1192. JIBM: All In: a History of the Templars | 10.22.2025

Hello everyone, welcome to Joe and Black Ministries, I'm Father Joe Krupp and you are not and today, today, today, it's Wednesday, October 22nd, the year of our Lord, 2025. This morning, I was awakened to my cat biting my little toe at 4.30 in the morning. I have guns, but the important thing is this, truly. So now I'm like, okay, I'm laughing and I'm irritated all at the same time. But I'm also thinking it's Friday and so I head up my head, it's Friday. And I think what it is, is all week I've been looking at Friday and going, I get Friday off. And I think that's it. Mass, I got mass in the morning, right? But it's my mom's anniversary of death. So I got mass in the morning, then we're gonna go to our grave, right? And see if I can get that five bucks, she owes me. And then come back for the podcast. Oh, yeah, then I'll come back for the podcast, but that's not work. I mean, it tires me out. But Friday, there's like no research, there's no preparing, right? So Friday's the easy one in my mind, except when Kerry makes up questions. Like, Father Joe, why are you such a stupid head? That one I know is from my family, or Kerry. The ones that are like, Father Joe, how'd you get so pretty? Those are by me, every time. And speaking of which, oh my gosh, did we add, we have a new foreign correspondent, but I think I didn't add it. Did you see it on YouTube? I did not. Okay, Kerry, I'm cutting your pay, right now. Perfect. Yeah, so I know we have a new foreign correspondent and I forgot, Kerry forgot, tried it down. I'll definitely look into it. She will look into it. Yes. But until then, let's welcome the ones we got. Patricia and Veronica in Scotland, Bremen in Canada. Sabina in Germany, Richard in England, Margaret in Ann, New Zealand, Chris in the Philippines, Finula in Kailin in Ireland, John in Spain, Jose in Mexico, Karen in Singapore, Eileen in Australia, Ben in India, Bella in South Africa, Francisco in Argentina, and Kevin in Wisconsin. For all of you wondering what happened to the brewers, they personally hate me. Like, if the Dodgers played the devil, I would root for the devil. After that little thing they did last year with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, remember that, where they mocked our crucified Lord, they knocked nuns, they, and at first they were like, ah, we won't do it, the Catholics are upset, and then they remembered they don't care what we think. So, I will never forgive them, even though I love Shohei Otani. And who's the first baseman you're in love with? Or not in love with, I mean, you-- Freddie. Freddie Freeman. Freddie Freeman. I love Mookie Bats. Yes. How do you not love Mookie Bats? Right? But I will never forgive them. I speak their name no more. I want to say hi to all my thugs and to Vermont Mike, my favorite agnostic. Don't forget to stop at my website. There's letters in it, joeinblackministries.schlebler.com. Come. We got all kinds of stuff there. And if you buy stuff, then it inches me that much closer to retirement. I don't make money off it. Money goes to the school and to the podcast. But there's always hope. There's always hope. Right? Like, if I can never get a corporate sponsor, Pepsi, or Bird's Eye Vegetables. Right? I always think of this because I always end the show. No, hear me out, Chuck. I end the show every time by saying, "Frozen peas are my gift to you." Because I don't know if you know this. Jesus stole my line. He said something like, "Peas be with you." I'm like, "Jesus, please." We like the freshness of frozen peas. They taste fresh. They're frozen fresh. The freshness is locked in time. See, Bird's Eye, I could do that for you. For some straight cash. Or we could get a Pepsi, Bird's Eye sponsorship, where I eat every show a bowl of peas while drinking a Pepsi. Or eat a bowl of Pepsi while drinking peas. Then actually just grossed me out. So what we're going to do today is, what's that, sis? Oh, well, somebody just said, "Okay, the band Savaton just released a new music, one song called Templars." A band focused on singing about historical events and figures. Check it out. You're not the boss of me. But I'm going to check it out. But I'm going to check it out because it's my idea. Yeah, so whoever pointed that out, I will. People keep telling me I got to listen to their song about the last stand of the Swiss Guard. When all the Swiss Guard died saving the Pope because of the wacky French. Today we're going to start about the Templars. And then after that, we'll start a series on how the Bible was compiled, how they picked which books they use and don't use, all that sort of thing. But the interesting thing about this, you may remember last week I told you something that compelled something where I said, "You know, with all the attention the Knights Templar get for all the weird conspiracy theories, we miss what's most incredible about them." And I said, "Maybe I'll walk you through their battles." So I was going to do that today. But you know how my little redneck ADHD brain works. We're going to cover the Templars. We're not just going to do these battles because it's just too much coolness. So basically, uh oh, Carrie's laughing and it's not because of something I said. I want this on the record, Senator. Do I want to know? Do I want to know? A friend, Josie, asked, "What does my kung fu strong mean?" And Jacqueline responded, "That he has strong kung fu." Yes. Um, so, who asked Josie? Josie. Josie. I asked, "Why do I say my kung fu is strong?" And it's because my kung fu is strong. I don't want to brag. I could kill a man by looking