Summary of Dan Jones's The Templars

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 When Saewulf visited Jerusalem, he was able to see and feel the power of prayer magnified by the presence of relics and holy sites. Jerusalem was not just seen, but felt as well.
#2 The most holy place of all, and the real object of every Christian pilgrimage, lay within Jerusalem. It was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Saewulf called more celebrated than any other church. It was a double-storied complex of interlinked chapels and courtyards, many of which commemorated the central events in the Passion.
#3 The city of Jerusalem had been under Muslim control since the seventh century, when an Arab army wrested it from Byzantine Christian rule. In 1096, major parts of the Holy Land was conquered by the armies of the First Crusade, led by noblemen from France, Normandy, England, Flanders, Bavaria, Lombardy, and Sicily.
#4 The First Crusade was a series of Christian victories that brought the Seljuq empire to its knees. The Christians took the major northern cities of Edessa and Antioch, as well as smaller towns. Other coastal towns, such as Arsuf, Acre, and Caesarea, agreed to pay tributes and were left alone.

Sujets

• Jérusalem
• History
• Middle Ages
• Military
• Edad Media
• Histoire
• Medieval

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 16 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822512146
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Dan Jones's The Templars
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When Saewulf visited Jerusalem, he was able to see and feel the power of prayer magnified by the presence of relics and holy sites. Jerusalem was not just seen, but felt as well.

#2

The most holy place of all, and the real object of every Christian pilgrimage, lay within Jerusalem. It was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Saewulf called more celebrated than any other church. It was a double-storied complex of interlinked chapels and courtyards, many of which commemorated the central events in the Passion.

#3

The city of Jerusalem had been under Muslim control since the seventh century, when an Arab army wrested it from Byzantine Christian rule. In 1096, major parts of the Holy Land was conquered by the armies of the First Crusade, led by noblemen from France, Normandy, England, Flanders, Bavaria, Lombardy, and Sicily.

#4

The First Crusade was a series of Christian victories that brought the Seljuq empire to its knees. The Christians took the major northern cities of Edessa and Antioch, as well as smaller towns. Other coastal towns, such as Arsuf, Acre, and Caesarea, agreed to pay tributes and were left alone.

#5

Saewulf visited many places around Jerusalem, and he was amazed by the city’s beauty and majesty. However, he also saw the trail around Jerusalem, which was full of corpses of Christians who had been attacked by Muslim brigands.

#6

Saewulf was a pilgrim in 1103, traveling to various holy places in Jerusalem. He was constantly aware that his pious travels were made through treacherous lands, and he returned to Jaffa and sought out a berth on a merchant ship heading west.

#7

The Holy Land was a war zone in the first decades of the crusader states, and pilgrims traveled there from all over the Christian world. The Muslims who lived in and around the new crusader states were hostile, and called for a united effort to fight back against the invaders.

#8

The Templars were formed to protect the Christians who traveled to visit the holy sites in the east. The Christians who risked everything they had to visit the east needed protection.

#9

The Knights of the Temple were not a popular organization when they were founded in Jerusalem in 1119. They were a foreign invasion force trying to establish their authority over a mixed population of Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Jews, Greek and Syrian Orthodox Christians, Samaritans, and poor settlers from all over Europe.

#10

In 1119, two events took place that were extremely detrimental to the Franks. The first was the Field of Blood, a battle in which the Christians of Antioch were massacred by an Artuqid ruler named Il-ghazi. The second was the Holy Fire miracle at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was used to light the individual candles and lamps of faithful men and women.

#11

The Battle of Antioch was a huge loss for the Franks, but it was saved by the clergy, who acted like soldiers and defended the city with God’s strength.

#12

The notion that churchmen might go into battle armed not only with prayer but with deadly weapons was not new. It stemmed from the tension between Christian pacifism and the martial mentality embedded in the language of Christian rhetoric and scripture.

#13

The Council of Nablus in 1120 established the first set of written laws for the crusader states, and it was there that the idea was planted that churchmen could fight alongside knights.

#14

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the most obvious place for visitors to meet. Hugh of Payns, a French knight, began to gather together other knights who wanted to serve God in Jerusalem, and form a brotherhood. They were not clergymen, but able-bodied warrior-pilgrims who had made a significant decision to live a quasi-monastic life.

#15

The Knights Templar were given independence around the time of the Council of Nablus in 1148. They were tasked with the defense of Jerusalem and the protection of pilgrims, but their main purpose was to be a brotherhood devoted only to arms and prayer.

