The History of the Knights Templar (Illustrated) by Addison Charles

Author:Addison, Charles [Addison, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crusades
Published: 2016-02-21T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VI

The conquest of Jerusalem by the Carizmians—Rise and progress of the Comans—They are defeated and destroyed by the Templars—The exploits of the Templars in Egypt—King Louis of France visits the Templars in Palestine—He assists them in putting the country into a defensible state—Henry III., king of England, visits the Temple at Paris—The magnificent hospitality of the Templars in England and France—Bendocdar, sultan of Egypt, invades Palestine—He defeats the Templars, takes their strong fortresses, and decapitates six hundred of their brethren—The Grand Master comes to England for succour—The renewal of the war—The fall of Acre—The Templars establish their head-quarters in the island of Cyprus—Their alliance with the king of Persia—The reconquest of Jerusalem—The desolation of the Holy Land—The final extinction of the Templars in Palestine.

“The Knights of the Temple ever maintained their fearless and fanatic character; if they neglected to live, they were prepared to die in the service of Christ.”—Gibbon.

Shortly after the recovery of the holy city, (A. D. 1242,) Djemal’eddeen, the Mussulman, paid a visit to Jerusalem. “I saw,” says he, “the monks and the priests masters of the Temple of the Lord. I saw the vials of wine prepared for the sacrifice. I entered into the Mosque Al Acsa, (the Temple of the Knights Templars, ante, p. 12,) and I saw a bell suspended from the dome. The rites and ceremonies of the Mussulmen were abolished; the call to prayer was no longer heard. The infidels publicly exercised their idolatrous practices in the sanctuaries of the Mussulmen.” By the advice of Benedict, bishop of Marseilles, who came to the holy city on a pilgrimage, the Templars rebuilt their ancient and once formidable castle of Saphet, the dilapidated ruins of which had been ceded to them by their recent treaty with Saleh Ismael. During a pilgrimage to the lake of Tiberias and the banks of the Jordan, the bishop of Marseilles had halted at Saphet, and spent a night amid the ruins of the ancient castle, where he found a solitary Knight Templar keeping watch in a miserable hovel. Struck with the position of the place, and its importance in a military point of view, he sought on his return to Acre an interview with the Grand Master of the Temple, and urged him to restore the castle of Saphet to its pristine condition. The bishop was invited to attend a general chapter of the order of the Temple, when the matter was discussed, and it was unanimously determined that the mountain of Saphet should immediately be refortified. The bishop himself laid the first stone, and animated the workmen by a spirited oration. Eight hundred and fifty masons and artificers, and four hundred slaves, were employed in the task. During the first thirty months after the commencement of operations, the Templars expended eleven thousand golden bezants upon the works, and in succeeding years they spent upwards of forty thousand. The walls, when finished, were sixty French feet in width, one hundred and seventy in height, and the circuit of them was two thousand two hundred and fifty feet.

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