at him. But I don't because I'm a man of peace. No, I don't know. I just say it because I'm 12 years old and I think it's funny. Kung fu is actually useless in a real fight. Is that true? Oh, God, yeah. Oh. In a real fight. Yeah. It's just get them on the ground. But that guy, when we were little in the 70s, it had that TV show. Kung fu, David Kereding, died in Thailand under very bad circumstances. But he made his way through life with kung fu. Yeah. I mean, kung fu only works if everybody agrees to it. Do you know what I mean? That's the key. In a fight, if it's like, we all agree to only use kung fu, then it might work. But in a straight up fight, it's all wrestling. You just get the guy on the ground and, you know, pray for him while you're praying. All right, there's Sassy today. Somebody's already asking, is this just part one then? Yeah, here's the, here's the, allow me to channel my inner Richard, our New England correspondent. Our issue is that I went from telling you we're going to cover like four or five major battles where they just showed how freakish they were. But then I was like, well, that doesn't make sense unless they know this. So then we're going to the beginning. We're going to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start to quote Saint Chick from the Hills are alive. And it's really scary. Julian more. No, Julian, Julian, what? Julie Andrews. Andrews. Julie Andrews. It's not Julian. Drews. Right. Because it would be Julian drew. Right. Past tense. She drew a picture of a horse. Right. There could be. And she also was known. I don't know if you know this about Julie Andrews. She was known for like chopping carrots in a very specific way. Let's get to the Templars, shall we? So what you need to know first about the Templars is you got to know their historical context. So when we're at 1099, it's post the first crusade. Right. Jerusalem was recaptured by the Christians. And then the Templars or the Christian armies established the Holy Land. They called it the Kingdom of Jerusalem. We call it the Holy Land. And here's the thing. The Muslims took it from the Christians. The Christians took it back. But they didn't kill all the Muslims. Right. And so there's a ton of Muslims around. And those Muslims became a gigantic pain in the tail. Like immediately Christians started going, oh, we can pilgrimage to the Holy Land again. And Muslim raiders and bandits thought. That's not. They did not want that. There were bad roads, bad conditions. And people kept trying to go and it didn't go well. Ambushes, robberies, lack of resources. There were all kinds of troubles. And the other thing you have to remember is this is an era, the 12th century, just defined by religious zeal. People wanted to go. And the church was very clear. If you help us take and hold the Holy Land for Christians. That is a path to heaven. Right. This was really a powerful movement. And so what ended up happening is this guy. And again, I don't speak French. His name looks like Hugh to me. So we're going to call him Hugh. And if that's not his real name, it doesn't matter because he's dead. I didn't even know he was sick. But he had this idea when he looked at the problem that it can't just be warriors and you can't just be prayers. You need to be warrior monks. And so about 20 years after the Kingdom of Jerusalem was formed to the Knights Templar were formed. Now they're real names. Ready for this? You're going to love this. The poor fellow soldiers of Christ of the Temple of Solomon. But everyone was like, brah. That's an exact quote from the historical record. The Pope was like, brah. So they just called him Templars. The poor fellow soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. But we're going to get to that in a minute. About 1119 AD, this guy Hugh and eight of his buddies, made a commitment together as a group. They took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience before the patriarch of Jerusalem. And they pledged that for the rest of their life they will protect pilgrims who were trying to get to the Holy Land. They were motivated by a deep piety and a strong vision of chivalry. So what we're going to do is two things. We're going to look at piety and chivalry, because these are the two bedrocks that formed the Knights Templar. So what is piety? Piety is a Latin word. It means duty. It means you do your job. You are faithful to your responsibilities. Thank you for laughing, Curie. Duty. And for these men who were Knights, it's hard to explain because you've been taught so badly, no offense. You were taught people went on the first crusade for greed and for power. And it's a ludicrous proposition to have been taught. They lost power. They lost wealth. Nobles chose to sell everything to go help liberate the Holy Land, particularly from a guy called the Mad Khalif. And that wasn't a name the Christians gave him. That was the name the Muslims gave this guy. The Christians had the Holy Land and the Muslims took it, just like they took everything else. So this was, we're going to reclaim this. Whatever the cost to us personally, financially, we're going to go after this so that Christians can go to the Holy Land. That was their duty as Knights. They believed, and if you were a Knight, one Knight was worth about 10 foot soldiers. They believed God gave us the strength to protect people. It's our duty to do this. So what was the other thing? Chivalry. So chivalry is a thing that's kind of easy to misunderstand. To the Templars, chivalry was a sacred code of conduct. And it fused spirituality, service, and military excellence. So there were five elements to their understanding of chivalry. First, this is for God. What we are doing is because of God and for God. You see this in their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They sought no worldly gain. They wore white mantles to symbolize their purity, and they wore red crosses on those mantles to symbolize their martyrdom. They assumed they were going to die in service of the vulnerable. That was the assumption from the very beginning. This was the sign of their commitment to the Holy Cause. We will protect pilgrims. We will defend the Holy Land. And we will do it because of God. The second principle of chivalry is discipline and humility. