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a military point of view, the Templars were a force to be reckoned with; they were without doubt the elite force of the age and they distinguished themselves many times in numerous battlefields during the crusades in Palestine and also in the battles that were fought to reconquer Spain and Portugal from the Moors. But more and more as time went on they were becoming essentially a European entity rather than a Palestinian one, and it could hardly be expected that the crowned heads of Europe would take kindly to this body of well trained soldiers who answered only to their own order scattered throughout every country in Europe. It certainly did not help that it was known, or at least believed, that the Templars were determined to carve out a territory for themselves in Europe (Cyprus and the Languedoc region in France, where the Templars had their headquarters, seemed the likely candidates). As the Teutonic Knights in the east had not so long ago taken over Prussia for themselves, monarchs in the west were understandably wary.

But perhaps even more aggravating was the immense wealth that lay in the hands of the Templars.Exempt from any form of taxation their wealth had become a byword. The Templars were bankers and moneylenders to Europe. Quite a few of the banking instruments still in use today, such as letters of credit, were developed by the Templars who used their extensive network of chapter houses much in the same way that a large bank utilises its network today. Travellers were able to deposit their money at one chapter house and, for a fee, collect a letter of credit which guaranteed that the money would be paid by the chapter house at his destination, thereby removing the danger of travelling with large sums of money. More to the point, in this regard, the Templars had also become the lenders of last resort to the secular rulers of Europe who were perpetually in need of funds to pursue the seemingly interminable wars of those times. Given this scenario, it seems clear, at least in hindsight, that something would have to give.

When Philip IV came to the throne of France, he inherited a csah strapped nation from his father. Desperate for cash to pursue his wars with the English, he approached the Templars for money, but the monks were unwilling to aid him. The die was cast. The king determined to nationalise, as it were, all the assets belonging to the Templars within his borders. it was a fairly lengthy affair involving at various times the kidnapping of a Pope and the excommunication of a king. nontheless, on Friday October 13, 1307, the king struck! All over the kingdom Templar's were arrested, accused of heresy and all manner of other hideous offences, tortured and put to death. As for the enormous wealth in the Templar treasury, Philip confiscated it. The doings of that fateful Fridy the 13th sent shock waves throughout the whole of Europe. If a group as wealthy and as powerful as the Templars could be so treated, then the day on which such treatment was meted out to them was certainly an unlucky day. It was certainly very unlucky for the Templars who henceforward ceased to play any meaningful role in the affairs of Europe. One fallout of the events of that unfortunate Friday October 13, was that other monastic orders who had hitherto been involved in banking, such as the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem and of Rhodes, quietly gave up that sideline. Banking in the middle ages was obviously to dangerous to dabble in!

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