All language subtitles for Full Documentary.

NARRATOR: The Knights Templar.

A secret brotherhood

born in the throes
of the Middle Ages,

only to vanish after
two centuries in existence.

(Ominous music playing)

Of these men
who left their mark on history

remains the legends
that made them famous.

Their white overcoats
bearing the iconic red cross.

The riches they amassed.

Their discipline and ferocity
in battle.

These were the elite troops,

the special forces
of the 12th century.

NARRATOR: After 1,000 years,

mysteries
still surround the myth

of these soldiers of Christ.

FEMALE VOICE: Are they priests?
Are they monks?

Are they knights?

What are they?

An English chronicler called
them "a certain new monster."

(Heroic music playing)

NARRATOR:
Who was behind the creation

of the Order of the Temple?

What was its mission?

And how did the Templars
become so powerful

so quickly?

By the end of the 12th century

the Templars had become
an international organization.

NARRATOR: Thanks to experts
on the Order of the Temple,

along with an investigation

where the only written evidence
of this period is kept,

we discover the birth
of a legendary brotherhood,

a unique paradox of men
simultaneously monk and soldier.

(Speaking French)
It's truly unheard-of,

that there's a military code

within a religious rule.

(Speaking French)
There were Christian thinkers

who felt it was an abomination

to try to bring together
prayer and battle.

(Epic music playing)

NARRATOR:
From the arid lands of the East

to the royal courts
of France and England,

discover the rise
of the first Templars.

See how they rallied the Pope,
kings and people

all across Europe
to their cause.

People began to offer
huge sums of money,

large numbers of donations
to the Templar Order.

(Speaking French) The county
of Champagne, Burgundy,

Ile de France, saw the birth
of networks of Templar houses

and commanderies
ever 30 to 40 kilometers.

It was completely unprecedented
to become

that powerful, that quickly.

NARRATOR: This is the story
of the birth

of the Knights Templar,

a handful of men who transformed
a simple brotherhood of soldiers

into a religious order
prepared to reign over Europe.

(Flames crackling)

NARRATOR: Jerusalem.

It was here,
in the heart of the Middle Ages

that the first Knights Templar
emerged.

At the time,
only a handful of knights.

Nearly destitute.

But all are of great piety

and have been trained in combat.

Sworn to dedicate their lives
to a new cause:

protection of the Holy Land,

and of the Christian pilgrims
who come there to worship.

(Solemn music playing)

To understand the origins
of their existence,

we must go back to the end
of the 11th century.

At the time,
the religious world was divided.

In the west,
the vast majority of Europe

was under the authority of the
Christian church and the Pope.

Islam dominates North Africa,
southern Spain and the Near East

while the Turks threaten
the Byzantine Empire

and its capital Constantinople,

territory
of the Orthodox Church.

With Pope Urban II's
call to action

the First Crusade witnessed
thousands of Christians

marching across Europe
to reconquer the Holy Land.

After three years
of violent fighting

these crusaders reclaimed
many possessions,

in particular
the city of Jerusalem,

where Jesus Christ was crucified
and where his tomb lies.

They got to Jerusalem
in the summer of 1099

and camped outside the city
walls for about a month,

laying siege to Jerusalem,

and once they breached

the city walls in July,
there was a bloodbath.

It was said that blood
was running knee-deep.

This could be
a medieval exaggeration.

Medieval chronicles
are prone to exaggerate

the scale of carnage,
but it was pretty bad.

Muslims were slaughtered.

NARRATOR:
The First Crusade gave birth

to the Crusader States:

the county of Edessa,
the principality of Antioch,

the county of Tripoli
and the kingdom of Jerusalem.

SEAN MARTIN:
The irony was that after

this three-year epic journey,

with tens of thousands of people
laying waste to various cities,

a lot of them just went back
to Europe after that.

(Rumble of marching feet)

NARRATOR: At the dawn
of the 12th century,

the security
of these Crusader states,

threatened from all sides,

rested on only a few knights
of very diverse backgrounds,

who chose to settle there.

(Chattering voices)

The challenge facing
those who remain

in the east
after the First Crusade

is to try and turn their
fairly small territorial gains

into permanent territories
that can last in the long term.

