History of the Knights Templars (eBook)

 CHAPTER VI.

    The Patriarch Heraclius quarrels with the king of England--He returns     to Palestine without succour--The disappointments and gloomy     forebodings of the Templars--They prepare to resist Saladin--Their     defeat and slaughter--The valiant deeds of the Marshal of the     Temple--The fatal battle of Tiberias--The captivity of the Grand     Master and the true Cross--The captive Templars are offered the Koran     or death--They choose the latter, and are beheaded--The fall of     Jerusalem--The Moslems take possession of the Temple--They purify it     with rose-water, say prayers, and hear a sermon--The Templars retire     to Antioch--Their letters to the king of England and the Master of the     Temple at London--Their exploits at the siege of Acre.

    "Gloriosa civitas Dei Jerusalem, ubi dominus passus, ubi sepultus, ubi     gloriam resurrectionis ostendit, hosti spurio subjicitur polluenda,     nec est dolor sicut dolor iste, cum sepulchrum possideant qui     sepulchrum persequuntur, crucem teneant qui crucifixum     contemnunt."--The Lamentation of Geoffrey de Vinisauf over the Fall     of Jerusalem.

    "The earth quakes and trembles because the king of heaven hath lost     his land, the land on which his feet once stood. The foes of the Lord     break into his holy city, even into that glorious tomb where the     virgin blossom of Mary was wrapt up in linen and spices, and where the     first and greatest flower on earth rose up again."--St. Bernard,     epist. cccxxii.

 [Sidenote: GERARD DE RIDERFORT. A. D. 1185.]

The Grand Master, Arnold de Torroge, who died on his journey to England, as before mentioned, was succeeded by Brother Gerard de Riderfort.[179]

On the tenth of the calends of April, a month after the consecration by the patriarch Heraclius of the Temple church, the grand council or parliament of the kingdom, composed of the bishops, earls, and barons, assembled in the house of the Hospitallers at Clerkenwell in London. It was attended by William king of Scotland and David his brother, and many of the counts and barons of that distant land.[180] The august assembly was acquainted, in the king's name, with the object of the solemn embassy just sent to him from Jerusalem, and with the desire of the royal penitent to fulfil his vow and perform his penance; but the barons were at the same time reminded of the old age of their sovereign, of the bad state of his health, and of the necessity of his presence in England. They accordingly represented to King Henry that the solemn oath taken by him on his coronation was an obligation antecedent to the penance imposed on him by the pope; that by that oath he was bound to stay at home and govern his dominions, and that, in their opinion, it was more wholesome for the king's soul to defend his own country against the barbarous French, than to desert it for the purpose of protecting the distant kingdom of Jerusalem. They, however, offered to raise the sum of fifty thousand marks for the levying of troops to be sent into Asia, and recommended that all such prelates and nobles as desired to take the cross should be permitted freely to leave the kingdom on so pious an enterprise.[181]

Fabian gives the following quaint account of the king's answer to the patriarch, from the Chron. Joan Bromton: "Lasteley, the kynge gaue answere, and sayde that he myghte not leue hys lande wythoute kepynge, nor yet leue yt to the praye and robbery of Frenchemen. But he wolde gyue largely of hys owne to such as wolde take upon theym that vyage. Wyth thys answere the patryarke was dyscontente, and sayde, 'We seke a man, and not money; welnere euery crysten regyon sendyth unto us money, but no lande sendyth to us a prince. Therefore we aske a prynce that nedeth money, and not money that nedeth a prynce.' But the kynge layde for hym suche excuses, that the patryarke departed from hym dyscontentyd and comforteless, whereof the kynge beynge aduertysed, entendynge somwhat to recomforte hym wyth pleasaunte wordes, folowed hym unto the see syde. But the more the kynge thought to satysfye hym wyth hys fayre speche, the more the patryarke was discontented, in so myche that at the laste he sayde unto hym, 'Hytherto thou haste reygned gloryously, but here after thou shalt be forsaken of him whom thou at thys tyme forsakeste. Thynke on hym what he hath gyuen to thee, and what thou haste yelden to him agayne: howe fyrste thou were false unto the kynge of Fraunce, and after slewe that holy man Thomas of Caunterburye, and lastely thou forsakeste the proteccyon of Crystes faith.' The kynge was amoued wyth these wordes, and sayde unto the patryarke, 'Though all the men of my lande were one bodye, and spake with one mouth, they durste not speke to me such wordys.' 'No wonder,' sayde the patriarke, 'for they loue thyne and not the; that ys to meane, they loue thy goodes temporall, and fere the for losse of promocyon, but they loue not thy soule.' And when he hadde so sayde, he offeryd hys hedde to the kynge, sayenge, 'Do by me ryghte as thou dyddest by that blessed man Thomas of Caunterburye, for I had leur to be slayne of the, then of the Sarasyns, for thou art worse than any Sarasyn.' But the kynge kepte hys pacyence, and sayde, 'I may not wende oute of my lande, for myne own sonnes wyll aryse agayne me whan I were absente.' 'No wonder,' sayde the patryarke, 'for of the deuyll they come, and to the deuyll they shall go,' and so departyd from the kynge in great ire."[182]

