Medieval chroniclers – who wrote the history of the Middle Ages – were often very suspicious of the Knights Templar. Sadly, anything the knights wrote – beyond the confessions at their trials – has been lost. What we have is the combination of guarded praise and outright hostility from priests, abbots, and bishops who dipped their quill pen in poison before scribbling down their thoughts.
Let’s look at two very prominent medieval chroniclers – Matthew Paris and William of Tyre. They seriously despised the Templars.
MEDIEVAL CHRONICLER: Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris (c. 1200 – 1259) was an English Benedictine monk known for his detailed historical writings and illustrations, particularly his Chronica Majora (Major Chronicle), a universal history of the world.
In 1229, he observed the events of the Sixth Crusade, led by Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, who had been excommunicated from the Catholic church by Pope Gregory IX. Despite that setback, he regained control of Jerusalem for the Christian crusaders through diplomacy with the Muslim rulers. Matthew reported that this success made the Knights Templar and Hospitaller very jealous of the emperor. His description of the Templar attitude to this diplomatic triumph was very loaded:
Their jealousy was encouraged by the pope`s hatred for the emperor when they heard that the pope had already hostilely invaded the empire. They receive so much income from the whole of Christendom and, only for the defence of the Holy Land, swallow down such great revenues as if they sunk them into a chasm of the Great Abyss!
This was a familiar trope about the greedy Templars only interested in enriching themselves at every turn. But that wasn’t enough for Matthew. He then accused the Knights Templar of intriguing with the Sultan of Egypt to assassinate the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, while he was on pilgrimage to the river Jordan.
And now, because they themselves wished to gain the credit for all these wonderful deeds which the emperor had done, they craftily and treacherously told the Sultan of Babylon [Cairo] that the emperor proposed to go to the river where Christ was baptised by John the Baptist. There he intended to adore the footsteps of Christ and the feet of His Forerunner – John the Baptist, of whom Christ said: ‘no mother`s son ever arose greater than him’. He would go in secret and humbly, dressed in linen, with a few companions. So the sultan could capture or kill the emperor there as he liked.
This was a serious accusation. The Templars were reaching out to the Muslim enemy to bump off a Christian ruler – who had been leading the crusade. In Matthew’s account, even the sultan was taken aback by such treachery and handed the letter over to Frederick II. Grateful for this intelligence from the sultan, the emperor cancelled his pilgrimage.
In later years, Matthew also accused the Templars of pursuing a sectarian vendetta against the rival Knights Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights. Essentially, the Templars were portrayed as bullies who threw their weight around in the Holy Land. In 1241, they were harassing both orders and creating bitter strife among Christian warriors.
The Templars carried their attack so far that they besieged the Hospitallers` house in Acre and did not allow them to collect food, nor even to carry their dead out to burial from their houses in which they were besieged. Also to spite the emperor the Templars pursued and drove out the brothers of St. Mary Teuton [the Teutonic knights], leaving scarcely a few whom they regarded as friends to minister to the church.
In 1247, some drops of Christ’s blood were sent from the Holy Land to London by the Templars, Hospitallers, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem. The vial containing the blood was carried in a procession from St Paul’s Cathedral to Westminster Abbey where it was received by King Henry III. However, Matthew – who was present at this sacred mass – reported that many people didn’t believe the relic was genuine.
MEDIEVAL CHRONICLER: William of Tyre
William was the Archbishop of Tyre, in modern Lebanon, and a leading figure on the Christian side in the Crusades. Famously, he became the tutor to the future King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, discovering the boy’s leprosy at an early stage. But nothing could be done to cure him. His initial attitude towards the Templars was fairly positive but became progressively jaundiced.
He was critical of the Templars’ growing military and political influence, as well as the privileges they received from the papacy. This must have been a very prevalent gripe among the mainstream clergy – that the knights were beyond the jurisdiction of churchmen like himself and flaunted the fact they were only accountable to the pope. It was their sheer wealth that annoyed William the most:
They are said to have immense possessions both here and overseas, so that there is now not a province in the Christian world which has not bestowed upon the aforesaid brothers a portion of its goods. It is said today that their wealth is equal to the treasures of kings.
Things might have started well with the Templars but it had all gone downhill in William’s view. They had become haughty and venal.
Although they maintained their establishment honorably for a long time and fulfilled their vocation with sufficient prudence, later, because of the neglect of humility (which is known as the guardian of all virtues and which, since it sits in the lowest place, cannot fall), they with drew from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, by whom their Order was founded and from whom they received their first benefices and to whom they denied the obedience which their predecessors rendered. They have also taken away tithes and first fruits from God’s churches, have disturbed their possessions, and have made themselves exceedingly troublesome.
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