From a military perspective,
they have enemies in Damascus

who can raise armies
of several thousand troops.

And in Aleppo,
a slightly larger army,

and also Fatimid, Egypt

which can raise
about 15,000 troops.

Given that the Crusader States,
in the early years,

can't put together
more than a few hundred knights

with a slightly larger
contingent of infantry,

that's a very serious challenge.

(Dramatic music playing)

NARRATOR: In Jerusalem,

Christian pilgrimage
is on the rise

and is organized by the
authorities of the Holy City:

The King of Jerusalem,

the Latin Patriarch
at the head of the church,

and the Canons
of the Holy Sepulcher

which govern religious life
in the city.

MAN SPEAKING FRENCH:
The Holy Sepulcher is the church

that is located at the site
of both the crucifixion

and the burial of Christ.

It's a church that attracted
Christian veneration early on,

and therefore
it's the Holy Sepulcher

which happens
to be the main church

of Jerusalem.

And therefore it's
around the Holy Sepulcher,

the Patriarch and the Canons,
that the church of the East

is really structured.

NARRATOR: At their side
are the members

of the Order of the Hospitallers
of Saint John of Jerusalem,

to help welcome pilgrims
and care for the sick.

But guaranteeing their safety

is becoming
increasingly difficult.

MAN SPEAKING FRENCH:
Pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem

were under constant threat
of guerrilla raids

from ambushes,

so all pilgrims arriving
in Jerusalem could be attacked

in the vicinity
or near the Holy City.

The outskirts of this holy land
were by no means safe.

(Dramatic music playing)

NARRATOR: At the time,

the Knights Templar
didn't yet exist.

The soldiers charged
with the safety of the pilgrims

were called
the Milites Sancti Sepulcri.

The Knights
of the Holy Sepulcher.

(Speaking French) It's
a brotherhood of armed civilians

who organize themselves
to protect the Holy Sepulcher.

To protect men,
and to protect property

throughout
the kingdom of Jerusalem.

The milites sancti sepulcri

are neither part
of the Canonical Order

of the Holy Sepulcher

nor of the Hospitaller Order
of Saint John of Jerusalem.

It could be said that
the milites sancti sepulcri,

who are committed to protecting
pilgrims, to protecting canons,

to defending, if need be,

those areas
which may be insecure,

are in a kind
of dual dependence.

They are dependent on the Canons
who direct their spiritual life,

and dependent
on the Hospitallers

of Saint John of Jerusalem

who maintain and nourish them.

NARRATOR: Among these
Milites Sancti Sepulcri,

one knight will claim
his independence.

His goal is to form
a more powerful group.

A hybrid order,

which no one had ever dared
to imagine before.

Soldiers of a new kind,
both religious and warrior.

This knight is the founder
of what will much later be known

as the Order of the Temple.

His identity and history
are mentioned for the first time

in a 12th century chronicle
written by Michael The Syrian,

patriarch of the Jacobite church
of Antioch.

MALE VOICE: At the beginning
of the reign of Baldwin II,

a Frenchman came from Rome
to Jerusalem to pray.

He had made a vow not to return
to his own country,

but to become a monk

after having helped the King
in the war for three years.

Along with the 30 knights
who accompanied him,

he would spend the rest
of his life in Jerusalem.

When the king and his barons saw

that the Frenchman
and his knights

had achieved remarkable things
in battle,

they advised the man
to serve in the militia

with his 30 knights

and defend the place
against bandits

rather than become a monk

in the hope of saving
only his own soul.

Now this man, whose name
was Hugues de Payns,

accepted this counsel,

and the 30 knights
who accompanied him

joined and united with him.

NARRATOR: Hugues de Payns.

Born in the Champagne region
around 1070,

in a small village
that he is named after,

located 12 kilometers
from the city of Troyes.

He is a knight in the service
of Count Hugues of Champagne.

With his suzerain,

Hugues de Payns will spend
three years in the Holy Land

at the beginning
of the 12th century

before returning to Europe.

(Speaking French) Hugues
de Payns led a family life.

He had a wife and children.

