Untitled Essay Research Paper Title Militant Monks — страница 3

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collecting taxes, controlling debts and administering pension funds. [Burman/Templars 87-88] The treasury of the King of France was kept safely within the vault of the Temple of Paris. [Sinclair 36] The Templars owned a great fleet of merchant ships with which to convey all manner of goods, e.g., pepper and cotton, as well as pilgrims, between Europe and the Holy Land. People wanting to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but lacking the resources to do so, were allowed to assign rights to their houses and property, upon their death, to the Templars in exchange for passage on a Templar ship. To avoid accusations of usury, this procedure was legitimized by the papal bull Quantum Praedecessores, issued by Pope Eugenius II in 1145. [Burman/Templars 75-78] The Holy Land was divided

into four Crusader States: Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli and Edessa. Shifting alliances, complicated by the plotting of independent Arab emirates, posed a complicated and often confusing backdrop for the Knights’ military operations. Their first action was in the northern sector of the Principality of Antioch. They captured the March of Amanus, which formed a natural barrier between the city of Amanus and Asia Minor. [Burman/Templars 50] The Knights Templar frequently fought side-by-side with their counter- parts, the Knights Hospitaller, another military order, founded to provide shelter to sick, wounded or destitute pilgrims. Together, these two warrior orders afforded the Holy Land a formidable fighting force. Although some histories allude to a deep and bitter rivalry between

the two, it is more likely that they cooperated well during the battles, keeping any such pettiness for the monotonous weeks between actions. [Upton-Ward 6-7] The first military action of the Templars was in the northern sector of the Holy Land. In 1131, they captured the March of Amanus in Antioch. It was a natural barrier between the city and Asia Minor, which afforded control of two roads into Antioch. The same year, King Fulk, Baldwin?s successor, travelled to the site and granted ownership to the Templars. [Burman/Templars 52] Control of the various areas of the Holy Land see-sawed back and forth between the Crusaders and the Arabs, with neither side enjoying a decisive victory. Then the balance of power began to change with the rise of the great Arab leader Salah-ad-Din

Yusuf ibn-Aiyub, known to westerners as Saladin. Descended from a long line of military heroes, he was born in 1138 in Baalbek, Syria, where his father was military governor. He began to develop his warrior skills by accompanying his father and uncles on various campaigns. [Burman/Templars 98] Saladin’s rise to power was rapid and successful. His adherance to the orthodox Sunni faith caused him to initiate dramatic changes in his Shi-ite army. Upon his ultimate rise to the position of Sultan, he declared a ‘jihad’, or holy war, against the Crusaders. This intense re-focusing of the Moslem effort began a gradual shift in power. Christian strongholds fell in increasing numbers, creating a domino effect. By the middle of 1187, Saladin had captured Acre, Nablus, Jaffa, Toron,

Sidon, Beirut and Ascalon. Jerusalem fell on 2 October, 1187. [Burman/Templars 108] The fall of Jerusalem was a disaster from which the Crusades never recovered. Among Saladin’s prisoners were the King of Jerusalem and Raynald de Chatillon, commander of the fortress at Moab. After entertaining the two in his tent, Saladin had Raynald killed. The King saw his fellow prisoner executed and thought he was surely next, but Saladin had him brought back i nto his tent and told him, “It is not the habit of kings to kill kings.” Saladin’s victory was complete. [Payne 223-4] In the disarray that followed, the orders began to disperse. The Hospitallers removed their headquarters, first to Rhodes and then to Malta; and, with the ultimate fall of Acre in 1291, the Templars lost their

base of operations and relocated to Cyprus. In effect, the orders had lost their original reason for existence. [Upton-Ward 9] As the Knights had their policital patrons, so had their enemies. In 1305, Philip IV of France, known as Philip the Fair, seized control of the Holy See and relocated the papacy to Avignon. From there, he initiated a series of papal decrees, ostensibly issues by Pope Clement V, a puppet pope under his absolute control. Eyeing the vast fortunes and resources of the Templars, he conceived a plot of treachery against them. Since he also controlled the Inquisition in France, he had no difficulty leveling a whole laundry list of horrible, but adsurd and largely unsupportable, crimes against the Knights. [Burman/Inquisition 95] The role of the Inquisition,