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Hugues de Payens

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Hugues de Payens
1st Grand Master of the Knights Templar
In office
c. 1119–1136
Preceded byOrder established
Succeeded byRobert de Craon
Personal details
Bornc. 1070
Died24 May 1136 (aged 66)
Kingdom of Jerusalem
Known forFounding member and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar
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Hugo de Paganis,[6] better known by the French translation Hugues de Payens or Payns (c. 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

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The majority of the primary sources of information for his life are presented in medieval Latin, French or Italian. Latin sources call him Hugo de Paganis.[6] Some of his earliest purported appearances in documents are under the part-Latin, part-French name Hugo de Peans (1120–1125; details below), or in Italian as Ugo de' Pagani or Ugo dei Pagani.[1][2][3][4] In later French works his name usually appears as Hugues de Payens or Payns (French pronunciation: [yɡ də pɛ̃]), often translated into English as Hugh of Payens or Hugh de Payns.

Remarkably, Italian Ugo de' Pagani and French Hugues de Payens are literal translations of each other, both literally meaning 'Hugh of the Pagans' (Medieval Latin: Hugo de Paganis). Moreover, both his presumed origins (Nocera de' Pagani and Payns) are located in regions which were then named Campania in Latin (Italian: Campania, French: Champagne).[4]

Origin and early life

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There is no known early biography of Hugo de Paganis 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 Italian brother Ugo dei Pagani, from the city of Nocera, near Salerno.

— Life of Pope Gelasius II[7]
Diaries on the life of Gelasius II, pontiff between 1118 and 1119.

–There is long-dated claim that Hugo de Paganis (Italian: Ugo de' Pagani) came from Nocera de' Pagani in Campania, Southern Italy, historically supported by authors like Carlo Sigonio,[8] Heinrich Pantaleon,[9] Scipione Mazzella,[10] Filiberto Campanile,[11] Marco Antonio Guarini,[12] Frans Mennens,[13] Antonino Amico,[14] Costantino Gaetani,[7] Blaise François de Pagan,[15] Pierre Dupuy,[16][17] Bernardo Giustinian[18] and Johann Jacob Hofmann.[19] Mentions of Nocera as his birthplace also appear in Baedeker's Italy: handbook for travellers. Part 3 (1869)[1] and in the Old Catholic Encyclopedia (Volume 11) published by Robert Appleton Company in 1911.[2] Two Italian writers have stated that this claim is supported by a letter Hugo supposedly wrote from Palestine in 1103, in which he talked of writing to "my father in Nocera" to tell him of the death of his cousin Alessandro.[3][4]

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,[6] but the French translation by Paulin Paris, dated to 1879, describes him as Hues de Paiens delez Troies ("Hugh of Payens near Troyes"),[20] 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 Hugh of Champagne in a document of 1085–90, indicating that the man was at least sixteen by this date—a legal adult and thus able to bear witness to legal documents—and so born no later than 1070. The same name appears on a number of other charters up to 1113 also relating to Count Hugh of Champagne, suggesting that Hugo de Pedano or Hugo dominus de Peanz was a member of the Count's court. By the year 1113 he was married to Elizabeth de Chappes, who bore him at least one child, Thibaud, later abbot of the Abbaye de la Colombe at Sens. The documents span Hugh's lifetime and the disposition of his property after his death.[21]

The one belated statement that the founder of the Knights Templars came from "Payns near Troyes" has some circumstantial confirmation. Bernard of Clairvaux, who favoured the Order and helped to compose its Latin Rule, also had the support of Hugh of Champagne. The Latin Rule of the Order was confirmed at the Council of Troyes in 1129. A Templar commandery was eventually built at Payns. Some scholars have however looked for Hugh's origins elsewhere. There was an early claim that he came from the Vivarais (the district of Viviers in the modern département of Ardèche).[22] Hugh has also been identified with Hug de Pinós, third son of Galceran I, lord of Pinós in Catalonia;[23] however, Galceran married only in 1090, far too late a date for him to be the father of the founder of the Knights Templars.