According to Roger de Hoveden, however, the patriarch, on the 17th of the calends of May, accompanied King Henry into Normandy, where a conference was held between the sovereigns of France and England concerning the proposed succour to the Holy Land. Both monarchs were liberal in promises and fair speeches; but as nothing short of the presence of the king of England, or of one of his sons, in Palestine, would satisfy the patriarch, that haughty ecclesiastic failed in his negotiations, and returned in disgust and disappointment to the Holy Land.[183] On his arrival at Jerusalem with intelligence of his ill success, the greatest consternation prevailed amongst the Latin christians; and it was generally observed that the true cross, which had been recovered from the Persians by the Emperor Heraclius, was about to be lost under the pontificate, and by the fault of a patriarch of the same name.

A resident in Palestine has given us some curious biographical notices of this worthy consecrator of our Temple church at London. He says that he was a very handsome parson, and, in consequence of his beauty, the mother of the king of Jerusalem fell in love with him, and made him archbishop of Cæsarea, (biau clerc estoit, et par sa beauté l'ama la mere de roi, et le fist arcevesque de Cesaire.) He then describes how he came to be made patriarch, and how he was suspected to have poisoned the archbishop of Tyre. After his return from Rome he fell in love with the wife of a haberdasher who lived at Naplous, twelve miles from Jerusalem. He went to see her very often, and, not long after the acquaintanceship commenced, the husband died. Then the patriarch brought the lady to Jerusalem, and bought for her a very fine stone house. "Le patriarche la fist venir en Jerusalem, et li acheta bonne maison de pierre. Si la tenoit voiant le siecle ausi com li hons fait sa fame, fors tant que ele n'estoit mie avec lui. Quant ele aloit au mostier, ele estoit ausi atornée de riches dras, com ce fust un emperris, et si serjant devant lui. Quant aucunes gens la veoient qui ne la connoissoient pas, il demandoient qui cele dame estoit. Cil qui la connoissoient, disoient que cestoit la fame du patriarche. Ele avoit nom Pasque de Riveri. Enfans avoit du patriarche, et les barons estoient, que là où il se conseilloient, vint un fol ou patriarche, si li dist; 'Sire Patriarche, dones moi bon don, car je vous aport bones novelles Pasque de Riveri, vostre fame, a une bele fille!'"[184] "When Jesus Christ," says the learned author, "saw the iniquity and wickedness which they committed in the very place where he was crucified, he could no longer suffer it."

[Sidenote: A. D. 1186.]

The order of the Temple was at this period all-powerful in Palestine, and the Grand Master, Gerard de Riderfort, coerced with the heavy hand of authority the nobles of the kingdom, and even the king himself. Shortly after the return of Heraclius to Palestine, King Baldwin IV. died, and was succeeded by his infant nephew, Baldwin V., who was crowned in the church of the Resurrection, and was afterwards royally entertained by the Templars in the Temple of Solomon, according to ancient custom.[185] The young king died at Acre after a short reign of only seven months, and the Templars brought the body to Jerusalem, and buried it in the tombs of the christian kings. The Grand Master of the Temple then raised Sibylla, the mother of the deceased monarch, and her second husband, Guy of Lusignan, to the throne. Gerard de Riderfort surrounded the palace with troops; he closed the gates of Jerusalem, and delivered the regalia to the Patriarch. He then conducted Sibylla and her husband to the church of the Resurrection,...