Differing from their original purpose for founding the order the actions of the knights were not to patrol the dangerous roads of the Holy Land to protect the pilgrims, but to spend their first nine years as an order excavating and mining a series of tunnels under their residence on the Temple Mount.
These strenuous tasks was completed with the benefaction of the King of Jerusalem.

What this tunnels were used for was most likely to hide their treasures.
The entrée tunnel descends vertically downwards for eighty feet through solid rock before radiating in a series of minor tunnels horizontally under the site of the ancient temple itself.
There are also secret rooms carved in the solid rock beneath the temple site, one of which has a passage leading from it to the Mosque of Omar.
Legend also tells us of how a considerable quantity of other artefacts had also been hidden by the order, reguarding geometry art and science.
With the increasing knowledge of the order and also their monetary funds Count Fulk of Anjou made his way to Jerusalem where he took the oath of allegiance to the new order.
He immediately granted the order an annuity of thirty Angevin livres before returning to Anjou.
The acts of Anjou can be explained by the fact that he was not only the Count of Anjou and a member of the Templar order but also married to the sister of the King of Jerusalem who died childless, which lead to him later becoming King of Jerusalem.

The next notable figure to arrive in Jerusalem was the Count of Champagne who joined the order in 1124.
Behind the scenes in Europe Bernard of Clairvaux, a senior advisor to the pope, began to persuade the pope that the new military order which was already active in the Holy Land and should be given papal backing and a formal position within the Church.
But for this they would need a decree, a formal charter stating the aims and objectives of the order, the obligations of its members to it and the rules of membership as well as the establishment of a formal command structure.

Hugh de Payen and his knights returned to France in 1127.
From there Payen and his principal co-founder of the order, Andre de Montbard, travelled to England to see the King who granted them self conduct.
At this time the lord of Roslin made an immediate grant of land to the new order and gave them a place to stablish their headquarters in Scotland.
The oldest Templar site in Scotland, once known as Ballontrodoch, is now called Temple Ballontrodoch after the order.