Isolated moorland church was once a beacon of power for the mysterious Knights Templar
MENTION Cornwall and tales of smugglers landing their contraband on isolated coves in the dead of night, fishermen and sailors battling the open seas and tin miners making a living out of Cornwall’s underground wealth or leaving their homes for foreign lands in search of a better life will no doubt come to mind.
Cornwall’s fascinating history runs deep and is certainly rich and varied, but the Knights Templar are probably not what immediately springs to mind. Yet the formidable medieval monastic military order had a presence in the county, one that lasted for almost two centuries.
Temple, a hamlet on Bodmin Moor, a stone’s throw away from the A30, is where the famous order had a base in the county. According to The Buildings of England – Cornwall, the Knights Templar acquired “a large plot of land on Bodmin Moor around 1150 and the place was named after the order”. They established a church on the site as well as a hostel for pilgrims travelling from England and Ireland to the Holy Land.
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, to give the Templars their official name, were one of the wealthiest and most popular military orders in Western Europe. Founded in 1119 with their headquarters on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Templars existed for almost two centuries during the Middle Ages.
With their distinctive white mantles emblazoned with a red cross pattee, the Templars were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades against the Saracens. Not only were they among the shock troops of Christendom but they also developed a vast network of commanderies, hostels, farm holdings and properties throughout Europe and the Levant.
As their wealth grew they developed an early form of banking, building a network of almost 1,000 commanderies and fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land. Like a modern-day multinational corporation, they lent money to kings and princes, protected as they were by a Papal order.
Because of the influence and power over those in their debt, distrust grew about the Templars. A secretive order, whose emblem was that of two knights riding a single horse, rumours spread about their so-called secret initiation ceremonies. King Philip IV of France, while being deeply in debt to the order, used this distrust to take advantage of the situation, and in 1307, he pressured Pope Clement V to have many of the order’s members in France arrested and put to the question. Under further pressure, the Pope abolished the order and the Knights Templar officially ceased to exist in 1312.
While in Portugal the Templars morphed into another order supported by the Portuguese King, all too happy to have extra fighting men to use in his ‘reconquista’ efforts against the Moors, most of the Templars’ assets in places like France or England passed to their greatest rivals the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem – the Knights Hospitaller.
And so it was for the church of St Catherine’s at Temple, along with the Templars’ estate and their mill in Launceston.
The demise of the Knights Templar has led to many conspiracy theories, legends and myths involving the so-called Holy Grail and hidden treasure.
You won’t find the Holy Grail buried under the altar inside the church nor are you likely to stumble across descendants of Christ living a quiet and secretive life hidden away in the hamlet.
Instead, you will come across a peaceful little church set with a green glade among moss-covered trees down a steep road leading from the village. The church is small, square and squat unlike other more prominent religious buildings dotted around Cornwall. It is a beautiful and tranquil place conducive to contemplation.
But it was not always so. Over the centuries the church, originally called Capella de Templo, fell into disrepair and ruin. As unearthed by Cornwall historian Barry West, it featured in several travel books in the Victorian era.
Samuel Drew, in his History of Cornwall from the Earliest Records and Traditions to the Present Time, dated 1824, writes: “The church which was originally called Capella de Templo, has been in ruins for about 30 years, but some of the walls are still standing. The bell which belonged to it was twice stolen, when the church fell into decay, and after the second theft, was irrecoverably lost.
“Since the demolition of the church, no divine service has been performed in the parish, which contains only 18 inhabitants, and these are the servants of landholders, who live in less desolate regions.
The author of the Transactions of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society volume three, 1842, also noted: “We kept along the remains of the old road, and in a short time arrived at Temple.
“This depopulated parish contains only three cottages. Carew observes that Temple is a place exempted from the Bishop’s jurisdiction, ‘as one appertayning to the Templers, but not so from disorder, for if common report communicate with truth, many a bad marriage bargain is there yerely slubbered up.’”
Temple’s Templars church may not be home to some occult secret but it certainly remains quirky in its own way and was, at one time, Cornwall’s very own Gretna Green. Up until 1744, it was a church to run away to and get married without the need for banns to be published or a licence.
In his Parochial History of Cornwall dated 1828, Davies Gilbert writes: “This practice has given rise to a mode of expression, which sends off unmarried but pregnant women to lie in privately, by despatching them to the Moors, meaning that long range of wilderness which is called Temple Moors.”
According to the 1951 book The Buildings of England – Cornwall by Pevsner Nikolaus, the church “of diminutive scale but strangely impressive in its remote moorland location”, was rebuilt from ruins in 1882-3 by Silvanus Trevail with some of the foundations of the earlier building being reused.
❝❝ The demise of the Knights Templar has led to many conspiracy theories, legends and myths
❝❝ By 2015, it looked like the church’s days were numbered again when a survey revealed the roof to be ‘nail-sick’
By 2015, it looked like the church’s days were numbered again when a survey revealed the roof to be ‘nailsick,’ no longer watertight and in need of funds.
However, a fundraising campaign saw some £100,000 raised to save the church once more. After three months, the church was repaired to its former glory in 2017.
About the Templars’ presence in Cornwall, Barry West said: “The Knights Templars presence in Cornwall, well known in academic circles and amongst historians is a lesser known but still an interesting and important part of Cornwall’s colourful and fascinating history, they were a large organisation of devout Christians during the medieval era.
“They were a wealthy, powerful and mysterious order that has fascinated historians and many others but their story, though well recorded in some aspects, appears to be shrouded in mystery with myths and legends that connect them with such legends as the Holy Grail and buried treasure.
“Despite what is written and recorded about this ancient order it is likely that we may never know, discover or understand fully some of their lost and largely forgotten story.”