The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar: A Tale of Power and Betrayal

Episode Transcript
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(00:20):
Our story today begins in theearly 12th century, in the aftermath
of the First Crusade.
Jerusalem was in Christian hands.
But the roads leading to itwere treacherous and teeming with
bandits.
It was in this volatileenvironment, around 1120, the year
of our Lord, that a small bandof French knights led by Hugues de
Payen took a solemn vow.

(00:42):
Their mission to protectChristian pilgrims on their perilous
journey to the Holy Land inpresent day Israel and the surrounding
area.
As one contemporary sourceputs it quote, pitying the plight
of these Christians, eight ornine French knights the led by Ugta
Payan vowed to devotethemselves to the pilgrims protection

(01:04):
and to form a religiouscommunity for that purpose.
These were not your typicalfeudal knights.
They called themselves thepoor knights of Christ and the temple
of Solomon.
Taking their name from theirheadquarters in the Temple Mount
in Jerusalem.
Eventually they became knownmore simply as the Knights Templars,
or simply the Templars.

(01:25):
They took vows of poverty,chastity and obedience, much like
monks.
But unlike traditional monks,the Templars also engaged in battle
as warriors.
And warriors they were.
Over the next century theTemplars quickly evolved.
From escorts of humblepilgrims, they became a highly disciplined

(01:46):
elite fighting force, oftenthe spearhead in crucial crusader
battles.
Their rule forbade retreatunless overwhelmingly outnumbered
and their ferocity in battlebecame legendary.
But as with so many stories ofgreat power, the seeds of destruction
were sown within the Templarsown success.

(02:07):
By the end of the 13thcentury, the secrecy of the Templars
now started to look suspiciousto outsiders.
Their success had made themtoo rich, too powerful and too independent
for the liking of ambitioussecular rulers who were trying to
consolidate their own power.
In 1314, almost two centuriesafter the Order's establishment,

(02:29):
both the current King ofFrance and the Pope condemned the
Templars and their leaders asan evil, a detestable disgrace.
Wolves in sheep's clothing.
They ordered the two grandmasters of the Templars to be burned
at the stake.
According to legend, as thetwo grand masters of the Templars

(02:50):
suffered an agonizingly slowdeath by fire, one of them, Jacques
de Molay, cursed the Pope andKing, summoning them to appear before
God's judgment within a yearand a day.
A popular version of the cursegoes quote Pope Clement, King Philippe
before one year I summon youto appear before the tribunal of

(03:10):
God to receive your just judgment.
Cursed, cursed, cursed, cursedto the 13th generation of your races.
End quote Chilling words.
And remarkably, Pope Clement Vdied just over a month later, In
April of 1314, King PhilippeIV perished in a hunting accident.
In November of that same year,these Swift deaths of the Templar's

(03:35):
chief persecutors, of course,only fueled the legend of the curse
and solidified the image of DeMolay and his brethren as martyrs.
Welcome back to history'sgreatest crimes.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Alina.
Today we delve into a story ofpiety twisted by power, a faith betrayed
by greed, and of an order ofwarrior monks who soared to unimaginable

(03:59):
heights, only to be broughtcrashing down in one of history's
most notorious trials.
From protectors of pilgrims toEurope's bankers and a military elite,
how did the Knights Templars,an order born of piety, assembled,
amass such staggering powerand wealth?
And how did that very successpaint a target on their backs, leading
to their brutal suppression?

(04:20):
This is the trial of theKnights Templar.

(04:41):
Okay, so between theirestablishment and the early 12th
century to their dissolutionin the early 14th century, the Templars
went from being heroes tozeros in medieval Europe.
But before we can discuss whyand how this happened, let's dig
a little further into who theTemplars were.

(05:01):
And to understand theTemplars, we have to understand the
context of the Crusades.
The Crusades were a series ofreligiously motivated military expeditions
carried out by EuropeanChristians primarily between the
11th and 13th century.
Their stated goal was toreclaim the Holy Land from Muslim
rule.
The Crusades were the resultof a variety of different factors.

