CHAPTER IX

THE TEMPLE IN EUROPE

THE Temple was divided into a number of areas or
provinces: in the East, the provinces were Jerusalem,
Antioch, Tripoli and Greece; in the West, the provinces were
France, England, Germany and Hungary, Portugal, Aragon,
Castille, Upper and Central Italy, and Apulia and Sicily.
Jerusalem was the leading province, and the Master—or
Grand Master, to distinguish him from the Masters of the
provinces—must reside within the frontiers of the Holy
Land. He had his headquarters at the Temple in the Holy
City until the Christians w;ere expelled in 1187; and then at
Antioch and later at Castle Pilgrim near Acre*

The Masters of the provinces were sometimes known as
Grand Preceptors or Grand Priors, and directly under them
were the Preceptors (or Priors), who often had jurisdiction
over dozens of houses; each house was under the charge of a
Commander. The great officers of the Order took a special
oath before being installed. They swore to respect the Rule
of the Order, to be obedient and faithful to the Pope and
the Grand Master, to defend the teaching of the Church,
especially in respect of such disputed doctrines as the Virgin
birth and the Trinity. They undertook to serve in the Holy,
Land or anywhere else they might be sent, never to surrender
the possessions of the Order to the enemy, and to prefer
death to surrender or flight if faced by more than three
inidels. The chroniclers boast that one Templar was a
Vfor a hundred Moslems, and two Templars for a-
" of the enemyj but the Temple itself had no'sud$
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