L’Ordre du Temple au Portugal (XIIe-XIIIe siècles)

The reception of the Order of the Temple in Portugal was surprising, to say the least. In March 1128, nearly a year before the Council of Troyes, Raymond Bernard, the emissary of the master, received three important donations in Braga, all justified by the Temple association with Jerusalem. Despite these donations, the first Templar houses were not organized until the middle of the twelfth century, when the brothers became involved in the war effort, the defence of Soure and the conquest of Santarém. Royal and private donations then began to define the territorial deployment of the Temple, particularly around the castle of Tomar and in the Tagus valley. The mid-twelfth century was also decisive in terms of the organization of the Portuguese Templar province. Its real structure is more difficult to characterize, partly because of the fluidity of the terms that designated the superiors of the province, but mostly due to the predisposition to present them in Portuguese. However, everything indicate that it had a unified command and an international structure. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it was not uncommon for foreigners to rule the province or to be placed at the head of the convent of Tomar and of the most important preceptories of the kingdom. Contrary to everything that has been said about the autonomy of the Order in Portugal, there are good reasons to believe that the Temple remained a strongly hierarchical, international institution, ruled from the central convent in the Holy Land.