CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE
A W O R D OF EXHORTATION
FOR THE KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLE
A NEW KIND OF KNIGHTHOOD seems recently to have appeared on the earth, and in that part of the world which the Orient from on high once visited in the flesh.1 As he then drove out the powers of darkness by the strength of his mighty hand,2 so he now drives out their supporters, the children of disbelief,3 scattering them by the hand of his mighty.4 Even now he brings about the redemption of his people,5 and again raises up for us a horn of salvation in the house of his servant David.6
This, I repeat, is a new kind of knighthood and one unknown in ages past. It indefatigably wages a twofold combat, against flesh and blood and against a spiritual hosts of evil in the heavens.7
When someone bravely resists a physical foe, relying solely on physical strength, I find this hardly astounding, since this is not uncommon. And when war is waged by spiritual strength against vices or demons, this, too, is nothing remarkable, though I consider it praiseworthy, for the world is full of monks.8 But for a
Lk 1:78.
Eph 6:12; Is 10:13.
Eph 2:2.
Nahum 2:5.
Lk 1:68.
Lk 1:69.
Eph 6:12.
On the explosion of monastic life in the eleventh and twelfth ceturies, see, for example, Peter King, Western Monasticism (Kalamazoo, 1999) Chapters
7-8.
In Praise of the New Knighthood man powerfully to gird himself9 with both swords10 and nobly mark his belt11 —who would not consider this very worthy of great admiration, even more so since it has hitherto been unknown?
Truly a fearless knight and secure on every side is he whose soul is protected by the armor of faith12 just as his body is protected by armor of steel. Doubly armed, surely, he need fear neither demons nor men. Not that he fears death—no, he desires it. Why should he fear to live or to die when for him to live is Christ, and to die is gainP13 Gladly and faithfully he stands up for Christ, but he would prefer to be dissolved and to be with Christ,14 by far the better thing.
March forth confidently then, you knights, and with a stalwart heart repel the foes of the cross of Christ.15 Be sure that neither death nor life can separate you from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ.16 In every peril repeat, ' Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's'. 17 How gloriously victors return from battle! How blessedly martyrs die in battle! Rejoice, brave athlete, if you live and conquer in the Lord; but glory and exult still more if you die and join your Lord. Life is indeed fruitful and victory glorious, but more important than either is a holy death. If they are blessed who die in the Lord,18 how much more so are those who die for the Lord!
2. Precious indeed in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy
Ps 44:4. (The Vulgate-Douay enumeration is followed for the Psalms as being the one with which Bernard was familiar.)
Lk 22:38. See Ep 256; SBOp 8:161-162; PL 182:463-4654; BSJ; Ep 399, pp. 470-472; and Csi 4:7; SBOp 3:454, for Bernard's doctrine on the two swords.
I.e., with the cross.
I Thess 5:8.
13 Phil 1:21.
14 Phil 1:23.
Phil 3:18.
Rom 3:38.
17 Rom 14:8.
Rev 14:13.
A Word of Exhortation for the Knights of the Temple
ones,19 whether they die in battle or in bed, but death in battle is more precious as it is more glorious. How secure life is when the conscience is pure! How secure I say, life is, when death is regarded without fear; indeed, when it is anticipated with composure and accepted with reverence! How truly holy and secure this knighthood and how entirely free of the double risk run by the kind of men who are often at risk, but who do not fight for Christ's cause! Whenever you march out, o worldly warrior, you have to worry that killing your foe's body may mean killing your soul, or that by him you may be killed, body and soul both.
Indeed, danger or victory for the Christian are weighed by the focus of the heart, not the fortunes of war. If he fights for a good cause, the outcome of the battle can never be evil; and likewise the result can never be considered good if the cause is evil and the intention unrighteous. If you happen to be killed while you intend to kill another, you die a murderer. If you prevail and by your intention of overcoming and conquering you perhaps kill a man, you live a murderer. Yet to be a murderer, whether living or dead, victorious or vanquished, is not a good thing. What an unhappy victory—to have conquered a man while yielding to vice. And if anger or arrogance have got the best of you, in vain do you boast over the fallen enemy.
But what of those who kill neither in the fury of vengeance nor the frenzy of conquest, but simply in self-defence? Even this sort of victory I would not call a good victory, since of the two, physical death is a lesser evil than spiritual. The soul need not die when the body is slain. No, it is the soul which sins that shall die.20
19 Ps 115:15.
20 Ezek 18:4.