(05:24):
In the centuries leading up tothe first crusade in 1096, Western
European Christians, most ofwhom were Roman Catholic, experienced
a strong religious trend thatemphasized leading a life according
to God's will.
This move in the 10th and 11thcenturies towards popular outward
shows of piety both boostedpower for religious leaders like

(05:46):
the Pope and also createdfertile ground for a mass movement.
That's right, Michael.
And at the end of the 11thcentury, in the year 1095, the Emperor
of the Byzantine Empire sentambassadors to the Pope, the Roman
Catholic leader in Rome atthis time.
That Pope was Pope Urban ii.
And through his ambassadors,the Emperor requested military assistance

(06:09):
from the Pope for help inrecovering lost territory from the
Seljuq Turks, a powerful groupof Sunni Muslims from Central Asia.
The Seljuqs had moved westover the 11th century, taking control
of Jerusalem and much of theholy land by 1071 and continuing
to move northwest.
By 1081, they had taken theeastern portion of the Byzantine

(06:32):
Empire, which had covered muchof present day Turkey.
And by 1095, the ByzantineEmpire was just a shadow of its former
glorious self.
In November of 1095, havingheard the Emperor's plea for mercenary
forces to help push back theTurks, the Pope made his famous speech
calling for the First Crusadeto retake the Holy Land.

(06:56):
He emphasized the plight ofthe Byzantines and offered stories
of anti Christian actscommitted against pilgrims in the
East.
And perhaps most importantly,he promised that those who went on
Crusade would receiveforgiveness and pardon for their
past sins.
Those who made the ultimatesacrifice and died in pursuit of
retaking the Holy Land wouldreceive absolution for their sins,

(07:20):
allowing them entrance into heaven.
Historians estimate that over100,000 people answered the pope's
call in 1096 and went on crusade.
And most of those 100,000 wereunarmed and untrained in combat.
By 1098, when crusaders reachAntioch, the numbers had dwindled
to about 30,000.

(07:41):
And by 1099, when theCrusaders conquered Jerusalem, there
were only about 13,000 left.
So to be clear here, thecasualty rate was extremely high
for Crusaders and for prettymuch everyone they came across as
they made their way acrossEastern Europe and into Central Asia.
But despite that, thesurvivors succeeded in retaking the

(08:04):
Holy land in the FirstCrusade, and they held onto it until
1187, when Jerusalem fell backunder Muslim control.
The success of the Crusadersencouraged even more people from
across Western Europe to makepilgrimages to various sacred sites
in the Holy Land.
Although the city of Jerusalemwas relatively secure under Christian

(08:25):
control, the surroundingregions were not bandits and marauding
highwaymen.
Often, Christians themselvespreyed upon traveling pilgrims.
Within this context steppedthe poor Knights of Christ in the
temple of Solomon, aka theKnights Templar.
In the year 1119, the Frenchknight Hugues de Payens approached

(08:49):
King Baldwin II, the Christianruler of Jerusalem, and proposed
his plan to create a monasticCatholic religious order for the
protection of pilgrims.
The King granted the Templars,then just a small group of nine French
knights, their ownheadquarters in a wing of the royal
palace on the Temple Mount inthe Al Aqsa Mosque.

(09:12):
The knights took vows ofpoverty, chastity and obedience,
much like monks following arule modeled on the Benedictine tradition.
The influential Saint Bernardof Clairvaux championed them, calling
them a new kind of knighthood,men who were both monks and warriors.

(09:32):
In the ensuing decades, theTemplars evolved from humble pilgrim
escorts to a highlydisciplined, elite fighting force,
often leaders in latercrusading battles.
As one account notes quote,Templars were often the advanced
shock troops in key battles ofthe Crusades, as the heavily armored

(09:52):
knights on their war horseswould charge into the enemy lines
ahead of the main army.
In fact, in the famous 1177Battle of Montgisard, 500 Templar
Knights assisted the muchsmaller infantry of the King of Jerusalem
in their defeat of Saladin'smassive army.
In the beginning, the Templarshad few financial resources and relied

(10:16):
on donations to survive.
Their emblem was actually twoknights riding a single horse, emphasizing
the order's poverty.
But the Templars impoverishedstatus didn't last long.
Their military prowesscombined with their devout reputation
brought them immense support.
Donations poured in fromacross Europe.

(10:38):
Land, castles, entire estateswere gifted to the order by grateful
monarchs and nobles.
Papal bulls from the Popegranted them extraordinary privileges.
For example, in 1139, thepapal bull called Omna datum optimum
exempted the Templars fromobedience to local laws.

