The Copper Scroll, which was unrolled and deciphered at Manchester University under the guidance of John Allegro, was a list of all the burial sites used to hide the various items both sacred and profane described as the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem. The last item, number 61, reads, "In the Pit (Shîth) adjoining on the north, in a hole opening northwards, and buried at its mouth: a copy of this document, with an explanation and their measurements, and an inventory of each thing, and oth[er things]"4. The "pit" was situated beneath the great Altar of the Temple, described in detail within the Mishnah and by Josephus. Many of these sites have been re-excavated since the discovery of the Copper Scroll, and several of them have disclosed not Temple treasure but evidence of Templar excavation made in the twelfth century.
At about the time the excavations were near completion, Count Fulk of Anjou sped with all haste to Jerusalem where he took the oath of allegiance to the new order. He immediately granted the order an annuity of thirty Angevin livres before returning to Anjou. When one considers that the vast majority of knights joining the order stayed within its ranks for their lifetime, this action by Fulk of Anjou is a trifle strange. His apparent freedom of maneuver, despite his oath of allegiance to the Order of the Knights Templar can be explained by the fact that Fulk was not only the Count of Anjou and a member of the Templar Orderbut was married to the sister of the King of Jerusalem who died childless, thus Fulk himself later became the King of Jerusalem.
The next notable figure to arrive in Jerusalem was the Count of Champagne who, as we have mentioned earlier, took the oath of membership in 1124. Behind the scenes in Europe Bernard of Clairvaux, who had become a senior advisor to the pope, consolidated his position within the Church. Bernard began to persuade the pope that the new military order which was already active in the Holy Land should be given papal backing and a formal position within the Church. For this they would need a rule, a formal charter stating the aims and objectives of the order, the obligations of its members to it and the rules of membership as well as the establishment of a formal command structure.
The main excavations in Jerusalem were completed in late December of 1127. Hugh de Payen with all the knights of the new order returned to France. The Grand Master Hugh de Payen and his principal co-founder of the order, Andre de Montbard, traveled to England to see the King and, having obtained safe-conduct from him, went directly north across the border to Scotland, where the two knights stayed at Roslin with the St Clairs, who were Hugh's relatives by marriage. The lord of Roslin made an immediate grant of land to the new order which became their headquarters in Scotland. The oldest Templar site in Scotland, once known as Ballontrodoch, is now called Temple after the order.
The Granting of the Rule
The Templars gained official recognition and were granted their rule in 1128 at
the Council of Troyes, which was dominated by the thinking of Bernard of Clairvaux. The
new order soon gained an exceptional degree of legal autonomy, which placed its activities
completely beyond the reach of bishops, Kings or emperors, making it responsible through
its grand master to the pope alone. Before his election the current pope had been a member
of the Cistercian Order, and was a close friend of St Bernard, who was his principal
advisor. This was not the only example of either nepotism or the 'old pals act' that can
be found in the early years of the Templar Order. The grant of land at Ballontrodoch by
the St Clairs of Roslin was followed by many similar gifts from other pious members of the
aristocracy who also made generous donations of land and finance to the rapidly growing
order. Membership grew with incredible speed and the order soon numbered among its ranks
representatives from all the leading families in Western Europe. France, Provence, and the
Languedoc-Roussillon areas became its major power base.
From the time of their foundation until the fall of Acre, the Templars exerted influence and then great power in the Holy Land. Guarding the pilgrim routes, transporting men, materials and pilgrims from ports in Europe, important though it was, played only a small part in their activities. They built castles in important defensive positions and played a significant role in military and established important bases throughout the Holy Land, to the extent that the Knights Templar became one of the most significant forces within the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Templars soon acquired a well-earned reputation for bravery in battle and never willingly surrendered to the enemy. However, their reputation for generalship and strategic thinking is not rated so highly. Their extensive and costly military activities in Outremer, as Palestine became known, were sustained by the profits from their estates and activities in Western Europe
The Templar Fleet
Material wealth in the early twelfth century was almost invariably based on land and feudal dues. The Knights Templar owned estates of varying size scattered throughout every climatic zone in Europe from Denmark, Scotland and the Orkney Islands in the north, to France, Italy and Spain in the south. Their commercial interests were impressive and varied and their activities included the operation of farms, vineyards, stone quarries and mines. As a result of their two-fold interest in protecting pilgrims on the one hand and maintaining communications with their operative bases in the Holy Land on the other, the Templars operated a well-organized fleet which exceeded that of any state at the time. For military purposes, this included a number of highly maneuverable war galleys fitted with rams and for the purpose of carrying pilgrims, troops, horses and commercial cargoes, they owned a large number of ships which plied the Mediterranean between bases in Italy, France, Spain and the Holy Land. Their main seat of naval power in the Mediterranean was on the Island of Majorca, while their principal port on the Atlantic coast was the highly fortified harbor of La Rochelle from where, it is alleged, they conducted trade with Greenland, the British Isles, the North American mainland and Mexico. Within fifty years of their foundation, the Knights Templar had become a commercial force equal in power to many states; within a hundred years they had developed into the medieval pre-cursors of multi-national conglomerates with interests in every form of commercial activity of that time and were far richer than any kingdom in Europe.
ETHRN Federation - European Templar Heritage Research Network
