3
Expansion: (ii) The Creation of Provinces and the Foundation of Convents
[87] The development of Templar organization during the Order's early years in north-eastern Spain cannot be examined closely, for officials were not at first given precise titles; but it appears that in the beginning the Order merely appointed a number of Templars as bailiffs to collect revenues and administer the acquisitions made in a particular district. Those who are first mentioned in the sources had authority over fairly large areas, whose extent seems to have been determined by political divisions. Between 1128 and 1136 Hugh of Rigaud had charge of Templar possessions both in Catalonia and in the districts to the north of the Pyrenees, where the counts of Barcelona had political interests; (1) but neither he nor his immediate successor, Arnold of Bedocio, is mentioned in any Templar documents drawn up in Aragon or Navarre, both of which at the time of the Templars' arrival in Spain were ruled by the Aragonese house. (2) These first officials came in time to have under their command subordinate bailiffs, who were set in charge of smaller areas. Amongst such lesser officials was the Templar Raymond Gaucebert, who was frequently named in Templar documents concerning the districts of Barcelona and Vich between 1135 and 1142 and who was often given the title of 'bailiff'. (3)
As the Temple further expanded, however, a more elaborate and permanent form of organization was evolved. The early large administrative areas developed into provinces of the Order, ruled over by provincial masters, and at a more local level the basic unit of organization became the convent, a word which thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century evidence shows to have been used by the Templars to describe a community whose head was directly subject to the provincial master and was summoned [88] to provincial chapters, and whose members usually included a chamberlain and chaplain. (4)
The institution of the province, the master of which acted as the intermediary between the headquarters of the Order and individual convents, was unknown in religious orders before the twelfth century. The Hospitallers began to evolve this form of organization in the early part of that century, (5) and it was developed both by them and by the Templars as presumably the best means by which men and resources scattered through most of western Christendom could be mobilized for use in the East, besides providing an effective instrument for regulating other relationships between the centre and individual houses, as is clear from its later adoption by a number of other religious orders. (6) The alternative system of the filiation of convents, which was being developed by some orders of monks and canons in the twelfth century, might have produced regional groupings, but it would have involved too many stages in the transmission of supplies to the East, while distance and slowness of communications made direct links between the headquarters and individual convents impracticable.
The convent became the accepted basis of local Templar organization everywhere. Convents were established not only where the Templars were engaged in fighting the infidel: in Spain they were set up in areas away from the Moorish frontier, just as they were founded throughout western Europe. To what extent this policy was the result of a conscious decision is not known, but it had advantages over the alternative of concentrating the members of the Order in the districts where the struggle against the infidel was being waged and entrusting the administration of estates to Templar or lay bailiffs. Although it was wasteful of Templar manpower -- as was frequently pointed out towards the end of the thirteenth century (7) -- the presence of Templar communities throughout western Christendom no doubt helped to stimulate recruitment and bring patronage to the Order; (
and the dangers were avoided which would have resulted either from allowing Templar administrators to live permanently in isolation from other members of the Order or from committing the administration of distant estates entirely to laymen, who would have had personal and family interests.
The earliest reference to the province of 'Provence and certain [89] parts of Spain', which evolved out of the early administrative unit straddling the Pyrenees, occurs in 1143, when Peter of Rovira was described as 'master of Provence and a certain part of Spain'. (9) The province as it existed in the years following that date was not, however, exactly the same in extent as the earlier division, for it also included the kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre. The linking of these districts with Catalonia and Provence was presumably occasioned by the political union of Aragon and Catalonia, just as later in the twelfth century the cession of certain parts of Navarre to Castile appears to have led to the transference of Templar rights in these districts to the Castilian province. (10)
The Spanish part of the province expanded as the Christian frontiers advanced. It came to include the more southerly parts of Aragon and Catalonia in the later twelfth century and Mallorca and Valencia in the first half of the thirteenth. It was by then so large that it was decided to divide it into two provinces, by separating the Spanish possessions from those in Provence. Stephen of Belmonte -- last mentioned as provincial master in November 1239 (11) -- was still known as 'master of Provence and certain parts of Spain'; but his successor in the Spanish part of the old province, Raymond of Serra, who was in office by May 1240, (12) was given the title 'master in Aragon and Catalonia'. His authority was in fact more extensive and covered Roussillon, Navarre, Mallorca, and Valencia as well, but the change in title does mark the breakup of the former province. After 1240 the lands of the Temple in the Corona de Aragón and Navarre formed one province; (13) those in Provence constituted another. After the completion of the conquest of Valencia the only change in the extent of the Aragonese province was the temporary inclusion of certain possessions in Murcia, after the latter had been acquired by James II; but when agreement about boundaries had been reached between Aragon and Castile these reverted to the Castilian Templars. (14)
In the later part of the thirteenth century the Aragonese provincial master had over thirty convents subject to him in the Corona de Aragón, besides two in Navarre. (15) In Cataluña Vieja convents were founded at Palau, Aiguaviva, Castellón de Ampurias, and Puigreig, and further north, in Roussillon, one was established at Mas-Deu. To the west of the Llobregat, the castles of Barbará and Grañena, which had been among the Order's earliest acquisitions, became the sites of convents, as did the nearby [90] places of Juncosa and Selma. In the valley of the Segre there were Templar convents at Gardeny, Corbins, and Barbens, and on the Cinca -- a tributary of the Segre -- at Monzón. In Aragon along the Ebro valley convents were founded at Novillas, Boquiñeni, Ambel, Zaragoza, Pina, and La Zaida, and along tributaries of the Ebro at Ricla, Añesa, and apparently briefly at Luna as well, while another was set up at Huesca, to the east of Luna. In southern Aragon there were four convents in the thirteenth century -- at Alfambra, Cantavieja, Castellote, and Villel -- and five were established along the lower reaches of the Ebro -- at Miravet, Tortosa, Horta, Ascó, and Ribarroja. In the kingdom of Valencia further south, Chivert, Burriana, and the city of Valencia became sites of convents, and lastly one was established on the island of Mallorca.
