Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae

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The Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae (Eng. Eulogy of the new knighthood ) is a text directed by Bernhard von Clairvaux to the "spiritual soldiers" of the Templar Order . He praises the new order of knights as the embodiment of the spiritual ideal of knights. A large part of the Scriptures is devoted to the sites of the Holy Land, which Bernhard (who was never in Jerusalem) interprets spiritually.

background

The Knights Templar was founded in 1118 in the Kingdom of Jerusalem . The Cistercian abbot of Clairvaux played a leading role as author in the creation of their rules of the order.

Bernhard starts writing by addressing Hugo von Payns , the founder of the Templars, directly . Hugo asked him three times to send an encouraging letter ( exhortatio ) to his knights.

content

The Liber de laude consists of two parts:

  • The first part is devoted to the Templars. Bernhard compares them with the secular knights of his time and praises the spiritual knights because, according to him, they follow a higher calling and want to sanctify themselves.
  • The second part is devoted to a description of the sanctuaries of the Crusader states . Bernhard describes the Templars as the guardians of this holy place, which many Christian pilgrims wanted to visit.

reception

Script played a central role in the high medieval development of the knight ethics. "The idea of miles christianus was then mainly represented in the early 12th century by Bernhard von Clairvaux, who with his writing" De laude novae militiae "propagated the concept of Christian chivalry and contrasted the nova militia with the secular goals of the nobility."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archivio della Latinita italiana del medioevo: Liber ad milites Templi de laude novae militiae ( Memento of 5 November 2013 Internet Archive ), in Latin, accessed January 17, 2007. German translation: Book of the Knights Templar - eulogy to the new one Chivalry , accessed January 17, 2007.
  2. ^ Henri de Curzon: La règle du Temple (Paris 1886), introduction.
  3. ↑ Werner Rösener , Knighthood and War in the Staufer Empire . In: State and War: From the Middle Ages to the Modern, ed. by Werner Rösener (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2000), p. 61.

literature

  • Bernhard von Clairvaux: Liber ad Milites Templi. De Laude Novae Militiae . Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2010.
  • Hermann Josef Roth and Anton Grossmann, Bernhard von Clairvaux to the Temple Knights, the spearhead of the Crusades , Sinzig 1990.
  • Josef Fleckenstein , The justification of the spiritual orders of knights according to the text "De laude novae militiae" by Bernhard von Clairvaux, in: Fleckenstein / Manfred Hellmann (ed.), The spiritual orders of knights of Europe (lectures and research 26, Sigmaringen 1980), p. 9– 22nd
  • Hans-Dietrich Kahl , The crusade schatology of Bernhard von Clairvaux and its impact on the history of the mission, in: Dieter R. Bauer / Gotthard Fuchs (eds.), Bernhard von Clairvaux and the beginning of modernism, Innsbruck 1996, p. 262ff.