114 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
Fouques held his dual jurisdiction from two different sovereign powers:
the king and the Temple. The identical nature of their statutes and craft
mastery were circumstantial in nature; they could cease to be so, which
did not fail to happen on an individual basis to start. The kings could
have the tendency to regulate the trades—including those of carpenters
and masons—with greater strictness by creating sworn carpenters and
masons who had purchased their craft, but in the jurisdiction of the
Temple all crafts would retain their freedom. Furthermore, the fran-
chises given Temple craftsmen went beyond the professional frame-
work, touching on personal status, fiscal authority, and exemption
from the watch.
Under these conditions, the influence of the Temple continued to
make itself felt, as we can see from the creation of craft associations, the
maintenance of free associations, and the francs metiers, all contrasted
to sworn trades of the royal domain. This influence and the distin-
guishing features of trades exercised inside its censive territory did not
disappear with the Order's dissolution; instead, they survived up to the
time of the French Revolution and tradition has maintained remnants
of them even into the present.
The Survival of Templar Communities and Their Franchises
after the Dissolution of the Order
The Templar Order was abolished by Pope Clement V on March 22,
- In a bull issued on May 2 of that same year, he decreed that all
Templar properties, with the rights and privileges granted their owners,
would be transferred to the possession of the Hospitallers of Saint John
of Jerusalem. Philip the Fair ratified this transfer in France on August
24, 1312.*
The Hospitallers, who were known as the Knights of Rhodes since
1309 and later the Knights of Malta (1530), were thus made surrogate
holders of the manorial rights of the Templars and over the centuries
preserved them with all the privileges of their predecessors. There was
* This was by no means a gift freely given to the Hospitallers. On several occasions,
payment of considerable sums was demanded of the Order by Philip the Fair and his
successors.