[KNIGHTS TEMPLARS]: A fine, rare manuscript document officially transcribed by Hugues Aubriot, Garde de la Prevoste de Paris, one page (vellum), large folio (approximately 56 x 45 cm), Paris, 20th February 1372, in Middle French. The medieval document, in a neat cursive chancery script, is a confirmation of three Royal Charters granted to the Knights Templars during the reign of King Charles IV of France in July 1326, namely -

(i) King Louis VII´s exemption of the Knights Hospitaliers from certain transportation fees. The text cites the diligent service of the Knights to the crown of France; to them the King therefore concedes the exemption from duties levied on goods transported by water. This charter, given by the hand of the chancellor Hugo, was issued at Paris in 1158.

(ii) King Philip IV´s confirmation to the Knights Templars of all their hitherto acquired possessions, fixed and movable, rights and freedoms, dated at Paris, June 1304. The King declares that the works of piety and the great abundance of mercy which the Knights Templars have exercised throughout the world have induced him to ratify all their rights and freedoms in regard to their possessions, both movable and immovable. These are conceded especially out of consideration for ´our faithful brother´ Hugo de Peraudo, the visitator generalis of the Templars. (It is noteworthy that Philip IV expresses such warm sympathy for the Templars at such a date, for it was precisely in 1304 that the accusations by which the order was destroyed were begun. Their rights and privileges, however, continued to be affirmed, as here by King Charles IV, for those who inherited the possessions of the suppressed order).

(iii) King Philip IV´s grant to the Knights Hospitaliers of the redemption of their goods and the regulation of jurisdictional relations between them and the Crown, dated at Mona en Pévèle, August 1304. The opening formula, citing the good works and piety of the Knights Hospitaliers, differs from that used in the above-mentioned charter only in the additional mention of their care for the poor and sick. As the ´special recipient of affection´ this text names ´our faithful brother´ Ytherius de Nantolio, Prior of the Hospitaliers in France. The concessions granted also differ very little from those accorded the Templars. Charles IV´s confirmation of this text coincided with a major reorganisation with the Knights Hospitaliers, a procedure necessitated by the order´s acquisition of possessions belonging to the suppressed Templars.

The plica is annotated collat est faite, indicating that a collation has been made and that the document has been checked against the original charter of July 1326, and bears a neat slit at the centre where a seal would have originally been affixed. With several annotations in the left margin, indicating the dates of the original charters, and with several contemporary and later (17th or 18th century) dockets to the verso. Some creasing and age wear and with a few very small, minor holes at the folds, G

Hugues Aubriot (c.1320-c.1391) French administrator and heretic who served as the Prévôt de Paris 1367-81. In 1372 Aubriot, a powerful royal administrator under King Charles V, was at the height of his influence, overseeing massive infrastructure projects that transformed the medieval city of Paris. Aubriot had laid the first stone of the Bastille fortress, intended to protect the King from potential uprisings, on 22nd April 1370. After the death of Charles V in 1380, Aubriot arrested citizens for harassing Paris's Jewish community. His actions led to a trial on fabricated charges of heresy, sodomy, and extortion. Though his ally, Philip the Bold, spared him from execution, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on bread and water. A mob later freed Aubriot during tax riots, allowing him to prudently flee the city.

The Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitaliers were the preeminent knightly orders in medieval times. The Templars were formed in 1119 when they undertook the pious task of protecting the pilgrims who flocked to Jerusalem after the First Crusade. They organised themselves as a religious community, vowing to forsake worldy chivalry and live in chastity, obedience and poverty. From these humble beginnings the power of the Knights grew enormously; they received large land grants throughout Christendom and Pope Adrian IV gave them the right to establish their own churches. As defenders of the Church they were exempted from the payment of tithes and from the action of papal censures and decrees, unless specifically named in them. The Knights soon refused to submit in any way to the ordinary jurisdiction of the diocesan bishops and formed in effect a separate ecclesiastical organisation under the Pope. Their power was virtually unassailable and even the decrees of the Lateran Council, which in 1179 attempted to curb abuses of their privileges, failed to affect them. In succeeding centuries the power of the Templars continued unabated. Their members served as advisors to Kings; they were summoned to the great councils of the Church; and Frederick II´s persecution of the order was one of the main causes of his excommunication in 1239. In the mid-thirteenth century it was estimated that they owned upwards of nine thousand estates; and in Paris and London their houses were used as strongholds for the royal treasure. They acted as bankers for several Kings, loaning Louis IX the major portion of his ransom. By the end of the thirteenth century they finally abandoned Palestine; and in 1306 the last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, arrived in France with a great amount of gold and silver. Its priveleges and immunities at that time constituted a church within the Church, and in France at least, a state within a state. Philip IV of France, in his efforts to centralise power in the Crown, had from the beginning of his reign made gradual efforts to curtail the power and wealth of the Templars. When Benedict XI succeeded to the papal throne in 1304, however, the Knights´ privileges were confirmed by the Church once more. Under great pressure, Philip IV issued the two Charters reconfirmed by Aubriot in the present document; but the King later circumvented the Pope by having charges against the Knights brought brought before the Grand Inquisitor of France, William of Paris, and in this way was able to effect their arrest by civil powers. After many tortures and trials, the Templars were effectively destroyed, the leader being burned at the stake in front of Notre Dame in 1314.

The first and third charters reconfirmed in the present document appear in J. Delaville de Roulx´s Cartulaire général de l´Order des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem (Vol.I 1894, no. 262, pp.198-199 and Vol.IV, 1906, no. 4662, pp.88-90). The late 14th century transcription is earlier than any of the copies of the 1158 grant cited by Delaville de Roulx. The Charter for the Knights Templars was printed in Entwicklung und Untergang der Tempelerrenordnung (1888, pp.307-308).