✠ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux — The Spiritual Father of the Knights Templar ✠
When we speak of the Knights Templar, our minds naturally turn to Jerusalem, the defence of pilgrims, the white mantle bearing the red cross, and the extraordinary brotherhood of warrior-monks that emerged from the turmoil of the Crusading age.
Yet behind the military image of the Templar stands one of the greatest spiritual and intellectual figures of medieval Christianity:
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Although Bernard was not literally a founder of the Knights Templar, he is often regarded as their great spiritual patron, advocate and, in a broader sense, a co-founder of the Templar ideal. Without his influence, the fledgling brotherhood established by Hugues de Payens and his companions may never have received the ecclesiastical recognition, theological justification and extraordinary support that transformed it into one of the most remarkable religious orders of the Middle Ages.
Born in Burgundy around 1090, Bernard entered the monastery of Cîteaux as a young man. The monastery belonged to the developing Cistercian movement, itself a reform of Benedictine monasticism seeking a stricter observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict.
It is important to distinguish Bernard's role carefully. He did not personally found the Cistercian Order—that work had begun before his arrival through figures including Saint Robert of Molesme, Saint Alberic and Saint Stephen Harding. Bernard's contribution, however, was enormous. Through his leadership at Clairvaux, his preaching, writings and personal influence, the Cistercian reform expanded dramatically across medieval Europe.
Bernard advocated a Christianity centred upon discipline, humility, simplicity, obedience, prayer and service.
These same principles would profoundly influence the emerging Knights Templar.
✠ From Cîteaux to the Temple
The connection between Bernard and the Templars was not merely philosophical.
Bernard had familial connections with André de Montbard, one of the early Templars, traditionally identified as Bernard's uncle. More importantly, Bernard became one of the new Order's most powerful supporters within the Church.
The early Templars represented something unusual.
Medieval Christianity traditionally distinguished between the contemplative religious life of the monk and the violent profession of the warrior. The Templars attempted to combine them.
They were to become warriors living under religious vows.
They would possess neither the unrestricted lifestyle of secular knights nor the purely contemplative existence of cloistered monks.
Instead, the Templar was expected to live under obedience, discipline and fraternity while accepting the dangerous responsibility of protecting Christian pilgrims and interests in the Holy Land.
It was a radical concept.
Bernard helped provide its spiritual foundation.
✠ The Council of Troyes
The decisive moment came at the Council of Troyes in 1129—sometimes dated 1128 according to differing medieval dating conventions.
There the emerging brotherhood received formal ecclesiastical recognition and a Rule governing its religious life.
The Primitive Rule of the Temple reflected powerful currents of Benedictine and particularly Cistercian spirituality. Bernard's precise personal role in drafting every provision should not be exaggerated, but his influence upon the recognition and spiritual character of the Order was profound.
The Rule transformed the knight from an individual warrior seeking personal glory into something very different.
The Templar was expected to submit himself to a common discipline.
His life belonged to the brotherhood.
His sword was not supposed to serve vanity, wealth or personal advancement.
He was expected to embrace:
Obedience rather than independence.
Discipline rather than indulgence.
Fraternity rather than individual glory.
Service rather than self-interest.
Faith rather than worldly ambition.
Here we can clearly see the influence of the reformed monastic world with which Bernard was so closely associated.
✠ Bernard's Defence of the Knights Templar
Bernard's most famous contribution to Templar spirituality came through his work commonly known as:
De Laude Novae Militiae — “In Praise of the New Knighthood.”
Written for Hugues de Payens, the first Master of the Temple, it provided a theological defence of this extraordinary new form of Christian knighthood.
Bernard contrasted the worldly knight—concerned with appearance, reputation, possessions and personal glory—with the disciplined religious knight.
The true Templar, in Bernard's conception, was not supposed to seek war for its own sake.
Nor was he supposed to fight for wealth, pride or personal reputation.
The ideal was one of sacrifice and service.
This is essential when considering the historical Templar.
Strip away centuries of romance, conspiracy theories, novels, films and invented traditions, and at the heart of the original Order stood a demanding religious vocation.
The Temple was not simply an army.
It was a religious order whose members included fighting men.
That distinction matters.
✠ The Monk and the Knight
Perhaps Bernard's greatest contribution was helping reconcile two seemingly contradictory medieval ideals:
the Monk and the Knight.
The monk renounced the world.
The knight entered into its dangers.
The monk practised obedience.
The secular knight valued independence and reputation.
