What really was the purpose of the Knights Templars?

Question

How common were they used in early banking?
How easy was it to become one?

Answer 1

Started out as a force to protect the lands and wealth of the Church, esp. in the Middle East. After the Knights Hospitalers of St. John and Jerusalem moved to Rhodes and then Malta the Knights Templar became less important in the Med.

Today the KT still holds much property in Bath and Bristol. The banking thing is not banks as we know them, the Muslims currently use a similar system in the UK today. Pay guy in Bradford £X and he calls his Uncle in Delhi who will then pay your Dad RX less a fee.

As a religious order the route was be a devout Knight and pledge your inheritance to the Church - apparently the afterlife benefits plan was meant to be a superior product!

Answer 2

No, the Knights Templar, originally chartered in 1118 as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon by French knight Hughes de Payens.

The real reason for the charter was to provide cover for the nine original members ( rather few to 'protect pilgrims en route between the ports of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast, and Jerusalem', especially considering that the level of pilgrims in the after-glow of the first 'Millenium' was a veritable flood tide ) to follow the directions that had fallen into Hughes De Payens greasy paws to the 'Great Treasure' that was supposed to lie buried under the ruins of Herod's reconstruction of the original Temple of Solomon, hence the commonly adopted name for the order, the Templars.

The Order progressed from tiny and impoverished to the greatest power on the European landmass in less than two hundred years, so much so the the highly undesirable and hilariously named 'Philip the Fair' (Philip IV), of France had a whole 'frame' erected with which to take over their vast wealth on Friday 13th of October 1307 ( widely believed to be the origin of the sailor's superstition against setting sail on Fridays, and particularly Friday the thirteenths !

Well, what can you say ? Like the old song "Easy come, easy go ! "

As to banking, they had cornered the market in worldly wealth in the 13th and 14th centuries, so they were the banks of their time.

If you want to become a Knight of the Temple now then start with accruing an enormous amount of wealth, and then get ready to give it all to the order.......or something like that......

Answer 3

Their primary role was in protecting Pilgrims travelling to and from The Holy Land during The Crusades and were really armoured Monks.They were the first truly international Banking organisation as well ,however some corruption was inevitable.
Distrust of them by their peers in other orders and areas of the world caused their downfall and many years after The Crusades the Order was discredited and excommunicated by the Pope amid charges of Heresy and Satanism ,the majority of their holdings were seized by The Catholic Church and they were hounded out of every country that they had Chapter Houses.
An offshoot of The Templars became The Freemasons.

Answer 4

To protect the Holy Lands at any cost. Their gain was instant entry to heaven ( promised by the Pope ) They fell into disfavour after being ousted by the saracen (Muslims) and on Friday the 13th (I forget the year) they were attacked on all sides and ultimately disbanded. Their last Grand Master was Jaques de Molay. Their links to the Masonic Order are purely hearsay based on their initiation rites and secrecy. The Sicilian Mafia still use some of the ancient rituals to let a man enter " the family " These include some pretty horrendous trials as used by the Camorra Family.

Answer 5

The Knights Templar were an order of crusader knights. It is not possible to become one as the order disbanded centuries ago. I guess you could join the masons - they had links to the order when it ended.

Answer 6

hi, to guard pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land and police the area. In time their order have been given incredibly wealthy and have been given unfavourable interest from grasping ecu monarchs; extremely Phillip Of France. That mentioned, at present they have replaced the classic "Jewish Conspiracy" and gave the impression to be blamed or stated for each little thing from withholding the Holy Grail and secret archives approximately Christ to plugging municipal loos. Cheers, Mike ok

Answer 7

Thou shall burn into hell....
Our good king is tracking them to bring them to divine justice and those heretics will be on the side of the Evil one and burn for eternity. Chastise the infidels
St Denis protects our good King Philip and his land