land
meant that the Order had no reason
to exist, effectively. (music reaches a crescendo) As early as 1293, Jacques de Molay
travelled throughout Europe to convince the Pope
and the kings that it was possible
to reconquer the Holy Land. For 15 years,
he worked tirelessly to maintain an armed presence
on the island of Cyprus, ready to go back into battle. In 1306, an event will alter
the status quo. The new Pope, Clement V,
commissions Jacques de Molay to write a report on
the necessary conditions for possibly launching
a new crusade. When Clement the fifth
wrote to him in 1306 to ask his opinion
on a new crusade, we can assume he was very happy
with the circumstances, that this policy he had
supported for about 15 years was going to have
a successful outcome. This report is kept at
the National Archives in Paris. The words of the Temple's
Grand Master are clear: De Molay believes Christians
can return to the Holy Land. "...We must organize
a great crusade to destroy the enemies
of the Christian faith. If we could have twelve
to fifteen thousand knights and five thousand foot soldiers,
with the help of God, we will be able to recover
the entire Holy Land. I also recommend that you arm
ten ships as soon as possible. I will arrange for money
to pay the fees..." With his field experience, he knows that small expeditions
will not overcome the enemy and it will take an army of boats
to retake enough positions. He sends a report
to the Pope, and leaves Cyprus
in late 1306, arriving in France
in early 1307. Jacques de Molay
arrives in France, ready to do anything necessary
to promote his new crusade. Although he does not
know it yet, he will never again
return to the east. He is the 23rd Grand Master
of the Order of the Temple, and he will be the last. Behind Molay's back, two men have been plotting
in secret over several months to realize one of the most
Machiavellian plans in history: To bring down
the Order of the Temple. (dramatic horn music) These two men are Philip IV,
King of France, also known as "Philip the Fair" and Guillaume de Nogaret,
his closest adviser. (music reaches a crescendo) At the time, Philip the Fair
has been king for over 20 years. He is known as the "Iron king". The personality
of Philip the Fair was a mystery
perhaps even more impenetrable than the mystery
of the Templars. A man of
terrifying intransigence and an appalling temperament. Philip is both authoritarian
and a propagandist. He manipulates public opinion. A modern king. Alongside Philip the Fair
is Guillaume de Nogaret. Guillaume de Nogaret is a very
versatile royal civil servant. He manages economic affairs,
financial affairs, politics,
conflicts with local churches, with bishops. He's a kind of
an all-round Prime minister who has a global vision
of the kingdom. The reasons which drove
these two men to destroy the Order
of the Temple were multiple. The first,
and most obvious, was money. Philip the Fair had a very
aggressive territorial policy, both towards the South and Lyon and towards
the North and Flanders, so he is in a permanent war
in the early 1300s with Flanders
and the Flemish nobility, and this costs him
lots of money. In 1307, France was
on the verge of bankruptcy. The king was in debt up to his neck
with foreign bankers. The French Crown's finances
were weak and the Templars were
a source of wealth. If he can take the Order down,
he's got access to their money. Or that's what he thought. For Philip the fair, given the disastrous
finances of his kingdom, the money of the Knights Templar
represents a windfall. However the main reason
which drove him to attack the Order
of the Temple is more political. What the king is seeking at the
beginning of the 14th century, is to assert his authority
at any cost, over his country, and to the detriment of one man: The Pope. The Order of the Temple
is a means for Philip the Fair to obtain above all else,
what he has sought since the beginning
of his reign: Absolute power. Philip the Fair
is trying to create a new kind of state where the king is above anyone. Which means that a king is the main power in his land and that he receives
the power directly from God. Not from the Pope. There was no need
for the middleman, the Pope as a middleman
between God and the King. Of course, the Templars
could not fit in this new modern world
new vision. They were a part of the past. If Philip's looking for a way to
erode the powers of the church, perhaps the Templars, with a substantial presence
in the kingdom of France, become a viable target, particularly given the collapse
of their position in the crusader states
only a few years previously. The Temple Affair was devised
by the French monarchy to weaken the Papacy. It was aimed against an Order
dependent on the Pope alone, which is the best hope
for the Holy Land and one of its privileged
creatures. To take down the Templars, Philip the Fair
and Guillaume de Nogaret carefully formulated their plan. Several months before Jacques
