Holy Relics
How Legends of Magical Artifacts Coincide With Financial History
Overview
With this essay, we continue the conclusion of Volume II of the System Failure constellation of ideas. Follow our progress on the Idea Map and Essay Schedule.
This week’s essay is a weird one. Normally, we try to stick to facts that are generally agreed upon and that can be easily verified. But as economic progress has generally been opposed by the ruling classes in each historical epoch, secrecy has become a key element in these attempts to preserve their privileged status. Therefore, the following essay contains a lot of rumors and legends.
The legends themselves, of course, are almost certainly false. The fact that the legends exist—and their timing—is all that matters to the following piece…
Introduction
Major moments in the history of finance are also marked by legends about holy relics. History’s two most notorious magical artifacts—the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail—appear in fables at two significant moments in the history of finance. The first moment was the transmission of Mesopotamian debt forgiveness into the Jewish tradition, which launched Christianity. And the modern political landscape would be unrecognizable without the second moment, which was the hesitation of King Edward II to persecute the Knights Templar in the waning months of 1307.
The Ark of the Covenant
In 587 BC, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem. He razed the Temple of Solomon, which housed the Ark of the Covenant. But no one knows what happened to the Ark. In that chaotic moment, the legendary artifact was lost to history.
The Ark of the Covenant was said to be a box containing the original ten commandments, received by Moses on Mount Sinai.
It was also sometimes said to contain the staff of Moses’ brother, Aaron, who transformed it into a serpent before Pharaoh according to Exodus 7:10. Later, Aaron’s staff miraculously blossomed with flowers as recorded in Numbers 17:23.
The Babylonian Captivity
In an episode known as the “Babylonian Captivity”, Nebuchadnezzar brought thousands of Jews back to Babylon as war captives. But there’s always a “bigger fish”; within 50 years Babylon itself was besieged and captured. In this case, the "bigger fish" was Cyrus the Great of Persia, who eventually allowed the Jewish captives to return to Jerusalem. The biblical books of Nehemiah and Ezra recount this return home and the consecration of a “Second Temple” to replace the old Temple of Solomon. But with the Ark of the Covenant lost to history, the inner sanctum of the Second Temple remained empty until it was destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman general Titus, who went on to become emperor.
Forgiveness
The Babylonian Captivity was the moment when institutionalized debt forgiveness was transmitted from Mesopotamia to Israel. In the aftermath of the Agricultural Revolution, the Bronze Age kings of the Near East stabilized their societies by canceling debts. When floods or wars or famines rendered agricultural debts unpayable, these kings forgave debts to prevent mass foreclosure by wealthy creditors. They understood that (1) allowing the poor to fall into hopeless debt and (2) allowing wealthy creditors to consolidate too much property were both existential threats. This understanding was carried back to Jerusalem by the Jews and baked into their own religious tradition.
The Romans had no such institution baked into their culture. When trials and tribulations struck Rome, its legal system upheld contract terms. In other words, it allowed creditors to foreclose on debtors with no regard for the long term consequences for society as a whole. Economic inequality predictably spiraled out of control. The Roman oligarchy piled up an historic hoard of wealth—but a highly unstable society was the terrible price they paid to fly so close to the sun.
That’s when Jesus stepped onto the stage of history. The sin, forgiveness, armageddon, and redemption preached by Jesus are entirely understandable within a financial context. The words “sin” and “debt” are still closely related in Indo-European languages like German. Jesus warned that the alternative to forgiveness was foreclosure, which led to an eventual apocalypse. That wisdom—transmitted down through the ages from Mesopotamia—is most obvious in the Lord’s prayer, which is rendered in Chapter 6 of Matthew as:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Everyone knows the finale to Jesus’ story. His warnings were not heeded, and he was publicly executed. Roman society went on to experience a collapse that still rings through the ages to this day.
The Holy Grail
Apart from mentions of a cup at the Last Supper, the Holy Grail does not appear in the New Testament. It wasn’t until centuries later that legends about this magical artifact began to swirl in the famous tales of King Arthur, his Knights of the Round Table, and their quest for the Holy Grail.
The Medieval story involved Joseph of Arimethea. In the New Testament, Joseph takes custody of Jesus’ body after the Crucifixion and places it in a tomb. In the Medieval legend, Joseph also caught the blood of Christ with the chalice used the previous evening at the Last Supper.
Glastonbury
Later on—as the Medieval story goes—Joseph arrived with the Holy Grail at Glastonbury in England. Not only did he have the Holy Grail with him, but he also had a magical staff that blossomed miraculously into flower—just like the Staff of Aaron rumored to have been contained inside the Ark of the Covenant.
The legend of Joseph’s arrival in Britain is still honored each Christmas, when a flowering sprig of Glastonbury Hawthorn is cut and presented to the British Monarch. Additionally, Glastonbury is the site of a massive annual festival, not unlike Burning Man.
During the Middle Ages, the now-ruined Glastonbury Abbey was claimed to be the final resting place of King Arthur. In 1191 AD, monks at the abbey boldly claimed to have found the graves of Arthur and Guinevere. Those dubious remains were eventually misplaced, but Glastonbury remains a place of strange mystical significance for the people of Britain.
