Military monastic orders and holy scripture
The combination of monastic and military in the way of life of members of the spiritual-knightly orders concealed a dangerous contradiction that could sooner or later undermine the prestige of such organizations.
Holy Scripture proclaimed the incompatibility of serving God with the shedding of human blood. Homicide was declared a sin. The new orders could easily become the object of criticism, and the apparent contradiction with the letter of the Gospel would turn for many an insurmountable obstacle to their replenishment.
Bernard of Clairvaux solves the problem
The Templars, like representatives of other orders, needed a theological justification for the legitimacy of their activities. The religious and ethical doctrine of militant Catholic monasticism was developed by the same Bernard of Clairvaux.
Between 1128 and 1136 he wrote the essay "Praise to the new army of the Knights of the Temple", which was a statement of the doctrine of the military monastic brotherhood.
Bernard made a successful attempt to reconcile the philanthropy of the Gospel and the belligerence of monks with swords in their hands.
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“There is no law,” declares the theologian, “that would forbid a Christian to raise his sword. The Gospel nowhere says to the soldiers: drop your weapons and give up the military work; it only prohibits unjust war, especially between Christians."
According to St. Bernard's armed activities of knights-monks are only a way to protect Christian shrines.
“It would be forbidden to kill pagans too,” Bernard says, “if in some other way it was possible to prevent their incursions and take away their ability to oppress the faithful.
There is no nobler task for those who have chosen a military life than to dispel these war-thirsty pagans, to cast away these servants of filth, who dream of taking away the treasures hidden in Jerusalem from Christians, desecrating holy places and seizing the sanctuary of God as a heritage."
No, the soldiers of Christ should not appear as murderers in the eyes of believers, but as murderers who laid their lives on the altar of faith.
” Hippocrates and his followers teach how to keep this world alive; Christ and his disciples - how to lose it,”the author asserts in fanatical enthusiasm.
Pope and Knights Templar
The importance of the Templars was also appreciated in Rome. Having exclusively military functions and declaring its full subordination to the Roman pontiff, the Order thereby for the first time in the history of the Church turned into a papal armed guard, whose units could be deployed not only in Palestine, but also in any other place in the Catholic world.
The papacy did not fail to solidify the loyalty of its new harsh servants with a series of privileges bestowed upon the Order during the twelfth century.
In 1139, Pope Innocent II with the bull "Omne Datum Optimum" announced that the Order was exclusively subordinate to the Roman throne.
The order was exempted from paying church tithes. Bulla confirmed the right of the Templars to the booty captured in battle with the infidels, and, as already mentioned, introduced the institution of brothers-chaplains in the Order.
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In 1144, the “Milites Templi” bull was issued, in which the right to collect alms in any Catholic church was assigned to the templars.
In places that were under the interdict - the prohibition of worship, in the event of the appearance of the Templar, temples were to be opened for one day - as a sign of respect for the holy army.
The bull "Milicia Dei", published in 1145, informed the bishops of the right of the templars to build their own chapels.
In 1199, Pope Innocent III, despite the dissatisfaction of the white clergy, deprived the bishops of the right to impose any punishment on the templars.
The support of Rome played an important role in the transformation of the humble brotherhood of knight-monks into a powerful international organization.
Already by the beginning of the XIII century. The Templars felt so at ease on the Church path that they dared to admit anathematized people to Mass and the Sacraments.
Rome turned a blind eye to this. The Templars were needed by the papacy, the military-monastic orders remained not only the only real force in the East, but also the support of Rome in all countries of Catholic Europe, and an authoritative support.