Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 1.djvu/554

532 Master of the Temple, could not have been the Saint's close friend without sharing his enthusiasms. So the prologue opens with a true monastic note:

"Our word is directed primarily to all who despise their own wills, and with purity of mind desire to serve under the supreme and veritable King; and with minds intent choose the noble warfare of obedience, and persevere therein. We therefore exhort you who until now have embraced secular knighthood (miliciam secularem) where Christ was not the cause, and whom God in His mercy has chosen out of the mass of perdition for the defence of the holy Church, to hasten to associate yourselves perpetually."

This phraseology would suit the constitution of a sheer monastic order. And the first chapter exhorts these venerabiles fratres who renounce their own wills and serve the King (Christ) with horses and arms, zealously to observe all the religious services regularly prescribed for monks. The regula contains the usual monastic commands. For example, obedience to the Master of the Order is enjoined sine mora as if God were commanding, which recalls the language of St. Benedict. Clothes are regulated, and diet; habitual silence is recommended; the brethren are not to go alone, nor at their own will, but as directed by the Master, so as to imitate Him who said, I came not to do mine own will, but His who sent me. Again, chests with locks are forbidden the brothers, except under special permission; nor may any brother, without like permission, receive letters from parents or friends; and then they should be read in the Master's presence. Let the brethren shun idle speech, and above all let no brother talk with another of military exploits, "follies rather," achieved by him while "in the world," or of his doings with miserable women. Let no brother hunt with hawks; such mundane delectations do not befit the religious, who should be rather hearing God's precepts, and at prayer, or confessing their sins with tears. Yet the lion may always be hunted; for he goes seeking whom he may devour.

The religio professed by the Templars is called, in the Latin rule, religio militaris, which the French translates