Council of Troyes endorses the Templars

January 1129

At a packed church council in Champagne, Bernard of Clairvaux threw his immense prestige behind Hugh de Payens's ragged brotherhood of warrior-monks guarding the pilgrim roads. The council granted the Templars a formal Rule, white mantles, and full ecclesiastical legitimacy answerable only to the pope. Donations of land and money flooded in from across Latin Christendom within months of the announcement.