It is not easy to trace the emergence of these convents. One difficulty arises from the lack of precision in the use of terms. The word most commonly employed to describe a Templar establishment was 'house' (domus, casa). In some cases a convent was being referred to, but the term was also applied to minor Templar establishments, which were dependent on a convent and not on the provincial master. The word in itself therefore does not give any indication of the nature of a Templar foundation. Similarly, the heads of convents were usually called 'commanders' or 'preceptors', but these were titles which were given to almost any Templars who were in positions of authority. Secondly, while only convents were directly subject to the provincial master, (16) the other characteristics of convents were not always peculiar to them alone. Chaplains and chamberlains are very occasionally encountered in places where convents were not established, and the heads of convents were not the only Templars who were present at provincial chapters. (17) And lastly, the early period of Templar expansion is, of course, less well documented than later periods. All that can be done therefore in tracing the development of convents is to indicate when the term 'convent' came to be used in different places, or when the sources suggest a development in organization in places where convents are known to have been founded.
Neither the term 'convent' nor the features characteristic of convents are mentioned in the sources referring to the period up to 1143, but by that date Templar communities were apparently [91] being established at Palau and Novillas and possibly at Grañena, as well as at Mas-Deu in Roussillon, which was only later incorporated into the Corona de Aragón. (18) In 1140 a sale of land was made to 'Peter master of Rovira of the same place of Palau', to Raymond Gaucebert, Raymond Arnold, and to a chaplain Pons. (19) The wording is confused: Peter of Rovira appears to be called master of Palau, although at that time he probably had authority on both sides of the Pyrenees. But the apparent reference to a master of Palau, together with the list of other Templars, including a chaplain, suggests that the origins of the convent of Palau should be traced back as far as 1140, even though the first clear indication of a Templar community there does not occur until 1151. (20) The grant of Alberite in ?1139 was similarly made to Rigald 'master in Novillas', who seems by his title to have been not merely an official responsible for certain estates, but rather the head of a community; (21) in the confirmation of this grant in ?1141 Rigald was said to be acting 'with the will of our other brothers', and this wording again suggests the existence of a Templar community at Novillas;(22) and although the term 'convent' is not applied to Novillas until 1147, (23) there is a reference to the brothers of Novillas in a document drawn up in 1143/5, (24) while there was a chaplain there in 1146. (25) The evidence concerning Grañena is more tenuous. It is merely that according to the historian of the see of Vich, who quotes a document which no longer survives, the bishop of Vich in 1136 gave permission for a certain chapel in the castle of Grañena to be served by a Templar chaplain. (26) But no commander of Grañena is known before 1181; a Templar house there is not mentioned until 1190; and the first evidence indicating that a separate convent had been founded does not occur until the beginning of the thirteenth century. (27)
From 1143 onwards the process of establishing convents was inevitably influenced by the agreement made in that year between the Templars and the count of Barcelona. Most of the places granted by the Aragonese rulers to the Temple in return for its participation in the reconquista lay near the Moorish frontier when they came into the Order's possession, and as long as they remained in the frontier region they needed to be protected against Moorish attacks. The Templars therefore quickly began to establish communities in the most important of them in order [92] not only to administer them but also to defend them against the infidel.
Although at Monzón there is no reference to a Templar community until 1153, ten years after the castle had been granted to the Order, (28) the house there was by then already sufficiently established to be looked upon as the centre of the Order in the Corona de Aragón: thus in 1153 it was said that the castle of Miravet had been granted to the 'brothers of Monzón'. (29) That this statement reflects Monzón's place in Templar organization at that time and was not merely occasioned by the circumstances of Raymond Berenguer's donation of the castle in 1143 is made clear by the wording of another document recording the grant of Alcanadre to the Order in 1155, for in this it is stated that the Templars who received the gift were acting on the advice of the brothers of Novillas, who were to administer the new acquisition, and of those of Monzón, implying that Monzón was considered to be the headquarters of the Aragonese Templars. (30)
Of the other castles granted in 1143, Corbins may quickly after its recapture have become the site of a convent, for in the dating clause of one document the year 1148 is referred to as the year in which 'García Ortiz served God in Corbins with those brothers', (31) and in the following year a bequest was made to the caballeria of Corbins. (32) But if there was then a convent there, it was apparently transferred to Gardeny after the conquest of Lérida, for in the second half of the twelfth century the commander of Gardeny conducted transactions involving property at Corbins, and at the end of the century some documents concerning rights at Corbins were being kept at Gardeny. (33) The word 'convent' is first used of Gardeny in the surviving sources in the year 1169; (34) but as early as 1151 Peter of Cartellá, who was later the head of the convent of Gardeny, was called 'master in those parts';(35) and in 1156 references occur to the master and brothers of the house of Gardeny and to a Templar chapel there. (36)