The monk fought spiritual battles.
The knight fought physical ones.
The Templar vocation attempted to unite these two lives.
The battlefield became another place in which religious discipline might be exercised.
The sword existed alongside prayer.
The armour existed alongside the mantle.
The fortress existed alongside the chapel.
And the knight lived within a community governed by a religious Rule.
This was the revolutionary idea that Bernard helped articulate.
✠ The Cistercian Influence
The relationship between Cistercian spirituality and the early Temple can also be seen in the emphasis placed upon simplicity.
Cistercian reform rejected unnecessary extravagance in monastic life.
Likewise, the early Templar ideal discouraged excessive ornamentation and personal luxury.
A Templar was not supposed to be defined by magnificent clothing, elaborate personal possessions or displays of individual wealth.
His identity came from the Order.
His dignity came from his vocation.
His honour came from service.
This is an important lesson because modern popular culture frequently portrays medieval knights almost entirely through heraldic splendour, magnificent armour, ceremony and warfare.
Those things certainly belonged to medieval chivalric culture.
But the religious knight was supposed to understand something deeper:
the greatest victory was mastery over oneself.
Pride, greed, vanity, fear and selfishness were enemies every bit as real within medieval Christian spirituality as any opponent encountered upon a battlefield.
✠ Saint Bernard and the Second Crusade
Bernard's influence extended far beyond the Temple.
He became one of the most powerful churchmen of the twelfth century despite never becoming a bishop or pope. Kings, nobles, bishops and popes sought his counsel.
He also became deeply involved in preaching the Second Crusade, demonstrating the enormous authority he exercised throughout Latin Christendom.
The subsequent failure of that Crusade brought disappointment and controversy, reminding us that Bernard—like every great historical figure—must be understood within his own age rather than transformed into a flawless character of legend.
History deserves something better than mythology.
Bernard was a medieval monk, theologian and reformer whose worldview belonged firmly to the religious culture of the twelfth century.
But his influence upon Western monasticism, spirituality and the development of religious knighthood is undeniable.
✠ The Saint of the Templar Tradition
Bernard died at Clairvaux on 20 August 1153.
He was canonised by Pope Alexander III in 1174, only twenty-one years after his death.
Centuries later, in 1830, Pope Pius VIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.
His feast day is celebrated on 20 August.
For those who study or commemorate the Knights Templar, Saint Bernard therefore occupies a particularly important place.
He should not be called the literal founder of the Order—that honour belongs principally to Hugues de Payens and the original brotherhood.
But Bernard can rightly be understood as something equally significant:
the great spiritual architect and champion of the Templar vocation.
Hugues and his companions created the fraternity.
Bernard helped explain what that fraternity could mean within Christian religious life.
✠ A Legacy Beyond the Medieval Temple
The medieval Knights Templar were suppressed in the early fourteenth century, but the spiritual questions raised by Bernard remain remarkably relevant.
What does it mean to serve rather than simply belong?
What does it mean to place duty before recognition?
What does it mean to exercise strength without becoming consumed by pride?
What does it mean to possess authority while remaining humble?
And what does Christian knighthood mean when the physical battlefields of the medieval world have long disappeared?
Perhaps Bernard's greatest lesson for those who honour the Templar tradition today is that Templarism cannot simply be about crosses, mantles, swords, titles or ceremonies.
Those are outward symbols.
The harder work takes place within.
A modern person inspired by the Templar tradition must ask whether the principles represented by those symbols are actually present in his or her life:
Faith.
Courage.
Discipline.
Humility.
Charity.
Fraternity.
Obedience to conscience.
Protection of the vulnerable.
Service without expectation of reward.
Without those virtues, the mantle is merely cloth.
The cross is merely decoration.
The sword is merely metal.
And a title is merely a collection of words.
Bernard's vision challenges us to look beyond the outward appearance of knighthood and towards its spiritual purpose.
More than nine centuries after the emergence of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, that challenge remains.
On 20 August, the Feast of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, we remember not a warrior standing upon a battlefield, but a monk whose words helped shape generations of warriors.
A reformer of monastic life.
A champion of the Cistercian movement.
A Doctor of the Church.
A defender and spiritual patron of the fledgling Knights Templar.
And one of the principal architects of the extraordinary medieval ideal that sought to unite the discipline of the monastery with the courage of the knight.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux — pray for us.
✠ Non Nobis, Domine, Non Nobis, Sed Nomini Tuo Da Gloriam. ✠
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give the glory.
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