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the patron saint of large hairy dogs. That's not true. That's not true at all. St. Bernard of Clairvaux helped them make this. And he was something called a Cistercian. And chivalry required you to be disciplined and humble. No personal wealth, no pride, no fame. Templars ate very simple meals, and they ate very little. They ate shared meals. They avoided all luxury. And they always submitted to their proper authority. To them, individual ambition will get you beaten and kicked out of the order. It's all about the mission, right? Protect pilgrims, protect the Holy Land. Chivalry also required courage and sacrifice. You had to be fearless in battle. And again, to the point of martyrdom, the assumption is you are going to die. They were trained to charge into combat without retreat. And as you'll see, they also refused ransom. Meaning they were ready to die for their faith. The rule the Muslims had was if we captured you, you can become Muslim and then we'll sell you back to your people, or we take your head. There is no account of a Templar ever asking for ransom or accepting conversion. Not one. And that's part of the chivalry, right? What do we got so far? Service to God, discipline and humility, courage and sacrifice. Next, protect the weak. God gave you strength and skill so that you could protect others. One of their slogans, "We defend the vulnerable." This was also something that kind of extended out to their care for spiritual or material goods. Kings learned and you can give them a billion dollars and they won't take a penny. And kings learned that and learned it well. In fact, King Richard Lionheart at one point left them about the equivalent to day of one billion dollars in wealth and he said when he came to get it, they added some. They had extra. And they, here you go. It was extremely important to them that this protection of the weak also means we take care of other people's stuff. If they say take care of this, we do it. The final principle of their chivalry is brotherhood and unity. You were ferociously loyal to the Templars and to your brother Templars. They lived communally, they shared their hardships and all of this was geared toward a few things, but it resulted in them working as groups exceptionally well. They put very little, like the ancient Romans. I talked to you about this when we talked about the Romans. The Romans put very little value on your individual skill level. What mattered the most was your ability to fight within the group. Now, this was really unique at the time. Secular knights were all about glory for themselves. These guys weren't. It was all about the group. So those were the five principles of Templar chivalry, service to God, discipline and humility, courage and sacrifice, protection of the weak, brotherhood and unity. So this little group of Hugh and his eight buddies, Baldwin, the second of Jerusalem, gave them housing at the site of the Al-Aqs Mosque. You and I would call it the Dome of the Rock or the Temple Mount. What is it? It's the place where the Jews built the Temple, the largest religious structure in the history of the world, and the Muslims built this mosque over its ruins. The Romans destroyed it in 70 AD. The Muslims then built this mosque over the top of it. Well, Christians built a church, Muslims knocked it down, built the dome. The Christians didn't knock down the dome. They left it there, but that's where the Templars ended up living. So if you go to the Dome of the Rock today, which I've done, they lived there. It's really kind of crazy, but it's also, like I said, where that temple was built, and that's why people started calling them Templars, knights who lived in the temple. It was just a lot easier again than the poor fellow soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. There's a lot of ink when they were writing. No, it's fine. Okay, so this small informal group lived extremely austere lives. They relied on donations and any money they had, and they patrolled day and night to protect pilgrims, walking them from point A to point B, and nobles began to join them, not in huge numbers yet. But by the time ten years had passed, a few things became ridiculously clear. One, these cats are exceptional. There was something about their unity and nobility and self-sacrifice that compelled people to join them, but they would often kick people out because their standard was so high. You cannot be selfish. You cannot be arrogant. You cannot shirk your duties, which for the nobles could be a problem. They were used to just getting whatever they want. But in less than ten years, what they had realized was that this incredible group of helpful men who were asking for nothing, weren't able to do it all. The need for them was greater. So what did they do? Their founder, Hugh, began to travel around Europe. He got in Europe in 1127, and he stayed there until 1128, and his goal was to get formal recognition