Joining the Templars: Knights, Serving Brothers and Clergy

The Knights Templar began as a small community in Jerusalem around 1119–1120, with a mission to protect Christian pilgrims. The Order received formal approval and a written rule at the Council of Troyes in 1129. It grew to serve in the eastern Mediterranean and on the Iberian frontier, while houses across Europe recruited members and supplied resources. Pope Clement V dissolved the Order in 1312. During those nearly two centuries, becoming a Templar meant joining a religious community with distinct obligations and ranks, not simply taking up arms.

The Order’s rules set out who could be received, how brothers should live and what they should wear. They also changed over time. The earliest Latin Rule, approved at Troyes, contained 72 articles; a French version was revised around 1135–1139, and later statutory additions, known as Retraits, expanded the regulations. No surviving French manuscript predates the middle of the thirteenth century, which also limits how precisely the development of some provisions can be dated.

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Admission required a free and truthful commitment

Templar houses, or commanderies, helped recruit new brothers. A commandery was a local house and estate that supported the Order’s work; European houses also provided a setting for recruitment and the spiritual and practical preparation of members. Admission was described as voluntary, and poverty was no bar. A candidate did not have to pay to join, but was expected to offer himself to the Order and accept its discipline.

The rules set out several conditions. The Primitive Rule discouraged receiving young children and advised waiting until a candidate could bear arms and make a lasting commitment. Candidates were to be free men, not bound by a betrothal or another religious order, and free of debts. They were also expected to be fit for the demands of the life, not excommunicated, and not to have bribed anyone to secure admission. In the French version, a man who had been excommunicated could be received after reconciliation with the Church. Candidates had to disclose relevant facts honestly: concealing a disqualifying circumstance could be treated as perjury and cost them their place.

Reception required the candidate to hear the Rule and accept its obligations. If the master and brothers agreed, he made his request before the assembled chapter. This was communal admission into a demanding life rather than automatic enrolment after offering money or property.

Vows joined religious discipline to military service

Members took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Obedience meant submitting to the Order’s authority and discipline; poverty meant renouncing private possession as a brother. It did not mean that the institution itself owned no wealth. The Templars held land and managed resources collectively to sustain their religious houses and work in the field.

The Rule adapted monastic observance to a life that could include military service. Brothers followed set times for communal prayer, drawing on the liturgical practices of the canons of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Rule also moderated fasting in comparison with stricter monastic practice, so that brothers expected to fight would not be weakened. Religious duties and military work were therefore treated as connected obligations, though not every member served as a combatant.

The Order’s military responsibilities began with protecting pilgrims and routes in the Holy Land. Its work also came to include defending Christian territories and participating in campaigns, including on the Iberian Peninsula. The demands on individual brothers depended on their rank, abilities and location. A brother stationed in a European house might spend his time on recruitment or estate work; a brother in the eastern Mediterranean might serve in a military role.

Knight brothers, sergeants and chaplains had different roles

The Templars’ main membership categories were knight brothers, sergeant brothers and chaplains. They belonged to the same Order but had different status, responsibilities and clothing. The categories did not divide all members neatly into fighters and non-fighters: some sergeants fought, while other brothers carried out religious or practical work.

Knight brothers came from the knightly and noble class. A man had to be a knight already; the Templars did not make their members knights. Knight brothers formed the Order’s most visible military group and served as mounted combatants. Their status was marked by the right to wear a white mantle.

Sergeant brothers generally came from non-noble backgrounds. Some served in arms, including as mounted soldiers, while others brought skills needed to run the Order’s houses and estates. Their work could include crafts, administration and the management of property. Their status was distinct from that of knight brothers, but they were members of the Order, not merely hired workers.

Chaplains were ordained priests who served the brothers’ spiritual needs and conducted religious services. Their place in the Order was reinforced by Pope Innocent II’s bull Omne datum optimum in 1139, which recognized the Templars’ right to have their own priests. This gave the Order a religious life of its own alongside its military responsibilities.

Other people worked alongside the brothers without necessarily belonging to the Order. Squires, for example, could be hired for a period of service rather than admitted as members. Estate workers and other employees supported the houses and their lands. Distinguishing vowed brothers from these workers helps explain how the Templars could carry out military and religious duties while also maintaining properties across Europe.

Clothing marked rank and belonged to the Order

The habit made membership visible and helped distinguish rank. Knight brothers wore white mantles, while sergeant brothers wore darker clothing, described as black or brown. The red cross became the Order’s identifying mark. Pope Eugenius III’s permission in 1147 is a clear dated reference to its use, although accounts also point to evidence of an earlier appearance.

The clothing was not treated as a personal possession to be improved for display. The Order issued the habit and could take it back. The Rule discouraged requests for finer garments, and the removal of a brother’s habit could serve as a severe disciplinary measure. Regulations also required brothers to keep their hair short. In these ways, clothing and appearance expressed both rank and submission to a shared rule.

Membership combined local work with a wider mission

The different categories of brothers and the work of people outside the Order supported a common institution across very different regions. In European commanderies, recruitment and the management of houses and estates helped sustain the Templars’ work elsewhere. In the Holy Land and on the Iberian frontier, members also served the military mission. The balance of work varied by place and person, but the Order depended on more than its mounted knights.

That membership structure ended when Clement V dissolved the Templars in 1312. The fate of former brothers varied: some received pensions, returned to lay life or entered other religious orders. Their varied outcomes reflect the distinction between the Order as an institution, which was suppressed, and the people who had served within it.