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in Isabel Cristina Ferreira Fernandes (Coord.), As Ordens Militares. Freires, Guerreiros,Cavaleiros. Actas do VI Encontro sobre Ordens Militares , Vol. 1,GEsOS / Municpio de Palmela, Palmela, 2012.

THE CULT OF THE CROSS IN THE

ORDER OF THE TEMPLE Jochen Schenk

German Historical Institut, London

The military orders were unique religious institutions in very obvious ways, but ocharacteristic feature that has so far attracted little attention is the fact that of all thregular religious orders and communities that existed during the twelfth and thirteencenturies only they wore the cross, which was the sign of the crusader, permanently their habit. At a time of heightened crusade activity and spiritual refocusing on Christ tpotency of the cross symbol could not have been lost to those who saw or wore it

marked the bearer as a participant in Christs suffering, and at the same time projected him the penitential and spiritually elevated status of the pilgrim and armed crusadeMore than that, the symbol associated the bearer with the actual relic of the True Croitself, which was at the core of crusader identity1.

The Templars were from the start closely connected with the localities of ChrisPassion; yet they do not seem to have added the signum of the cross to their habit untilafter the composition and translation of their original rule, but before 1139, when PoInnocent III mentioned it in his bullOmne datum optimum 2. As part of the Templar habitit is frequently mentioned in the Templar statutes, theretraits , which provided detailedregulations on how and where the cross should be worn ( 141), and when it should removed ( 470, 489, 496, which show that by not wearing the cross the penitent wvisually, spiritually as well as factually excluded the community of the brothers)3. Thesereferences further added to the already very diverse Christological imagery of the Temp _______________________________________________

1 See generally CONSTABLE, Giles, The cross of the crusaders, in id.,Crusaders and Crusading in theTwelfth Century, Aldershot, 2008, p. 45-91, and MURRAY, Alan, Mighty against the enemies of Christthe relic of the True Cross in the armies of the kingdom of Jerusalem, in John FRANCE, and WilliamZAJAC,The Crusades and their Sources. Essays Presented to Bernard Hamilton , Aldershot, 2008, p. 217-38.2 DEMURGER, Alain, Les templiers: une chevalerie chrtienne au moyen ge , Paris, 2005, p. 2963 Taken from CURZON, Henri de (ed.), La Rgle du Temple , Paris, 1886, p. 112, 251, 259, 262-3.


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rule recently described by Tom Licence4, which have led him to conclude that even in the

intensely Christocentric period of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Templarsostensive identification with Christ stood out. His observation seems to find subtle supporin the research of Joan Fuguet i Sans, who in an earlier article regarded the cross as themost prominent element in the Orders iconography5. It is also in line with SebastinSalvads more recent observation that the Templars in the Crown of Aragon madeextensive use of True Cross relics and devotional icons from the East to express theirassociation with the Holy Land and recreate the spiritual homeland of their order6.

In this article I intend to follow in particular the lead of Salvad by expanding the listof True Cross relics associated with the Order of the Temple, and, in a second step, byinvestigating more closely what the Templars association with these relics can tell usabout the Templars religious culture. The sources that are most relevant for this kind ofresearch are the Order of the Temples inventory lists, which have survived in largenumber in many western archives but of which only a few have so far been edited. Thesthe Templars had sometimes commissioned themselves; more often, however, they werthe result of royal decrees during and after the trial of the Templars to have the Orders

mobile and immobile belongings catalogued.7

In the inventories are recorded theTemplars mundane possessions but also, albeit to a more limited extend, their liturgicalinstruments and religious objects, including relics. And it is from these entries that firstconclusions on the religious culture of the Order of the Temple can be drawn8.

As argued by Licence (who follows the lead of Sylvia Schein) the Templars, who werfrom the outset exposed to the spiritual climate of Mount Moriah, developed a heighteneawareness of their significance as soldiers of Christ in the land of Revelation, which alsoinfiltrated their western commanderies9. Moreover, in the Holy Land the Templars were