And then in 1114,

touched by a deep piety

that must have inhabited him
for a long time,

he went back to the Holy Land,

and this time he left
with the idea

that he would never come back.

(Inaudible)

GHISLAIN BRUNEL: Hugues de Payns
is a military strategist,

a defender of the Holy Land.

He truly experienced
what Jerusalem was,

and it must have been
a revelation.

In Jerusalem, one could not be
a knight like any other.

One could only be a knight

turned towards God,
towards the service of Christ,

so this idea
must have germinated

when he arrived in Jerusalem.

NARRATOR:
Over several years,

Hugues de Payns
refined his project.

And in 1119, one event
will change his destiny.

(Epic music playing)

On June 28th, 1119,

Muslims of the city of Aleppo

attack the Principality
of Antioch.

The intensity of the fighting
will be of such violence

that the event will be baptized
in Latin

as the Ager Sanguinis:

the battle
of the Field of Blood.

(Clatter of swords)

It is Baldwin II,
the new king of Jerusalem,

who will come in person
to repel the invaders.

This battle reinforced
the sovereign's belief

that the threat to the Crusader
States was becoming too great.

(Speaking French)
The new king, Baldwin II,

realized that he needed
more military presence

than he had on the ground.

He needed border guards,

escorts on the roads
to protect the pilgrims.

He needed additional forces.

NARRATOR:
It was on January the 16th, 1120

in the small city of Nablus

north of Jerusalem,

that a council was to take place

that would change
the course of history.

Assembled around
the King of Jerusalem,

Baldwin II,

and the Patriarch
Gormond de Picquigny,

the council brought together
the main clergymen

and nobles of the kingdom.

On that day,

the two men approved the project
conceived by Hugues de Payns:

The formation
of a new order of knights,

both religious and military,

dedicated entirely
to the defense of the Holy Land.

(Speaking French)
The opportunity was seized

by the King
and the Patriarch together,

to gamble that these knights
could be operative,

and the Patriarch
played this game,

which was not
a foregone conclusion,

because these knights

who had gathered in the shadow
of the Holy Sepulcher

were empowered.

They detached themselves
from the Patriarch,

they claimed to lead
a religious life of their own,

to no longer obey the directive
of the Holy Sepulcher,

but a master chosen
from among themselves

without ceasing
to be what they were,

that is to say,
knights and warriors.

(Dramatic music playing)

NARRATOR:
It is King Baldwin II himself

who will offer the members
of this new order of chivalry

a place to settle.

This place is mentioned
in another manuscript

written by William of Tyre,

known for being the first
historian of the Crusades.

MALE VOICE: Over the course
of the same year,

some noble knights
devoted themselves

to the service of Christ,

and professed to live forever
in chastity,

obedience and poverty.

As they had neither church
nor fixed residence,

the king granted them
accommodations in his palace

which was located
near the Temple of the Lord.

PHILIPPE JOSSERAND:
King Baldwin II

made a very strong gesture

by offering his palace to them
in Jerusalem.

Baldwin's palace
actually extended south

of the Esplanade of the Mosques,

south of the Temple Mount.

It extended
into the area of al-Aqsa Mosque,

the former palace
of King Solomon.

And so Hugues de Payns
and his associates

somehow took on the name
by association,

by calling themselves

"The Poor Fellow-Soldiers
of Christ

and of the Temple of Solomon."

NARRATOR: The Poor
Fellow-Soldiers of Christ

and of the Temple of Solomon.

Later,
this name will be shortened

and the group will become one
of the most significant orders

in all history:

The Order of the Temple.

(Dramatic music playing)

Faced with the ongoing conflicts
in the Holy Land,

the members
of this new brotherhood

must now find a way to grow.

The Templars in the 1120s,
if they were going to expand

what they really needed
was troops,

high quality recruits, money,
and land in Western Europe

that would supply the resources
to carry on their vocation.

NARRATOR: Hugues de Payns
decides to return to Europe

to embark on a vast recruitment
and fund-raising operation.

GHISLAIN BRUNEL:
He went from country to country:

France, Champagne,
Flanders, England,

to try to recruit
and promote his project.