(10:58):
This ruling meant that theycould pass freely through all borders.
They were exempt from allauthority except that of the Pope.
And they were not required topay any taxes.
In contrast, the Templars wereactually allowed to collect their
own tithes from local people.
So within 20 years, theKnights Templar had become an organization

(11:19):
that worked largelyindependent of local bishops and
kings and had its own revenue stream.
Exactly, Michael.
And this financialindependence fueled another of the
Templars great innovations.
Banking.
The Templars established whatwas arguably Europe's first international
banking system.

(11:39):
They had fortified houseslocated all over Europe.
In the Holy Land, pilgrims andcrusaders could deposit funds or
valuables in say London orParis and receive a letter of credit
that they could then take withthem and redeem in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem.
And this was revolutionary.
It provided security.
It facilitated the movement ofvast sums of money.

(12:02):
The Templars managed royaltreasuries, even holding the English
crown jewels at one point assecurity on a loan.
But as the famous proverbstates, pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit beforethe fall.
And in this particular story,the fall of the Knights Templar came
after the fall of the city ofAcre in northwest Israel in in 1291.

(12:26):
At that time, a differentSunni Muslim group, the Mamluks of
Egypt, captured Acre andforced Crusaders, including the Knights
Templar, to flee, effectivelyending the era of major crusades
to the Levant.
The fall of acre in 1291 alsoforced the Templars to leave their
bases in the Holy Land,including their headquarters in Jerusalem.

(12:50):
And then they had to establisha new one on Cyprus, a Mediterranean
island located to the south ofTurkey and west of Syria.
Even more importantly, thefall of Acre removed much of the
Templars reason for being theHoly Land was back in the hands of
Muslim rulers, making itnearly impossible for European pilgrims

(13:10):
to travel there.
But despite that, the Templarswealth, their vast network of properties
and their financial influencedidn't just remain, it grew.
And that created a dangerous paradox.
The Knights Templar were thisincredibly wealthy, powerful, powerful
transnational organization,largely answering only to the Pope.

(13:34):
But their original primarymilitary justification was fading.
And as a result, it didn'ttake long for their great wealth,
extensive land holdings inEurope and power to inspire resentment
toward them.
Their secrecy, born frommonastic discipline and the need
for operational security, nowstarted to look suspicious to outsiders.

(13:59):
The Templars success made themlook too rich, too powerful and too
independent for the liking of13th century European rulers.

(14:25):
Enter King Philippe IV ofFrance, often called Philip the Fair,
Though his actions wereanything but.
Reigning from 1285 to 1314,Philip was driven by two main ambitions.
To centralize royal power andto fill his perpetually empty coffers.
Constant wars, especiallyagainst England and Flanders, and

(14:48):
had bled the French treasury dry.
In 1299, the Knights Templarloaned Philippe a substantial sum
of 500,000 livres for hissister's dowry and for his war against
the Flemish.
But that didn't solve KingPhilippe's money problems.
During that same Flemish warthat Philippe received monetary aid

(15:11):
from the Templars, he stillimposed taxes until his French subjects
literally revolted.
He was so desperate for fundsthat he resorted to extreme measures.
For example, in order tofinance royal spending, King Philippe
ordered a series of currency manipulations.
By creating new currencies andby reducing their metal content without

(15:33):
changing their face value, hewas essentially debasing the currency
and cheating his own people.
Again, King Philippe'ssubjects revolted.
This time, the Knights Templaractively helped to defend the king
and gave the king refugeduring this incident.
But although King Philip wasin a lot of debt, he was not a man

(15:55):
to be trifled with, not evenby the Pope.
Pope Boniface VII learned thisthe hard way in 1303 when he attempted
to assert papal supremacy byforbidding the King from taxing the
Catholic leaders in his kingdom.
King Philippe's response was audacious.
His agents stormed the papalpalace in Italy and physically assaulted

(16:17):
the pope.
Boniface, who was an 86 yearold man, died shortly thereafter,
likely from shock and humiliation.
It was a stark demonstrationthat royal power could and would
challenge the Vicar of Christ himself.
The violent attack on the Popeand his subsequent death had profound

(16:38):
consequences.
The next popes were far morecautious in dealing with the French
king.
In 1305, a Frenchman, theArchbishop of Bordeaux, was elected
Pope Clement V. His electionwas heavily influenced, if not outright
engineered, by King Philippe.
Pope Clement V, described bysome as timid and chronically ill,

(17:04):
proved to be a much morepliable figure for King Philippe.
A few Years later, in 1309,Clement made a fateful decision.
He moved the entire papalcourt from Rome to Avignon, a city
in southern France.
This began the so calledAvignon papacy, a period where the

(17:25):
papacy was widely seen as atool for the French crown.
With a compliant Pope in hisbackyard, King Philippe had the perfect
opportunity to deal with hisdomestic problems, particularly his
massive debts and theexistence of a wealthy independent
order like the Templars.
The Templars were in many waysa state within a state, possessing

(17:48):
vast lands, fortresses andtheir own lines of command answering
only to the Pope.
And for a king bent onabsolute power and desperate for
cash, they were anirresistible target.
And Philippe had the perfectinstrument for his dirty work.
Jeum de Nogaret, his keeper ofthe seal and Chief Minister.