The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar arose during the Crusades as an order of warrior-monks. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 AD, they set up their headquarters on the Temple Mount, where the original Temple of Solomon stood prior to Nebuchadnezzar’s arrival in 587 BC. That’s where the Templars derived their name.
Rumor had it that the Templars discovered an artifact of immense power beneath the Temple Mount. That artifact is often said to be the Holy Grail, which is why the Knights are so closely associated with it. Another rumor had it that the Knights stumbled upon the Ark of the Covenant, last seen during Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem.
Possession of these magical artifacts was thought to have been the source of the Templar’s meteoric rise. But in reality, the wealth and power of the Templars was derived from their banking practices. During the Crusades, pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land could trade coins for letters of credit at Templar Churches in London or Paris. Then, once they reached Jerusalem, they could swap those letters for coins again. Their safety was greatly enhanced by not carrying large sums of money on the road to the Holy Land, which was rife with brigands and cut-purses.
In short, their mission to protect pilgrims led to the transformation of the Knights Templar into the first international banking house. By 1307, they’d accumulated enough wealth and power to threaten secular and ecclesiastical authorities alike. In that year, Pope Clement V and King Philip IV of France outlawed the Knights Templar and seized their wealth. In France, the Templars were completely wiped out. But in England, King Edward II hesitated for a few crucial months. This hesitation gave the Templars enough time to go into hiding. Indeed, whispers of a secret society—meeting in London—persisted in the British Isles for hundreds of years.
Rosslyn Chapel
Rosslyn Chapel is located in Scotland, about 12 kilometers south of Edinburgh. It stands on almost exactly the same meridian—or longitude line—as Glastonbury. And it’s heavily associated with both the Temple of Solomon and the Knights Templar.
Some scholars propose that Rosslyn Chapel's design intentionally mimics elements of Solomon's Temple, such as its pillars, intricate stonework, and geometric patterns. Additionally, the crypt is often cited in theories as a potential resting place for hidden Templar treasures—like the Ark of the Covenant—supposedly discovered in Jerusalem beneath the Temple Mount. In Dan Brown’s 2003 thriller The Da Vinci Code, it turns out to be final resting place of the Holy Grail.
Today, Rosslyn Chapel embraces its fabled connection to the Knights Templar. Its gift shop is crammed full of Knights Templar merchandise. The seal of the Knights Templar—two knights riding on a single horse—can be found carved into one of the arches near the choir area.
But there is another layer to the legends about Rosslyn Chapel…
Freemasons
Rosslyn Chapel is also connected Freemasonry, which places a significant emphasis on the symbolism of Solomon’s Temple. The chapel was built in 1446 by William Sinclair, First Earl of Caithness. The Sinclair family was historically associated with early masonic traditions in Scotland. In 1598, Sir William Sinclair of Rosslyn was granted the title of hereditary Grand Master of Masons in Scotland, which tied the family to masonic traditions long before Freemasonry was established.
The symbolism of pillars also links Solomon’s Temple, Rosslyn Chapel, and Freemasonry. The two central pillars in the original Temple of Solomon were named Jachin and Boaz, according to the Old Testament book of Kings. These pillars are also central symbols in Freemasonry.
There is also the legend of the Apprentice Pillar, which was carved by a young apprentice while the master mason was away. The master mason, overcome with jealousy at the skill of the apprentice's work, killed the apprentice in a fit of rage. This tale mirrors the Freemason story of Hiram Abiff, the legendary master builder of Solomon's Temple, who was murdered for refusing to reveal his architectural secrets. Both are similar stories of skill, jealousy, and murder.
Banking
While the remnant of the Templar order hid out underground in Britain and slowly morphed into the Freemasons, the Protestant Reformation was running its course across English Channel in continental Europe.
In 1648, the Treaty of Westphalia resolved the Reformation by severely curtailing the political power of the Pope.
In 1694, the very first central bank, the Bank of England, was organized by a consortium of forty London and Edinburgh merchants.
In 1717, the Freemasons finally emerged from hiding and founded their first lodge in London. Thanks to the Treaty of Westphalia and the establishment of formal international borders, they no longer needed to worry about orders from Rome commanding their persecution. Today, banking houses dominate international geopolitics, as the Popes once did and the Caesars before them.
Conclusion
The two biggest moments in the history of finance are (1) the transmission of Mesopotamian debt forgiveness into the Jewish tradition and (2) the hesitation by the English King Edward II to persecute the Knights Templar. The commands for debt forgiveness in the Hebrew Bible propelled Jesus on his ministry. And Edward’s hesitation to persecute the Templars eventually resulted in making England the home of vast banking empire, upon which the sun never set. Fascinatingly, these inflection points in the history of finance are accompanied by rumors of magical artifacts of awesome power: the Babylonian Captivity was the last time anyone saw the Ark of the Covenant, and the story of the Holy Grail coming to Britain parallels the story of banking coming to Britain. Perhaps the power of these artifacts mirrors the unintuitive power of compound interest that now rules the world. After all, as Albert Einstein once quipped, “compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.”