By Anna Von Reitz
Trusts have been used since Roman times as a means of
transferring and preserving property. The word “trust” comes from the Latin
word, “trucido” which means to kill, slaughter, or murder wantonly.
This nicely points out that trusts have always created as
much havoc as they prevented, as donors of property changed their minds,
trustees proved themselves greedy and dishonest, and beneficiaries were often
killed so that the trustees or someone else could inherit
For these reasons, trusts fell out of use until the Roman
Catholic Church revived them during the Crusades. Having somehow concluded that
killing for Jesus made sense, they brought back the use of trusts as means to
hold the property of Crusaders who rode to uncertain ends and for equally
uncertain periods of time.
Trusts proved just as troublesome then as ever, but the
Church was often the ultimate beneficiary profiting from the deaths and absences
caused by the Crusades. In their view, it worked out well enough, thank you.
