The end of the Templars is one of the most dramatic episodes of the Middle Ages and also one of the most distorted by imagination. The trial records, largely preserved, nevertheless allow events to be reconstructed with some precision. What emerges is a complex political and judicial affair, in which the king of France, the pope and the order acted on different levels.
The context: an order without a Holy Land
In 1291 Acre fell, the last great Christian stronghold in the Holy Land. The Templars withdrew to Cyprus. Their original purpose, defending pilgrims and crusader territories, had disappeared, while their properties in Europe and their financial activity remained intact.
In those years a possible merger between the Templars and the Hospitallers was also under discussion. The last master of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, had argued against the idea.
Friday 13 October 1307
At dawn on 13 October 1307 the officers of King Philip IV, known as the Fair, simultaneously arrested the Templars present in France, including Jacques de Molay, who was in Paris. The operation had been prepared with sealed orders sent in advance to royal officials.
The charges, drawn up with the support of the inquisitor of France, were extremely serious:
- denying Christ during the admission ceremony;
- spitting on or trampling the cross;
- exchanging obscene kisses;
- encouraging sexual relations between brothers;
- worshipping an idol, called Baphomet in some depositions.
Confessions and torture
In the following months many Templars, interrogated in France and often tortured, admitted at least part of the charges. Jacques de Molay himself confessed to having denied Christ at his own reception. These confessions were used as the main evidence. Outside France, where torture was used less or not at all, the results were very different, and in several kingdoms the accused were acquitted.
Clement V's response
Pope Clement V initially reacted with irritation, because the Templars answered directly to the Holy See. To regain control of the procedure, in November 1307 he issued the bull Pastoralis praeeminentiae, ordering the arrest of Templars throughout Christendom. Papal commissions were set up to judge the order as a whole, while individual members were judged by provincial councils.
The Chinon parchment
In August 1308, at the castle of Chinon, three cardinals sent by the pope questioned Jacques de Molay and other dignitaries. The document recording the meeting attests that the cardinals granted them absolution and reconciliation with the Church. This parchment, found in the Vatican Secret Archives in 2001, shows that the pope's position was more nuanced than had been thought: the dignitaries were absolved, even though the order remained under investigation.
1310 and the defence of the order
In 1309 and 1310 many Templars came before the papal commission to defend the order, retracting their earlier confessions. The reaction was brutal: in May 1310 the provincial council of Sens, presided over by an archbishop close to the king, condemned fifty-four Templars as relapsed heretics, and they were burned near Paris. After this episode the organised defence collapsed.
The Council of Vienne
The general council of Vienne, in the Dauphiné, opened in October 1311. Many council fathers were opposed to condemning the order without a proper defence. Clement V then chose a middle path.
| Document | Date | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Vox in excelso | 22 March 1312 | Suppression of the order by administrative act |
| Ad providam | May 1312 | Transfer of property to the Hospitallers |
The wording matters: the bull Vox in excelso did not condemn the order for heresy, but suppressed it "by apostolic provision", judging that its reputation was now beyond repair. In the Iberian peninsula the property partly went other ways, as happened in Portugal with the Order of Christ.
The burning of Jacques de Molay
The fate of the great dignitaries remained. In March 1314, before a commission of cardinals meeting in Paris, Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney, preceptor of Normandy, were due to be sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. Instead they publicly retracted, proclaiming the order's innocence. Philip IV had them burned that same evening on a small island in the Seine.
The famous curse that Molay supposedly hurled at the king and the pope, both of whom died that same year, appears only in later accounts. It is a typical example of legend overlaying the chronicle.
What is certain
Historians today agree on several points: the confessions were largely obtained under pressure, the king played a decisive role, and the order was suppressed without a definitive doctrinal condemnation. Philip IV's motives are still debated, but the weight of the crown's debts and the wish to assert royal authority even over religious institutions are often cited among the main reasons.
In short
- On 13 October 1307 Philip IV had the Templars of France arrested on charges of heresy and idolatry.
- The confessions, often extracted under torture, were the basis of the prosecution.
- The Chinon parchment of 1308 records the cardinals' absolution of the dignitaries.
- In 1312 Clement V suppressed the order without condemning it for heresy and gave its property to the Hospitallers.
- Jacques de Molay was burned in Paris in March 1314 after proclaiming the order's innocence.