NICHOLAS MORTON:
Seeking crusaders

for the King of Jerusalem,

he went into all the major
courts of Western Europe.

People began to get curious
about who he was,

what his order
was trying to achieve,

and when they found out,

they were immensely impressed
and began to offer

huge sums of money.

Large numbers of donations
to the Templar order.

So much so that it became very,
very wealthy, very quickly.

(Epic music playing)

NARRATOR:
But Hugues de Payns

and the founders
of the Order of the Temple

know that to bring more men
and money to the Holy Land,

they need to be recognized

by the highest authorities
of the time.

In the beginning

people were asking questions
like,

"Are they priests?

Are they monks?
Are they knights?

What are they?"

Because a priest, a monk,
is not supposed to kill,

but they are fighters,
they are knights.

GHISLAIN:
There were Christian thinkers

who considered it
an abomination to want to unite

prayer and combat
under the same religious order.

In his desire
to consolidate the community,

to transform it into an order,

Hugues de Payns
had to obtain the permission

of the Roman Church
and therefore of the Pope.

NARRATOR:
To obtain the Pope's approval,

Hugues de Payns
will use his connections

in a region close
to his birthplace: Burgundy.

His first wife,
Emeline de Touillon,

is a relative
of the De Montbard family,

in which we also find
another man

in ascendancy
within the Christian church

and recognized
throughout Europe:

Bernard de Fontaine,

who later becomes
Bernard de Clairvaux,

and after he is canonized,

Saint Bernard.

GHISLAIN BRUNEL: Saint Bernard
entered the order of Cîteaux

and in 1115 he founded
a new abbey,

the abbey of Clairvaux.

He also came from chivalry,

from the border of Burgundy
and Champagne.

So he had
all the characteristics

of a man of combat,

with a great strength
of conviction,

a very great orator
eager to lead an ascetic life,

a rigorous life
in the order of Cîteaux

which was the figurehead
of the church

in the 12th century.

Saint Bernard was already
in 1129

a considerable figure
in the church,

a sort of moral figure
of the kingdom of France,

both for the clergy
and for the common people.

He saw in the Knights Templar
not only a chance

to support the continued
defense of Jerusalem,

but he also wanted to reform
Western European Knights.

For over 100 years,
before the First Crusade,

one of the biggest problems
facing the Catholic Church

was to reform
Western Knighthood.

Knights were troublemakers.

They fought vendettas
against each other,

they caused trouble,
they were arrogant and proud.

And so Bernard of Clairvaux saw
in the Knights Templar

the idea of using the Templars

as a role model
for Western Knights:

"This is how you should be."

Tried to steer them away
from their internal feuds

and into what he perceived to be
a more Godly form of vocation.

Convinced that this new Order
of the Temple

represented an opportunity
for the Christian church,

Bernard de Clairvaux
wrote a manifesto

which would go down in history,

entitled, "In Praise
of the New Chivalry."

MALE VOICE: This is
a new kind of militia,

which fights a dual battle
against flesh and blood,

and against evil spirits.

They live
without wives or children,

dwell under one roof,

have no property of their own.

They have no fear of sin
by killing an enemy,

because it is for the sake
of Jesus Christ

that they give or receive
the blow of death.

They are more gentle than lambs,

and fiercer than lions,

so much so, that we do not know

whether to call them monks
or soldiers.

(Bell tower ringing)

MARINA: What is stated in his
De laude novae militiae

was of course justification
of the killing of the enemy,

but it wasn't just that.

What is most important

is the opposition that he makes
between two types of chivalry.

The profane chivalry,
where the knights are rich

or seek after richness
and fight for it,

and love
their beautiful dresses,

their beautiful horses,

and another kind
of new chivalry.

This new chivalry
was impersonated

by the Templar Knights,

that really don't care
about richness,

individual richness,
of course...

And they put their lives
and all they have

in support of Jerusalem,
the Holy Land,

and Christianity in the end.

NARRATOR:
On January 13th, 1129,

the authorities
of the Christian church,

under the direction
of Bernard De Clairvaux,

organized the Council of Troyes,

bringing together
a representative of the Pope,

members of the clergy,

nobles and representatives
of the Order of the Temple.

