The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple

by C. G. Addison

By the advice of Benedict, bishop of Marseilles, who came to the holy city on a pilgrimage, the Templars rebuilt their ancient and formidable castle of Saphet. Eight hundred and fifty workmen, and four hundred slaves were employed in the task. The walls 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. They were flanked by seven large round towers, sixty feet in diameter, and seventy-two feet higher than the walls. The fosse surrounding the fortress was thirty-six feet wide, and was pierced in the solid rock to a depth of forty-three feet. The garrison, in time of peace, amounted to one thousand seven hundred men, and to two thousand two hundred in time of war.[278] The ruins of this famous castle crowning the summit of a lofty mountain, torn and shattered by earthquakes, still present a stupendous appearance. In Pococke’s time “two particularly fine large round towers” were entire, and Van Egmont and Heyman describe the remains of two moats lined with freestone, several fragments of walls, bulwarks, and turrets, together with corridors, winding staircases, and internal apartments. Ere this fortress was completed, the Templars again lost the holy city, and were well-nigh exterminated in a bloody battle fought with the Carizmians. These were a fierce, pastoral tribe of Tartars, who, descending from the north of Asia, and quitting their abodes in the neighbourhood of the Caspian, rushed headlong upon the nations of the south. They overthrew with frightful rapidity, and the most terrific slaughter, all who had ventured to oppose their progress; and, at the instigation of Saleh Ayoub, sultan of Egypt, with whom they had formed an alliance, they turned their arms against the Holy Land. In a great battle fought near Gaza, which lasted two days, the Grand Masters of the Temple and the Hospital were both slain, together with three hundred and twelve Knights Templars, and three hundred and twenty-four serving brethren, besides hired soldiers in the pay of the Order.[279] The following account of these disasters was forwarded to Europe by the Vice-Master of the Temple, and the bishops and abbots of Palestine.

A. D. 1244.

“To the reverend Fathers in Christ, and to all our friends, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and other prelates of the church in the kingdoms of France and England, to whom these letters shall come;—Robert, by the grace of God, patriarch of the holy church of Jerusalem; Henry, archbishop of Nazareth; J. elect of Cæsarea; R. bishop of Acre; William de Rochefort, Vice-Master of the house of the soldiery of the Temple, and of the convent of the same house; H. prior of the sepulchre of the Lord; B. of the Mount of Olives, &c. &c. Health and prosperity.”

“The cruel barbarian, issuing forth from the confines of the East, hath turned his footsteps towards the kingdom of Jerusalem, that holy land, which, though it hath at different periods been grievously harassed by the Saracen tribes, hath yet in these latter days enjoyed ease and tranquillity, and been at peace with the neighbouring nations. But, alas! the sins of our christian people have just now raised up for its destruction an unknown people, and an avenging sword from afar....” They proceed to describe the destructive progress of the Carizmians from Tartary, the devastation of Persia, the fierce extermination by those savage hordes of all races and nations, without distinction of religion, and their sudden entry into the Holy Land by the side of Saphet and Tiberias, “when,” say they, “by the common advice, and at the unanimous desire of the Masters of the religious houses of the chivalry of the Temple and the Hospital, we called in the assistance of the sultans of Damascus and Carac, who were bound to us by treaty, and who bore especial hatred to the Carizmians; they promised and solemnly swore to give us their entire aid, but the succour came slow and tardy; the Christian forces were few in number, and were obliged to abandon the defence of Jerusalem....”

After detailing the barbarous and horrible slaughter of five thousand three hundred Christians, of both sexes—men, women, children, monks, priests, and nuns,—they thus continue their simple and affecting narrative:

“At length, the before-mentioned perfidious savages having penetrated within the gates of the holy city of Israel, the small remnant of the faithful left therein, consisting of children, women, and old men, took refuge in the church of the sepulchre of our Lord. The Carizmians rushed to that holy sanctuary; they butchered them all before the very sepulchre itself, and cutting off the heads of the priests who were kneeling with uplifted hands before the altars, they said one to another, ‘Let us here shed the blood of the Christians on the very place where they offer up wine to their God, who they say was hanged here.’ Moreover, in sorrow be it spoken, and with sighs we inform you, that laying their sacrilegious hands on the very sepulchre itself, they sadly disturbed it, utterly battering to pieces the marble shrine which was built around that holy sanctuary. They have defiled, with every abomination of which they were capable, Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified, and the whole church of the resurrection. They have taken away, indeed, the sculptured columns which were placed as a decoration before the sepulchre of the Lord, and as a mark of victory, and as a taunt to the Christians, they have sent them to the sepulchre of the wicked Mahomet. They have violated the tombs of the happy kings of Jerusalem in the same church, and they have scattered, to the hurt of Christendom, the ashes of those holy men to the winds, irreverently profaning the revered Mount Sion. The Temple of the Lord, the church of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where the Virgin lies buried, the church of Bethlehem, and the place of the nativity of our Lord, they have polluted with enormities too horrible to be related, far exceeding the iniquity of all the Saracens, who, though they frequently occupied the land of the Christians, yet always reverenced and preserved the holy places....”

They then describe the subsequent military operations, the march of the Templars and Hospitallers, on the 4th of October, A. D. 1244, from Acre to Cæsarea; the junction of their forces with those of the Moslem sultans; the retreat of the Carizmians to Gaza, where they received succour from the sultan of Egypt; and the preparation of the Hospitallers and Templars for the attack before that place.

“Those holy warriors,” say they, “boldly rushed in upon the enemy, but the Saracens who had joined us, having lost many of their men, fled, and the warriors of the cross were left alone to withstand the united attack of the Egyptians and Carizmians. Like stout champions of the Lord, and true defenders of catholicity, whom the same faith and the same cross and passion make true brothers, they bravely resisted; but as they were few in number in comparison with the enemy, they at last succumbed, so that of the convents of the house of the chivalry of the Temple, and of the house of the Hospital of Saint John at Jerusalem, only thirty-three Templars and twenty-six Hospitallers escaped; the archbishop of Tyre, the bishop of Saint George, the abbot of Saint Mary of Jehoshaphat, and the Master of the Temple, with many other clerks and holy men, being slain in that sanguinary fight. We ourselves, having by our sins provoked this dire calamity, fled half dead to Ascalon; from thence we proceeded by sea to Acre, and found that city and the adjoining province filled with sorrow and mourning, misery and death. There was not a house or a family that had not lost an inmate or a relation....”

“The Carizmians have now pitched their tents in the plain of Acre, about two miles from the city. The whole country, as far as Nazareth and Saphet, is overrun by them, so that the churches of Jerusalem and the christian kingdom have now no territory, except a few fortifications, which are defended with great difficulty and labour by the Templars and Hospitallers....

“To you, dearest Fathers, upon whom the burthen of the defence of the cause of Christ justly resteth, we have caused these sad tidings to be communicated, earnestly beseeching you to address your prayers to the throne of grace, imploring mercy from the Most High; that he who consecrated the Holy Land with his own blood in redemption of all mankind, may compassionately turn towards it and defend it, and send it succour. Do ye yourselves, dearest Fathers, as far as ye are able, take sage counsel and speedily assist us, that ye may receive a heavenly reward. But know, assuredly, that unless, through the interposition of the Most High, or by the aid of the faithful, the Holy Land is succoured in the next spring passage from Europe, its doom is sealed, and utter ruin is inevitable.