Editing Knights Templar (section)

=== Arrests, charges and dissolution ===
{{main|Trials of the Knights Templar}}
In 1305, the new [[Pope Clement V]], based in [[Avignon]], France, sent letters to both the Templar Grand Master [[Jacques de Molay]] and the Hospitaller Grand Master [[Foulques de Villaret|Fulk de Villaret]] to discuss the possibility of merging the two orders. Neither was amenable to the idea, but Pope Clement persisted, and in 1306 he invited both grand masters to France to discuss the matter. De Molay arrived first in early 1307, but de Villaret was delayed for several months. While waiting, de Molay and Clement discussed criminal charges that had been made two years earlier by an ousted Templar and were being discussed by King [[Philip IV of France]] and his ministers. It was generally agreed that the charges were false, but Clement sent King Philip a written request for assistance in the investigation. According to some historians,  Philip, who was already deeply in debt to the Templars from his [[Philip IV of France#War against England|war against England]], decided to seize upon the rumours for his own purposes. He began pressuring the church to take action against the order, as a way of freeing himself from his debts.{{sfn|Barber|2006|p=}} <!-- The French king's motivations went beyond merely financial though. By charging the Templars with heresy, the monarchy was also claiming for itself a charism proper to the papacy. The Templar case was another step in the process of appropriating these foundations, which had begun with the Franco-papal rift at the time of Boniface VIII. -->

[[File:Tomar-Convento_de_Cristo-Rotunda_dos_Templários-20140914.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.4|[[Convent of the Order of Christ|Convent of Christ Castle, Tomar, Portugal]]. Built in 1160 as a stronghold for the Knights Templar and [[Siege of Tomar|besieged in 1190 by the Almohads]], it became the headquarters of the renamed [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|Order of Christ]]. In 1983, it was named a [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Convent of Christ in Tomar |url=http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/tomar.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231034026/http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/tomar.html |archive-date=31 December 2006 |access-date=20 March 2007 |publisher=World Heritage Site}}</ref>]]

At dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307, King Philip IV had de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested. The arrest warrant started with the words: {{lang|fr|"Dieu n'est pas content, nous avons des ennemis de la foi dans le Royaume"}} ("God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in the kingdom.").<ref name="Science">{{Cite journal |date=July 2010 |title=Les derniers jours des Templiers |journal=Science et Avenir |pages=52–61}}</ref> 

Claims were made that during Templar admissions ceremonies, recruits were forced to spit on the Cross, deny Christ, and engage in indecent kissing; brethren were also accused of [[idolatry|worshipping idols]], and the order was said to have encouraged homosexual practices.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Riley-Smith |first=Johnathan |title=The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades |date=1995 |publisher=Oxford Press |location=Oxford |page=213}}</ref> Many of these allegations contain tropes that bear similarities to accusations made against other persecuted groups such as Jews, heretics, and accused witches.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rice|first=Joshua|date=1 June 2022|title=Burn in Hell|journal=History Today|volume=72|issue=6|pages=16–18 |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/burn-hell}}</ref> These allegations, though, were highly politicised without any real evidence.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dodd |first1=Gwilym |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AmM07AhPrZQC |title=The Reign of Edward II: New Perspectives |last2=Musson |first2=Anthony |date=2006 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-903153-19-2 |page=51 |language=en}}</ref> Still, the Templars were charged with numerous other offences such as financial corruption, fraud, and secrecy.{{sfn|Barber|1993|p=178}} Many of the accused confessed to these charges under torture, and their confessions, even though obtained [[coercion|under duress]], caused a scandal in Paris. The prisoners were coerced to confess that they had spat on the Cross. One said: {{lang|fr|"Moi, Raymond de La Fère, 21 ans, reconnais que [j'ai] craché trois fois sur la Croix, mais de bouche et pas de cœur"}} ("I, Raymond de La Fère, 21 years old, admit that I have spat three times on the Cross, but only from my mouth and not from my heart"). The Templars were accused of [[idolatry]] and were charged with worshipping either a figure known as [[Baphomet]] or a mummified severed head they recovered, amongst other artefacts, at their original headquarters on the Temple Mount. Some have theorised that this head might have been believed to be that of [[John the Baptist]], among other things.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Edgeller |first=Johnathan |url=https://dspace.lib.ttu.edu/etd/bitstream/handle/2346/ETD-TTU-2010-08-791/EDGELLER-THESIS.pdf?sequence=4 |title=Taking the Templar Habit: Rule, Initiation Ritual, and the Accusations against the Order |publisher=Texas Tech University |year=2010 |pages=62–66 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720060659/https://dspace.lib.ttu.edu/etd/bitstream/handle/2346/ETD-TTU-2010-08-791/EDGELLER-THESIS.pdf?sequence=4 |archive-date=20 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Relenting to King Phillip's demands, Pope Clement then issued the papal bull {{lang|la|[[Pastoralis praeeminentiae]]}} on 22 November 1307, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.{{sfn|Martin|2005|p=118}} Clement called for papal hearings to determine the Templars' guilt or innocence, and once freed, many Templars recanted their confessions. 

