AT the time when Conrad and Louis visited Jerusalem, the defence of the Holy Sepulchre did not devolve wholly upon King Baldwin and the Christian barons of the East. Ever and anon, before the eyes of pilgrims, men with bronzed visages, athletic forms, muscular limbs, wearing long mantles over their chain mail, and mounted on choice steeds, swept along with the air of warriors, who desired nothing so much as foes to conquer. These were the Knights of the Temple, and the Knights of the Hospital of St. John, who assumed a haughty superiority toward their compeers, and boasted that their orders formed the bulwark of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The Templars and the Knights of St. John had not originally aspired to be what they now appeared. Notwithstanding the high pretensions and defiant bearing of the " military monks," both orders had sprung from obscurity. Before becoming warriors, they had been simple almsmen; and they whose wealth and power rendered them objects of awe, had originally rejoiced in their poverty and humility.
It appears that, long ere the crusades began, some Italian merchants founded an hospital, dedicated to St. John of Jerusalem, the brethren of which consecrated their lives to the service of pilgrims and the poor. As time passed on, however, the hospital increased in wealth, erected stately buildings, and sent forth, under the auspices of a grand-master, champions to contend with Pagan and Turk. The Knights of St. John wore over their mail a black mantle, on which appeared five crosses, in memory of the five wounds of Christ, and a red belt with a white cross. Moreover, they took the oath of poverty and chastity, and vowed to succor and sustain all pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre.
Some years after the institution of the Hospitallers of St. John, a rival order sprang into existence. Several persons assembled near the spot where Solomon's Temple was believed to have stood, and, dedicating themselves by a solemn oath to the defence of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem, formed the order of the Temple of Zion. Like the Hospitallers, the Templars vowed themselves to chastity and poverty; and, indeed, paraded their penury by taking for their seal two knights riding on one horse, and offering their swords and belts as the only ransom they could afford to pay when taken by the Saracens. They wore, over their armor, a long white mantle, on the shoulder of which was a red cross, and they assumed a banner, half black and half white, to intimate that while fair and candid to Christians, they were black and terrible to unbelievers.
The two great monastic orders, which thus sprung up in the Holy Land, were not open to all comers. Their constitution, indeed, appears to have been most aristocratic; and high qualifications were required. It was necessary, to become a knight of either order, that the aspirant should have reached the age of eighteen; that his birth should be legitimate; that his blood should be gentle; that he should be of a vigorous frame 'and of a noble presence. These rules did not, of course apply to the priests, or servants of the order, but doubtless, in the case of the knights, they were strictly enforced.
But there was little danger of any lack of candidates. In an age when the union of the military spirit with the religious spirit was so strong, the life led by the Templars and Hospitallers could hardly fail to recommend itself to youthful patricians who inherited nothing but the courage and piety of their fathers. In fact, they could hardly have imagined any career more in accordance with their ideas than that now presented. Accordingly, no sooner did the renown of the Templars and Knights of St. John spread itself over Europe, than almost every illustrious family sent a cadet to swell their ranks. Such men, picked from the flower of Europe's nobility, naturally fought with courage and died with dignity; and they rendered themselves terrible to foes on every field where Christian and Moslem met in the shock of war. In close conflict they were the most formidable of champions. At the cry of battle, they armed " with faith within and steel without," and professed their pride to conquer and their happiness tcxxxxxTcKeTor the Christian cause.
For many years after their institution, the conduct of the Templars and Knights of St. John was worthy of all praise. But, as time passed over, they yielded to the baneful influence of overgrown wealth. Every victory gave them new possessions in Asia; and admirers in every nation in Europe granted them lands. Ere long the military monks became potent as sovereign princes; and their banners waved over countless cities, villages, and provinces. Gradually they gave less attention to the defence of the Holy Sepulchre, than to augmenting the wealth and glory of their orders, and exchanged their original humility and poverty for displays of the arrogance and ostentation destined to involve them in ruin.
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From John G. Edgar
The Crusades and the Crusaders, 1860
