5 COLLATA BENEFICIO FILII DEI MILITIBUS SUIS Templar spirituality at the fortress of ‘Atlit in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem Shlomo Lotan and Joachim Rother Introduction Two noble knights from Burgundy started the aforementioned Order of the Knighthood of the Temple in the manner which follows: namely, these two knights once guarded the pathway which is now named the Castle of the Pilgrims, on which pathway – which [back] then was called the Way of the Pilgrims – those setting out for the Jerusalem Sepulcher [i.e., the pilgrims] were being plundered and also killed. These knights stood guard over the pathway for a long time – for nine years or thereabouts – because they did not receive but nine companions. And then, because of the merits of their probity, which they devoted – in such an exercise of guarding the pathway – to the Catholic faith and to the security of those traversing [i.e., the pilgrims], the said Pope, who was [in office] at that time, confirmed to them the said Order with the habit they had used. 1 This statement, given by the Italian notary Antonio Sici of Vercelli during the Templar Trial in the spring of 1311, offers an interesting alternative to William 1 Le procès des Templiers, ed. Jules Michelet, 2 vols. (Paris 1841–1851), 1: 643: duo nobiles de Burgondia milites dictum ordinem milicie Templi inceperant eo modo qui sequitur: videlicet quod illi duo milites quondam pas- sum custodiebant qui nunc Castrum Peregrinum nuncupatur, in quo passu, qui tunc Iter Peregrinorum vocabatur, proficiscentes ad sepulchrum Jerosolimitanum spoliabantur et eciam necabantur. Quiquidem milites diu in custodia illius passus steterunt, per novem annos vel circa, quia non nisi novem socios receperunt; et tunc, propter eorum merita probitatis, que in exercicio custodie passus hujusmodi fidei catholice et securitati transeuncium impenderunt, dictus Papa, qui pro tempore erat, ipsis dictum ordinem cum habitu quem absumpserant confirmavit. This chap- ter is the result of collaborative field work by Shlomo Lotan and Joachim Rother during the latter’s three-month research studies in the land of Israel, generously made possible by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation and the Jerusalem Institute of the Görres-Gesellschaft zur Pflege der Wissenschaften. 103