de Molay's return to Europe, they secretly warned
the new pope, Clement V, that scandalous rumours were
circulating about the Order. According to these rumours, the Templars
were actually heretics. Heresy is one of the most
terrible crime that there was, it is a crime against faith. The Templars were accused
of denying Christ, of maintaining
initiation ceremonies where one would encourage
the brothers to indulge in sodomy
with each other. The Templars, instead of
fighting for the faith, would offend it on
a daily basis. Rumours had been circulating
for most of the time the Order had been going. Whether there was any truth
to them or not. They were also
fanatically secretive. They were in their own bubble
of privilege. So, once these accusations
started to filter out, I think the secrecy
again worked against them because people didn't know
what they did in their initiation rituals. Guillaume de Nogaret
collects testimonies, accumulates false evidence
and constructs arguments: a list of possible accusations
against the Knights Templar. It is in 1306
that all these accusations, these rumours that are
circulating will grow and grow. Arriving in France, Jacques de Molay
hears of these rumours, but is unaware they originate
from the king himself. He senses that his
order of knights is threatened. He decides to counterattack. Jacques de Molay
asked the pope for an inquiry, led by the pope himself, into the honour of the Order. De Molay was warned
something was going on, but because he was
a lifelong Templar, he thought
they were untouchable, and for 200 years they had been. They were answerable
only to the Pope. I think Jacques De Molay
underestimated Philip the Fair. He thought,
"Well, we're Templars. Nobody can touch me
except the Pope." But what Jacques de Molay
doesn't know, is that Philip the Fair
and De Nogaret have no intention of waiting
for Pope Clement to investigate. In the greatest secrecy, they have already drawn up
an arrest order. Several original copies
of this order are kept in
the National Archives in Paris. Written in Latin, the words were chosen
with the greatest care. And the charges are
extremely serious. In the arrest order, five main justifications
are advanced. First, something implausible that happens during
the initiation of a new Templar. "...A brother who is received
is led behind the altar. The master then shows
him the cross, the figure of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and makes him spit on it
three times..." Secondly there were
some other troubling practices for the candidate to
be a new Templar. The officiant
making him a Templar kisses him on the back, just above the buttocks,
a very bizarre, obscene kiss. Thirdly, Templars would be
encouraged at their initiation to engage in
homosexual practices so as not to unite
carnally with women. "...The Master tells him that,
according to their statutes, if a brother wants to sleep
with him carnally, he is obliged to accept..." They were advised to commit
a classic heretic crime: sodomy. They are also accused
of worshiping an idol, something in the realm
of witchcraft and magic. And the final justification: The brother chaplains
of the Order would not consecrate the host
at members' communions, meaning, not an orthodox
practice during a mass. A set of heterodox practices
is swept away to justify an accusation
of heresy. "Whereas the truth cannot be
fully discovered otherwise, and since a vehement suspicion
has spread to all, we have decided that all members
of the said Order of our kingdom shall be arrested,
without exception whatsoever, held prisoner and reserved
for the judgment of the Church, and that all their property,
movable and immovable, shall be seized,
put under our hand, and faithfully preserved." The arrest order indicates that the operation
must remain an absolute secret. On September 14th, 1307, the Royal Order was sent
to all regions of France and delivered in person
to the bailiffs and seneschals. The king's
representative officers had to prepare one of the
greatest police operations of the Middle Ages. One month later, throughout
the kingdom of France, and at precisely the same time, the king's police arrive
at each commandery of the Order of the Temple. The Templars were
arrested suddenly on the orders of Philip the Fair on Friday the 13th
of October 1307. It is thought to be the origin
of Friday 13th being unlucky. It certainly was
for Templars in France. They were all arrested
at dawn throughout France. It speaks of
considerable preparation and considerable logistics, because the Templars
didn't see it coming. Jacques de Molay, the 23rd Grand Master,
is also arrested. The soldiers appeared at dawn on October 13th, at the gates of the temple,
a fortified district just outside the French capital, and arrested all 138 Templars
that were present. From that moment on, Philip The Fair
and Guillaume De Nogaret knew that what they were doing
was outside the law. Philip was technically acting