and expand the order. We need more dudes, but again, not just any dudes. We need the best of the best. A lot of influential figures were absolutely smitten with this guy, most notably Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who was a Cistercian abbot and spiritual leader and generally kind of Europe's spiritual dad. He wasn't the Pope, but everybody looked to him as a really incredible man. So Hugh's efforts paid off. In January of 1129, the Church convened a council in Champagne, which is right next to Cognac, and the Templars were officially recognized as a religious military order. So I want to give you a sense of things. And less than what was at 1119, so in about 10 years, they were so good at what they did and so well known and so well regarded that they were now officially a group within the Church. So they had to draft, like in a sense, a Who We Are page on their webpage, right? www.TemplarsKickButt.org No? Okay, www.Nights of the Poor Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Jerusalem.orgcom. They sucked at websites, mostly because there weren't any yet. But they came up with a rule of life, and it's a harsh one, guys. It emphasized poverty, chastity, obedience, and discipline. Detailed daily prayers, communal living, simple dress, and their military duties. The vows were simple. Quote, "I swear to defend the Church, to live in poverty, chastity, and obedience, and to fight for the Holy Land with all of my strength." That was the vow. Right? It established this rule of life, a hierarchical structure with a grandmaster. He was that guy, the first one. Pope Honorius II, who was known for being real ornery. Guys, I'm killing it. I just want you to know, like, what I'm doing here would kill a mortal. No, Pope Honorius II, it's Honorius, but they say Honorius II, approved and backed their efforts, and he gave the Templars legitimacy. He encouraged people to donate land and money, and they got lots of both. And you see an absolute explosion of the Templar order. The secular and religious leaders of the day were wildly popular. They were wildly popular with the religious and secular figures. And if you ask me, and again, it's just my opinion, it's for a really simple reason. They had no ambition. No desire to rule anything. No desire to take property. They were hyper-focused. We defend the Holy Land. We defend pilgrims. And because of that, people could support them without feeling threatened by them. By the time you get to 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a bull, which is, you know, basically he's making a proclamation, and here's what he said. "The Templars are accountable to no one but the Pope." This was, this is one of the best positions you can have in the church, right? Secular, local secular and ecclesial authorities have no power over them. A bishop can tell them, "Do this." No, sorry, it's got to come from the Pope. Second, they were freed from taxes and tithes, right? Back then, you gave 10% of your income to the church. They were freed from that. They were freed to build their own churches and manage their own clergy. The church didn't pick their clergy, they did. All of this made them very powerful and very wealthy. But again, they didn't use their privilege, they didn't use their power or their wealth in any way except to help. It really is extraordinary. This is part of the reason the conspiracy theories, which are fun, drive me nuts. This is just a really unusual group of dudes who kind of explode onto the scene, change world history forever and then disappear, which we'll get into. European monarchs and nobles just loved these cats. They donated funds, they offered recruits, they helped them with their mission. King Alfonso I of Aragon gave part of his kingdom to the Templars. That allowed them to establish local bases from all over Europe, from England, Italy, Spain. There were little Templar strongholds all over the place. And when you hit 1130, they went from a small band to a structured order. They were managing agriculture estates, they were recruiting knights. They developed their own banking system and they still were safeguarding pilgrims and fighting for the Holy Land. It's really amazing. There were not many of them. It was hard to get into the Templars and once you were in, some guys left, some guys were told to leave because their life was hard. They were constantly under pressure and threat from the Muslim forces and bandits. And this results in just this ferocious, tough, lean, small group of wealthy, powerful dudes who used all their strength to help others. How we doing so far? Good, really good. So here's one of my favorite things from Carrie. She asked me one time, you know, Joe, when you look at these different things historically, it would help people if you gave them a sense. If I'm a Templar in this case, what's my day look like? So I literally can walk you hour by hour through the day because these are monks. Their days are scheduled to the moment. Love it. Right? Incredible stuff. What's the first thing? 