Knights Templar
French nobleman Hugh de Payens founded the Poor Knights of Christ in 1119 with eight of his companions. The order was founded in Jerusalem, which had been captured by Crusaders in 1099, and it occupied a house near the Temple of Solomon. As a result, it soon acquired the popular name Knights Templar, or simply Templars.In 1128 the pope granted the order a charter, and the famous Cistercian monk Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) fashioned a rigorous rule for the Templars modeled on that of his own order. Bernard's rule governed the Templars' daily duties and outlined a simple, religious way of life. The Templars spent part of each day in prayer, and they observed the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
The Knights' administration was highly centralized. The order's leader was called the grand master, and he presided over three ranks of members: knights, chaplains, and sergeants. Only the highest rank, the knight, was permitted to wear the order's distinctive clothing, a white tunic with a red Latin Cross on the back. The grand master was responsible only to the pope, and the many Templar installations in Palestine and Europe were also free from the control of kings and bishops.
The first duties of the order included providing military escorts to religious pilgrims making the journey from the Mediterranean to Jerusalem. However, as the Templars' popularity increased in the 12th century, they developed into a formidable band of knights. Numbering around 20,000 at their peak, the Templars established fortresses in many cities in Palestine and came to be very important in defending the Crusader states, especially the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, from attacks by Muslim forces.
By the end of the 12th century, military success in the Holy Land had brought the Templars wealth as well as rich gifts of land in Palestine and Europe. The order received generous contributions from the Church, and often rulers in Europe donated land or money to the Templars instead of going to the Holy Land themselves. The order regularly provided a force of 300 knights for the defense of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. To support their military units, the Templars drew upon the money produced by their lands in Europe and Palestine. To speed the movement of funds between their various outposts, they developed a sophisticated banking system. Since the Templars were one of the few groups strong enough to safely transport money to and from the Holy Land, Western kings, nobles, and merchants came to rely upon them for this service. As a result, the Knights gradually became bankers for a large part of Europe and amassed great wealth and power.
In 1187 Jerusalem fell to Muslim forces under the command of Saladin, and the Templars moved their base of operations to Antioch, in modern Turkey. In the next century Muslim advances forced them from Antioch to Acre (in modern Israel) and then to Caesarea (also in modern Israel). By 1291 they had abandoned the Holy Land completely and moved their operations to Cyprus, thereby losing their chief purpose, the defense of Palestine.
Long-standing resentment of the order's vast wealth now grew. At the same time, rumors began to spread that the order's members engaged in immoral behavior and in religious practices forbidden by the Church. In 1307 King Philip IV of France moved decisively against the Knights. With the permission of Pope Clement V, Philip imprisoned the order's grand master, Jacques de Molay, and all the other Templars living in France at the time. Under torture, the Knights confessed to blasphemy and devil worship. In 1312 Clement dissolved the order and transferred its remaining property to its rivals, the Hospitalers. Eventually, most of the Templars in France were burned as heretics.
It has been suggested that Philip IV took these actions because he was severely short of money and found himself able to remedy this problem at the expense of the Templars. Certainly, the rumors of the order's practices and its failure to stop the Muslim conquest of Palestine made it an easy target for the French king. But financial considerations do appear to have played a part. In both France and England the royal government seized most of the order's assets, despite the pope's directive that the Knights' wealth should be transferred to the Hospitalers.
The chief legacy of the Templars was the banking system that they developed. In addition to making loans to individuals and governments, the Templars established complex systems for the transportation of wealth to and from the Holy Land. They also pioneered the use of something similar to modern checks. This allowed people to deposit money with the Templars in one place and withdraw it somewhere else. This was both easier and safer than transporting large amounts of gold or silver. The Templars' banking system became the foundation for the banking systems developed by merchants during the Renaissance. Though the Knights were not revived as a religious institution after their dissolution, the order was later incorporated into the York rite of the Masonic order. See also Freemasonry.
- Philip M. Soergel