The deteriorating image of the Templars: A paradox

It is the thesis of this chapter that the deteriorating status and image of the Templars was shaped by the changing attitudes of Christendom to the crusades and the Holy Land. The growing disappointment following the Christian defeats in the battlefield blurred the former mystical halo of the milites Christi, who did not succeed to ensure the crusaders’ supremacy in the Levant. Notwithstanding the gradual deterioration in both its image and status, there was a clear opposition to the dissolution of the Order, ‘since the Templars were most powerful, both in riches and renown’. The contradiction between the declining image of the Templars and the opposition to their abolition thus creates a paradox that justifies further research.