Templars on trial

From 1307, members of the Knights Templar were beaten, brutalised and put to death on charges of heresy, Satanism and mass murder. But, asks Steve Tibble, were this elite band of holy warriors fitted up for crimes they didn't commit?

- Steve Tibble

They arrived with no warning, striking swiftly as a guillotine blade. As dawn broke over France on Friday 13 October 1307, hundreds of royal troops stormed the residences of Templar knights, rounded up the brethren and put them in chains.

The knights were caught completely unawares – and the charges that were set out against them were extraordinary. Allegations included participating in Satanic initiation ceremonies; spitting or trampling on the crucifix; worshipping idols; and kissing their brothers on the navel, penis, lips and anus in profane masses.

It was a spectacular fall from grace for the Knights Templar, a military-religious order that had long been esteemed across Europe and beyond. For nearly two centuries, since the order’s foundation in Jerusalem c1119 (see box, right), the Templars had been charged with defending residents of, and pilgrims to, the crusader states of the Middle East. Once celebrated across the Christian world for their unwavering courage in battle and the zeal with which they served God, suddenly they were being reviled and attacked. How and why did this dramatic collapse in fortunes come about?

The driving force behind the assault on the Templars was France’s King Philip IV, ‘the Fair’. Philip was outwardly pious, but also in great need of cash. Indeed, he had a track record of crushing minority groups in pursuit of easy money. In the early 1290s, he had arrested all of the so-called Lombard bankers – Italian moneylenders – in France, and confiscated their goods. And in 1306, he had expelled France’s Jewish community and seized their assets.

Now he turned his sights on the Templars – another reputedly wealthy group. Pope Clement V was coerced into acquiescence and, in 1307, the pontiff ordered the Templars’ arrest. The torture now began.