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Message:: [QUOTE="GinoLR, post: 23158682, member: 128351"]In Philip the Fair's time, the Knights Templar were no longer warriors fighting the Sarrazins in the Holy Land, they had become bankers. Because they had been created by the Pope in the 12th c. as a sovereign order, they were submitted to no secular government, no king had any authority on them or could tax them. They ignored borders and had branches in all European countries, in France their local agencies were called "commanderies" and in Paris their headquarters were a huge castle with a conspicuous keep overlooking the urban landscape. A large part of their wealth consisted of land. A small suburban town not far from where I live is still called "Savigny le Temple" which means in middle French "Savigny (property of) the Order of the Temple": the whole village with its territory used to belong to them. But their most profitable business was loans: they were an international bank, after all. The Templars' treasure was not an indoor swimming pool full of gold coins like Uncle Scrooge's. Their main treasure was parchment: property acts, assets, receivables... The king of France was heavily indebted to them, so were many other kings, dukes, counts, bishops, etc. The Knights Templars did not hoard gold but made it work.[/QUOTE]