During this council,

the very first rule
of the Temple was enacted

and put down in writing.

Today, only ten original copies
remain in the world.

Among them is this work,
written in old French

and kept in the National Library
of France.

(In French) The manuscript
first contains

the Rules of the Temple,

which continues
through page 13 and 14.

Then there's
a list of celebrations

that the Templars received
from the Pope,

and then the bulk
of the manuscript is formed

by the rules of the Temple.

So, for all of
the Temple's legislation.

This allows us to say
that the manuscript belonged

to the Templars.

It most probably even belonged

to an important house
of the Order,

because
it is a beautiful manuscript,

with a beautiful layout,

with the watermarked letters
in red and blue.

So this is something important.

(Pounding drum beat)

NARRATOR:
In the beginning of the book

we find the names of those
who participated in the council.

The first is perhaps
the most important:

Cardinal Matthew of Albano,
a representative of the Pope.

The following
is a list of people

gathered in the cathedral
of the city of Troyes,

among them,
important religious leaders:

The archbishops
of Reims and Sens,

the bishops of Soissons, Paris,
Troyes, Auxerre and Beauvais,

eight abbots,
including of course,

Bernard de Clairvaux,

noblemen such as
Count Thibaut of Champagne,

and William,
the Count of Nevers.

At the end are named
the six Templars

present
at the council of Troyes,

among them,
Brother Hugues de Payns,

master of chivalry.

(Orchestral music playing)

On the 12 pages of manuscript,

written on goatskin parchment,

are all the recommendations
of the Council of Troyes

for members
of the Order of the Temple.

The rhythm of prayers
when they're in battle,

the care required
to give their horses,

or the food
they are advised to eat.

MALE VOICE: You are to eat meat
three times a week.

NARRATOR:
Everything is accounted for

down to the last detail.

Because unlike monks,

the knights cannot fast
or be lacking in sleep.

They must maintain
their strength

to be ready for battle.

MALE VOICE:
The brothers who are exhausted

from the great services
rendered to the order

can avoid getting up
for the night prayers,

with the permission
and discharge of the master.

It's a really incredible
and innovative thing,

the fact that inside
a religious code,

there is a military part...

There's even a military code
which is integrated perfectly

inside of a religious order.

A little further, reads...

that the participants
in the Council of Troyes,

will bring the Christian church
into a new era.

MALE VOICE: We believe that
this new kind of religious life

was born in the holy land

thanks to divine Providence.

This means that this
armed knighthood can,

without committing a sin,

kill the enemies of the cross.

For this reason,
we deem that you have

the right to be called
"Knights of the Temple."

For the first time,
the church formalizes the idea

that one can kill
in the name of Christ,

and that its armed branch
in the holy land has a name:

The order of the temple.

It was the Council of Troyes

which marked the birth
of the Order of the Temple,

and transformed the community

gathered around Hugues de Payns
in Jerusalem,

into a structure
of the Latin church.

To some people
the idea of the Knights Templar

was actually almost heretical.

One of the English chroniclers

by the name of
Henry of Huntington

called them,
"A certain new monster."

The Council of Troyes
therefore marks

a new era
for the Order of the Temple.

And the fame
of these new knights of God

immediately spreads
throughout Europe.

After the council of Troyes
everything changed, rapidly,

because this new order
looked interesting

to the western world.

Especially of course
to the aristocracy

of the western world

that had found a way

to invest their donations

in something that was different

from the traditional
monastic orders.

Donations began to grow,
began to increase.

They grew constantly and quickly

in very few years

and in the 30's already

they are powerful in the East.

They are starting to build
power in the West, too.

They became Europe's
first standing army

since the days
of the Roman Empire.

Rome had collapsed
in the fifth century

so it's the first
standing army

in about six or 700 years.

This was a really radical shift.

You had a permanent
military force in the East

defending Christendom,

defending Christian interests.

Once the donations of land
and money came in,

they were able
to train men up to fight.

A medieval knight
was the equivalent

of a modern-day
tank or something.

A fully armed knight
on a warhorse

was an awesome
figure to behold.

You needed to run.

These were the elite troops.
The crack troops.

The Special Forces
of the 12th century.