outside his jurisdiction. The Templars
were an order of the church; therefore, he had no right
to arrest them. But he claimed to be acting
in the church's interests by arresting the Order. That was how he justified it. In anticipation
of any reaction from the Pope, the King's men must obtain quick
and incontestable confessions. To achieve this, Philip the fair
and De Nogaret have an unmatched method: Torture. (fire crackling) (gasps) The interrogations
begin on October 15th, 1307. They weren't officially
supposed to spill blood. (ropes creaking) (groans) So they would use the rack. People were stretched or arms would be dislocated. (rope creaks) (groans) Squeezing fingers
with pliers and so on. (cries) (screams) Although they couldn't
cut somebody open, they could do pretty much
everything else. It was nasty. The record of the interrogation
of Templars arrested in Paris is preserved in the National
Archives of France on a scroll of 44 goat skins,
sewn together, and on which are transcribed the confessions
of the prisoners. On the scrolls, the royal notaries in charge
of writing the report are identified. We have a very short summary of an interrogation with
three questions that come up: Did they spit on the
cross of Christ? (screams) During their initiation
ceremony, did they kiss the candidate
on the top of their buttocks? (screams) Were they instructed to unite
carnally with other knights? (screams) So, to be clear, they are fabricating
mass confessions in order to be able to take
legal action afterwards. In the middle of the scroll
is the interrogation report of the most important prisoner
of the investigation: Jacques de Molay. "In the name of Christ amen,
may it be known to all that the year of the Lord 1307, the 24th day
of this month of October, appeared before us
Brother Jacques de Molay, grand master
of the Knights of the temple, present in person, who swore
on the holy gospels of God to speak the truth pure,
simple and in its entirety." Even today, no one knows how badly
Jacques De Molay was tortured to make him say
the following words, transcribed in the interrogation
report of the King's notaries: "I, Jacques de Molay, was admitted to the Temple
at Beaune 42 years ago. And the one who admitted me
brought a cross and commanded me to deny Christ
whose image was there. And I, reluctantly, did so. I was commanded
to spit upon the cross, but I spat on the ground. Only once. I was never told to unite
myself carnally with brothers and I never did." Jacques de Molay agrees to say, or rather said under torture,
that yes, he was asked to deny Christ, and that he did so
and spat on the cross. That was enough for
Guillaume de Nogaret to say: "The Grand Master of the Order
of the Temple has confessed". Depending on the Templar's level
of resistance to torture, they almost all confessed. In Paris, of the 138
Templars interrogated, only 4 refused to confess to
the crimes they were accused of. 121 confessed
to having denied Christ. 111 to having spat on the cross. 109 to having carried out
the obscene kiss above the buttocks. Elsewhere in France, some Templars also confessed to having worshipped
an idol called Baphomet. What is a Baphomet?
We don't even know! The descriptions given
tell us everything. It could have feet, or not, have two feet, have four feet, be bearded, be oozing, have two faces...
We are in perfect confusion, which shows the imagination
of the inquisitors. In all the regions of France
without exception, all Templars will confess
to one or more crimes of heresy. You could say: "the sheer
number of confessions proves that some
must have been guilty". Or say: "They're being tortured
of course, they will confess." The link between torture and
the guilty verdict is strong. The Templars said what Philip wanted to hear. Thanks to all these confessions
extracted under torture, Philip the Fair
and De Nogaret achieved their first victory. They announce to all of Europe the result of their
investigation: the Templars are heretics
and must be eradicated. Pope Clement V is cornered. Although the King of France
has acted outside of the law, these confessions are
far too serious for the Pope to stand by
and do nothing. On November 22nd, 1307, he publishes the bull
"Pastoralis Preeminentie" which is addressed to all
the Christian kings of Europe. "I, Pope Clement the fifth, demand and exhort
that Your nobility prepares to give the order
to seize all the Templars
of Your territory, as well as their movable
and immovable goods, on the same day." Clement V was confronted with an almost impossible situation. The Templars
had already been arrested, many of them
had confessed under torture and he probably
was trying to save at least a part
of the Templars as well, because the Templars of France, they were already condemned, and there was no way
for them to avoid the trial, and for many of them,
death. The rest of Europe's sovereigns are sceptical of
the Templar's guilt. Although members of the Order
