Did the Knights Templar invent the concept of Payday Loans?

Did banking arise from knighthood?

If we search back through history, we may find that today’s concept of payday loans goes back about a thousand years. In the early-mid 1100’s, there came to be a group known as the “Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon” (were they in sore need of  payday loans?), their emblem depicting their meager, poverty-stricken beginnings with two knights seated upon one horse. These are the ones more commonly known today as the “Knights Templar”, or “Templar Knights”. While the group’s start was not very financially powerful (they started out as a mere nine knights), they rapidly became a favored charity throughout Christendom, and grew quite rapidly in number, and in financial and influential power.

After a while, the Knights Templar became quite financially powerful…

They may have had meager beginnings, but the Order’s status of poverty did not last for very long. In 1129, at the Council of Troyes, these knights were officially endorsed by the Catholic Church. With such formal blessing, the Order became a favored charity throughout Christendom, receiving many gifts such as money, land, businesses, and even sons from noble families, eager to help fight the Crusades in the Holy Land. Perhaps the largest gift was received in 1139.  Pope Innocent II’s papal bull, “Omne Datum Optimum”, had completely and utterly exempted the Order from obedience to any local laws in any country. This basically meant that the Templar Knights could pass freely through and across all borders, weren’t required to pay taxes anywhere, and were exempt from the rule of any king, and under absolutely no authority other than that of the Pope himself.

The industriousness of the Templar Knights…

As they grew in numbers and in power, they established many centers and headquarters throughout Europe and the Middle East. With the received donations of money, land and businesses, they thrived and became quite industrious, establishing a wide financial network. They built churches and fortifications; they bought and tended vineyards; they also became involved in importing and exporting and even manufacturing. They even owned their own fleet of ships and at one time had owned the entire island of Cyprus. Certainly, none of them were in need of payday loans.

The beginnings of today’s banking system…

Basically, they became the world’s first multinational corporation. Eventually, they kept track of their wealth throughout their network, and even aided royalty, often loaning funds for a small fee. They eventually dealt with what we know of today as banking. A king traveling to another country was in danger of having his monies stolen en route, so all he needed to do was to deposit his needed funds at one Templar establishment, and withdraw his funds from the local Templar chapter in the country of destination. All he required was the proper documentation, and a small fee, of course. This in effect became the world’s first international banking system, the documentation carried being like the first traveler’s checks.

The fall of the Knights Templar, and the legacy they left behind…

It seems to go without saying that companies, economies and even entire civilizations rise and fall. The crumbling of the Knights Templar began in 1307, when the Catholic Church, pressured by King Phillip the IV of France, charged them all with numerous false crimes of blasphemy and heresy. The king, enormously in debt to the Templars himself, had found a way to free himself of his debt by causing the Order to be disbanded, and many of the Templar Knights were burnt at the stake for their supposed crimes against God and the Church. Hoping to seize the Order’s assets, he was none too pleased to find that the Pope had all of it distributed between other Orders, such as the Knights Hospitaller. However, the legacy of the Knights Templar lives on through various Orders of Knights who took in the remaining Templars, the churches and fortifications they left behind, and today’s modern banking and payday loans systems.