The foundation of the Order

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King Baldwin II of Jerusalem ceding the Temple to Hugh of Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer

Hugh, Count of Champagne made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1104–07 and visited Jerusalem for a second time in 1114–16. It is probable that he was accompanied by Hugh of Payens, who remained there after the Count returned to France as there is a charter with "Hugonis de Peans" in the witness list from Jerusalem in 1120 and again in 1123. In 1125 his name appears again as a witness to a donation, this time accompanied by the title "magister militum Templi" ("Master of the Knights of the Temple"). He most likely obtained approval for the Order from King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem at the Council of Nablus in 1120.[24]

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."[25]

Later chroniclers write that Hugh of 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.

In the late 1120s, Hugh of Payens, along with several other Templars, went on a diplomatic mission to western Europe on behalf of Baldwin II. They met with nobles and kings in an attempt to encourage warriors to come to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and join an attack on Damascus Baldwin was planning.[26]

As Grand Master, Hugh of 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 Edinburgh at Balantrodoch, now known as Temple, Midlothian. The Latin Rule laying down the way of life of the Order, attributed to Hugh of Payens and Bernard of Clairvaux, was confirmed in 1129 at the Council of Troyes[27][28] over which a papal legate, sent by Pope Honorius II, presided.

Death

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Hugh of Payens reportedly died in 1136, but 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 is presumed that he died of old age. The 16th century historian Marco Antonio Guarini claimed that Hugh was buried in the Church of San Giacomo in Ferrara.[12][29] He was succeeded as Grand Master by Robert de Craon.

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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.[30][31]

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 and references

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Baedeker 1869.
  2. ^ a b c Benigni 1911.
  3. ^ a b c Rotundo 1983.
  4. ^ a b c d Moiraghi 2005.
  5. ^ "Hugues de Payns (1070??-1136)". Archived from the original on 2017-05-29. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  6. ^ a b c Text at The Latin Library
  7. ^ a b Gaetani 1638.
  8. ^ Sigonio 1574.
  9. ^ Pantaleon 1581.
  10. ^ Mazzella 1596.
  11. ^ Campanile 1610.
  12. ^ a b Guarini 1621.
  13. ^ Mennens 1623.
  14. ^ Amico 1636.
  15. ^ De Pagan 1668.
  16. ^ Dupuy 1713.
  17. ^ Dupuy 1751.
  18. ^ Giustinian 1692.
  19. ^ Hofmann 1698.
  20. ^ Text: see book 12 chapter 7
  21. ^ Leroy, Thierry (1997). Hugues de Payns, chevalier champenois, fondateur de l'Ordre des Templiers. Troyes: Maison Boulanger. ISBN 2950789560.
  22. ^ 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)
  23. ^ J. G. Atienza, La mística solar de los Templarios pp. 240–243
  24. ^ Selwood, Dominic. "Knights Templar 3: Birth of the Order". Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  25. ^ de St. Bertin, Simon. "Gesta abbatum Sancti Bertini Sithensium". In Holder-Egger, Oswald (ed.). Monumenta Germanica Historica: Scriptores (in Latin and English). Vol. 13. Translated by Nicholson, Helen. p. 649.
  26. ^ Jones, Dan (2017). The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors. New York: Viking Press. p. 40-41. ISBN 978-0-525-42830-5.
  27. ^ Upton-Ward 1992, p. 4 and 12.
  28. ^ Howe 2016, p. 21.
  29. ^ Capone Ferrari, Imperio & Valentini 1997, p. 125.
  30. ^ e.g. Tim Wallace-Murphy, The Templar Legacy & The Masonic Inheritance within Rosslyn Chapel, p.17 (The Friends of Rosslyn, 1994 ISBN 0-9521493-1-1).
  31. ^ 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

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Further reading

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  • 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.
  • Demurger, Alain (2005). Vita e Morte dell'Ordine dei Templari (in Italian). Milano: Mondadori.
  • Barber, Samuel (2005). La storia dei templari (in Italian). Casale Monferrato: Piemme.
  • Mondadori, ed. (July 2008). "Guerrieri dello spirito". Focus Storia (21).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  • Montesano, Nicola (2016). "Polemiche templari nel territorio lucano". Basilicata Regione Notizie (in Italian) (135–136): 102–113. Archived from the original on 2017-07-08. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
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