2 a.m. At 2 a.m., you pray something called the Matins. It's a prayer service that they had in the chapel. The Templars followed the schedule of monks and so they woke up at 2 a.m. They got out of, they didn't have beds. They slept on the floor on straw. They dressed very plain for this, right? Just put on the tunic or habit and then they chanted Psalms and prayed. That's from about 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. Okay? Then you go back to bed. At 5 a.m., you get up and you do the second morning prayer called Louds. After Louds, you inspect your equipment, namely your sword, your armor, and your horse. And your goal was to make sure that you were ready to jump on that horse at a moment's notice and go. Right? With equipment ready. Now, interesting, I found this interesting. Carrie said it's interesting and I don't think she was being polite about their horses. They believed those horses that they had belonged to the Templars and that they were an extension of the sacred mission. So one of their rules, and truly, we never eat a Templar horse. We think who eats horses? Everybody back then, particularly when your city was under siege. Right? So if you have a castle or a city and it's walled and the enemy's outside, if they're playing it smart, all they're doing is waiting to you starve to death or waiting to you run out of water. Right? It saves a lot of troops. It takes a long time. The tradition, the normal thing was you kill and eat the horses when you get toward the end of the siege. There are story after story. Because seriously guys, sometimes when they say the Templars were there, they mean five. But five Templars were 100 soldiers. Right? They were so advanced in their tactics and in their techniques and in their skill level that literally the literal rule was one Templar is 10 soldiers. So you might have five Templars there, but they would write the Templars are here because they were that effective. But here's the thing. There are stories of the last Templar holding his sword and standing between a mob of hungry people that he's trying to defend and he dies protecting his horse. You don't eat my horse. I don't eat my horse. This is a sacred extension. Fascinating stuff. Strong rules about it. At one point early in the Templar order, a group of Templars killed a horse. They were scourged and not allowed to speak for the rest of their life. Wow. And no one ever broke that rule again that we know of. Right? And again, their thing was that's not your horse. That's our horse. And our horse was given to us by God to complete our mission. So we cherish it. They cherished their horses. It's very fascinating stuff. Anyway, so they did matins at 2 a.m. They did lads at five and then they inspected their equipment. Now at 6 a.m. they ate a breakfast that was usually bread and water. Maybe cheese. Maybe porridge on a big feast day. The meat, if they had meat, they were only allowed to eat it on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Okay? Why? Discipline. And again, we don't want the appearance of wealth. So that's from 6 to 7. From 7 to 10, it was all military training. Okay? Sword play, lance practice, mounted combat drills. If you had guys there who were skilled, they went off and scouted for threats, protected pilgrims. All kinds of stuff. But this was all about making sure that every night Templar was completely lethal. Okay? So we have matins at 2 a.m., lads at five, prime, which is the morning prayer. At 6, then they ate breakfast. And then they had mid-morning prayer at 7 a.m. and then combat training till about noon. At noon, they prayed two offices between noon and 3, sext and noon. Okay? So they had those two mid-day prayer services. And in between, they usually didn't eat lunch, but they did sit together in silence while someone read the scripture. They did not talk. If they ate, it was communal. No one eats alone. You also prepare for any expeditions or you maintain fortifications. You're constantly refining yourself during this time. They might supervise farms because they grew their own food. You might meet with nobles and offer services. You might take a younger guy under your arm and teach him some things. Basically, what they made sure is their day was full, idle hands of the devil's playground. Yeah? How we doing? Good. Okay, so now we're to 5 p.m. That's when you pray Vespers. And during Vespers, for those of you who haven't prayed it, you're really focused on, "What did I do today right and wrong? Did I fulfill my duties?" After that might be cleaning your equipment and preparing to put it down. At 7 p.m., you have your final prayer of the night, "Complain." And then they would eat a small supper. Basically, at 8 p.m., you went to bed. You slept on straw. If you had a mattress, it could only have straw in it in a small amount. And again, you're not talking. Nobody's talking. That was a day. Your day was what monks call, "Ora at Labora." It's defined by prayer, aura, and labora, work. That was their day. The meals they ate were super simple unless it was a high holy day. They believed in these things. And unlike a lot of monastic orders, until they were all killed, they kept it. You just don't find any records of them living in luxury. They had unspeakable wealth. They didn't spend it. It's fascinating stuff, and we'll get into how they got so much money. You were focused on discipline, austerity, military readiness, religious devotion, and even, I don't know, did I say this about eating? How many bowls? It was one bowl when you ate for two guys. That was really important to them. Everybody doesn't have a bowl. Every other guy has a bowl, and you eat out of one bowl together. To just enforce this idea, you're a part of a bigger group. There were guys, of course, who might have lost a limb, or who might be small, or unable to do the physical things of battle. Those guys, they turned into bankers, teachers. It was a role for anyone who could keep the discipline. And I could not find anything that told me what percentage. One guy wrote that a Templar was usually, not always, a city unto himself, meaning he was a monk, he was a warrior, he could read, which was very, very, very, very rare. He could