Several Templars are listed as having come from [[Gisors]] to defend the Order on 26 February 1310: Henri Zappellans or Chapelain, Anceau de Rocheria, Enard de Valdencia, Guillaume de Roy, Geoffroy de Cera or de La Fere-en-Champagne, Robert Harle or de Hermenonville, and Dreux de Chevru.<ref>{{cite book |author=Alain Demurger |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAx-DwAAQBAJ&q=Guillaume+De+Roy&pg=RA1-PA52 |title=The Persecution of the Knights Templar: Scandal, Torture, Trial |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-64313-089-7 |chapter=Templars |quote=Seven of these nine Templars are also on the list of brothers who came from Gisors on 26 February 1310: Henri Zappellans or Chapelain, Anceau de Rocheria, Enard de Valdencia, Guillaume de Roy, Geoffroy de Cera or de La Fere-en-Champagne, Robert Harle or de Hermenonville, and Dreux de Chevru; the two others, Robert de Mortefontaine and Robert de Monts-de-Soissons, perhaps appear under different names. We don't know the reasons why those nine Templars were not taken back to Gisors. They are catalogued as 'non-reconciled': that is, they had not been absolved and reconciled with the Church by a diocesan commission. They attended neither the Council of Sens nor that of Reims in May 1310. They were from different dioceses: Toul, Sens, Chalons-en-Champagne, Treves but also Soissons (Guillaume de Roy), Laon (Geoffroy de La Fere) and Senlis (Robert Harle). |access-date=12 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Les Templiers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DIzj9W9eebcC&q=Roy |work=Mémoires historiques sur les Templiers, ou Éclaircissemens nouveaux sur leur histoire, leur procès, les accusations intentées contr'eux, et les causes secrètes de leur ruine |author=De Philippe Antoine Grouvelle| year=1805| access-date=12 July 2023 |quote=Noms des Frères rassemblés le 28 mars 1310, devant les Commissaires charges par le Pape de l'Enquête sur les griefs imputés à l'Ordre du Temple en général... 184. Guillaume De Roy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title= Bulletin de la Société académique de Laon |author= Société académique de Laon |website= Bibliothèque nationale de France |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k441211c/f150.item# |access-date=12 July 2023 |quote=Procès des Templiers" "Nicolas de Celles; Gauthier de Villesavoye; Etienne de Compiègne; Robert de Montreuil-aux-Lions, pètre; Guillaume de Roy; Geoffroy de Cère; Eloi de Pavant; Raoul et Pierre de Compiègne, Pierre d'Anizy défendront tous l'Ordre.   | year=1864 }}</ref> Some had sufficient legal experience to defend themselves in [[Trials of the Knights Templar|the trials]], but in 1310, having appointed the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sens|archbishop of Sens]], Philippe de Marigny, to lead the investigation, Philip blocked this attempt, using the previously forced confessions to have dozens of Templars burned at the stake in Paris.{{sfn|Martin|2005|p=122}}{{sfn|Sobecki|2006|p=963}}{{sfn|Barber|1993|p=3}}

With Philip threatening military action unless the pope complied with his wishes, Clement finally agreed to disband the order, citing the public scandal that had been generated by the confessions. At the [[Council of Vienne]] in 1312, he issued a series of papal bulls, including {{lang|la|[[Vox in excelso]]}}, which officially dissolved the order, and {{lang|la|[[Ad providam]]}}, which turned over most Templar assets to the Hospitallers.{{sfn|Martin|2005|pp=123–124}}