#16

The Temple Mount was the site of the original Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC. It was rebuilt by Jewish exiles returning to Jerusalem in 520 BC, and was destroyed again by the Romans in 70 AD.

#17

The Templars were given the tax revenues of a few villages near Jerusalem to cater for their food and clothing, but they were still extremely poor. They needed to grow in order to protect pilgrims and territories from their many enemies.

#18

The Artuqids were a Turkish dynasty that began with Artuq Bey, a general who had worked for the Seljuq sultan Malikshah I. Artuq's descendants carved out an independent territory in northern Mesopotamia, northern Syria, and eastern Anatolia.

#19

The Cistercian order was formed in 1098, when a group of monks of the more popular Benedictine order founded a new monastery at Cîteaux near Dijon to devote their lives to a purer form of religious life.

#20

The Templars were a new religious group formed in the contested lands of the east. They sought confirmation and a rule that would govern their lives. Baldwin II of Jerusalem sent two of his men to obtain approval from the Pope.

#21

Bernard was a reformer who had spent his life advocating for the poor and downtrodden. He was a master at extracting favors from the powerful, and he had close ties to the region of Champagne, where the Order of the Temple was based.

#22

Hugh of Payns was sent to Europe to recruit support for the kingdom of the east. He was accompanied by several high-profile ambassadors from the Holy Land, all aiming to strengthen links between the two blocs of Latin Christendom.

#23

Between 1127 and 1129, the Templars were able to gather enough support to launch a crusade of their own. They secured land in Champagne and Poitou, and received donations from all over France.

#24

The Templars wanted confirmation from the pope that their order was legitimate, and a formal Rule under which they would live. In 1129, a great ecumenical council was held in Troyes, in Champagne.

#25

The Council of Troyes was a meeting of friends and colleagues, mostly from the north-east of France. The seat of the count of Champagne, Troyes was a prestigious commercial hub. The city had, until recently, been the home of the great crusader lord Hugh, count of Champagne, who had donated the land for the foundation of the abbey of Clairvaux.

#26

The Rule of the Templars was developed at Troyes in 1129. It was a far cry from the typical appearance of a twelfth-century warrior, who consciously advertised his status with colourful dress, rich fabrics, and ornate accessories.

#27

The Templars were a Christian fighting order who were famous for their self-discipline and abstinence. They were not allowed to hunt or sport with dogs, and they were not allowed to kiss women. They were also required to obey the commands of their master, and to carry out those commands as though Christ himself had commanded them.

#28

The Templar Rule was a set of regulatory principles established by the order in 1129. It was drawn up under the authority of the papal legate in Troyes, and it gave the order a structure and a code of conduct by which to live.

#29

The Templars were not to get drunk, fornicate, quarrel, or backbite. They were to resist the temptations of the world and keep their faith in the order they had joined. They were not to seek personal fame, but to serve the order.

#30

The Rule of the Templars was designed to rid the order of the traditional trappings of secular knights. It promoted the life of the new, ascetic, godly knight of the Temple, who was disciplined and chaste. They lived for the sole purpose of destroying the faithless and casting out the workers of iniquity.

#31

The Templars were a new order that was formed to support the Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land. They were not battling Seljuqs and Fatimids in the Holy Land, but fighting the Moors of southern Spain, in the Reconquista.

#32

In 1134, Alfonso the Battler, king of Aragon, set up camp outside the city of Fraga and commanded his servants to bring him his relics. He had acquired fragments of the bodies or belongings of the Virgin Mary, several Apostles, a few early Christian martyrs, and assorted other saints.

#33

The city of Fraga was captured by the Muslims in 1134. The citizens had asked Alfonso via intermediaries to lift his siege, accept their surrender, and allow them to leave peacefully. Alfonso refused, and the Muslims sent a large relieving army that destroyed him.

#34

The Battle of Fraga marked the end of the Reconquista, and the beginning of the Muslim period in Iberia. Alfonso died as he had lived, austere in spirit and narrowly focused on deeds of war. He never fathered a child, and in his will, he named three orders as his principal heirs: the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, the Knights Hospitaller, and the Templars.

#35

The Templars’ involvement in the attack on Damascus in 1129 was not promising. They were heavily advertised on their recruitment tour, and were accused of being beyond the bounds of military discipline. They did not participate in many other significant actions over the next ten years.

#36

The Order of the Temple was granted a range of extraordinary privileges by Pope Innocent II in 1139. The pope praised the knights who had transformed themselves from children of wrath into listeners who had abandoned worldly pomp and personal possessions.

#37

The Templars were given a great deal of privilege and autonomy by the papacy. They were allowed to appoint their own priests, and they were not required to pay