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4 LICENCE, Tom, The Templars and the Hospitallers, Christ and the saints,Crusades , 4, 2005, p. 39-57.5 FUGUET I SANS, Joan, Consideracions sobre ls de la Creu en lordre del Temple, El temps sota control:homenatge a Francesc Xavier Ricoma Vendrell , Tarragone, 1997, p. 295308.6 SALVAD, Sebastin, Icons, crosses and the liturgical objects of Templar chapels in the Crown of Aragonin Jochen BURGTORF, Paul F. CRAWFORD and Helen J. NICHOLSON (eds.),The Debate on the Trial ofthe Templars (13071314) , Aldershot, 2010, esp. p. 1912 and 193 for the quotation.7 An excellent introduction to the historical value of these inventories is BURGTORF, Jochen, The trialinventories of the Templars houses in France: selected aspects, in BURGTORF, CRAWFORD andNICHOLSON, Debate, p. 105-158 SALVAD, Icons, is a first-class example of how such an investigation is to be conducted.9 LICENCE, Tom, The Templars and the Hospitallers, Christ and the saints,Crusades , 4, 2005, p. 45-6;Sylvia SCHEIN, Between Mount Moriah and the Holy Sepulchre: the changing traditions of the Temple Mouin the central Middle Ages.Traditio , 40, 1984, p. 175-95.


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also in frequent contact with the holiest relic of Christs passion, the True Cross

Jerusalem, which they guarded when it was transported away from Jerusalem or carrinto battle10. This very physical association of the brethren with the relic combined witexposure to the increasingly Christocentric liturgy and cultic activity on the TempMount described by Licence surely must be seen as one reason why, as a survey of tpublished Templar inventories indicates, Templar convents in the Orders westerprovinces were by the end of the thirteenth century swamped with pieces of thelignum

Domini. The extant inventories show that Pescola had three, perhaps even four pieces the Cross in its treasury11. And the four-armed Templar reliquary crosses of Acre12 andPontoferrada (now in the cathedral of Astorga)13 contained four splinters of the Crosseach14. Toulouse had altogether four pieces, encased in two reliquaries15; New TempleLondon had two; and Corbins, Grasse, Limaye and Venice had at least one each. At thtime I know of thirty-six reliquaries six of them likely but not certainly Templar - withforty-six or more fragments of the True Cross, although they may include a few duplica

Templar house

[...] = unconfirmed

Cross

Reliquaries

Fragments of

lignum DominiReference

Acre 1 4 FOLDA,Crusader Art, p. 141-2

[Biais] [1] [1]CORSON,Templiers en Bretagne 16 , pp. 265-7; Enciclopedia 17 , XI, p. 105;and generally BOUYER, Notice18.

[Bray, St-Nicola] [1] [1+] DURU, Templiers19, p. 64

Cantavieja 1 1 MARTNEZ, La Cmara20, no 32, p.

41 _______________________________________________

10 CURZON, La Rgle, 122, p. 101.11 See table below.12 FOLDA, Jaroslav,Crusader Art in the Holy Land: From the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291 ,Cambridge, 2005, p. 141-2.13 ATINEZA, Juan,Guia de la Espaa Templaria , Barcelona, 1985, p. 174; cf. SALVAD, Icons, p. 18814 The best study of the subject of Templar crosses in the Crown of Aragon is SALVAD, Icons, which includes an excellent guide to the archival evidence.15 BOURG, M. A. du,Ordre de Malte. Histoire du grand prieur de Toulouse , Toulouse, 1883, no 23, p. xvi.16 CORSON, Guillotin de, Les Templiers en Bretagne et les hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jerusalem , Nantes,1902, reprint: Yoran Embanner, 2006.17 ROMANINI, Angiola Maria (ed.), Enciclopedia dellArte Medievale, 11 vols., Rome, 1991-.18 BOUYER, J., Notice sur la relique de la Vraie Croix de Saint-Pre en Retz , Paimboeuf, 1898.19 DURU, Andr,Templiers, hospitaliers et vrai croix de St. Pre-en-Retz, Bulletin de la socit dtudes et derecherches historiques du pays de Retz , 4, 1984.


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Templar house[...] = unconfirmed

CrossReliquaries

Fragments oflignum Domini Reference

Catalonia 4 5 RUBI, Inventaris indits21, no 7, p.

398-9Catalonia 1 2 VILAR BONET, Els bns del Temple

22,no 75, p. 194

Catalonia 1 1 MARTNEZ, La Cmara, no 91, p. 124

Carentoir 1 1 CORSON,Templiers en Bretagne , p.161-2.[Chieri] [1] [1+] RICALDONE,Templari 23 , p. 434.

