What Is the Rule of the Knights Templar?
The Rule of the Knights Templar is the legal code that governed the lives of the brothers of the Order. The Rule was first approved at the Council of Troyes in 1129, and it was subsequently expanded into the so-called Latin Rule (Regula Latina), a collection of over 600 clauses that regulated every aspect of the brothers’ lives. The Rule is one of the most important primary sources for the early history of the Order, and it gives us a vivid picture of what life was actually like for a Templar brother.
This article examines the Latin Rule of the Templars. It is a companion to Bernard de Clairvaux and the Templar Rule and to Templar Initiation and the Charges of Secret Rites.
The Origin of the Rule
The Rule was first approved at the Council of Troyes in January 1129, where it was drawn up under the supervision of Bernard of Clairvaux. The Rule was based on the Cistercian customs of Bernard’s own monastery, adapted for a community that combined monastic life with the bearing of arms.
The original Rule of 1129 was a relatively short document, with only 72 clauses. Over the following decades, the Rule was expanded with a series of retraits (additional clauses), and by the early thirteenth century, the Rule had grown into the Latin Rule with over 600 clauses.
The story of the Council of Troyes. See Bernard de Clairvaux and the Templar Rule.
The Structure of the Rule
The Latin Rule is organized into a series of sections, each dealing with a different aspect of the brothers’ lives:
- Admission of new brothers: The procedures for receiving a new member into the Order.
- The chapter meetings: The procedures for the regular chapter meetings of the brothers.
- The daily offices: The procedures for the canonical hours and for the daily Mass.
- The conduct of the brothers: The rules of personal conduct, including the rules on food, drink, and sleep.
- The clothing and equipment: The rules on the brothers’ clothing, including the mantle and the belt.
- The horses and equipment: The rules on the brothers’ horses, weapons, and military equipment.
- The discipline of the Order: The procedures for the discipline of brothers who have broken the Rule.
- The reception of guests: The procedures for the reception of guests, including kings and nobles.
- The relationship with secular society: The rules on the brothers’ relationship with the secular world.
The Daily Life
The Latin Rule prescribed in detail how the brothers were to live. Some of the most important provisions included:
- Prayer: The brothers were required to attend a series of canonical hours throughout the day, including the night office, the lauds, the prime, the terce, the sext, the none, the vespers, and the compline.
- Food: The brothers were required to eat in silence while one of the brothers read from the Bible or from a religious text. The brothers were allowed to eat meat, but only on certain days, and the portions were strictly limited.
- Drink: The brothers were allowed to drink water and, in moderation, wine. The Rule warned against drunkenness.
- Sleep: The brothers were required to sleep in dormitories, with the lights kept on, and they were not allowed to have their beds too close to each other.
- Personal property: The brothers were required to renounce all personal property. They were allowed to keep a small knife and a needle, but nothing else.
The Military Provisions
The Latin Rule included a substantial section on the brothers’ military conduct. Some of the most important provisions included:
- The brothers were to be armed: The Rule prescribed the brothers’ military equipment in detail, including the helm, the chainmail hauberk, the sword, the lance, and the shield.
- The brothers were to fight as a unit: The Rule prescribed the order of battle, with the brothers fighting in a tight formation under the command of the Grand Master or the Preceptor.
- The brothers were to share the booty: The Rule prescribed that any booty captured in battle was to be divided among the brothers, with a share going to the Treasurer and a share going to the convent as a whole.
- The brothers were not to retreat: The Rule prescribed that the brothers were not to retreat in battle, except by order of the commander. To retreat without order was a serious offense.
The Discipline
The Latin Rule included a substantial section on the discipline of the Order. The penalties for breaking the Rule were severe, ranging from public penance to expulsion from the Order. The most serious penalties were reserved for the most serious offenses:
- Murder: A brother who killed another brother was to be expelled from the Order and confined to a monastery for life.
- Theft: A brother who stole from the Order or from a fellow brother was to be punished severely.
- Sodomy: A brother who engaged in homosexual acts was to be expelled from the Order.
- Apostasy: A brother who left the Order without permission was to be expelled and was liable to excommunication.
The brothers were also required to confess their sins to the Chaplain on a regular basis. Confession was required before the brothers could receive the sacraments of the Church.
The Reception of Guests
The Latin Rule included a substantial section on the reception of guests, including kings and nobles. The Rule prescribed that the Order was to receive guests with hospitality and with generosity, and that the brothers were to provide for the guests’ needs. The Order’s reputation for hospitality was, in fact, one of the reasons for its success in attracting donations.
