The Banners

Shibboleth: A Templar Monitor, by George Cooper Connor, [1894], at sacred-texts.com

THE BANNERS.

There are two which belong to the Order of the Temple at this time. They are the Grand Standard and the Beauceant.

The Grand Standard is of blue field, five by six feet, and made tripartite at the bottom. Over the blood-red Passion Cross in the center is the Motto of the Order, "In Hoc Signo Vinces." Beneath the Cross is the ancient Templar motto, "Non nobis Domine; non nobis, sed Nomini tuo da Gloriam."

The Beauceant is of the same form and dimensions as the Grand Standard. The upper half of this Banner is black, and the lower half is white.

When the Templar looks upon the Grand Standard he is admonished to so live and serve the Master that having passed through the portals of the grave he may receive from his hand the Crown of Victory, while exclaiming, "Not unto us, O Lord; not unto us, but unto thy Name be the glory."

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The Beauceant.—This was the Battle Flag of the ancient Templars. It is half black and half white; signifying that these Christian warriors were fair and favorable to the friends of Christ, but dark and terrible to his enemies.

Sometimes this Banner was divided per pale, that is, perpendicularly, but most frequently per fesse, that is, horizontally, the upper half always black.

The red Passion Cross was sometimes on the white, but never on the black. Color upon color would be false heraldry. The cry of the Templars was, "Au Bausant for the Temple," but what that cry really meant is not understood to-day.

The ancient Templars frequently painted the Beauceant upon their kite-shaped shields, as an armorial bearing. It was said to betoken Innocence, Death and Martyrdom.