Corbins 1 1VILAR BONET, Els bns del Temple,no. 2, p. 114; MIRET Y SANS,Inventaris24, p. 70

[Douai] [1] [1+] MANNIER,Ordre de Malte 25, II, p. 684Ste-Eulalie 1 1 Inventaire Ste-Eulalie26, p. 258

Grasse 1 1 DURBEC, Provence27 , p. 263Italy 1 1 RIANT, Exuviae28 , II, p. 56

[Lantiern]29 [1] [1] G. de CORSON,Templiers en Bretagne ,p. 136

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20 MARTNEZ FERRANDO, Jess Ernesto, La Cmara Real en el reinado de Jaime II (12911327):Relaciones de entradas y salidas de objetos artsticos, Anales y Boletn de los Museos de Arte de Barcelona , 11,19534.21 Jordi RUBI, Ramn dALS and Francesc MARTORELL (eds.), Inventaris indits de lordre del Templa Catalunya, Institut dEstudis Catalans, Anuari , I, 1907, p. 385-407.22 VILAR BONET, Mari, Els bns del temple a la Corona dArag en suprimir-se lordre (1300-1319) ,Barcelona, 2000.23 RICALDONE, Giuseppe Aldo di,Templari e Gerosolimitani di Malta in Piemonte dal XII al XVIII secolo , 2vols., Madrid, 1979.24 MIRET Y SANS, Joaquim (ed.), Inventaris de les cases del Temple de la corona dArag en 1289, Boletinde la real academia de buenas letras de Barcelona , 42, 1911, p. 61-75.25 MANNIER, Eugne,Ordre de Malte. Les commanderies du Grand Prieur de France , 2 vols., Paris, 1872,reprint: Brionne, 1987.26 HIGOUNET-NADAL, Arlette, Linventaire des biens de la commanderie du Temple de Sainte-Eulalie duLarzac en 1308, Annales du Midi , 68, 1956, p. 255-62.27 DURBEC, Joseph-Antoine,Templiers et Hospitaliers en Provence et dans les Alpes-Maritimes , first publishedin Provence Historique, 9, 1959, reprint: Grenoble, 2001.28 RIANT, Paul (ed.), Exuviae sacrae Constantinopolitanae , 2 vols., Geneva, 1875, reprint: Paris, 2004.29 Evidence of a Holy Cross relic in the church of Lantiern dates from 1643 (CURSON,Templiers en Bretagne ,p. 136). But the Templars held property at Lantiern in the late twelfth century and a connection of the Orderwith the church is possible. See ROSENZWEIG, Louis (ed.),Cartulaire gnral du Morbihan , Vannes, 1895,no 234, p. 1901.


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Templar house[...] = unconfirmed

CrossReliquaries

Fragments oflignum Domini Reference

[Lecce] [1] [1+]SCARDINO, Discorso30 , p. 54;Infantino, Lecce sacra31 , p. 51, 122, 175,213

Limaye 1 1 SCHOTTMLLER,Untergang32 , II,

p. 430

London 2 2Exch. L.T.R. Enrolled Accts. Misc. no20, m 3, cf. WILLIAMSON,Temple

London33 , p. 73

Mas Deu 1 1+ MICHELET, Procs34 , II, p. 457

N.N. (later Rhodes) 2 2 Ogier dANGLURE, Saint voyage35,

p. 386, 441

Pescola I 1 1 VILAR BONET, Els bns del Temple,no. 4, p. 116-17Pescola II 1 1 VILAR BONET, Els bns del Temple,no. 16, p. 128-9Pescola III 3 3 RUBI, Inventaris indits, no 4,p. 393-6

Perticano 1 1 [+] Enciclopedia , XI, p. 105.Pontoferrada 1 4 MARTNEZ, La Cmara, no 53, p. 76;Frolow,Vraie Croix36 , no 619, p. 467

Sulniac 1 1 CORSON,Templiers en Bretagne , p.140.

Toulouse 2 4 BOURG,Ordre de Malte , no 22,pp. xv-vii.

Venice 1 1 (+) CORNELIUS, Ecclesiae Venetae37 , 12,

p. 247

Total 27) 30 [36] 41 [46] +

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30 SCARDINO, Peregrino, Discorso intorno la citt di Lecce , Bari, 1607.31 INFANTINO, Giulio Cesare, Lecce sacra, Lecce, 1634.32 SCHOTTMLLER, Konrad, Der Untergang des Templerordens mit urkundlichen und kritischen Beitrgen , 2vols., Berlin, 1887.33 WILLIAMSON, John Bruce,The history of the Temple, London, London, 1924.34 MICHELET, Jules (ed.), Le procs des Templiers, 2 vols., Paris, 1841-51, reprint: Paris, 1987.35 ANGLURE, Ogier d, Le saint voyage de Jherusalem, in Albert PAUPHILET (ed.),Jeux et sapience dumoyen ge, Paris, 1951.36 FROLOW, Anatole, La relique de la Vraie Croix , Paris, 1961.37 CORNELIUS, Flaminius, Ecclesiae Venetae antiquis monumentis nunc etiam primum editis illustratae ac indecades distributae , 16 vols., Venice, 1749.


