airvaux was
confided the task of revising and correcting these rules, and of framing
a code of statutes fit and proper for the governance of the great
religious and military fraternity of the temple.

_The Rule of the Poor Fellow-soldiers of Jesus Christ and of the Temple
of Solomon_, arranged by St. Bernard, and sanctioned by the holy Fathers
of the Council of Troyes, for the government and regulation of the
monastic and military society of the Temple, is principally of a
religious character and of an austere and gloomy cast. It is divided
into seventy-two heads or chapters, and is preceded by a short prologue
addressed "to all who disdain to follow after their own wills, and
desire with purity of mind to fight for the most high and true King,"
exhorting them to put on the armor of obedience, and to associate
themselves together with piety and humility for the defence of the Holy
Catholic Church; and to employ a pure diligence, and a steady
perseverance in the exercise of their sacred profession, so that they
might share in the happy destiny reserved for the holy warriors who had
given up their lives for Christ.

The rule enjoins severe devotional exercises, self-mortification,
fasting, and prayer, and a constant attendance at matins, vespers, and
on all the services of the Church, "that, being refreshed and satisfied
with heavenly food, instructed and stablished with heavenly precepts,
after the consummation of the divine mysteries," none might be afraid of
the _Fight_, but be prepared for the _Crown_.

If unable to attend the regular service of God, the absent brother is
for matins to say over thirteen _pater-nosters_, for every hour seven,
and for vespers nine. When any Templar draweth nigh unto death, the
chaplains and clerk are to assemble and offer up a solemn mass for his
soul; the surrounding brethren are to spend the night in prayer, and a
hundred pater-nosters are to be repeated for the dead brother.
"Moreover," say the holy Fathers, "we do strictly enjoin you, that with
divine and most tender charity ye do daily bestow as much meat and drink
as was given to that brother when alive, unto some poor man for forty
days."

The brethren are, on all occasions, to speak sparingly and to wear a
grave and serious deportment. They are to be constant in the exercise of
charity and almsgiving, to have a watchful care over all sick brethren,
and to support and sustain all old men. They are not to receive letters
from