It was at this time,

the first symbols of recognition
of the Templars were born

on which their legend
of outstanding fighters

would gradually be built.

The initial knights weren't
visually impressive at first,

the Poor Fellow Soldiers
of Christ

and the Temple of Solomon.

They were literally poor.
They had nothing.

Just the clothes they wore,

their swords and a few horses.

So after the Council of Troyes,

you get massive donations
of land and money

and all of a sudden
they become vastly wealthy.

So the white surcoat
is part of this new look.

We would call it
maybe a rebranding

but to a medieval person
white would symbolize purity.

This long white mantle
with the Red Cross on it

is precisely the mark of the
commitment that was made,

since this Red Cross
recalls the blood

shed by Christ
for the redemption of humanity,

therefore the commitment
of a brother of the Temple

in his turn to lay down his life

and shed his blood
to defend the land of Christ

and the kingdom of Jerusalem.

The mission of
the Knights Templar

is to defend the Holy Land.

They must not only
know how to fight,

but also how to make new weapons

organize their movements,

and build strongholds
to defend pilgrims.

Thanks to the donations,

the Order of the Temple
recruits.

The Templar Order
essentially has three grades.

The most famous
are the brother Knights.

To be recruited as a brother
Knight in Western Europe

someone would normally be
of Aristocratic background...

they'd have been
trained as a Knight,

so they'd already have
the skills to perform

the functions of
a Templar Knight.

If you were not from
an elite background,

but from a free background,
perhaps from an artisan family

or from a family of merchants

you would generally
enter the Templar Order

as a Templar Sergeant.

Templar Sergeants could fight,

but it's from their ranks
that Templars recruit

their ship builders,
their carpenters,

their estate managers, people
with specific trade skills.

The third type
is brother priests

who have been
ordained as a priest,

and act as chaplains
to the order.

When the applicant
enters the Temple

he commits himself
to a number of things

and the obligations take place
in the framework of a ceremony.

The absolutely decisive moment

is when the Templar's mantle

is put around
the neck of the candidate.

Here, he truly enters
the brotherhood of the Temple.

And then, immediately,

he swears to respect
the vows of chastity,

poverty, obedience

and he also swears to fight
by all means in his power,

for the holy land.

We sometimes refer to this
as the fourth vow,

it's something quite essential
because a Templar of any kind,

knight, sergeant, or chaplain,

whether in the West
or in the East,

ideally competes in the defense
of the Holy Land.

It's an entry into brotherhood,

an entry into an Order,

hence the importance
of the mantle,

the importance of the sword
and the importance of the oath.

Gradually, Templar houses
called "commanderies"

were created in Western Europe.

The brothers live there
by scrupulously respecting

the guidelines of the Temple
by pursuing only one mission:

To prepare to fight in the East

and to grow the wealth
of the Order

to finance the Holy War.

A commandery is a large building
with a residence,

with common buildings,
a granary to store crops,

and above all, a chapel.

The commandery is where
the chaplain officiates,

and performs the canonical
services for all the brothers.

The county of Champagne,

Burgundy, Provence, Auvergne,

Ile de France

saw the birth of networks
of Templar houses

and commanderies
every 30 to 40 km.

The network formed quite quickly
during the 12th century.

The commanderies and
Templar houses are also used

to recruit locally.

Their establishment,
their impact,

their daily relationship
with the populations

also served to feed
this recruitment.

In 1136,

Hugues De Payns,
the first grand master Templar

dies after returning
to fight in the East.

He is replaced
at the head of the Order

by Robert de Craon

who brilliantly organizes
the operation

and management
of the commanderies

which continue to develop
thanks to donations.

10 years after
the Council of Troyes,

events are accelerating.

On March the 29th, 1139,

Pope Innocent II
writes a papal bull

which will go down in history.

A document which bears
his seal and is baptized

"Omne Datum Optimum,"

the 3 Latin words
with which it begins.

MALE VOICE: Every good grace
and every perfect gift

descends from above,

from the Father of Light,
with whom there is no change

or shade of variation.

We exhort you to fight the
enemies of the Cross with ardor,

and as reward, we allow you
to keep for yourselves

all the spoils
that you have seized,

without anyone having
the right to claim

a share of them.