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Some of these reliquaries were of very simple design. The cross containing a splinter

of thelignum Domini discovered at Limaye, for example, was described as small ( parva)and not much longer than half a palm (c. 5 cm)38. The reliquary containing anothersplinter found at Grasse was a small silver cross and the Holy Cross relic from theTemplar convent of Cantavieja, a lordship which the Templars had gained in 1196, was in1311 described as old and made of silver39. The reliquary recorded in a fifteenth-centuryinventory of the former Templar chapel of Douai was described as a small gilded silvedouble-cross containing multiple relics of the True Cross40. The relic containers andreliquary crosses found in other churches, however, could be extremely sumptuous; manywere enamelled in the style of Limoges, others were made from ivory.41 As artefacts theywere meant to inspire marvel and wonder in the spectator. Moreover, in appearance andcontent they constituted a memorable visual link between the relics owners and the HolyLand42. Among the liturgical artefacts confiscated from Templar houses and chapels inAragon were two reliquary crosses of impressive size, five Spanish piedras (c. 140 cm) andten Spanish piedras (c. 280 cm) respectively, which each contained a splinter of thelignum Domini . The taller of the two crosses was a present from Remon Oliver, who seemsto have been identical with the Templar preceptor of Villel (before 1286), Tortosa (1286--7) and Zaragoza (1292-4, 1297-1307) of that name43. Toulouse possessed two reliquarieswith splinters of the Cross. One was in 1313 described as a wooden cross covered witsilver, which, it was said, contained splinters of the Holy Cross in two places and whichwas decorated with forty-five stones of different colours, small and big. The other as silver cross, with its scogio, containing two wooden crosses with pieces of the Holy Cross,with ten stones on the front and seven at the back44. Pescola apparently possessed onefragment of the Holy Cross in a reliquary enamelled in the style of Limoges and two silve

crosses with splinters of the Cross in 1307. In 1311 one of the crosses from Pescola wasdescribed as made of gilded silver, decorated with a figure of the Crucified and forty-eigh _______________________________________________

38 SCHOTTMLLER,Untergang , II, p. 430.39 DURBEC, Provence, p. 263 (Grasse, 1308); MARTNEZ, La Cmara, no 32, p. 41 (1311). On Cantaviejasee FOREY, Alan,The Templars in the Corona of Aragn, London, 1973, p. 28, 90.40 une petite crois double, couverte d'argent quy est dore, en laquelle a plusieurs reliques de la vrayecroie, MANNIER, Ordre de Malte, II, p. 684.41 See e.g. BOURG,Ordre de Malte , no 23, p. xvi; MIRET Y SANS, Inventaris, no 1, p. 391.42 See also SALVAD, Icons, p. 189.43 .i. crueta de fulla de plata sobredorada en que ha .i. lignum Domini chico del qual minvan .v. pietra. Otrolignum Domini que y fizo fer don Remon Oliver con dies pietra e con su pie d argent . See RUBIO Y LLUCH,Antonio (ed.), Documents per lhistoria de la cultura catalane mig-eval , 2 vols, Barcelona, 1908, I, no 35, p. 27-8 (1318). For Remon Oliver see FOREY, Aragn , p. 265, 266.44 BOURG,Ordre de Malte , no 23, p. xvi.


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large pearls, four stones the colour of emeralds, eight stones the colour of sapphires, a

four stones the colour of rubies45

. Corbins possessed a fragment of thelignum Dominienshrined in a crystal cross, which may have been identical with a similar crystal crogiven by James II to Valldigna in 131846. TheCrux Sancta in the church of Sainte-Eulaliewas described as made of silver and gold and encrusted with precious stones.47Anotherreliquary cross that once belonged to the Templars but in 1318 went into the possessionthe Cistercians of Valldigna was described as

qoddam (sic!) crux argenti cum lingo Domini in qua sunt duo [] lingo Domini et est [] granats seu balays grossi et triginta II perle [] lapides modice sive encastedes et in

ila parte dicte crucis est unus crucifixus et beati Johannis et beate Marie et cum IIIIevangelistis, et est [] sunt tribus crucis reliquie diversorum sanctorum, et in capite dictecrucis deficit aliquantulum lingo Domini [] argenti, signe pedem dicte crucis et est cum

signo magistri mayoris Templi, sine est [] et in una cruce crocea per medium et unum velum cerici albi cum orlis rubeis, in quo est involuta dicta crux 48.

