On Crusade
Introduction
Nine centuries ago, in the aftermath of the First Crusade (1095-9),
a French knight called Hugues de Payens and eight of his countrymen
journeyed to Jerusalem to form a community of warrior-monks who came
to be known as the Order of Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the
Temple of Solomon, or, later, the Order of the Temple of Jerusalem:
the Knights Templar. Making monastic vows of obedience, chastity,
and poverty to the Patriarch I of Jerusalem, and granted leave by
the newly crowned King Baldwin II of Jerusalem to establish their
headquarters near the site of King Solomon's Temple, they were
charged with the duty to "maintain, as far as they could, the roads
and highways against the ambushes of thieves and attackers,
especially in regard to the safety of pilgrims."
From this apparently humble beginning, the Order of the Temple grew
to be the single most powerful military presence in the Holy Land-an
incomparable fighting machine whose warriors neither asked nor gave
quarter, whose rule did not allow them to be ransomed if captured or
to retreat from battle unless the numbers of the enemy were at least
t ... read full excerpt from: On Crusade: More Tales of the Knights Templar ebook