are arrested, and tried
in the different countries the conclusion nearly everywhere
is the same: No one finds anything
to reproach the Knights Templar. When the papacy starts the trial
across western Christendom, the Templar are put on trial
in multiple countries, in England
and the kingdom of Aragon, parts of Germany,
Italy and elsewhere, the main finding
from all of this is that no Templars confessed. In Spain, the king and the
population defended their own. There was a trial
but no defamation. In Venice, the trial was in
the hands of the Doge, who said: "Ours are very honourable". We are absolutely sure that
they are not heretics. And there was
not even an arrest. The king of Cyprus
defended his own. The most glaring example
is England. The police were unable to cross
examine and obtain a confession. There had been no torture and
no work by the interrogators. But Philip the Fair
and De Nogaret had no intention of letting
other countries' investigations disrupt their
Machiavellian plan. The machine
had been set in motion, and there was no stopping it. It didn't really matter
if the English Templars weren't admitting to heresy, the guys in France were
and that was enough. During the first six
months of 1308, the King of France
and his lawyers put pressure on the Pope. They insist on the seriousness
of the confessions obtained and assert again and again
that the Templars are guilty and that the king has acted
in the interest of the church. The Pope is not fooled, he suspended the interrogators
of the kingdom of France. We therefore had a sort of
balance of power that was established
in the spring of 1308 between the Pope
and the King of France. This is the period of tension
where everything is played out. In the summer of 1308, Clement V decides to take back
control of the legal situation. He appoints interrogators
to interview the Knights Templar and asks Philip The Fair
to let them see the prisoners. The King of France's men
selected 72 prisoners to send to Poitiers
for questioning. The highest dignitaries,
including Jacques De Molay, are interrogated in
the royal fortress of Chinon. (dramatic music) In the Vatican's apostolic
archives, which holds all the documents
of the history of the Holy See, the reports from the cardinals in charge of the investigation
of the Templars can still be found. The exchanges between
the investigators and the prisoners are recorded
on these pages. "When they asked him, seeing
he regretted his actions, why he had agreed to do things
that went against his faith, he said that to enter the order,
it was an obligation." In the margins,
are still some notes indicating "Sodomy" "Initiation rite" "Idol worship" The Pope's men try to determine whether the crimes alleged
by the French king are true. However, Philip the fair
authorized the cardinals to question the Templars
only in the presence of his men. Threatened, the prisoners are
incapable of denying heresy. All confess. The Templars who speak know the Royal Police
are watching them and they will be returning
to the Royal Prison, so considering the torture and the torments
they have endured, it's likely they did not try
to retract their confessions, and in the end,
they took the established line: confessing the minimum,
but only to be left in peace. When the Templars
were interrogated in the spring of
1308 in Poitiers, the Pope realized that
all the inappropriate gestures, which formed the basis
of the accusations, belonged to a practice. The document says:
"usus ordinis nostri" or "modus ordini nostri", therefore a practice,
a rite like in the military, but which had no connection with
theology or heretical doctrines. So the Pope
was convinced that yes, the Templars may have been
guilty of several faults because they tolerated
these inappropriate ceremonies, but that these faults
were not of a heretical nature. At the end of these
interrogations, Pope Clement V decides
to write down his decision concerning the dignitaries
of the Order of the Temple seen by his Cardinals
in the prison of Chinon. The original of this document,
entitled "The Chinon Parchment" remained lost until
the early 21st century. The statement leaves
no room for doubt. Pope Clement V gives absolution to the highest members
of the Order of the Temple. The wrongs they had allegedly
committed are thus forgiven, and expunged by the
Pope himself. "For Jacques De Molay,
Grand Master of the Order, we have decided
to grant him absolution according to the canonical
form of the Church, we bring him back
to the unity of the Church, we bring him back to
the communion of the faithful, and we allow him once again to have
the ecclesiastical sacraments." The pontifical commission
in charge of instructing the trial
of the Order of the Temple was set up in 1309. Its members heard
hundreds of prisoners who returned to testify, but this time not before
the King of France's police, but before of the men
of the Holy See. As they can testify freely without being tortured