Enclosed in this enamelled and richly adorned staurotheka were multiple minoreliquaries containing pieces of the Cross and various relics of saints. Its visual referento Christ Crucified, Saint John, Blessed Mary and the Evangelists and attribution to tgrand master of the Temple made it a centrepiece for Templar devotion and in the eyesoutsiders it created a strong link between the sanctity of the object and the Order. Arelics associated with Christs Passion these splinters also served as constant reminders the Templars of their origin and allegiance to Christ, as did the vial of the Precious Bloguarded at New Temple in London. Enshrined, as they often were, in reliquaries obvious Frankish-Levantine provenance, the function of these relics was moreover avisual reminder of the physical location where Christ endured his Passion and which t

Templars had professed to protect and defend, thereby adding substance and a sense urgency and immediacy to the brothers daily prayer por le saint reaume de Jerusalem 49.

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45 VILAR BONET, Els bns del Temple, no 4, p. 116-17 (1302), no 16, p. 128-9 (1307), no 17, p. 129-30(1307); MARTNEZ, La Cmara, no 32, p. 38-44 (1311).46 VILAR BONET, Els bns del Temple, no 4, p. 114-15 (1300), no 75, p. 194 (1318).47 [Q]uandam crucem sanctam munitam lapidibus preciosis incastratam in auro et argento . InventaireSt-Eulalie, p. 258.48 VILAR BONET, Els bns del Temple, no 75, p. 194 (1318).49 A bidding prayer of this content was recited, for example, during daily chapter meetings in the TempleParis. SINCLAIR, Keith V., La rgle du Temple et la version templire de lOratio communis fidelium

Revue Mabillon, 69, 1997, p. 177-82; LINDNER, Amon, Raising arms. Liturgy in the struggle to liberateJerusalem in the late middle ages , Turnhout, 2005, p. 355, 360. The vial with the Precious Blood is recorded inExch. L.T.R. Enrolled Accts. Misc. No 20, m 3, cf. WILLIAMSON,Temple London, p. 73.


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The Cistercians of Valldigna for one hardly could have failed to notice the

importance of the Cross in Templar devotion, for they also received from the Orderpossession one gilded silver pedum with the figure of three enamelled angels depicting thescene of the discovery of the True Cross50. Likewise, visitors to Templar churches orchapels who had seen any of the three reliquary crosses, which were after 1313 recordedamong the former Templar possessions now in the hands of James II of Aragon, woulhave been left in little doubt over the spiritual yearning of the Templars for Jerusalem. Itseems by their description that the design of all three reliquary crosses followed an artisticstyle first developed in Jerusalem workshops51. Two were described as gilt double-armed

crosses in the Greek style with mounted semiprecious stones and containing, among otherelics, fragments of thelignum Domini 52. The third reliquary (which has also already beendescribed by Salvad) was a complex arrangement of three richly decorated double-armedcrosses formed into one reliquary depicting Christ, Mary and the apostles, enclosed inwhich were two more reliquaries of the True Cross set into one another 53. Anotherreliquary containing a splinter of the Cross eventually came into the possession of theFranciscans of Vilafranca. This reliquary, too, seems to have been designed in the shapeof the Byzantine double-armed cross, but unfortunately its description is riddled with

lacunae and unreadable passages. Transcribed by Martinz it reads as follows: [I]tem Minorisis Villefranche quondam hiis cohoperta filio argenti et est in branchioinferiori quedam crux modica ibi inter ambas partes quadraginta unus ? lapides sivedoblex fixi et lignum Domini, quinquaginta quinque perle enfilate 54.

