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A Muslim army quietly set up camp on the Mount of Olives in 1152, preparing for a surprise attack on the city of Jerusalem. Victory seemed certain: Jerusalem’s Christian ruler, Baldwin, was away in Tripoli.

But during the night, the encamped Muslims were slaughtered in a surprise counterattack that reportedly left 5,000 dead. Who had so heroically saved the city of Jerusalem?

Brothers in a religious order, men who had vowed themselves to poverty, chastity, and obedience.

But these devout men came from new religious groups—military orders known as the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers. They had been commissioned by the pope to defend the Holy Land.

Christian History invited Mr. Michael Gervers to describe the three most prominent of these unprecedented religious orders.

Founded in 1118 by the French knights Hugh de Payens and Godfrey de St. Omer, the Templars were also called “The Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon” because they had been granted quarters on the site of Solomon’s Temple. Their mission was to protect Christians on pilgrimage in the Holy Land, but this protection soon expanded to include the land itself.

Nine years after their founding, the Templars gained the valuable support of Bernard of Clairvaux, who would draw up the order’s rule (guidelines for community life). Bernard composed a treatise, In Praise of the New Knighthood, championing the Templars’ Christian calling: “A new sort of chivalry has appeared on earth … that tirelessly wages … war both against flesh and blood and against the spiritual forces of evil. … Go forward in safety, knights, with undaunted souls drive off the enemies of the cross of Christ.”

The Templars gained the favor of monarchs and popes and soon acquired large portions of land in exchange for their disciplined military services in the Holy Land and Europe. The papacy, in particular, extended privileges to the Templars, considering the order its military arm and making its members accountable directly to the pope. Because they traveled internationally, transported money, and owned land, the Templars soon became prominent bankers. Such status and wealth did not go unnoticed, however, and the Templars aroused the jealousy of detractors.

The knights’ strict discipline and battlefield effectiveness kept them in the forefront of crusading throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They held the fortress of Gaza—the gateway to Egypt—against the feared Muslim commander Saladin. In 1217, they constructed the Castle Pilgrim near Acre, from which the Fifth Crusade departed for Egypt a year later. They also rebuilt the Castle of Safad in 1240–43, making it the foremost Christian stronghold in the East.

Sometimes their valor was costly. In the Battle of Hattin in 1187, many Templars were killed in combat, and those taken prisoner were singled out for execution because of their membership in the order.

Despite their successes, the Templars eventually came to suffer the distrust of one-time patrons. Their privileged status, financial practices, and military might placed them at the center of crusading politics, especially in the Holy Land.

They were blamed for the fateful decision to attack Damascus (1148) that brought an end to the Second Crusade. The Templars also were criticized for their misguided advice to King Guy de Lusignan of Jerusalem—followed by tactical errors in the rout at Hattin—that led to the loss of Jerusalem in 1187. Even when the Templars played a crucial role in Louis IX’s expedition to Egypt in 1249 and 1250, the growing suspicions about them could not be assuaged.

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