Strength: 2
Type: Melee Unit
Flavor Text: The more holy the city the greater the desolation. Jerusalem is the most desolate of all.
Flavor Source: Nachmanides
Artwork: Hugues de Payens, first Grand Master of the Order of the Temple by Henri Lehmann (1841)
About the card:
Hugues de Payens was the first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, a military and financial institution that served to protect pilgrims en route to the Holy Land during the crusades (see also Siege). The Knights Templar later became Europe's first bank-like organization and one of the largest landowners in Europe. As with many banks of the medieval period Kings would often get into large debts to fight wars and then refuse to pay their debtors (see also Usury). A similar situation led to the order's dissolution. The King of France was heavily indebted to the Templars and used accusations of heresy and fraud to destroy the order and burn some knights at the stake after false confessions made under torture.
The full quote is from Nachmanides, a Rabbi who visited Jerusalem to rebuild the Jewish community there after its destruction at the hands of the Crusaders and Mongol raids: "What shall I say of this land ... The more holy the place the greater the desolation. Jerusalem is the most desolate of all ... There are about 2,000 inhabitants ... but there are no Jews, for after the arrival of the Tartars, the Jews fled, and some were killed by the sword. There are now only two brothers, dyers, who buy their dyes from the government. At their place a quorum of worshippers meets on the Sabbath, and we encourage them, and found a ruined house, built on pillars, with a beautiful dome, and made it into a synagogue ... People regularly come to Jerusalem, men and women from Damascus and from Aleppo and from all parts of the country, to see the Temple and weep over it. And may He who deemed us worthy to see Jerusalem in her ruins, grant us to see her rebuilt and restored, and the honor of the Divine Presence returned."
