Ivanhoe

Now the tale returns to Isaac, who stops some four miles short of the Templar Preceptory of Templestowe, exhausted by his furious pace of travel. He stays at the house of Nathan Ben Samuel, a Jewish physician, who treats Isaac’s nervous exhaustion and shares more bad news. The head of the Templar Order, Lucas de Beaumanoir, is at the preceptory. In contrast to the worldly, ambitious, and avaricious knights of the Order, Beaumanoir has a zealot’s passion for purity and moral rectitude. He’s unlikely to be moved by bribes and, to make matters worse, people say he values the death of a Jewish person as highly as the death of the Templars’ avowed enemies, the Muslim forces who have seized Jerusalem from the crusaders. He especially distrusts the alleged witchery of Jewish medicine.

Be that as it may, Isaac insists, he must do what he can to rescue Rebecca. Nathan Ben Samuel suggests that Isaac try to appeal to Sir Brian privately; despising the Jewish people, Beaumanoir can hardly be expected to take pity on Isaac’s or Rebecca’s plight. With gratitude, Isaac bids his friend farewell.

The Preceptory of Templestowe is a large, well-maintained, and heavily guarded structure that Isaac hesitates to approach, since his religion makes him an object of scorn and his wealth a target of extortion to those within. Meanwhile, Lucas de Beaumanoir paces a private courtyard with his friend and advisor, Mountfitchet. Age and the hard life of a soldier have not dimmed Beaumanoir’s noble bearing or his fiery, zealous devotion to the religious and martial ideals of his Order. Only a little extra lambskin leather and finer wool thread distinguish his plain garments from those worn by the lower ranks.

Grand Master Beaumanoir expresses his heartsick disgust over the state of the English Templars and their excessive vanity, idleness, gluttony, and sexual indulgence. He describes a dream in which the Order’s founders exhorted him to purify it by slaying all its sinners. Mountfitchet suggests that mercy should temper Beaumanoir’s justice, but Beaumanoir insists that the Templars cannot ignore the existential threats they face. Despite their powerful friends, they have many enemies willing to seize on their wickedness as reason to oppose their power.

A squire enters the courtyard; his humble attitude and clothing impress Beaumanoir. The squire announces that a Jewish man named Isaac has arrived at the gate asking to speak with Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert. Noting that no knight of the Order should be entertaining visitors without his superiors’ permission, Beaumanoir thanks the squire for the intelligence and asks him to bring Isaac to the courtyard instead.

Declaring his aversion for Jewish people, Beaumanoir warns Isaac not to say a word except in answer to his questions. He demands to know Isaac’s business with Sir Brian. Afraid to anger the Grand Master by showing Sir Brian in a bad light, Isaac hesitates, then hands over Aymer’s letter. Beaumanoir reads, with growing rage, Aymer’s suggestion that Sir Brian ransom Rebecca before Beaumanoir can find out, then use the money for debauchery with Aymer himself.

Then Beaumanoir, seizing on Aymer’s description of Rebecca as a “second Witch of Endor,” demands to know whether his daughter practices medicine. Isaac confesses that she does. The Grand Master alleges that she heals not through skill but with witchcraft and vows to burn her at the stake, just like someone else recently burned her teacher.  Then he orders the squire to drive Isaac from the preceptory.