On the Extinction of the Order of the Templars

...edited by Paulus Langius in the Citiz Chronicle original: "Chronicon Citizense", page 784. A Bundle of Times original: "Fasciculus Temporum," a popular 15th-century world history, page 75. English Monasteries original: "Monasticon Anglicanum," a major work on English religious houses, volume 2, page 518. Du Cange’s Glossary original: "Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Latinitatis", page 1083. In The Deeds of God through the Franks original: "Gesta Dei per Francos," a collection of Crusade chronicles by William of Tyre, page 820. Godefridus’s Chronicle for the year 1307. Jacques de Vitry A historian and bishop who wrote about the Holy Land, page 1083. The Annals of Bruetius for the year 1118. Zwinger in the Theater of Human Life, volume IV, page 4131. Osiander’s Ecclesiastical History, century 14, book 1, chapter 3. By order of the superiors, a Rule was prescribed for them by St. Bernard St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the influential Cistercian abbot, by which they were commanded to live in the manner of religious men meaning they were to live as monks, following vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Severinus Binius presents this Rule in volume 3, part 3 of the Councils, page 417, from the Library of St. Victor in Paris; however, Puteanus Claude Dupuy/Puteanus, a French scholar, in his Trial against the Templars, seems to address this when he says: “The Rule composed by Bernard has not reached us; instead, that which was published after some years had passed should be regarded not as the Rule of Bernard itself, but rather as a compendium of the same” (page 6). But whatever the case may be, Jacques de Vitry (at the place cited), A Bundle of Times (page 75), English Monasteries (volume 2, page 518), Godefridus’s Chronicle (for the year 1307), and Bruetius in the Annals of the World (for the year 1118) all confirm that a certain norm of living was prescribed for them by Bernard. Furthermore, regarding the time this Council The Council of Troyes (1129), where the Order was officially recognized was celebrated, almost everyone refers it to the year 1128, simultaneously establishing that those nine Templars, before the celebration of this Council, admitted no one else into their fellowship for a period of nine years. See, besides those already cited, Baronius’s Cesare Baronio, a Vatican historian Annals for the year 1118.

Pope Eugenius III Reigned 1145–1153 wished to imitate this care of Pope Honorius II in winning respect for the Order of the Templars; Eugenius added a cross made of red cloth to the white mantles in which the Templars walked. For since, according to the rule established by Bernard, they were required to shed their own blood for the glory of Christ, he wished to remind them by this very act that they should [oppose] themselves bravely against the foes and enemies of the cross of Christ...