Hugues de Payens
Hugues de Payens | |
---|---|
1st Grand Master of the Knights Templar | |
In office c. 1119–1136 | |
Preceded by | Order established |
Succeeded by | Robert de Craon |
Personal details | |
Born | 9 February 1070 Grand Master of the Knights Templar |
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Hugues de Payens or Payns (9 February 1070 – 24 May 1136) was the co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. In association with Bernard of Clairvaux, he created the Latin Rule, the code of behavior for the Order.
Name
The majority of the primary sources of information for his life are presented in Latin or the medieval French language. In French his name usually appears as Hugues de Payens or Payns (French pronunciation: [yɡ də pɛ̃]). His earliest certain appearance in documents is under the part-Latin, part-French name Hugo de Peans (1120–1125; details below). Later Latin sources call him Hugo de Paganis. In English works he often appears as Hugh de Payns, in Italian sometimes as Ugo de' Pagani.
Origin and early life
There is no known early biography of Hugues de Payens in existence, nor do later writers cite such a biography. None of the sources on his later career give details of his early life. Information is therefore scanty and uncertain; embellishments depend partly on documents that may not refer to the same individual, partly on histories written decades or even centuries after his death.
The earliest source that details a geographical origin for the later Grand Master is the Old French translation of William of Tyre's History of Events Beyond the Sea, dated to c. 1200. The Latin text actually calls him simply Hugo de Paganis,[2] but the French translation by Paulin Paris, dated to 1879, describes him as Hues de Paiens delez Troies ("Hugh of Payens near Troyes"),[3] a reference to the village of Payns, about 10 km from Troyes, in Champagne (eastern France).
In early documents of that region Hugo de Pedano, Montiniaci dominus is mentioned as a witness to a donation by Count
The one belated statement that the founder of the Knights Templars came from "Payns near Troyes" has some circumstantial confirmation.
There is also a claim that Hugues de Payens or Ugo de' Pagani came from
The foundation of the Order
One early chronicler, Simon de St. Bertin, implies that the Knights Templar originated earlier, before the death of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1100: "While he [Godfrey] was reigning magnificently, some had decided not to return to the shadows of the world after suffering such dangers for God's sake. On the advice of the princes of God's army they vowed themselves to God's Temple under this rule: they would renounce the world, give up personal goods, free themselves to pursue purity, and lead a communal life wearing a poor habit, only using arms to defend the land against the attacks of the insurgent pagans when necessity demanded."[12]
Later chroniclers write that Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem (whose reign began in 1118) with eight knights, two of whom were brothers and all of whom were his relatives by either blood or marriage, in order to form the Order of the Knights Templar. The other knights were Godfrey de Saint-Omer, Payen de Montdidier, Archambaud de St. Amand, André de Montbard, Geoffrey Bison, and two men recorded only by the names of Rossal and Gondamer. Baldwin approved the foundation of the Order and entrusted the Temple of Jerusalem to its care.
Count Hugh of Champagne himself joined the Knights Templar on his third visit to the Holy Land in 1125.
As Grand Master, Hugues de Payens led the Order for almost twenty years until his death, helping to establish the Order's foundations as an important and influential military and financial institution. On his visit to England and Scotland in 1128, he raised men and money for the Order, and also founded their first House in London and another near
, presided.Hugues de Payens died in 1136. The circumstances and date of his death are not recorded in any chronicle, though the Templars commemorated him every year on 24 May, and it's presumed he died of old age. The 16th century historian Marco Antonio Guarini claimed that Hugues was buried in the Church of San Giacomo at Ferrara.[15] He was succeeded as Grand Master by Robert de Craon.
In popular culture
It has recently been claimed that the wife of Hugues de Payens was Catherine St. Clair within the context of the alternative history of Rosslyn, such as in the pseudohistory of the Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau and the conspiracy theory of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.[16][17]
Hugues is the main protagonist of the Jack Whyte novel Knights of the Black and White.[citation needed]
Hughes is mentioned on the TV series Knightfall in season 2, chapter 5.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ "Hugues de Payns (1070??-1136)". Archived from the original on 2017-05-29. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
- ^ Text at The Latin Library
- ^ Text: see book 12 chapter 7
- ISBN 2950789560.
- ^ Michel des Chaliards, Les Pagels de l'Ardèche et leurs seigneurs (Roudil) p. 44; F. Malartre, in Revue du Vivarais vol. 86 (1982) p. 125; Odo de Gissey, Histoire de N.D du Puy (1644)
- ^ J. G. Atienza, La mística solar de los Templarios pp. 240–243
- ^ Karl Baedeker, Italy: handbook for travellers. Part 3 (Coblenz, 1869) p. 183
- ^ Nocera dei Pagani in Catholic Encyclopedia vol. 11 (1911)
- ISBN 9788865010006. Retrieved 25 May 2012.)
Ho scritto a mio padre in Nocera che mi faccia gratia venire a Rossano per consolare V.S. et a Madama Zia Hippolita
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Selwood, Dominic. "Knights Templar 3: Birth of the Order". Retrieved 20 April 2013.
- ^ Simon de St. Bertin, Gesta abbatum Sancti Bertini Sithensium ed. O. Holder-Egger, in Monumenta Germanica Historica: Scriptores vol. 13, p. 649. Translation by Helen Nicholson
- ^ Upton-Ward 1992, p. 4 and 12.
- ^ Howe 2016, p. 21.
- ^ Marco Antonio Guarini, Compendio historico p. 224; Bianca Capone Ferrari, Loredana Imperio, Enzo Valentini, Guida all'Italia dei templari. Gli insediamenti templari in Italia (Rom: Edizioni Mediterranee, 1997) p. 125
- ISBN 0-9521493-1-1).
- ^ The claim that Hugues de Payens married Catherine St. Clair was made in Les Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau (1967), "Tableau Généalogique de Gisors, Guitry, Mareuil et Saint-Clair par Henri Lobineau" in Pierre Jarnac, Les Mystères de Rennes-le-Château, Mélanges Sulfureux (CERT, 1995).
Sources
- Upton-Ward, J.M., ed. (1992). The Rule of the Templars: The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar. The Boydell Press.
- Howe, John (2016). "The Rule: Military Secret of the Knights Templar". Medieval Warfare. 6, No. 5, (Nov/Dec): 20-26.