The loan
The Templars had to carry out an economic, commercial and financial activity to pay the costs inherent in the functioning of the order and the expenses of their military activities in the East. However, this activity should not be confused with that of banking. Usury, that is to say a transaction involving the payment of interest, was forbidden by the Church to Christians and moreover to religious.
As the Old Testament says:
"Thou shalt not charge thy brother any interest, neither for money, nor for food, nor for anything that lends itself to interest. »
The Templars lent money to all kinds of people or institutions:pilgrims, crusaders, merchants, monastic congregations, clergy, kings and princes... The repayment amount was sometimes higher than the initial sum when it could be camouflaged by an act of changing currency. A common way to get around the ban.
During Louis VII's crusade, the King of France on arriving in Antioch asked for financial aid from the Templars. The master of the order, Evrard des Barrès, did what was necessary. The King of France wrote to his intendant, speaking of the Templars, "we cannot imagine how we could have survived in these countries [East] without their help and assistance. (...) We notify you that they lent and borrowed a considerable sum in their name. This sum must be returned to them (...). The sum in question represented two thousand marks of silver.
The bill of exchange
The financial activity of the order provided that individuals could deposit their goods when leaving on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela or Rome. The Templars thus invented the deposit voucher. When a pilgrim entrusted the Templars with the sum necessary for his pilgrimage, the brother treasurer gave him a letter on which was inscribed the sum deposited. This handwritten and authenticated letter took the name of bill of exchange. The pilgrim could thus travel without money on him and was safer. Arrived at his destination, he recovered from other Templars all of his money in local currency. The Templars developed and institutionalized the currency exchange service for pilgrims.
The Templar treasure
It was a locked chest in which were kept money, jewelry, but also archives. This safe was called a hutch. The master of the order in Jerusalem carried out the accounting before it was transferred at the end of the 13th century to the treasurer of the order. Three articles of withdrawals from the rule tell us about the financial functioning of the order. The master could authorize the loan of money (without interest) with or without the agreement of his advisers depending on the size of the sum. Revenues from the Western commanderies were remitted to the treasury of the order's headquarters in Jerusalem.
All monetary donations of more than one hundred bezants were concentrated in the treasury of the order. The commanderies of Paris or London served as depot centers for France and England. Each commandery could function thanks to a treasure kept in a chest. When the Templars were arrested in 1307, only one important chest was found, that of the visitor from France, Hugues de Pairaud. The money it contained was confiscated by the king and immediately joined the royal coffers.
The guard of the royal treasury
It began in 1146 when Louis VII, leaving for the second crusade, decided to leave the royal treasury in the custody of the Temple of Paris. Subsequently, this developed, so that many sovereigns trusted the treasurers of the order.
Another great personality, Henry II of England, had left the custody of the treasury to the Temple. In addition, many Templars of the House of England were also royal advisers.
The heritage of the Templars
The Order of the Temple had mainly two types of built heritage:monasteries called commanderies located in the West and fortresses located in the Near East and the Iberian Peninsula.
The house of the Temple of Jerusalem
The house of the Temple in Jerusalem was the seat of the order, where the master of the order lived.