After Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, some sixty years later in 130 AD the Roman Emperor Hadrian vowed to rebuild the Holy City from it ruins. However, these plans were put on hold for in 132 AD another Jewish rebellion against Roman rule broke out. This conflict would be known as the Second Roman – Jewish War. It has also been titled the Bar Kokhba revolt, named after Simon bar Kokhba the Jewish leader of the struggle. At the time some believed Simon to be the true Messiah, giving him the name “Bar Kokhba” meaning “Son of the Star,” while others believed him to be a false Messiah, giving him the name “bar koziba” meaning, “son of the lie.” After a two and a half year fight, Bar Kokhba was defeated by the Romans in 135 AD. Bar Kokhba's revolt enraged Hadrian and caused him to rename Jerusalem as “Aelia Capitolina” and rebuild it in a Greko/Roman style. Jews were forbidden to enter the city on penalty of death, and measures were also enforced that negatively affected Christians.
Christian persecution continued for another two centuries. But with the reign of St. Constantine the Great in the beginning of the 4th century, persecution ended for the Christians. For in 313 the Edict of Milan declared religious tolerance for Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. Shortly after this the mother of Constantine, St. Helena traveled to Jerusalem in search of the tomb where Christ was buried, as well as other sacred places mentioned in the Scriptures. Ultimately the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was constructed over the site of Christ's resurrection, and throughout the Holy Land churches and shrines were built honoring the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. The pious example of St. Helena and her discoveries of holy relics caused many Christians in the Empire to embark on their own pilgrimages to Jerusalem.
Over the next few centuries Christians from all walks of life continued to make their pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and many Christians resided in Jerusalem in safety. Even after the Arab conquest of Jerusalem in 638 the city's Christian population enjoyed an extended period of peace with the Muslims. But by the 10th century the Muslims had become more aggressive and started to attack the Christians of Jerusalem as well as burning and looting the churches and shines in the city and elsewhere. And persecution and vandalism continued into the 11th century. During these difficult times the Church itself was experiencing turmoil from within. Unfortunately, doctrinal differences between Rome and Constantinople could not resolved, and the arrogance of the Church of Rome became unprecedented. Then one Sunday morning in 1054 AD, as the patriarch of Constantinople was celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the grand church of Hagia Sophia, three booted cardinals sent by Pope Leo IX of Rome stomped their way up to the high altar and blasphemously slammed a letter down on the altar and without saying a word they turned around and walked out.
The letter sent from the Pope was a degree of excommunication of the emperor of Byzantium, all clergy, as well as all citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire. For the first thousand years after Christ, both the Western and Eastern Church were one and called Catholic, which means Universal. But when Rome began deviating from the teachings of the Church Fathers they would not heed the censure from the Eastern Church which was holding steadfast to the traditions laid down by the Apostles. With Rome's departure from the truth, the Greek speaking people of the East began calling themselves Orthodox, meaning True Glory. For the name Catholic had been hijacked by the heretics in Rome. Constantinople then excommunicated the Pope, and the Eastern Church would now be known as the Greek Orthodox Church.
Though the Christians of the East stood firm against the lies coming out of the West, a new enemy of our crucified savior was nearing the borders of Byzantium. The fierce nomadic Turks of Central Asia had already made there way into Baghdad in the late 10th century and in 1055, just one year after the Great Schism of the Church, the Turks took control of Baghdad and established their own power over the caliphate. Then in 1073 the Seljuk Turks surged through Asia Minor, pushing back the Byzantines and capturing their territory. The Seljuks also took northern Syria from the Byzantines and Jerusalem from the Fatimids. Despite these perils the faithful continued in their pilgrimages to Jerusalem, but the journey was now far more dangerous than in times past. Throughout Anatolia and the Middle East there was fighting everywhere and along the roads bandits where at every turn.
The Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Komnenus started to fight off the Turks, but needed more help. Willing to put doctrinal differences and personal prejudices aside, he sent an appeal to Pope Urban II in order to secure mercenaries and funds to aid in the cause. In response to Alexius' plea, Pope Urban II convened The Council of Clermont in central France in November of 1095. Urban's goal was to provide the Byzantine Empire with the necessary means to drive out the Turks from Asia Minor and secure Jerusalem, and in return he wanted the Orthodox Church to bow down to the authority of Rome. The Council of Clermont was attended by huge crowds of clergy and laity. Urban addressed his listeners with the plight of the Christians in the Holy Land and explained the special sacredness of Jerusalem and how the pilgrims had suffered on their journeys. He informed them how the emperor of Byzantium had asked for his help in fighting the Muslims. Then he proclaimed, “Let the West go to rescue the East!” and said those who died in the struggle would receive the remission of their sins. Cries of Deus le volt! - God wills it! - filled the air, and everyone from knights to peasants, rich and poor, stepped forward to receive the Pope's blessing in order to join his holy expedition. Amid the uproar of the news of bloodthirsty Turks, fanatical Muslims, and the panic of Christendom being lost in the very city where Christ walked, the belief spread that the apocalypse was at hand. In their zeal, thousands of peasants took up the cross and marched eastward to liberate the Holy Land. Thus in the year 1096 began the First Crusade.
After three years and nearly three thousand miles the Crusaders approached the walls of Jerusalem on the 7th of June in 1099. On their way to the Holy City, they managed to wrestle some territory away from the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor, and now the prize of winning the Church of the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the Muslims was in sight. The siege of Jerusalem lasted for about six weeks. With 1,200 knights and over 10,000 foot soldiers, the Crusaders poured into Jerusalem butchering men, women, and children of all faiths. Muslims, Jews, and Orthodox Christians were slaughtered by the Christians of the West. When the carnage was over the knights went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to give thanks to God for their victory. In the aftermath of the capture of the Holy City, Baldwin I was crowned king of Jerusalem on November 11, in the year 1100 and went on to strengthen European power in the city.
The infidels had been driven out of Jerusalem but not Palestine. Pilgrims were still subject to the hostilities of the Muslims. To alleviate these dangers, nine noble knights who had greatly distinguished themselves during the capture of Jerusalem, formed a holy brotherhood in arms to protect the pilgrims through the passes leading to Jerusalem. They called themselves the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ. They renounced the world and all its fleeting pleasures, and took vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty after the habit of monks. In 1118 Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem granted them housing within the enclosure on Mount Moriah, known as the Temple Mount. There on the site where the Temple of Solomon once stood, these Poor Soldiers of Christ would thenceforth be known as The Knighthood of the Temple of Solomon, better know as The Knights Templars.
References:
Adduson, C.G. The Knights Templars. (Forgotten Books, 2012).
Haag, M. The Templars: History & Myth. (London, England: Profile Books, 2008).
Robinson, J.J. Dungeon, Fire & Sword. (Lanham, Maryland: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Inc., 2009).
Wasserman, J. The Templars and the Assassins. (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2001).
