enter the order, Hugh de Payens refused to
admit him to the vows until he had humbled himself, renounced his
pretensions, and given perfect satisfaction to those whom he had
injured. The candidates, moreover, previous to their admission, were
required to make reparation and satisfaction for all damage done by them
at any time to churches and to public or private property.

An astonishing enthusiasm was excited throughout Christendom in behalf
of the Templars; princes and nobles, sovereigns and their subjects, vied
with each other in heaping gifts and benefits upon them, and scarce a
will of importance was made without an article in it in their favor.
Many illustrious persons on their death-beds took the vows, that they
might be buried in the habit of the order; and sovereigns, quitting the
government of their kingdoms, enrolled themselves among the holy
fraternity, and bequeathed even their dominions to the master and the
brethren of the temple.

Thus, Raymond Berenger, Count of Barcelona and Provence, at a very
advanced age, abdicating his throne and shaking off the ensigns of royal
authority, retired to the house of the Templars at Barcelona, and
pronounced his vows (1130) before Brother Hugh de Rigauld, the prior.
His infirmities not allowing him to proceed in person to the chief house
of the order at Jerusalem, he sent vast sums of money thither, and
immuring himself in a small cell in the temple at Barcelona, he there
remained in the constant exercise of the religious duties of his
profession until the day of his death.

At the same period, the emperor Lothair bestowed on the order a large
portion of his patrimony of Supplinburg; and the year following (1131),
Alphonso I, King of Navarre and Aragon, also styled Emperor of Spain,
one of the greatest warriors of the age, by his will declared the
Knights of the Temple his heirs and successors in the crowns of Navarre
and Aragon, and a few hours before his death he caused this will to be
ratified and signed by most of the barons of both kingdoms. The validity
of this document, however, was disputed, and the claims of the Templars
were successfully resisted by the nobles of Navarre; but in Aragon they
obtained, by way of compromise, lands and castles and considerable
dependencies, a portion of the customs and duties levied throughout the
kingdom, and the contributions raised from the Moors.

To increase the enthusiasm in favor of the Templars, and still further
to