Bernard Made Templars Independent

When Pope Honorius II died in 1130, a schism broke out in the Church by the election of two popes, Pope Innocent II and Antipope Anacletus II. Innocent, having been banished from Rome by Anacletus, took refuge in France.

King Louis VI convened a national council of the French bishops at ;tampes and Bernard, summoned there by the bishops, was chosen to judge between the rival popes (which gives you some idea about his influence within Christendom). He decided in favour of Innocent.

Bernard then travelled on to Italy and reconciled Pisa with Genoa, and Milan with the Pope. The same year Bernard was again at the Council of Reims at the side of Innocent II. He then went to Aquitaine where he succeeded for the time in detaching William X, Duke of Aquitaine, from the cause of Anacletus.

Germany had decided to support Innocent through Norbert of Xanten, who was a friend of Bernard’s. After meeting with Pope Innocent and Bernard, Lothair II, Holy Roman Emperor became Innocent’s strongest ally among the nobility.

Payback time came nine years later when Bernard came to the Pope to collect the debt. And collected he did – on March 29, 1139, Pope Innocent II granted the Templars exemption from episcopal and secular authority in the papal bull Omne datum optimum.

This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders (were exempt from customs duties and inspections), were not required to pay any taxes (or tithes) and were exempt from all authority except that of the Pope.

Innocent II permitted the Templars to appoint their own priests – an important step that ensured the secrecy of the Order’s internal matters. Confessions were thus heard by a Templar priest and not by an outside cleric.

On April 7, 1145, Pope Eugenius III, a former Cistercian abbot and pupil of Bernard of Clairvaux, issued the papal bull Militia dei, which permitted the Templars to build their own churches and own their own cemeteries.

And two years later the same Pope Eugenius III gave Knights Templar permission to wear the now famous red cross on their uniform.