The Knights Templar

The definitive source

IMDB The Da Vinci code?  LOL that didn't help.  

http://www.yamaguchy.com/library/cikkek/moyenage.html

Not content to exercise their authority over the territories subject to them, the Templars attempted to acquire new rights, in which they were particularly favoured by the troubles of the war in Aquitaine under Philip the Fair. Their patronage, moreover, was very much sought by the people of the country, who thus armed themselves against the power of the seigniorial bailiffs. Michelet notes that in the seneschal’s jurisdiction of Beaucaire alone the order had bought 10,000 pounds’ worth of revenues vested in land ; and this did not only represent at the epoch a considerable property, but a great territorial power. The Prior of St. Gilles had under him alone fifty-four commanderies. In most of the countries of Europe the Brothers had fortresses ; in the kingdom of Valencia they possessed seventeen of them. They had been seen to attack crowned heads—the King of Cyprus and the Prince of Antioch—dethrone a King of Jerusalem, ravage Greece and Thrace.

The origin of their financial power was the immense treasure which they had brought back to the West : 150,000 golden florins, which a skilful financial administration soon increased tenfold. As the Templars had houses in every country, they carried out the financial operations of the international banks of to-day ; they were acquainted with bills of exchange, orders payable at sight ; they arranged annuities and pensions on paid-up capital, made advances of funds, lent against pledges, managed private deposits, and undertook the levy of taxes for lay and ecclesiastical lords. They lent money to kings.

From the year 1290, Philip the Fair was uneasy on the subject of the power of the Temple. By letters of 29th June he ordered his seneschals and baillis to send him the list of the properties acquired by the Brothers of the Temple during the last forty-five years. The same year the Parliament forbade them to extend their patronage over individuals. On 22nd April 1293, Philip the Fair reminded his officials of this decree, ordering them to see to its execution.

The Temple enjoyed insolent prosperity. Richard Cœur de Lion said that he left his avarice to the Cistercians and his pride to the Templars. After the catastrophe in which their power was to collapse, the good chronicler, Geoffroi de Paris, drew this portrait of them : “ The Brothers of the Temple, gorged with gold and silver and who commanded such nobility, where are they ? What has become of them, those whom no one dare cite in the courts ? Always buying and never selling, making themselves feared as much as the King’s officers, extending their pride over the world, making themselves richer than the richest : ‘ So often goes the pitcher to the water that it breaks.’ ”

They came to the point of braving the King and refusing to pay taxes.

Philip the Fair attempted to divert to the royal authority the power of the Temple. He solicited admission into the Order with a view to becoming the head. He selected the Grand Master as godfather of one of his children. These advances were repulsed : and the destruction of the Temple was decided in his mind.

=====

http://www.yamaguchy.com/library/webster/secret_societies/secret03.htm

As the Templars had houses in all countries, they practised the financial operations of the international banks of our times ; they were acquainted with letters of exchange, orders payable at sight, they instituted dividends and annuities on deposited capital, advanced funds, lent on credit, controlled private accounts, undertook to raise taxes for the lay and ecclesiastical seigneurs.

Through their proficiency in these matters—acquired very possibly from the Jews of Alexandria whom they must have met in the East—the Templars had become the “ international financiers ” and “ international capitalists ” of their day ; had they not been suppressed, all the evils now denounced by Socialists as peculiar to the system they describe as “ Capitalism ”—trusts, monopolies, and “ corners ”—would in all probability have been inaugurated during the course of the fourteenth century in a far worse form than at the present day, since no legislation existed to protect the community at large. The feudal system, as Marx and Engels perceived, was the principal obstacle to exploitation by a financial autocracy.