beforehand or being held by
the royal police, most of the Templars
retract their confessions, tell how their initiations
take place and all seems normal. Dozens of Templars testify
before the Commission, describing to the cardinals
the tortures they suffered and the deprivations
to which they were subjected. Locked in a well without food
or water, they lost their flesh, they bled,
they tell all their tortures. This is totally contradictory
to the first interrogations and the Templars admit none of
the things they're accused of, because they say that these
are false accusations. (music reaches a crescendo) Little by little, the defence
of the Templars is organized. Faced with the increasing
number of retracted confessions, Philip the Fair
and Guillaume De Nogaret decide to strike back. Hard. Philip the Fair
and his legal experts seized upon this saying that
these Templars who had confessed had been reconciled, and now that they denied,
they have thus relapsed. They returned to their heresy. And for returning
to their heresy, they deserve to be
burned at the stake. (crowd cheers) In May 1310, 54 Templars who retracted
their confessions were burned at the stake
at Porte Saint-Antoine in Paris. (crowd cheers) (music reaches
dramatic crescendo) The movement to defend
the Order of the Temple launched by the Templars,
individually, stopped overnight. The threat of burning Templars who retract their testimonies
had worked. No one wants to defend
the Order anymore, no one wants to tell the truth. King Philip the Fair
had already won. (fire crackles)
(crowd cheers) Philip the Fourth's
early executions were intended primarily
to put pressure on the papacy. He was telling the Pope that
he wasn't going to back down and to accept the fact that the
Templars would be found guilty. The Templar affair becomes far
too embarrassing for Clement V. In spite of his conviction
that the Order is not guilty, the persistence of
the King of France directly threatens the
Pope's legitimacy. Pope Clement realized that
the damage had been done. The accusations
were so outrageous and had spread around Europe
pretty quickly. Everybody was shocked to hear
that the Knights Templar, the great Christian knights,
the summit of crusading zeal were doing all of these strange
and very unchristian things in their initiation ceremonies
and their spiritual practices. On October 16, 1311, the Council of Vienna convened. Its 170 members rule on
the culpability of the Knights. A commission reviews
all records of the trials against members of the Order
across Europe. But Philip the Fair
aims to prevent that the Templars
be recognized as innocent. He goes in person
to apply pressure on the Pope. Six months after the beginning
of the Council, Clement V capitulates
and stops the trial. He is the superior of the Order and therefore, he alone
decides to suppress it. The Pope couldn't
save the Order. I think he reluctantly said:
"we have to wind the Order up." Clement really had no choice
but to dissolve the Order. Philip the Fair was breathing
down his neck the whole time. I think that the Pope
tried to make the whole affair die down. In order to do so,
he had to sacrifice the Templars that were already condemned. It was more convenient
for the church, that they disband somehow. On March 22nd, 1312, the pope signs the papal bull
"Vox In Excelso" officially dissolving
the Order of the Temple. "Considering the grave scandal
this has brought to the surface and the evil deeds perpetrated
by many brothers, I have decided to abolish, not without bitterness and pain, the Order
of the Knights Templar, its state, its uniform
and its name, and I subject it
to a perpetual ban, expressly forbidding anyone
from now on to enter this Order, to wear its uniform and
to impersonate a Knight Templar. Anyone who contravenes
this prohibition will incur the sentence
of excommunication." Less than two months later,
the bull "Ad Providam" stipulates the decision
taken by Pope Clement V, regarding
the possessions of the Order. "All their belongings,
overseas or on the continent, in any part of the world, their villages, lands, barns, places, rights of justice,
income and all other movable
and immovable possessions that depend on
the Templar Houses are to be turned into the Order
of St. John of Jerusalem." It is therefore
not the King of France who recovers
the Templar's possessions but another
religious military order called the Order
of Saint John Of Jerusalem. (music reaches a crescendo) 192 years after its creation
in 1120 in the Holy Land, and less than 5 years
after the spectacular arrest of all the Templars of France
by the men of Philip the Fair, the Order of the Temple
disappears. Two years later, the fate of the dignitaries
of the Order must be decided. Among them: Hugues de Pairaud,
leader of the Order in France, Geoffroy de Gonneville, Master of the Order
in Aquitaine and Poitou, Geoffroy de Charnay, Master of the Order in Normandy and the 23rd
