Templar Churches Quotes

“On the west portal, that is, the public face of the church, the archivolt has a striking collection of fifty two human heads: at the top of the arch, beneath a labarum, the faces are severe, but on either side they become progressively more grotesque and tormented, apparently because they are farther from God, perhaps even damned.”
― Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple

“Below this scene, amid waving palms, a lion raises itself towards a group of white-robed monks standing on a loggia in their convent. The point may be to show that the order could withstand the assaults of the enemies of the faith, symbolized here by the lion. In the latin rule hunting is forbidden to the templars as being a frivolous occupation; the one exception is the lion since 'he goes around seeking whom he can devour' and 'his hand is against all, and the hand of all is against him.”
― Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple