Women within the Knights Templar
Sharing this great article under my own notes by Andres Ruiz (Gran Priorato de Andalucia) on Women being part of the Knights Templar which contradicts what mainstream history tells us.
One of my favourite historians, Alan J. Forey has done considerable work looking into women's involvement in the military orders (see A. Forey, ‘Women and the military orders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries’, Studia Monastica 29 (1987), 63–92) but so has Helen Nicholson. If we actually do some research ourselves and visit the Latin Rule of the Templars, even though this was later amended and there were many local variants also available in the many languages of the Order which took into account local customs, we can already see that women were indeed a part of the Knights Templar since the very beginnings. We can see this under the Latin rule, drawn up at the Council of Troyes in 1128 (or 1129 depending on sources), when the order of the Knights Templar received official recognition. But also under the second master, between 1139 and 1147, when the rule was translated into french. The ban on women members was reiterated:
"The company of women is a dangerous thing, for the company of women the ancient devil threw many from the right path of paradise. From this time forth ladies should not be received as sisters in the house of the Temple, for the reason, dearest brothers, that from this time forth this custom should not be the practice, so that the flower of chastity may appear for ever in your midst." (Note from this time forth...)
One thing was the rule (let's remember that during this time of mass hysteria re heresy one could not outwardly state certain things), and another the reality. As Helena Nicholson points out in her work, we have Charter evidence that supports this theory. A number of women were admitted to the order during the twelfth century. The evidence decreases during the thirteenth century, let's not forget that a lack of evidence only means that we haven't found any yet, not that there isn't any. Furthermore, we also have evidence from the early fourteenth century showing that the practice of admitting women into the order continued, at least at the local level. In 1133 one Azalais, a woman of Rousillon, gave herself and her property to the order of the Temple, "to do the service of God under the obedience of the master who is there,". husband. Once again, I must mention Alan Forey who also noted three examples in Spain of women joining or proposing to join the order, notably one Berengaria of Lorach who, in the thirteenth century, appears as a ‘soror’ of the Catalan house of Barbara. Her name appears in witness lists among those of the brothers, and she is recorded as giving counsel to the commander of the house.
We also have records for another lady Templar at the Templar house of Mosbrunnen, probably in 1310 (i.e. following the arrest of the French Templars). The master of this house, Brother John,
wrote that Sister Adelhaide, in order to serve God the better, had chosen ‘continual habitation’ in the house of the Temple for her remaining lifetime.
There are many more scattered examples, but what strikes me the most was that during the trial of the order in France, Brother Ponzard de Cizy, preceptor of Payns, referred to the admittance of women as an established and commonplace practice. His complaint was that the sisters were then abused by the same masters who had admitted them.19 If sisters were so common, why are there no records of arrests of Templar sisters in 1307?
One theory proposed by Helen Nicholson is because they most likely had no legal standing. However, we know that the official Templar Archives whose last known location was Cyprus were destroyed in 1571 by the Turks but there is also a great deal of documentation that has survived in private libraries and archives and that only exists in the local languages (for example in Catalonia, Spain). There hasn't been enough research done into this or indeed translations, something which I hope to contribute to with my work and hope to provide answers in the future.
Also see: https://www.facebook.com/groups/730312585644860/posts/768356121840506/