Nearly 880 years ago, in 1118, nine gentlemen who were in those days given the title of knight, that is trained in the chivalrous arts, set off on a journey to Jerusalem. This was the time of the Crusades, when the Western Christian monarchs and the papacy waged war on the Moslems in the lands of Palestine.
The First Crusade was initiated by Pope Urban II in response to the powerful Seljuk Turks who prevented Christian pilgrims from visiting the traditional holy places in Palestine. In 1099, the Christians captured Jerusalem and established a kingdom with their own ruler, the French crusader Godfrey of Bouillon.
The nine knights founded an order which became extremely rich and powerful in medieval Europe, the Order of the [G 18 / Knights Templar], better known as the Templars. Their initial reason for going to Jerusalem was to act as a protective band against the robbers and murderers who infested the roads to the holy places of Palestine. They presented themselves to King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and lived in a close-knit group, similar to that of monks in a monastic order.
From 1118 to 1128, they lived in the Temple of Solomon, the ancient temple built by King Solomon 1,000 years before the birth of Christ. In this temple, Solomon was believed to have hidden the Ark of the Covenant containing the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments by Moses. Charpentier believes that these knights went to Jerusalem for another reason other than that of protecting pilgrims which was simply a cover up for a far more important mission. Furthermore, Charpentier suggests that these knights were sent by some important person, possibly Bernard of Chartres, and that their mission was to search for something which was hidden beneath the ancient Temple of Solomon.
There is no evidence of the knights finding or bringing anything back to France when they were recalled in 1128. However, Charpentier has linked the knights to Saint Bernard, the Cistercian monk of Clairvaux. One of the knights was Bernard's uncle, another was related to the Count of Champagne and was a neighbor of Clairvaux Abbey. Hugues de Champagne later became the leader of the knights in Jerusalem.
Charpentier takes this link between the Templars and Bernard of Clairvaux further, suggesting that the Templars looked to Saint Bernard as their leader and were in fact sent by him to Jerusalem to find something. Charpentier asks - could the Ark have been brought back and hidden under the cathedral? Did the knights bring back something else?