[[File:Templars on Stake.jpg|thumb|Templars being [[death by burning|burned]]]]
As for the leaders of the order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession. [[Geoffroi de Charney]], Preceptor of [[Normandy]], also retracted his confession and insisted on his innocence. Both men, under pressure from the king, were declared guilty of being relapsed heretics and sentenced to burn alive at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, asking to be tied in such a way that he could face the [[Notre Dame de Paris|Notre Dame Cathedral]] and hold his hands together in prayer.{{sfn|Martin|2005|p=125}} According to legend, he called out from the flames that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before [[God]]. His actual words were recorded on the parchment as follows: {{lang|fr|"Dieu sait qui a tort et a péché. Il va bientôt arriver malheur à ceux qui nous ont condamnés à mort"}} ("God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death").<ref name="Science" /> Clement died only a month later, and Philip died while hunting within the same year.{{sfn|Martin|2005|p=140}}<ref>

[[Malcolm Barber]] has researched this legend and concluded that it originates from {{lang|la|La Chronique métrique attribuée à [[Geoffrey of Paris|Geffroi de Paris]]}}, ed. A. Divèrres, Strasbourg, 1956, pp. 5711–5742. Geoffrey of Paris was "apparently an eye-witness, who describes de Molay as showing no sign of fear and, significantly, as telling those present that God would avenge their deaths". {{harvnb|Barber|2006|p=357|loc=footnote 110}}</ref><ref>In ''The New Knighthood'', Barber referred to a variant of this legend, about how an unspecified Templar had appeared before and denounced Clement V and, when he was about to be executed sometime later, warned that both Pope and King would "within a year and a day be obliged to explain their crimes in the presence of God", found in the work by [[Ferreto de' Ferreti|Ferreto of Vicenza]], {{lang|la|Historia rerum in Italia gestarum ab anno 1250 ad annum usque 1318}} {{harv|Barber|1994|pp=314–315}}.</ref>

The remaining Templars around Europe were either arrested and tried under the Papal investigation (with virtually none convicted), absorbed into other Catholic military orders, or pensioned off and allowed to live out their days peacefully. By papal decree, the property of the Templars was transferred to the Knights Hospitaller except in the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Portugal was the first country in Europe where they had settled, occurring only two or three years after the order's foundation in Jerusalem and even having a presence during Portugal's conception.<ref>[http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/11799.pdf ''Templários no condado portucalense antes do reconhecimento formal da ordem: O caso de Braga no início do séc. XII – Revista da Faculdade de Letras''] [Templars in the County of Portucale before the formal recognition of the order: The case of Braga in early 12th century], Ciências e Técnicas do Património, Porto 2013, Volume XII, pp. 231–243. Author: Paula Pinto Costa, FLUP/CEPESE (University of Porto)</ref>

The Portuguese king, [[Denis of Portugal|Denis I]], refused to pursue and persecute the former knights, as had occurred in some other states under the influence of Philip & the crown. Under his protection, Templar organizations simply changed their name, from "Knights Templar" to the reconstituted [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|Order of Christ]] and also a parallel [[Supreme Order of Christ]] of the [[Holy See]]; both are considered successors to the Knights Templar.<ref name="web.archive.org">{{Cite web|url=http://jvarnoso.com/orders/christ2.html|title=The Order of Christ and the Papacy|date=6 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506100231/http://jvarnoso.com/orders/christ2.html|archive-date=6 May 2008}}</ref><ref name="Nicholson2004">{{Cite book |last=Helen J. Nicholson |url=https://archive.org/details/crusades00nich |title=The Crusades |year=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-32685-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/crusades00nich/page/98 98] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="BurgtorfCrawford2013">{{cite book |last1=Jochen |first1=Burgtorf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9NSybdmlStsC&pg=PA298|title=The Debate on the Trial of the Templars (1307–1314) |last2=Paul F. |first2=Crawford |last3=Helen J. |first3=Nicholson |year=2013 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-8102-7 |page=298}}</ref>