Templar sword

Contrary to chivalric clichés, the primitive Rule of the Temple describes a regulated life closer to the cloister than to the court. Clothes of a single color, white mantle for brother knights; clothes without ostentation or furs; short tonsure and beard left on; sleeping in shirt and braids, shoes and belt, lamp lit until dawn (art. 17, 18, 21). At table, reading of the Scriptures and meals in pairs, for lack of bowls... and to ensure the companion's temperance; equal wine ration; meat limited to three days a week; fasts that punctuate the year (arts. 24 to 28). The Rule also proscribes ostentatious detail: pointed shoes and shoelaces; recommends avoiding feminine familiarities; refuses sponsorships (arts. 22, 71, 72). Enriched in the XIIᵉ and XIIIᵉ centuries by statutes, this arsenal frames the use of arms by a collective asceticism: a chivalry that eats, prays, sleeps and fights under rule.

The most famous Templar seal shows two knights on a single horse. Many have seen this as a symbol of poverty. But in reality, this choice was highly symbolic: it expressed the spirit of brotherhood, solidarity and humility that animated the Order of the Temple. At the time of the Crusades, the Knights Templar formed a community apart, where the individual took a back seat to the collective. The image of two men sharing the same mount illustrated their mutual commitment: to fight together, live together, die together. A powerful message, in a world dominated by the quest for personal power.
Beneath the armor and the sword, there was a spiritual ideal... and an indestructible brotherhood.