And we declare that
the order of the Temple,

with all its assets acquired
by the bounty of the popes,

the kings and the princes,
remains under the protection

and guardianship
of the Holy See.

According to this text,

not only can the Templars
preserve the wealth accumulated

during battles against
Muslims in the Holy Land

but they place themselves under
the authority of one person:

The Pope himself.

MALE VOICE: No one can force you
to pay tithes,

but we confirm to you
the possession and enjoyment

of the tithes given to you
with the consent of the bishops.

So that you may have
the fullness of salvation

and care for your souls,

for the practice of
the Divine Offices

and giving of the
ecclesiastical sacraments,

you may admit clerics
and priests.

We grant you the power
to build chapels

in all the places
attached to the temple,

so you and your relatives
may attend services

and be buried there,

for it is bad for your morals
if the brothers of the temple,

on their way to church,

should mingle
with crowds of sinners

and those who keep
company with women.

The order of the Temple will
no longer pay tax to the church,

will have the right
to collect tax

without going through
the bishops,

train its own priests,

build its own churches,

and anyone who questions
this protection of the pope

will be excommunicated.

The Templars were not subject

to the authority
of other churchmen,

no Archbishops, no Bishops,

except for the Pope himself.

This gave the order a great deal
of freedom of movement,

at least within
the church hierarchy.

It also stirred up resentment

among the Archbishops, and
other members of the church,

who felt the order had
too much independence,

and wasn't responsive
to their leadership.

Over the following years,
successive popes

will further strengthen
the privileges

given to the Templars.

In 1144,

the faithful were expressly
asked to contribute

to the mission
of the Knights Templar.

It was stipulated that the Pope
would grant his forgiveness

to the benefactors
of the Order of the Temple.

MALE VOICE: He who has
provided them with the goods

God has entrusted to them

and who has established a bond
with such a holy brotherhood

and allowed them to make
a profit each year,

will receive a reduction
of one seventh

on the penances he has incurred.

Huge tracks of land were given
them by kings all over Europe.

But even small grants of land
like estates,

farms, water mills,
things like that.

If somebody wanted
to donate to the order,

they would accept everything.

No donation was too large
or too small,

because it was all
with the greater good

of keeping the Christian
kingdom in the East going.

It was very good for a Christian

to donate to an order
like the Templars,

it was good for your soul
and your afterlife,

it minimized
your time in purgatory

and ensured you went
to the right place

when the time came.

In 1145,

a new papal bull
gave the Knights Templar

the right to bury their brothers
in their own cemeteries

and to travel freely
throughout Europe.

So from 1129 to 1146

we could compare them
to a corporation or a business

going from a small startup
to a multinational in 17 years.

Even today
that is quite impressive.

It was completely unprecedented

for a small group of people
to become that powerful so fast.

It had never happened before.

But while the Templar enterprise
develops quickly in the West,

in the East, the situation
in the crusader states

has deteriorated.

Defeated in Damascus in 1129,

in Ba'rin in 1137,

in Tecua in 1139,

and especially in Edessa in 1144

where it is said that 30,000
Christians were massacred.

The failures of the Crusaders
mount one after another.

These weren't the setbacks
of the Templars

but of the army
of the kingdom of Jerusalem

which were starting
to integrate within it

perhaps a few dozen Templars,

but these setbacks were bitter.

The Templars still lacked
influence within the army

and the qualities of Order and
discipline that we know of them

were not really imposed.

In the face of these defeats

and the threats to Christians
in the East,

Pope Eugene the Third
decided to act.

With the papal bull
"Quantum Praedecessores",

he called for a new crusade.

Bernard de Clairvaux himself

is in charge of mobilizing
the population.

On March the 31st, 1146,

at Vézelay in Burgundy,

he preached the journey
to the Holy Land

by promising to those
who would take up the cross,

the absolution of all sins.

Among the many sovereigns
from all over Europe

who joined the 2nd crusade,

was Louis the Seventh,
King of France,

and his wife
Eleanor of Aquitaine.

To help in their endeavor,

they turned to those
with sufficient means:

The Knights Templar!

