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The letters of Pope Clement IV (1265-1268) contain largely chronologically arranged, with its 556 pieces of the political and personal correspondence of the Pope and are well regarded as the main source of his pontificate. The target audience is broad and largely prominent. Included are letters to the kings of Sicily, France, England, Aragon, Castile, to the Emperor of Byzantium and the princes of the Tartars, in many cases, to cardinals, who were just outside the Roman Curia, and the rest to various ecclesiastical prelates, secular lords, to acquaintances and relatives of Provençal home of the Pope and many others.

Military Orders: In Praise of the New Knighthood (Liber ad milites Templi: De laude novae militae) St. Bernard of Clairvaux trans. Conrad Greenia The following passage is taken from a treatise written in the early 12th century by the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, on behalf of the fledgling Knights Templar. It might be viewed as a combination of exhortation to the Knights, and advertisement to the population in general. Officially it is an answer to a letter written to Bernard by his friend Hugh de Payens, one of the founders of the Templars.

"Introduction: History sometimes has scattered poppy without merit. We know little of many who were once great in the earth, and still less of the life of the people in their times. The life of the past must be visualized by piecing together detached and scattered fragments from many sources. The result is a composite picture, not a portrait. It is only now and then that the student of history is able to penetrate behind the veil of obscurity and get glimpses of intimate personal life and learn to know the men and women of the past with some degree of acquaintance."