The Primitive Rule of the Templars 2
Study Guide Questions for Sections 9-22
If you are looking for the beginning of the study on Bernard of Clairvaux’s “The Primitive Rule of the Templars” then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Prudence, Pride
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What does this Rule tell the brothers (monks) and knight brothers (Templars) to strive to do?
“None should fear to go into battle if he henceforth wears the tonsure” as long as they also do what thing(s)?
What did the Rule prescribe to those brothers who “cannot hear the divine office” due to travel?
What should and should not be done if a “secular knight, or any other man” wished to join the brothers in communal life?
What should be done wherever “excommunicated knights” are known “to be gathered?”
What should be done concerning someone who dies while in process of joining the Templars?
What should the Templars not do, concerning children, which is different from a regular monastery?
What had “been made known to” the council of which they said, “we do not ordain that you behave in this manner?”
What are only the “Knights of Christ” (Templars) allowed to wear?
What are some things which should not be part of the costume of the knight brothers?
What should be able to be seen “from the front and from behind?”
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Why might observance of Matins and the other service of “the divine office” help to make Christian knights fearless in battle?
Why might the Rule advise that one shouldn’t be too quick to receive anyone into the monastery who says he “wishes to leave the mass of perdition?”
Why might it be important for anyone who wishes to join the fold of the Templars that he should “reveal his wish and desire before all the brothers assembled in chapter?”
How might we try to reconcile sections 12 and 13 which seem to both say that brother knights should and should not go to and keep company with “excommunicated knights?”
Why might the Knights of Christ have not received children even though a typical Benedictine Monastery would do so?
Why might the brothers have been advised against standing for the entirety of the Divine Service (hours of prayer)?
What might be another practical reason why only the Knights of Christ were allowed to wear white habits?
What is meant by the statement, “Chastity is certitude of heart and healthiness of body?”
Why was there so much concern about the knights not wearing “finery” and all having “the same” clothing?
Why might it be important for the knight brothers to “at all times sleep dressed in shirts and breeches…?”
Why might shoes with “points” or “laces” be something expressly forbidden among the Templars?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Should we as Christians today still be keeping “the Divine Service” (Hours of Prayer)? Why or why not?
The Knights Templar renounced personal property and shared all things in common. What are the potential pros and cons of sharing all things in common? Do you think that all Christians should live this way, some Christians should live this way, or no Christians should live this way? Explain your answer thoughtfully.
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Acts 3:1-10. What connection might we make between this passage and our current reading?
Read Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 5:1-11. How do these two passages weigh in on the second Rhetoric question?
Read Matthew 20:1-16. How might we relate this passage to our current reading?