A commandery was a monastery in which lived the brothers of the order in the West. It served as a rear base to finance the activities of the order in the East and to ensure the recruitment and the military and spiritual training of the brothers of the order. It was formed from donations of land and real estate.
Constitution of assets
Most of the property owned by the order of the Temple came from donations. In the early years of its creation, land donations enabled the order to establish itself throughout Europe. Then, there were three great waves of donations from 1130 to 1140, from 1180 to 1190 and from 1210 to 1220. First of all, we can note that all men who entered the order could donate part of their property in the Temple. Then, donations could come from all social categories, from the king to the laity. For example, King Henry II of England ceded to the Temple the stronghold of Sainte-Vaubourg and its right of way over the Seine at Val-de-la-Haye, in Normandy. Another example that can be cited is the donation made in 1255 by Canon Étienne Collomb of the Saint-Étienne cathedral in Auxerre of a tax collected in the village of Saint-Amâtre.
Although the majority of donations consisted of land or income from land, donations of rents or commercial income were not negligible. For example, Louis VII sold in 1143-1144 an annuity of twenty-seven pounds established on the stalls of money changers in Paris.
Type of donations
Donations could be of three different types:
Pro anima donation:this could be a large donation (which was often the cause of the creation of a commandery) or a minor land donation involving only a few plots. The motivation of the donor was to invoke the salvation of his soul or the remission of his sins.
Donation in extremis:this type of donation was made mostly by pilgrims acting as a precaution. They made this gift before leaving for the Holy Land. Few in number, these donations were quickly replaced by testamentary bequests.
Paid donation:the donor was acting with the aim of receiving a counter-donation. It was not exactly a sale but rather a remunerated donation, ensuring the donor of an asset allowing him to receive enough to live on. The beneficiary (on this occasion the order of the Temple) was also a winner in this type of gift, the counter-gift being of a lower value. The purpose of this type of donation was to facilitate the donation process, knowing that the transfer of all or part of a property could seriously affect the income of the donor or that of his heirs. It was not uncommon for certain conflicts between the Order and heirs to arise in such cases, the dispute sometimes being settled through the courts.
Amenities
We saw earlier that donations could be of different nature and content. It therefore remained for the Order of the Temple to organize and bring everything together into a coherent whole. To do this, the Templars carried out a number of exchanges or sales in order to structure their commanderies and gather the land to optimize the income that could be drawn from it. We can take the process of land consolidation as a parallel, at least with regard to the grouping of land around or dependent on a commandery.