he rank system of Templars was initially
very simple, of course, since there were a handful of people in the Order.
The Latin Rule, dating from 1128, has 72 articles, in which four ranks were
mentioned. When the Latin Rule was translated into French in 1136-1137, it
was expanded into 76 articles, and later on new articles were added as needed.
In fact it is safe to say that the French Rule was never finalized, since
it was continuously updated and expanded so that the last surviving version
has 686 articles. Those articles contain the ranks described below.
| Grand Master |
§ 77-80 |
| Seneschal |
§ 99-107 |
| Commander of the Kingdom of Jerusalem |
§ 110 |
| Commander of the City of Jerusalem |
§ 120-124 |
| Commander of Tripoli and Antioch |
§ 125-126 |
| Drapier |
§ 130-131 |
| Commander of Houses |
§ 132-136 |
| Commander of Knights |
§ 137 |
| Knights Brothers and the Sergeants of the Convent |
§ 138-141 |
| Turcoplier |
§ 169-172 |
| Under-Marshal (a Sergeant) |
§ 173-176 |
| Standard-Bearer (a Sergeant) |
§ 177-179 |
| Sergeant-Brothers Commanders of Houses |
§ 180 |
| Rural Brothers (Freres casaliérs) |
§ 181 |
| Sick and elderly Brothers (Freres infirmiers) |
§ 177-179 |
o there. As you can see, there is
ample material for the so-called spiritual descendants of the Order to pick
ranks and titles from.
lthough the Order seems very orderly
and neat, it was essentially a one-man-show. The Grand Master had his decisions
and everybody else listened. There is more info on the
structure of the Order.