Through these relics the Templars in Europe, and in particular in the Crown ofAragon, demonstrated a pronounced veneration for the True Cross55. As mentioned _______________________________________________

50

[U]num pedum argenti de super deauratum, in quo est forma trium angelorum embotits, et est crucis ligni Domini, prout fuit inventum , VILAR BONET, Els bns del Temple, no 75, p. 194 (1318).51 FOLDA, Jaroslav,The Art of the Crusaders , Cambridge, 1995, plates 3 and 4 and p. 97-100, 167-8.52 [I]tem quandam crucem cum folio argenti superaurato et cum IIII brachiis in qua sunt reliquie, et quedam crux

parva lingo Domini, et ymago crucifixi, et viginti sex perle, et sex lapides virides, et quidam pes argenti superauratidicte crucis. item quandam crucem parvam argenti duplicem cum IIII brachiis, in quibus sunt octo lapidesminimi valoris, et videtur quod in ibi sit de lingo Domini . MARTNEZ, La Cmara, no 53, p. 76-7 (1313).53 [Q]andam croetam argenti subtilem, que pertitur, queque deaurata est, in cuius parte quadam fermata estquadam parva crux cum quatuor brachiis, et videtur quod in ea fuerit de lingo Domini, et in alia parte dicte crucisest quadam media crux fixa, et ista medi crux cohopertur cum alia in qua est una pecia de lingo Domini; est eciamintus cruce preditam quadam modica croeta rotundiatis unius denarii, et in una parte dicte crucis que pertitur estquidam cruxifixus, et ex alia parte in medio crucis est ymago Virginis gloriose [te]nentis filium suum in brachio, etin quolibet quatuor brachiorum dicte crcis medie sunt singule imagines, medie quatuor evanglistorum, et eciam indicta cruce quadam pecia reliquie nigre grossitudinis unius favete. In medio autem dite cruces fecimus poni delingo Domini . Ibid., no 130, p. 180 (1323). See also ibid. no 53, p. 76 (1313) and SALVAD, p. 188.54 Ibid., no 91, 124 (1318).55 SALVAD, Icons, 188.


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earlier, the sign of the cross was the most recognisable insignum of the military orders, w

wore it openly displayed on their habits. And in the same way that preachers employed Cross of Christ as visual aid in their crusade sermons, the relics pertaining to its archetymust have been among the Orders most potent tools of recruitment56. The importance ofthe Holy Cross reliquary as a defining element of religious perception of the Order of Temple and as a focal point for devotional attention becomes even clearer if one considthe important function of chapels and churches, where these reliquaries were put odisplay, as arenas for religious and social intercourse, as places, in other words, wheagreements of confraternity were contracted, benefactions delivered and accepted, a

business transactions conducted. It is telling that in Cyprus the most vocal lay advocatesthe Templars during the trial were knights, nobles and churchmen who had attendeTemplar mass and had witnessed the brethrens devotion to Christ and the Cross. ThRobert de Montgisard testified that in Nicosia he saw brothers of the Temple many yeago, in the church of the Temple, on bended knee, adoring the cross and devoutly hearimass and other divine offices57. Rupen de Montfort, lord of Beirut, witnessed the Templarsadoring the Cross just as any Christian he had ever seen58, whereas lord Laurentius ofBeirut, who by his own account had lived for eighteen years with the Templars as a

associate, remarked that he had only ever witnessed them revering and honouring tCross with great devotion59. And the vicar Simon Rouss at least agreed that many times hehad seen the Templars adoring the Cross honestly and devoutly60.

The most impressive spectacle of Templar devotion of the Cross, and the one thRobert de Montgisard may have been referring to, was undoubtedly the Adoration of Cross on Good Friday, which was also one of the few devotional acts which the Tempperformed publicly. The Good Friday ceremony was regulated for in the Templarretraits and well rehearsed by many Templars, who were able to describe it to the detail in thdepositions. The liturgy of the day unfolded in the most solemn manner, culminatingthe unveiling of the Cross in the chapel to the chants of Ecce lignum Crucis and theresponseVenite adoremus . During the singing of the response the assembled brotherskneeled in adoration, and once the Cross was completely unveiled and placed in front _______________________________________________

56 For the importance of the cross as visual aid for preachers of the crusade see MORRIS, Colin, Picturing crusades: the uses of visual propaganda, c. 1095-1250, in FRANCE, ZAJAC,The Crusades and their Sources ,p. 197-8.57 GILMOUR-BRYSON, Anne (ed.),The trial of the Templars in Cyprus. A complete English edition , Leiden,1998, p. 64.58 Ibid.,p. 63.59 Ibid., p. 410.60 Ibid., p. 69.


