The Templars' fame rests on their battles and on the trial that brought them down, but the richest part of the sources concerns their ordinary life. The order's Rule, with its later additions, describes with great precision who was in command, how the brothers ate, how they slept and how they were received into the brotherhood. It is a valuable document for understanding what a military religious order actually was.
From the Latin rule to the French statutes
The text approved at the Council of Troyes in 1129 was written in Latin. It was soon translated into Old French, because many knights could not read Latin. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the rule was expanded with new sections:
- the hierarchical statutes, known as retraits, which set out the rights and duties of each officer;
- the rules on conventual life and on chapters;
- the penances laid down for different faults;
- the description of the admission ceremony.
The result is a composite body of texts, built up from the order's concrete experience in the Holy Land and in Europe.
The hierarchy of officers
At the top stood the master, elected by a college of brothers according to a procedure described in the statutes. The master had great authority, but important decisions had to go through the chapter: he could not, for instance, alienate property or start a war on his own initiative.
| Office | Main function |
|---|---|
| Master | Leader of the order, with the chapter's consent |
| Seneschal | The master's deputy and right hand |
| Marshal | Military commander, in charge of horses and arms |
| Commander of the Land of Jerusalem | Treasurer and administrator |
| Draper | Keeper of clothing, cloth and kit |
| Turcopolier | Commander of the turcopoles, light cavalry |
| House commanders | Heads of individual houses |
This structure shows a very practical organisation: each role had duties, mounts and prerogatives fixed in writing.
Knights, sergeants and chaplains
The order was not made up of knights alone. Its members fell into distinct categories:
- Knights: of noble or knightly birth, they wore the white mantle, a symbol of purity.
- Sergeants: of non-noble status, they fought or carried out service tasks and wore a black or brown mantle.
- Chaplains: priests of the order, responsible for the liturgy and the sacraments.
Alongside them worked servants, craftsmen and labourers attached to the order's houses. The red cross on the mantle, according to the tradition reported by William of Tyre, was granted by Pope Eugene III around 1147.
A Templar's day
Conventual life followed the rhythm of the canonical hours. The brothers rose at night for matins, then checked on the horses before going back to rest. During the day, prayer alternated with care of equipment and training.
Some rules reveal the attention paid to discipline:
- brothers ate in pairs from the same bowl, in silence, listening to a reading;
- meat was served three times a week, because fighting men needed strength;
- owning personal objects without permission was forbidden;
- hunting was prohibited, with the exception of the lion, regarded as a symbol of evil;
- no one could leave the house without the superior's permission.
Equally strict rules applied in battle. The black and white banner, called the Beauséant, had to remain raised: as long as it was visible, the knights could not withdraw.
The admission ceremony
The part of the rule devoted to admission is particularly interesting for anyone who studies initiatory forms, because it describes a genuine rite of passage. The candidate was led to a room near the chapter, where some brothers showed him the hardships of the life awaiting him: he would have to keep watch when he wanted to sleep, fast when he was hungry, set out when he wanted to stay.
He was then asked specific questions:
- whether he was married or betrothed;
- whether he already belonged to another order;
- whether he had debts he could not pay;
- whether he was sound in body;
- whether he was anyone's serf.
A false answer could lead to expulsion. Only after these checks did the candidate enter the chapter, ask to be received, take his vows and receive the mantle. The master or commander then explained the essential rules to him.
Penances and loss of the habit
Faults were judged in the weekly chapter, where each brother could accuse himself. Penalties ranged from fasting on bread and water to temporary loss of the habit, up to expulsion for the gravest failings, such as heresy, flight before the enemy or revealing what was said in chapter. The secrecy of chapters, intended as a rule of internal discipline, would decades later become one of the arguments used by the prosecution at the trial.
The symbolic value of the Rule
Read today, the Rule appears as a manual of life in which obedience, renunciation and brotherhood become tools of transformation. The habit received at admission was not just a garment: it marked the passage from one condition to another, from secular life to consecrated life. It is in this sense that the order, though it had no secret doctrines, contained a genuinely initiatory structure.
In short
- The Latin Rule of Troyes was translated into French and enlarged with statutes, regulations and penances.
- The hierarchy included master, seneschal, marshal, treasurer, draper and commanders.
- Members were knights, sergeants and chaplains, distinguished also by the colour of their mantle.
- Admission was a ceremony with questions, vows and the giving of the habit.
- The secrecy of chapters was a disciplinary rule, later turned against the order at its trial.