and last Grand Master, Jacques De Molay. Jacques de Molay has been
waiting since his arrest to see the Pope in person, he has remained silent saying: "I am waiting
to talk to the Pope and to explain to him
why I acted." But the Pope won't be coming. Instead He sends his cardinals to communicate
his judgment to De Molay and the last dignitaries
of the Order still in prison. On March 11th, 1314, De Molay and
the three other dignitaries, were summoned by the Pope's men. The Templar Grand Master
had been in prison for seven years I think he was clearly
an old and confused man. And eventually he was given
the choice again of: confess or be burnt at the stake. (crowd cheers) (horse and cart noises) As the 4 dignitaries
have renewed their confessions, they are brought to the square
in front of Notre Dame de Paris to hear their sentence. In front of the population,
and in the utmost silence, they are officially sentenced
to life imprisonment. (crowd jeers) Faced with injustice,
and to general surprise, Jacques De Molay decides to
change his version of the facts. He denies the accusations
brought against him. De Molay and Geoffroy de Charnay
both retract their confessions before the Commission, before the king's men
and the crowd, signing their death warrant. Philip the Fair, King of France, is immediately informed
of the situation. Without waiting for the approval
of the cardinals, he has a pyre erected at
the end of the Ile de la Cité. Jacques De Molay
and Geoffroy De Charnay are burned at the stake
that same evening. De Molay refusing
to confess again and being burnt is a tragic end, but it's also hugely
symbolic, hugely powerful in that his willingness
to be burnt at the stake is almost the only thing
he can do to get one over
on the French king. His one powerful card left
to play is to go to the stake. (dramatic crescendo) On that day,
the course of events is retold in a poem
by Geoffroy de Paris, a chronicler of the
Royal Chancellery. "The master unclothed
himself without any fear. They took him
to bind him to the stake. But he said to them as follows: 'Lords, at least
let me join my hands a little And to God make prayer I see here my judgment
Where death suits me freely, God knows who is wrong
and who has sinned, Misfortune will come to those
who have wrongly condemned us, God will avenge our death, Know that all those
who are contrary to us By us will suffer!'..." He says that God will recognize
those who have done good and those who have done evil,
he speaks before god. In other words
he also speaks for posterity. For his own and, above all,
that of his Order to which he had
so devoted himself. Long after,
legend would have it that these words pronounced
by Jacques De Molay were at the origin of the curse that would strike those
who caused his fall, and that of
the Order of the Temple. Jacques de Molay
was said to have cursed French king, Philip the Fair,
and the Pope Clement. And indeed, the Pope
did die the following month and Philip died in a hunting
accident that November. The kingdom appeared to have
a bright future, all mapped out. But what happened? The king died very quickly and his three sons
who succeeded him also died. And then the kingdom of France
went into crisis. France, which was a military
power, was defeated by England. And to make matters worse,
the black plague broke out. For many observers
of the mid-14th century, the Capetian kings
became cursed kings. As all the sons of Philip
the Fair die very quickly, it is almost like
an erasing of his family, like a revenge on behalf
of the massacred Templars. (orchestral music crescendo) (militaristic classical music) The heroic end
of Jacques de Molay, the sudden deaths of Philip
The Fair and Pope Clement V, the mysteries around the birth, reign and fall of the Knights
Templar are all elements that for centuries fuelled wild conspiracies about
the Order of the Temple. Here we have an Order at the heart of the relationship
between Christianity and Islam for a substantial period
during the crusades. Here is an order
which fights for Christ, which to many people would
seem a contradiction in terms. An order that was mysterious
in some of its practices. And here is an order that was ultimately dissolved
on accusations of heresy. There is a lot there that
people will find intriguing. So it's never surprised me
that people do write fabulous stories about Templar
myths or Templar treasure or whatever it may be. Having said that, there's very
little evidence to support them. While some still hope to find,
somewhere, a possible hidden treasure
from the Templars, and historians continue their
investigations into the secrets related to the history
of these soldier-monks, one thing is clear: The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of
Christ of the Temple of Solomon, which later became
The Order of the Temple, created by a few devoted knights in 1120
in the heart of the Holy Land, will forever be a legend. (orchestral music crescendo) Subtitling TITRAFILM