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the altar, they took off their shoes, weapons and head-covers and with washed feet, as

some brothers remembered in their depositions, they approached the Cross on bendedknees. Details of the ceremony crop up in an abundance of Templar testimonies. As someTemplars would explain, the Cross stood for the Passion of Christ, which in turn remindethem of their mission to shed their own blood to defeat the enemies of Christendom. It wain honour and reverence of the Cross on which Our Lord sustained his death and passionfor us that they wore the symbol of the cross on their mantles61. In the words of Berenguerde Collo, a brother knight from Mas Deu in Roussillon, he and his brothers wore the croson their habits in reverence of the Cross of Christ. Like many of his brothers he believedthat the red colour of the Templar cross signified the blood Jesus had shed on the Crossfor them, so they would be able to shed their blood against the Saracen enemies of Chrisin the land across the sea and all other enemies of the Christian faith62.

Across France, Italy, Spain and Cyprus the same solemn celebrations unfolded onGood Friday. Brother Gerard de Passagio, for one, insisted that he and his brethren alwaysvenerated the Cross with much reverence on Holy Friday and that he had never seen itdone any differently in any of the Templar houses he had visited during his career in

Cyprus, Burgundy, Lotharingia, Picardy and Allemania63

. Some of the best descriptions ofwhat happened in the Temple on Good Friday come from Mas Deu, home to one of thOrders Holy Cross reliquaries. Here, according to the knight brother Berenguer de Colloalready mentioned, the Cross was venerated thrice a year, at the feasts of the Holy Cross inSeptember (Exaltation of the Cross) and May, and on Good Friday, when the brothers, awas required for the occasion, put off their shoes, swords and head dresses (deponunt

sotulares quos portant et gladios et cofas lineas et quicquid portant aliud extra caput )64. Hismemory is supported by Arnaldus Septembris. According to him the brothers of Mas De _______________________________________________ 61 MICHELET, Procs, I, p. 141, 326, 366, 555-6, 606, 609, 612-13, 615-16, 620; II, p. 82-3, 111, 201, 222,227-8, 230, 232.62 ...dicens eciam quod, ob reverenciam crucifixi Domini Jhesu, omnes fratres dicti ordinis portant in clamydecrucem. Et sicut Christus Jhesus effudit sanguinem proprium in cruce pro nobis, in illa significatione fratres dictiordinis portant crucem panni rubei in clamide, ut effundant suum sanguinem proprium contra hostes ChristiSarracenos in terra transmarina, et alibi contra hostes fidei Christiane . Ibid., II, p. 446. See also ibid. I, p. 141, andII, p. 506: [E]xcepto quod confessus est Christum Jhesum crucifixum verum Deum esse, passum et mortuum fuisse inligno sancte crucis pro redemptione humani generis, non pro culpis nec pro peccatis suis, sed pro nostris duntaxat,cum ipse peccatum non fecerit, nec dolus unquam fuerit in ore ejus semper veridico; se habere spem firmam habende

salvationis per eum et per neminem alium; pro cujus honore ipse et reliqui fratres Templi portant signum venerabiliscrucis rubee in mantellis albis vel nigris, in figuram vel signum sacri sanguinis Jhesu Christi, cujus effusione ipsecrucem suam sanctissimam insignavit; quam fratres dicti Templi ter in anno adorant reverenter .63 MICHELET, Procs, I, p. 216-17.64 Ibid. II, p. 446.


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he had seen Templars entering their churches on that day with their heads uncovered and

on bare feet to venerate the Cross and to pray, which they did with more devotion than hehad ever seen in any other faithful Christian71. Henry de Bibbio, another knight fromNicosia, was also full of praise72. He had never seen anyone adore the Cross with morereverence than the Templars in Acre, Tripoli and Nicosia, where, on Good Friday, theywould walk the length of threecannarum (c. 15m) on bended knees to kiss the Cross73.

