Defining the moments of the Knights Templar

Important dates in the founding of this powerful order

Founding of the Templars 1119

Hugues de Payens, with eight companions, swore the monastic vows of obedience, poverty and chastity in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. All nine men were experienced soldiers, trained for war from a young age, and now they were dedicating their skills to the protection and defence of pilgrims to the Holy Land, and to the defence of Outremer itself.

Recruiting to the Order 1128

The Order grew only slowly in its first few years. However, when Hugues de Payens travelled back to Europe – to France, England and Scotland

– he recruited many men to the Order, as well as securing its finances with the gifts of estates and incomes in Europe. The future of the Order was secure for the time being, apart from one thing: it needed a Rule.

Taking a Rule 1129

At a Church council in Troyes, France, over which Pope Honorius II presided, the Order was both approved by the Church and a Rule for its governance and the conduct of its soldier monks worked out and promulgated. The Poor Fellow-soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon was now an official Order of the Church.