In 1147, Louis the Seventh
requested funding

from the order of the Temple
and he entrusted them

for the first time
with his treasure.

They already have resources

to help the king
with his crusade,

arming ships, etc.

These are the Templars
who served as scouts,

protectors, guides,
along the road,

and the crusade route
is challenging for Louis VII.

They suffered very harsh
Turkish attacks

and it was the Templars

led by marshal Evrard des Bars

who will become grand master,

who saved the royal army.

Louis VII is not the only one
to embark on the Second Crusade.

Conrad the Third,
King of Germany,

also made his way
to the Holy Land

with nearly 20,000 men
at his side.

But from the first
months of combat,

the armies of the two kings
suffered great setbacks

against the Muslims.

Mount Cadmus...

Dorylaeum...

Inab.

Defeats follow,
one after another.

And the deaths pile up.

Financing these losing battles

is beginning to cost
the two kings dearly.

So, to find the necessary money,

Louis VII needs help.

He will turn once again
to his new allies,

the Knights Templar.

When the Crusade
gets into difficulty in 1148,

Louis turns to the master
of the temple and says,

"Can you help us?"

So the Grand Master
goes off in his ship

and gets the money
from a Templar stronghold.

This is the first time
we see the Templars acting

effectively as bankers
supporting European kings.

They're not just supporting

the interests of the Church

and fighting for Christ
and defending souls.

They are now, by the time
of the Second Crusade,

also financially very powerful.

And literally
funding the Crusade.

Despite financial assistance
from the Knights Templar,

the troops of the King of France
and the King of Germany

were unable to recover any
territory from their enemies.

After three years of fighting,

the two sovereigns give up.

A crusade for nothing.

Which will nevertheless benefit

the Order of the Temple.

The second crusade
was a total failure.

It ended with nothing at all.

Mostly because the presence of

Conrad III
and the King of France

revealed to be a problem.

They disagreed
on almost everything.

They made all the possible
wrong choices

like taking the siege
of Damascus

which ended up badly
for the King of France

with a lot of money spent.

He had to ask
the Templars for money

in order to go back to France.

The defeat of the second crusade

probably helped the Templars.

They had lent money to the King.

They were the forces that surely

ended well
in the local situation.

The Knights Templar had shown

by loaning money
to the King of France,

and also reorganizing
his army at one stage,

they had shown how
effective they could be.

This would not be forgotten
by future Kings of France.

The Second Crusade will be
a resounding military failure.

And Louis the Seventh
returns to France in 1149

greatly weakened financially,
and diplomatically.

However, his ordeal

contributes to the growth
of the legend

of the Knights Templar.

He returned from the Holy Land

with a lofty idea of what the
knights of the Temple were like.

For him, this order shines
over the whole of the earth,

and it has no equivalent
in his mind.

He gives them income
in money from his tax revenues,

he cedes to them
the villa Savigny

that becomes the great
commandery of Savigny le temple.

This is a king who shows
the same fascination

of the sovereigns for
the beginnings of the Temple,

since it is less than 30 years
after its creation,

and the King of France
is truly an unconditional ally

of the Knights of the Temple.

During the Second Crusade,

the Templars were able to supply

their own contingents
to go on crusade,

whilst continuing their work
in the crusade estates

they were also able to afford

massive loans
to the King of France

to support the King of France's
Crusade to the Holy Land.

By the end of the 12th century

the Templars had become a
huge international organization.

We don't know precisely
how many members they had

but there were probably about
600 fighting brother Knights

in the crusader states.

But with a much larger
contingent of infantry

and other employees
and followers.

In Western Europe
they'd have had

possibly an even larger
number of brother Knights,

brother Sergeants,
and other personnel

all there to facilitate
the supply of resources

to the Holy Land.

The Templars developed
this reputation for avarice,

but I think they were just
very good businessmen.

At the beginning of the
2nd half of the 12th century,

the order of the Temple
will grow even more powerful.

Supported by Popes and Kings,

the Order accumulates
considerable wealth,

building commanderies
in the West,

and castles in the East.

Its ranks
will not cease to grow.

The reign of these
new knights of Christ

was only beginning.

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