The Adoration of the Cross was a public event that attracted spectators not only inthe Holy Land and Cyprus. In Paris, as we know from the deposition of Brother Raynalde Tremplaio, the Adoration of the Cross in the church of the Temple was doneinconspectu totius populi74. Just how important a centre for popular devotional activity thechurch or chapel of a military order could become can be glanced from the records of theHospitaller church of Saint-Jean-de-Guerno in Bretagne, which was in the possession of asmall silver cross reliquary with a splinter of the Holy Cross. Frequented by worshippersfrom neighbouring towns throughout the year, in the early modern period the small churchbecame so overcrowded with pilgrims on Good Friday that the sermon had to be preachedon the cemetery instead75. At the south-western border of Bretagne, the Templar chapel ofBiais contained a relic of the True Cross that still in the seventeenth century attractedpilgrims from Poitou and Anjou76. The chronicle of Pavia reports that still twenty yearsafter the dissolution of the Order the citizens of the city would on Good Friday gather athe former Templar church, as was tradition on that day, in expectation of indulgencesafter they had heard the sermon in the Franciscan convent77. And it is equally telling thatin Parma in 1327, twenty years after the first Templar arrests, during Carnival it was themembers of the confraternity of the Holy Cross who dressed as master and knights of thTemple, thus demonstrating that in public memory the association of the Order with the

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71 Ibid., II, p. 392.72 Ibid., II, p. 395. See also ibid.,p. 292-4.73 Ibid., II, p. 394.74 Item, de contentis in quinto et omnibus sequentibus articulis respondit se nichil scire ultra quod supra deposuit,hoc excepto quod, in die Veneris sancta, devote et reverenter in conspectu totius populi adorabant crucem incapitulo. MICHELET, Procs, I, p. 423.75 CORSON, Les Templiers en Bretagne , p. 128-9.76 Ibid., p. 265-7.77 Procedunt autem tunc mulieres omnes velato capite, depositis ornamentis vel occulatis: visitant illa die locaindulgentiarum devotius et copiosus solito et specialiter loca Hospitalariorum seu Templariorum, nec nonecclesiam Sancti Sepulcri, ubi est similitude et forma sepulcri Domini, procedentes illuc tota nocte precedenti,licet diset ab urbe per mille passus . See Anonymus TICINENSIS, Liber de laudibus civitatis ticinensis, ed.Rodolfo MAIOCCHI, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores , xi:1, Citt di Castello, 1903, p. 40 (c.1330).


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relic of Christs Passion and the devotional cult that had been organised around it was s

alive78

.The importance and popularity of Templar churches and chapels as places of publdevotion is an important topic worthy of investigation. The Order of the Temple, likeother medieval military orders, was a religious order first and foremost, whose membengaged in devotional activities, which, if witnessed by outsiders, influenced anassessment of their religious worth. As Helen Nicholson was able to show using trrelated material from England, the Templars were far less reclusive than they wecommonly portrayed and quite willing to open their church doors to the public79. And atleast of the Templar chapels of London and Paris it is known that they attracted partiindulgences and were promoted as pilgrim sites80.

If the Templars religion was as transparent as these findings seem to suggest, thenmakes sense that one inquires about the elements that defined it, which would also haregistered with those who visited the Orders sacred spaces. In this context the cult of tHoly Cross and the popularity of the Templars adoration of the Cross on Good Frideserve our closest attention, for they confirm that the Order was and always had beenOrder of Christ and that it was perceived and recognised as such by large parts omedieval society.

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78 Chronicon Parmense ab anno MXXXVIII usque ad annum MCCCXXXVIII, ed Guiliano BONAZZI, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores , ix:9, Citt di Castello, 1902, p. 186 (1327).79 NICHOLSON, Helen J., Relations between houses of the Order of the Temple in Britain and their locommunities, as indicated during the trial of the Templars, 1307-12, in Norman HOUSLEY (ed.), Knight-hoods of Christ. Essays on the History of the Crusades and the Knights Templar, presented to Malcolm Barber ,Aldershot, 2007, p. 195-20780 One papal bull and nineteen Episcopal letters from the Cotton manuscript collection at the British LibraryLondon report the promise of indulgences of between ten and forty days to visitors to New Temple in LonThese letters, and the bull, were issued between 1161 and 1275 (but mostly between 1246 and 1262) bvarious bishops of Canterbury, York, Lincoln, London, Ely and Rochester in England; Armagh, LeighWaterford, Ossory, Ardagh, Achonry, Elphin and Kildare andFordensis in Ireland; and Bordeaux in PlantagenetAquitaine. The promulgation of New Temple in London was therefore a thoroughly English endeavour anseems, a well orchestrated one at that. At New Temple the pilgrims would have been able to marvel at a grnumber of relics, among them the sword that killed St Thomas Becket, the vial with the Precious Blood, the two fragments of the True Cross set into reliquaries. See BL Cotton ms Nero E VI, 74-93. I am gratefuDr Nicole Hamonic who first drew my attention to these manuscripts.