do complex math, he could do banking, diplomacy. One man army. You know what they say about Rangers, Army Rangers, right? They say one riot, one ranger. That's these guys. One ranger, one riot. Cool stuff. Is this any fun? Yes. Okay. So everything in their life was geared toward simplicity, teamwork, holiness, and protecting the weak. Yeah. Who would have done their ordination? They would. Like once they got the papal decree from Honorius, they were self-sustaining ecclesially. Right? So there were many bishops, Templar bishops, particularly as people started to realize what exceptional group of dudes these were. Right? So a Templar bishop would make a Templar priest, or a Templar monk, or a Templar squire. Right? Their vows, like I read you, were simple, but I think I told you this. After you make the vow, they punch you. Do you know this? Right? You make your vow, and then they punch you with their metal glove. And the whole idea was, you'll remember that vow now. Right? That was really important to them. You make your vow, and then the guy you made it to pops you in the face, literally, and knocks you down. There should be blood, so that you remember, you remember this moment. Right? And that's where the thing like, at confirmations, you may remember if you were born before 1950, the bishops used to slap you after he put the holy water on your head. Right? He put the holy water, holy oil on your head, and say in Latin, "receive the Holy Spirit." Right? And then I do love this. He'd say, "Peace be with you," but then he'd slap you. And the idea was, you remember this. Yeah? Yeah, how we doing? Good. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about the food then. I don't know. Is that interesting? I don't know. Okay. They followed the Cistercian rule, basically, but with a little bit more emphasis on protein. I know that sounds funny, but you need to be strong. And they also understood, if you're in battle mode, the eating rules change a bit. Now some don't. They forbid hunting. No Templar could hunt, for example. And you might think, why not? Hunting was considered the sport of the rich. And they wanted nothing to tie them to that lifestyle. There was an exception in there that they could hunt and kill lions in the Holy Land. But any other animal, the rule was pretty simple. What? B, that's rich people stuff. We don't do rich people stuff. But B, and you're going to laugh, but dead serious. Those animals can't defend themselves against us. A lion could. But our job is to protect the vulnerable. Not eat the vulnerable. Isn't that wild? Basically, they ate two main meals a day, usually around 3 p.m. and around 7 p.m. They might have, like I told you, a small breakfast with porridge. And especially, you ate the breakfast thing if you were going to do physical stuff. They ate together and in total silence. Nobody was allowed to speak except the dude who was reading you scripture. And remember, Catholics don't read the Bible, so this was weird. They observed fasting during Lent and other religious seasons. And they were allowed to meet three times a week, at the most, unless you were sick or, quote, weak. You needed to be strong enough to do your thing. Bread was the big cornerstone of their diets, usually a very coarse bread made from barley or wheat. And their cheese, porridge, figs were sometimes additions to that. The meat they tended to eat was beef or poultry, and that was always on Sunday. You could always eat meat on Sunday. That's the happy day. Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. They did not tend to eat pork. Why? It's just hard to keep pigs there. And even at this point, humans were starting to realize if you had a lot of pigs around, people got sick. They didn't quite make the connection between viruses yet. But one thing they started to understand, actually, total weird side note, is near as we can tell, the Germans figured this out 400 years before any of this. The Germans started going, whenever we have big groups of pigs, people get sick. I always wondered that. Yeah. That's where the flu comes from. Fascinating stuff. Anyway, who knows if it was from the Germans? Maybe it was because Germans joined the Templars. We don't know, but what's clear is they tended to avoid pork. And it was so funny. One guy was like, this was not out of respect to the Muslims. Yeah, no. Because that's what I assumed. Like, first time I read it, it's, oh, God bless him. You know, be in respect. Like, I talked to a priest from India, and he says it's all Muslims around us. And where it's not Christian, it's Muslim or Hindu. So he never ate beef or pork. And I'm like, dude, so I just made him bacon all the time. You know what I mean? Anyway, so I told you two nights ate from one bowl to encourage humility and teamwork. They were encouraged. It's kind of funny. I don't know how to explain this well. Let's say you got a huge dude, two down from just a big, strong dude for that day, you know, which would be five, eight. And you were small and you had your fill. You would be expected to share your food with him, too. He's a bigger dude. He needs more. And they encouraged you to be very conscious of that. Be aware of your surroundings and take care of your brothers. They would get, of course, exceptions to all of these rules if they were in battle or something like this. Again, what's remarkable about this is there would have been no other humans in the known world who that wealthy didn't eat like wealthy people. It was really important to them to be lean and slightly hungry all the time. Gluttony, if you were perceived to be gluttonous, if you were seen