Order of the Knights Templar catholic perhaps the earliest Christian institution

perhaps the earliest Christian institution to combine protection and assistance of pilgrims

Whereupon even to this day it is said: In the mountain the Lord will see

they rang a bell

For God has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch

the Château of Broigny

Order of the Knights Templar catholic perhaps the earliest Christian institutionAfter the First Crusade, which ended in 1099, Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land where resumed. Although the cities were relatively secure under Christian control, the outskirts where not, bandits and marauding highwaymen preyed upon Christian pilgrims, who were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to reach the Holy Land. In 1119, sponsored by Saint Bernard of Clairvoux, the French knight Hugues de Payens and 8