Around 1119, nearly two decades after the First Crusade (1095-1099), Hugues de Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer, two French noblemen and Crusade veterans, gathered a group of nine knights to create a monastic Order under the approval of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. Aiming to protect the Christian pilgrims, who were en route to the Holy Land to visit the temple sanctified to their faith, the nine knights offered to serve as a military force. The King granted the knights a wing in the Al Aqsa Mosque on the southeastern side of the Royal Palace on the Temple Mount, which was then known as Solomon’s Temple. There, the knights established their headquarters in order to organize their mission. From the Solomon’s Temple, they became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, which later changed to the Knights Templar.
In the early nine years, the Templars were facing a relative difficulty in recruiting new members because not everyone liked their lifestyle and mission. Moreover, they remained eight out of nine. This caused financial problems and the Order had to rely on donations to survive. To emphasize on their poor resources and poverty they used as their emblem two knights riding on a single horse.
Around 1129, the Templars were officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Troyes, with the support of a powerful Church figure, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. His formal blessings swept throughout Christendom and attracted many noblemen all over Europe. The Templars organized many successful fundraising campaigns that brought about donations of money and land. The continuous support of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux kept the Order growing with the only repercussion that the donations would be used to defend Jerusalem, but also to ensure a place in Heaven for the charitable donor.
In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued the Papal Bull Omne Datum Optimum, which allowed the Templars to pass freely from the borders, to owe no taxes, and to be subject only to the Pope’s authority. This Papal Bull was an exceptional confirmation of the Templars’ mission, but also a favor in return to Bernard of Clairvaux’s help to the Pope’s rise.
Soon, the Knights Templar grew in resources and people and became the wealthiest and the greatest of the military Orders of the Middle Ages. Their wealth and well-armored costumes often put the Templars in the front line of the Crusade battles. In 1177, the Knights Templar played a key role in the defeat of the Saladin’s army in the Battle of Montgisard. 500 Templars defeated 26,000 soldiers in one of the most important Templars victories.
Although the original mission of the Knights Templar was military, soon the Order evolved into contemporary financial managers. Any assets placed under the management of the Templars were becoming, in effect, accumulated wealth of the Order throughout Christendom. Since 1150, the Order was able to issue letters of credit for pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. The pilgrims’ valuables were guarded by the Knights Templar, who, in return, would issue a letter describing their holdings. Upon arrival to the Holy Land, or even in any stop in between, the pilgrims could use that document to repossess their funds. In effect, this was an early form of modern banking, particularly related to cheques’ issuance.
Moreover, the political connections of the Knights Templar as well as their involvement to the urban and commercial life led to the acquisition of immense power, both in Europe and the Holy Land. With their wealth they built castles and churches, got involved in import and export manufacturing, created their own fleet of ships and even owned Cyprus Island.
After nearly two centuries of powerful presence in the European life and prominent defense of the Christian faith, the first signs of decline for the Templars became visible. From one hand, the constant rise of the Muslim world under the rule of Saladin, and on the other hand, the intense disagreements among Christian sections concerning the Holy Land and the rivalry of the Knights Templar with the two other Christian military orders, the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights, led to the political and military weakening of the Christian positions. In 1187, Jerusalem was recaptured by Saladin; in 1229, the Crusaders took it back, until finally, in 1244, the Khwarezmi Turks recaptured it and Jerusalem did not return to Western control until 1917 when the British regained power from the Ottoman Turks.
Under the circumstances, the Templars had to relocate their headquarters northern. Over a series of lost battles between 1291 and 1303 in Tortosa, Atlit, Limassol and Arwad, the Knights Templar lost both their fame and control in the Holy Land. Being significantly less dominant and powerful, both politically and militarily, the Knights Templar began to lose also support.
In 1305, the Pope Clement V proposed the unification of the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar. Although neither side was pleased with the proposal, they both agreed to discuss it in Paris. The Grand Master of the Knights Templar Jacques de Molay arrived in Paris earlier. There, an issue of debt charges that had been made two years prior by an expelled Templar arose. Although the charges were false, the Pope had to investigate the issue. Hence, he sent King Philip IV of France, known as “Philip the Fair”, a written appeal for assistance in the investigation. Because King Philip was already in debt to the Templars from the war against the English, he decided to help Pope Clement V to facilitate his own purposes. So, he put immense pressure upon the Church in order to set himself free of his debts.
In 1307, on Friday, October 13th, Jacques de Molay was arrested along with other French Templars with the charges of several heresies. Pope Clement V issued a Papal Bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, which led to the arrest of all Templars throughout Europe and seizure of their assets.
In their arrests, the Templars confessed to have stepped on and spitted on the cross, to have worshipped an idol and actions of homosexuality and sodomy. With all these charges, they were greatly tortured to a scandalous extent. King Philip was triumphal in eradicating the power and wealth of the Templars, urging all Christian monarchs to do the same.
The official dissolve of the Knights Templar came in 1312. Pope Clement V dissolved their monastic Order on the grounds of having fallen very low in the public consciousness with their actions of blasphemy, rather than having been found guilty of debt as initially charged.
In 1314, the story ended with the burning of the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay. According to the legend, before he died, De Molay cursed both King Philip IV and Pope Clement V to join him in death within a year. In effect, both men joined De Molay in death within a year.
I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.
Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.