wasting food, you were beaten. You were tied up like this to a post and they just beat the snot out of you. You don't waste food and you don't eat too much food. Yeah, yeah. How we doing? Lisa Perch says we have a plaque on the wall of an old inn in a historic town, obviously in the UK, that was used by the Knights Templar. Oh, nice. Yeah. And you'll see, I'll get into this in a bit. Their building skills were unparalleled, just absolutely unparalleled. They were able to do things architecturally that no one ever did. And if you go to the Holy Land today and you see castles from the Middle Ages still standing, crusaders built them. If the crusaders didn't build them, they're gone. It's remarkable. I went in probably five or six of these. Looks like they built them a few years ago. It's remarkable. It really is. Their military skills, how we doing for time? We're okay. I think I'm just looking to see. Yeah, okay, I think I got time for this. I thought it'd be a good time to take a look at their military training specifically a bit. The primary purpose of a Templar was heavy cavalry and then infantry and then defenders, right? So if they put their stuff in order, then their primary thing was heavy cavalry. Their secondary was infantry. Their third was the ability to defend affordification. So all their training reflected those things. A big part of it was just constant practice to quote St. Allen Iverson practice. They talk about practice, not a battle, not a campaign, practice. They trained with swords, lances, maces, and shields. Okay, you know what swords are, right? A lance is a long spear that you, when you're riding your horse, you tuck it under your shoulder. They usually had a leather sling right here and then you hold that. And the goal was to punch the guy across from you with a point of your spear and knock him off his horse. Okay, that was the basic idea. Those are lances. A mace was one of two things. Either a metal stick with a chain and a spiked ball, right? You swing and you biff, right? Or quite literally a stick with a spiked ball on the end. The spiked ball is what's important here. So you can bash heads in for Christ. If someone's wearing a helmet, that's a particularly important weapon. If someone is wearing leather armor or chain mail, that's an important weapon. If you can break ribs, you can get them out of the fight. Just like fighting today, it's actually more important to injure your opponent than to kill them to some extent. Why? An injured opponent requires two more opponents to help that injured person. Like three people out of the fight. You kill them, they're dead. You hurt them, you've now got three people out of the fight. Does this make sense? This is a big part of medieval tactics. Plus, any injury, you're probably going to die, right? What else? In shields, of course, they have those long kind of triangular-like shields. And a big part of it was you practice as an individual and as a group. Their sword play was focused on speed and precision. Lance training was focused on the strength and the punch. Their horsemanship was very important to them. They practiced riding and formation, charging with lances, and maneuvering in armor. Each night maintained at least one more horse, usually four, which they personally groomed and fed and trained. You didn't assign that to someone else. You personally took care of that horse and tried to form a bond. They were skilled in archery and crossbows. Particularly as you got older, this became an important skill. This was important in defending castles and in being a member of the cavalry, the infantry. Not so important when you're mounted cavalry, but it's important later. They had all kinds of strength and endurance exercises that they had to do every day. Running, climbing, jumping, all of this while wearing 60 pounds of armor. And the ability to keep going when your body says stop. Formation drills were huge for them. They practiced disciplined formations. We're going to hit on this a little bit. They perfected a wedge-shaped charge. It's just what it sounds like. The horse is kind of like a point of an arrow charging into a group. They could break any enemy line with it. We're going to hear about this later. This was a defining thing for them. The fact that they could work so perfectly in unison. TV makes it look easier and more common than it was. It's hard to get horses to ride into danger in a group. They could do it. They worked on siege skills. Namely, they were all taught how to build catapults, how to build siege towers, how to defend walls. They were taught how to scout, how to sneak, how to patrol. If anybody, every element of their life was infused with discipline. If they neglected their equipment, they would confiscate their horse. Or another common punishment was they had to eat on the floor. The sword needed to be sharp. The armor needed to be polished. The horse needed to be healthy and clean. The rule forbade them, their lifestyle rule, forbade them from boasting or from violence outside of battle. Basically, the idea is controlled aggression. And individual glory meant very little. Teamwork meant everything. And all this to say it wasn't only physical discipline and training as you heard from their schedule. It was prayerful training. It was character formation. It was the idea that you will be a great human as well as a great warrior. You will be a holy man. And if you were great in battle but you weren't holy, they kicked you out. No thank you. What if you were great at holy and terrible in battle, we'll keep you. We got a place for you. Holiness mattered. So I think what I'll