Contemporary Templar images on a medieval shrine?

Around the shrine of Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford, sit fourteen armed men in niches. A tradition calls them Templars, and modern Templar groups have claimed the bishop for the order. What do the scholarly sources say?

The Shrine
Thomas de Cantilupe died in 1282, and his tomb in Hereford Cathedral became a place of pilgrimage [1]. Badham describes fourteen armed men sitting on stone seats with their feet on animals [1]. The lower part is probably his original tomb chest, moved and enlarged in 1287 under his successor Bishop Swinfield [1]. Painted heraldry on the knights was still visible when Dingley drew them about 1684, which suggests that they were meant as specific individuals [1].

The Templar Tradition
Badham reports a tradition that the figures represent Templars, but she finds no record that Cantilupe was ever associated with the order [1]. Modern Templar bodies have claimed him as one of their own; I could not recheck that claim at its source. A different, smaller observation has also been used: Julian-Jones notes that Thomas seems to have followed Bernard of Clairvaux’s Templar code of conduct by refusing to kiss his female relatives [2]. That describes his personal discipline, not membership of an order.

Other Readings
Badham lists several explanations [1]. Marshall saw soldiers of Christ, like those at Easter Sepulchres, expressing sorrow; Coldstream saw paradise imagery [1]. Badham herself suggests Marcher lords who supported his cult, his own rank as a Marcher lord, or the tenants who owed the diocese military service, whose number may match [1]. Julian-Jones argues the last two: Hereford lay on the Welsh March, and its bishop had to send armed men into Wales, which is why a frieze of knights surrounds his tomb [2].

No source I read supports Templars on the shrine. The knights are better explained by the bishop’s feudal duties and by sorrow and glory imagery. The Templar link is a later tradition, not a documented fact.

This blog, an improved version of an earlier one, is original work by TemplarsNow^TM based on an AI-assisted quick scan on the topic. References and further reading, Open Access if available, all links verified October 26, 2026 and all sources checked but not all studied in detail: [1] Badham, S. (2021) The Cantilupe Indent in Hereford Cathedral and its Associated Shrine Base Re-assessed, Transactions of the Monumental Brass Society XXII, pp. 1-26 (Templars p. 16, other readings p. 17); [2] Julian-Jones, M. (2015) The Land of the Raven and the Wolf. Family Power and Strategy in the Welsh March, 1199 to c. 1300, Corbets and the Cantilupes, PhD thesis, Cardiff University, pp. 243 and 315-316.

The illustration shows the shrine of St Thomas de Cantilupe in Hereford Cathedral, photo by Philip Pankhurst, source Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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