Unlimited Privileges

The small group initially consisting of nine knights grew into the Templar order with astonishing speed.

The support by the Papacy was not limited to its officially recognition of the Templars. Since the Council of Troyes, thanks to the privileges that the Papacy, the Church and the aristocrats had granted them, the Knights had enjoyed unlimited privileges. Among them, the shield of immunity was easily the most important. Since the Knights were directly affiliated with the Papacy, they didn't have to answer to any authority but the Pope. It was not possible for any ruler, not even for a monarch, to question them, or employ them in his own service, much less have them arrested.
Except from these religious concessions-such as the right to build churches and give them names of their own choosing, organizing religious rituals and assigning priests-the Templars had the right to found their own courts, to gather taxes and to accept contributions and donations. Members of their order were exempted from any kind of levies, since the real estate properties owned by the Templars were exempted from the Papacy's tithe (or one-tenth) tax on the value of land.
Historians and investigative writers like Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe have provided the following information:
Bernard's document, De Laude Novae Militae ("In Praise of the New Knighthood") swept through the Christendom like a tornado; in no time, the number of Templar recruits increased. At the same time donations, gifts and bequests from Monarchs and Barons throughout Europe were arriving regularly on the Templars' doorstep. With a staggering rapidity the fledgling little band of nine knights grew into what we refer to as Templar, Inc. 4
When it came to granting privileges and being generous, the lay rulers, monarchs and nobles were not far behind the Papacy: They donated farms, palaces, sometimes entire towns and even a whole district to the Templars. They further eased their finances by appointing them to various offices that generated income and by granting them perpetual donations.
The privileges the Templars were granted, as a result of relations based on mutual interest, resulted in the order's power becoming uncontrollable. Shortly after its founding, the order's inward qualities and outward appearance changed completely. The Knights put aside their self-appointed task of guarding the Holy Lands and furthering Christianity, and started to seek the domination of Europe, following the goal of their corrupted belief system.

A few of the 12th century temples the Knights used more as offices for usury than as temples (Safita, Larzac, Metz and Laon)