do is stop now. I'll tell you why. Because the next part of this, I was going to walk you through how many? One, two, three, four, five battles. Where the Templars shocked the world for lack of a better phrase. Where they did the unthinkable simply by applying all the stuff I just told you. Isn't this better than conspiracy theory stuff? Seriously. It's so amazing to think of what these cats were like. And again, you have to remember how hard people were back then. Is that a bird? You have to remember how hard people were and how small they were. I think I've told you this before. People always say Napoleon was short. No, Napoleon is short to us. He was average height in his day. Humans were not big and strong and muscular like you might think. They were very lean. You were constantly hungry. And I mean that. There was no fat on them because they were constantly working. And this was almost all humans. People were unspeakably tough. I told you in the book Masters of War, they have eyewitnesses, accounts of Templar mugs and 60 pounds of armor jumping off their horse with a backflip and landing ready to fight. Think of that. You couldn't get a Ranger or a Navy SEAL to do that today. This was a foot soldier doing these things. If somehow your genetic makeup allowed you to survive this long, you were a bad, bad man. So what we'll look at next time, and I think it's a week from today, is we'll take a look at what I got left. I got just some examples from battle that they did. I'll give us a look at what were their strengths, what were their weaknesses. And then really to me, another very cool part, what were they known for besides their skill in battle? Because as you'll see as time goes on, they become just as famous for a lot of other things as they did for their Marshal training. And then we'll look at why they fell. How did they disappear? They disappear from the historical record and we'll look at how it happened and why. So I think I should be able to do that in one more show. I do. Okay, any questions? No, I think I threw them all in. Okay. The following Wednesday, I think we should all get on a bus and go visit Lisa in Chesterfield in Derbyshire where she has all the castles in her local area. A bus will take us all the way to England, right? Oh, yeah. You just got to take the channel. Yeah. The channel, that's the one that covers, I think, from Maine to right to the coast of England. Now, I got to warn you, it's like five bucks. It's very expensive. And quick. And quick, yeah. It's something like just under 84 years. Sweet. Okay, there is a question. Oh, talk to me, Goose. Kevin wants to know. My Kevin? Nope. Okay. When do we get to the go-karts in the parades? Oh, Shriners? Yes. Oh, I remember those when I was a kid. Do you remember Jesse? Oh, my gosh. Right. Yeah, those are Shriners. And those are Masons and Catholics can't be Masons. But I do want one of those little cars. Do they still do that? I don't know. Huh? Chuck said, yeah. That's funny. Nice. So there we are. Snapshot of the light, the founding of the Templars. A day in the life. I'll look at what made them work internally. And next we'll look at how they didn't battle. There we are. So on Friday, we'll do our usual question and answer. Just a quick note, asking you to please encourage people to check out our YouTube page and subscribe to it. Give us thumbs up. And if you hated it, go over to Father Mike Schmitz and give him a thumb down. Subscribe to our podcast, whatever it might be. That would help us a lot. Good reviews help us a lot. All kinds of stuff. So what's that says? Okay. Oh, and don't forget, support your local businesses. Right. Please support local businesses. And I'll just quick name three. We're big fans of El Sera. A car dealership with a wonderful family that gives back to the community. And they have all kinds of dealerships, but you should focus on Chevy and GM. You just should. Everything else, waste your time. They'll sell you a great car at a great price. And you'll know that they help the community a ton. Also, we love Michigan church supply and Mount Morris and Celtic Cove Catholic bookstore and Oxford, Michigan. Just beautiful people run by folks in the community who do so much good. And you can get quality stuff there for all your religious needs. Salad pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for warriors. We thank you for those who use their strength to protect the vulnerable. And we thank you, Heavenly Father, for all the men will never meet till the Kingdom of Heaven. Who laid down everything to join the Templars and to serve and to be saints and to protect and defend. We're so grateful. What we ask is that you increase in our hearts our understanding of the need for discipline and humility. To work together for the Kingdom of God. For the many, many Christians who are suffering right now at the hands of Muslim or Communist aggression. Lord, please free them. Protect them. Especially our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, in China, in the Middle East, in India. Wherever your people are suffering, Lord, hear their cry and come to their rescue. Heavenly Father, you know the people we love and worry about. And you know all the circumstances and our lives that cause us to fret. We give all of it to you, Lord, because we love you and we trust you. And may Almighty God bless you all. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. My kung fu is strong. I'll see you beautiful people Friday. And until then, frozen peas from bird's eye are my gift to you. Is it over? No, it's never over. It'll never be over. It's just starting. [BLANK_AUDIO]