Knight Templar's Part VII

   Brother Yeves a brother of the warrior monks was approached by a Brother Cisterian and a Flemish Knight.  The Flemish Knight conveyed a message from the Order through the network of spies they had in both the Palace of King Philippe the Fair and the Vatican.

   They knew that they were going to be investigated, dismantled and reorganized by the Church of Rome. The church was by now a puppet arm of the Kings Palace. They knew that the Dogs of the Lord would come knocking and the order needed to make preparations.

 The leadership of the Order felt that they would lie low during the investigation but they did not understand the full fury of the inquisition that was about to descend upon the Order Of The Poor Knights Of The Temple Of Solomon, known as “God's Army,” and would be absolved of all wrong and continue with their financial empire at a later date.

  King Philip IV of France was deeply in debt to the Templar’s and on Friday 13th October 1307 accused them of heresy and had them arrested in France. Many were tortured to obtain confessions of heresy. This was a way to avoid paying back debts, and by confiscating further Templar assets Philip was able to make further money.

  Pope Clement under pressure from King Philippe, then issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae on November 22, 1307, instructing all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templar’s and seize their assets.

  Pope Clement called for hearings run by the papacy to try members of the order, and many withdrew their confessions given under torture. It was normal practice at that time to burn at the stake anyone who recanted their confessions of heresy as relapsed heretics, and when the Templar’s did so Philippe had many burnt in Paris to force the proceedings along.

  A document found in the papal archives in 2001 known as the Chinon Parchment and records the papal trials showing that Pope Clement absolved the Templar’s of all heresies in 1308.

  King Philippe applied pressure to Pope Clement, even threatening military action and Pope Clement finally disbanded the order in 1312 at the Council of Vienne, with the papal bull Vox in excelsior and the papal bull Ad providam which turned over the majority of the Orders assets to the Hospitaller's.

  Jacques de Molay the Grand Master of the Order and Geoffrey de Charney the Preceptor of Normandy both retracted their statements and declared guilty of being relapsed heretics. Both were burnt to death in Paris on 18th March 1314. Jacques de Molay is reported to have said that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God. Pope Clement died a month later, and before the end of the year king Philip died in a hunting accident.

  The remainder of the Templar’s were either arrested or tried or absorbed into other military orders such as the Knights of Christ, or left to live their lives out peacefully.

  Some fled to other countries, and in Portugal the Order changed their name to Knights of Christ. Many sites today are related to Templar sites such as Temple Bar in London, Cressing Temple in Essex, and Temple combe in Somerset.

  Some societies today such as some Freemasonry groups use symbols of the Order or claim links to the Order. Much controversy has been caused over the allegations of heresy, and links to the Holy Grail.