TAPISSIER, JOHANNES
(Jean de Noyers); (ca. 1370-ca. 1410). Burgundian court composer in the early 1390s and
teacher of choirboys in Paris in the early 15th century. Tapissier, along with Carmen and
Cesaris, was mentioned as one of the composers who “astonished all of Paris” in Martin
Le Franc’s Champion des dames (ca. 1440). Surviving compositions include an
isorhythmic motet and two Mass compositions.
Benjamin Garber
[See also: CESARIS, JOHANNES; COMPOSERS, MINOR (15TH CENTURY);
CONTENANCE ANGLOISE]
Wright, Craig. Music at the Court of Burgundy, 1364–1419: A Documentary History. Henryville:
Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1979.
TEMPLARS
. Founded in 1120 in the Holy Land to defend Jerusalem and protect Christian pilgrims,
the Knights Templar was a crusading order whose members took vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience. Their name is derived from the fact that Baudouin II, the
crusader king of Jerusalem (r. 1118–31), turned over to them a portion of his palace on
the site of the Temple of Solomon. Within nine years of their founding, they had received
significant grants in France from such distinguished nobles as Thibaut de Blois, Thierry
d’Alsace, and William Clito of Flanders. From humble beginnings, the order developed
by ca. 1300 a network of some 870 castles, preceptories, and subsidiary houses. In the
13th century, the Templars may have had as many as 7,000 knights, sergeants, brothers,
and priests, with perhaps 2,500 serving in the Holy Land. The order developed a
powerful Mediterranean fleet to transport men, food, and clothing to the Holy Land, and
its international structure and extensive resources made the Templars ideal bankers and
financial agents.
The regulations of the order, largely inspired and perhaps actually written by Bernard
of Clairvaux, were drawn up at the Council of Troyes (1129). They provided for an
ascetic, celibate, and antimaterialistic order closely modeled on the Cistercians. Like the
Hospitalers, who had been founded in the Holy Land ca. 1080, the Templars were
organized into provinces reflecting geopolitical realities. There were three categories of
members: knights, sergeants, and chaplains. The knights, who wore white garments with
a red cross, were originally free to leave at will but eventually could leave only to join a
stricter order. The sergeants were bourgeois associates and/or servants; the chaplains
were priests who served for life, administering to the spiritual needs of the knights.
By 1150, the order had a strong presence in northern France, Provence, England,
Aragon, Portugal, and Italy, but its recognized center was France, and nearly all of the
twenty-two grand masters between the founding of the order and its dissolution in 1312
were Frenchmen. The Templars were recognized as a distinct order in three papal bulls
The Encyclopedia 1707