The hospitality provisions are examined in The Founding of the Order.
The Rule in Practice
The Latin Rule was, in practice, less strict than it was in theory. Medieval chroniclers note that the Order’s actual practice often diverged from the Rule’s strict requirements, especially on the battlefield, where the brothers sometimes had to make accommodations for the realities of war. The Rule was, however, a powerful ideal, and it shaped the Order’s identity for centuries.
The story of the Rule’s drafting. See Bernard de Clairvaux and the Templar Rule.
The Rule in the Trial
The Latin Rule was an important piece of evidence in the trial of 1307. The trial judges cited the Rule’s prohibition on disclosure as evidence of the Order’s culture of secrecy, and they used the Rule’s provisions on the brothers’ clothing and equipment to support the charges of heresy. The Rule was, however, also a powerful defense for the Order, since the Rule’s provisions made clear that the Order was a legitimate religious order of the Church.
The trial is examined in The Trial and Suppression of the Knights Templar and in Were the Knights Templar Guilty of Heresy?.
From the primary source
“In primis vobis karissimi fratres ammonemus et in virtute obedientie precipimus, ut ita in operibus vestris et servitiis et moribus sitis, quod Deo et nobis placeatis. Sit fides et devotio vestra in Deum firma et stabilis, et omnes promissiones quas illi fecistis adimplere studeatis. … Et quia conversatio militum Templi Hyerusalem super eis que iustitie conveniunt, debet regulariter ordinari, in presenti scripto vobis et successoribus vestris ea que secundum Deum et bonos mores ad salutem animarum vestrarum et tutelam ordinis pertinent, duximus regulariter inserenda.”
(“In the first place, dearly beloved brethren, we admonish you, and by the virtue of holy obedience we command you, that in your works and services and manner of life you so conduct yourselves that you may be pleasing to God and to us. Let your faith and devotion towards God be firm and steadfast, and study to fulfil all the promises you have made to him. … And because the conduct of the knights of the Temple of Jerusalem ought, in such matters as are meet for justice, to be ordered by rule, we have thought fit in the present writing to set down for you and your successors, according to God and good morals, such things as pertain to the salvation of your souls and the protection of the Order.”)
— The Latin Rule of the Templars (c. 1129, with later retraits to c. 1165), preamble, trans. by the editorial team from the printed text in H. de Curzon (ed.), La Règle du Temple (Paris: Picard, 1886), and the English translation in J. M. Upton-Ward (trans.), The Rule of the Templars (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1997).
“Quotiescumque autem contigerit fratres Templi cum exercitu suo simul comedere, sive in campo, sive in aliquo alio loco ubi eis fuerit oportunum, legatur eis aliquid de Regula, sive de scriptis illius que in domo legebantur, ad edificationem et doctrinam, et ut silentium teneatur.”
(“Whenever it shall happen that the brethren of the Temple eat together with their host, whether in the field or in any other place where it is convenient, let something of the Rule, or of the writings which they are wont to read in the house, be read to them, for their edification and instruction, and that silence may be kept.”)
— The Latin Rule, clause 30 (on reading at table), trans. Upton-Ward.
Sources & Further Reading
The critical edition of the Latin Rule, with French translation, is Henri de Curzon (ed.), La Règle du Temple (Paris: Société de l’Histoire de France, 1886; reprinted Picard, 1965, and by Boydell in the Boydell Press Crusader Texts in Translation series, 1997). The standard modern English translation is Judith M. Upton-Ward, The Rule of the Templars: The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Temple (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1997), which includes a substantial historical introduction.
For the place of the Rule in the Order’s history, see:
- Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood (Cambridge, 1994), ch. 1 — the standard treatment of the Rule’s structure and evolution.
- Alain Demurger, Les Templiers (Seuil, 2005; English 2005) — places the Rule in the context of the Order’s religious life.
- Simonetta Cerrini, “La règle des Templiers”, in La Commanderie: Institution des Templiers, ed. N. Golinelli (Città di Castello, 2001) — the standard modern Italian treatment.
For the relationship between the Templar Rule and the Cistercian Customary, see Jean Leclercq’s essay in the introduction to the Cistercian Customs edition (Sources Chrétiennes series), and Benedicta Ward’s introductory essays to the Talking to God series.