Concept in Definition ABC

With his disappearance, the legend began; to the Knights Templar, who were victims of the greed of the King of France, they are attributed knowledge resulting from their relationship with the Middle East, which would surpass the knowledge of any other person or organization, as well as fabulous treasures. This is his story, far from the legends.

The order of the temple was an institution founded in 1118 (after the first crusade) with the aim of protecting and helping Christian pilgrims going to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, the holy city for three religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity), had fallen into Christian hands in 1099, which, theoretically, it had opened the gates of the city to Christian pilgrims, something that, in fact, had never been forbidden Thanks to the attitude openness of Muslim leaders, who allowed other cults as long as they paid a tax special.

The problem of the pilgrimages was the multiple dangers to which the pilgrims were exposed during the trip, such as the assault by bandits.

The new king of Jerusalem, Baudouin, did not have enough troops to carry out a police task of protecting travelers who followed a pilgrimage to the holy land, so some knights began to organize in what would end up being the Order of the Temple to carry out this homework.

Grateful, Baldwin provided these knights with a barracks in which to live, located in the ancient Temple of Solomon. From there they would get the name of the order.

In fact, the full name of the new order was Order of the Poor Companions of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, although they would simply be known as Order of the Temple or Templars.

The influence of both its founder, Hugo de Payns, and King Baudouin, garnered rapid support the new organization both on the part of the Christian European nobility and on the part of the church.

The number of knights assigned to the order grew gradually in parallel with the importance that the organization gained, and the tasks that it began to perform; from only protecting the pilgrims, to becoming a true force navy, an army.

At the same time, the Temple was also expanding territorially; for example, in the Crown of Aragon (both in the kingdoms of Aragon, as in Catalonia, and Valencia), the Temple had numerous possessions. In France he also had large estates, and his influence was remarkable.

Within the Temple, the knights and the rest of the staff were guided by a rule that had been given to the institution by the church.

Must think that, despite the fact that the Knights Templar are the best known, they were only a part of the total personnel in the order, since alongside them, servants and other personnel lived together civil, without ecclesial or military affiliation.

The rule of the Temple contemplated the vow of poverty, and made knights half monks-half warriors.

But, despite that vow of poverty, the commanderies of the Temple (cells in which the Temple was divided locally) were rich. Why?

A first reason They are the voluntary donations that many nobles made to the Temple, these donations being in the form of land, property and money. Even those who were not nobles, ordinary citizens or bourgeois, also donated their more or less meager possessions to the Temple, hoping to save their souls when they died by leading them to heaven.

The beginning of the end of the Templars can be found in the loss of holy land by Christendom.

Jerusalem was reconquered by the Muslims in 1244. Acre, the last bastion in the holy land, fell in 1291. Did the existence of the Order of the Temple make sense in this context?

However, the great power that the Templars had gained in almost a century and a half of existence, prevented their disappearance.

We have to think that the organization functioned as a institution bank making loans to many kingdoms and nobles. Although these practices (considered usury) were prohibited by the church, the Templars had an ingenious system to circumvent the prohibition: they lent the money without interest and, after returning it, the nobleman or king made a “voluntary donation” to the coffers templar. The amount of this donation was previously agreed between both parties, and used to be a fixed percentage.

Result: although officially, the Templars did not charge interest, in fact they did, but unofficially.

The great accumulated power and the debts contracted, above all, by kings with the order, as well as the wealth that it accumulated, were his downfall.

Such riches aroused greed, and their enormous influence, misgivings. The first to open fire on the Order of the Temple (installed in Cyprus since the fall of the Holy Land) was Philip IV of France, who owed large amounts to the Order of the Temple, and lacked much will to pay them.

Philip IV accused, in 1307, the Templars of apostatizing, of performing pagan and demonic ceremonies, of sodomy, and of various other practices contrary to the Catholic faith. He had the acquiescence of Pope Clement V.

The Templars in France were quickly imprisoned. The Pope yielded and dissolved the order, ordering the Templars to be arrested wherever they were. The monarchs who imprisoned them could get hold of their wealth and see their debts with the order forgiven, which is precisely what Philip IV of France was interested in.

The captured Knights Templar confessed what was asked of them after suffering horrible torture, and were finally burned at the stake.

In some territories, such as the Crown of Aragon itself, the sovereign (Jaime II) initially hesitated to launch himself against the Templars, but the Succulent loot at stake, together with the consequences that resisting a papal order could bring, made him finally join the hunting.

And, from here, from its disappearance, begins the legend of the Order of the Temple, a legend that includes treasures that would still be hidden, the Sacred Chalice, and even the survival of the order of form secret. But that already belongs to the realm of fantasy, and not to that of history.

Photos: Fotolia - alex2212110 / mario

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