Ugo de' Pagani
Ugo de' Pagani | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1074 Nocera de' Pagani (now Pagani) |
| Died | May 24th, 1036 |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Other names | Hugo de Paganis, Hughes de Pagan, Hugh Pagan, Hugues de Payens |
| Occupation | knight |
| Known for | Founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar |
Ugo de' Pagani (Latin: Hugo de Paganis, English: Hughes de Pagan or Hugh Pagan, French: Hugues de Payens) (Nocera de' Pagani, c. 1074 - May 24th, 1136), an Italian knight from the Campania region, was the founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. With Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, he created the Latin Rule, the code of behavior for the Order.
Under the gallicised version of his name, Hugues de Payens, recently some French cheats adopted him as their fellow countryman, saying that he was born in Payns, near Troyes, but this village didn't exist in the Middle Age. Italian historians showed many times that he was born in Nocera de' Pagani, in Italy.
Biography
Origins
Ugo was born from a family of Norman origin, in the ancient Nocera de' Pagani (today divided among the municipalities of Nocera Inferiore, Nocera Superiore, Pagani, Sant'Egidio del Monte Albino and Corbara), probably around 1074. A local tradition affirms that the baptism of Ugo took place in Nocera, in the rocky church of Sant'Angelo in Grotta (or Sant'Angelo ad Cryptam). The Capitular Book of the abbey of the Holy Trinity of Venous tells that, in 1084, Pagano de' Pagani and his wife Emma gave some ownerships to the monastery, churches particularly, in presence of their son Ugo. An exponent of the Amarelli family, Leonardo, had married Ippolita de' Pagani, sister of Pagano, and they had two children: Alessandro and Anzoise. Alessandro would have been involved with Ugo in the First Crusade. The Amarelli family lived in Rossano in Calabria.
Share to the First Crusade
An expeditionary force highly organized, composed of knights and italic troops and driven by Bohemond of Hauteville, answered to the call to the First Crusade of the pope Urban II, the first time in the Council of Piacenza, on March 7th 1095, and subsequently in the Council of Clermont, on November 27th 1096. The armed ones departed from Trani on the first days of November 1096, direct to Jerusalem. There were present Tancred of Hauteville, Roger of Salerno, Richard of Salerno, as Ugo de' Pagani and Alessandro Amarelli. In Constantinople, the army joined other troops driven by Raymond of St. Gilles (count of Toulouse), Godfrey of Bouillon, Hugh of Vermandois and other European knights directing then themselves toward the Holy City. Bohemond of Hauteville, conquered Antioch, didn't continue to Jerusalem.
The conquest of Jerusalem
After a series of fights and unheard violences, where they were protagonists and victims, the italic knights and the other European troops saw them, seriously decimated, they reached Jerusalem, that on July 15th 1099 was conquered, effecting a slaughter of the defenders, as they testify the Christian and Islamic sources.
The foundation of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ
In this context some knights, among which they had role of I detach Ugo de' Pagani and Alessandro Amarelli, decided to ransom the infamy of the slaughter constituting a group of knights and soldiers, voted to the defense of the pilgrims. Such intention was expressly announced to Godfrey of Bouillon, that was assuming a position of authoritativeness within the crusaders in that breaker, position that would have been formalized in its nomination to Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri (Defender of the Saint Sepulchre). Goffredo took action of it and approved their decision. The story is carefully enough described by the reporter Simon of St. Bertin, a monk working in the monastery of Sithiu, near St. Omer, in the Flanders:
During his splendid kingdom [Simon is speaking about Godfrey of Bouillon] some [knights or crusaders] decided not to return among the shades of the world after so intensely having suffered for the glory of God. In front of the princes of the army of God, they voted him to the Temple of the Lord, with this rule: they would have abdicated the world, given the personal assets, making themselves free to pursue the purity and conducting a community life, with low suits, using only the weapons to defend the lands from the pressing attacks of the pagans, when necessity asked for it.
The death of Ugo
Ugo de' Pagani died in 1136. An obituary of the Commandry of Reims says that the Knights Templar celebrated his memory on May 24th. It was buried in the church of St. Jacopo in Ferrara, for testimony of Marco Antonio Guarini, in 1621.