(18:09):
Nogaret was a brilliantlawyer, but utterly unscrupulous.
He was a master of propagandaand legal chicanery.
In fact, he had been thearchitect of the attack on Pope Boniface
back in 1303.
Just prior to the attack, hedrew up a list of 29 charges against
the Pope, including blackmagic, sodomy, heresy and blasphemy.

(18:33):
A few years later, the samelawyer, Jeom de Nogaret, would be
at the center of another listof accusations against the Knights
Templar.
These accusations, primarilyrelated to heresy, may have originated
from disgruntled formerTemplars, although it's unclear,
adding to the murkiness ofthis part of history.
It's also unclear whether KingPhilip truly believed the charges

(18:57):
against the Templars or simplyused them as a convenient tool.
But his words were unequivocal.
He described the Templars andtheir crimes as a bitter thing, a
lamentable thing, a thingwhich is horrible to contemplate,
terrible to hear of adetestable crime in execrable evil,

(19:18):
an abominable work, adetestable disgrace, a thing almost
inhuman, indeed, set apartfrom all humanity.
On September 14th of 1307,King Philippe IV issued sealed orders
to his royal officials acrossthe entire Kingdom of France.
These orders were not to beopened until one month later, specifically

(19:40):
on dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307.
The language within wascalculated to incite horror and justify
the drastic actions to come.
Philip's directive painted theTemplars not as holy warriors, but
as monstrous heretics.
He stated that they wereaccused of denying Christ, spitting

(20:02):
on crucifixes and images ofChrist, engaging in homosexual acts
and worshipping idols andfalse gods.
In one very detailed examplein the order, it stated that the
Templars had denied Christthree times and spat three times
on his image.
Then stripped of their secularclothing and brought naked before

(20:24):
the senior Templar in chargeof the reception, they were kissed
by him.
The members were then obligedto participate in carnal relations
with other members of theorder if requested.
And finally, they wore a smallbelt that had been consecrated by
touching a strange idol.
It's important to note thatmany historians believe these accusations

(20:46):
were not unique to theTemplars, but were standard tropes,
often leveled against groupsbranded as heretics or political
enemies in this medieval period.
And the Templars traditionalsecrecy around their initiation rights
made them particularlyvulnerable to such slanderous interpretations.
The King and his officialsknew that these were incredibly serious

(21:09):
and shocking charges, and theyclearly were designed to strip the
Templars of any public sympathy.
As the royal orders wereopened, the surprise was absolute
and the arrests began.
Simultaneously, throughout France.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands ofTemplars were seized in this meticulously

(21:29):
planned operation.
Even the Grand Master Jacquesde Molay was arrested in Paris, reportedly
just after attending thefuneral of King Philippe's own sister
in law.
Jean de Nogaret.
Philippe's lawyer and righthand man, personally oversaw the
arrests in the capitol.
Pope Clement V, nominally theTemplar's ultimate protector, was

(21:54):
reportedly incensed byPhilippe's unilateral action.
He even wrote to Philippe onOctober 27th protesting the arrests.
But Philippe held all the cards.
He had the Templars in hisdungeons and his inquisitors were
already at work.
Faced with a fait accompli andlargely a barrage of coerce confession,

(22:17):
Clement's indignation quicklyturned to capitulation.
As usual, Pope Clement wasunder the thumb of the French king.
On November 22, 1307, PopeClement V issued a papal bull to
all of Europe that, quote,ordered all Christian monarchs to
arrest all Templars andconfiscate their lands in the name

(22:38):
of the Pope and the Church.
End quote.
While enforcement variedgreatly outside of the Kingdom of
France, this papal decreeeffectively legitimized King Philippe's
brutal crackdown on aninternational scale.
It's astonishing how amilitary order famed for its discipline
and fighting prowess could berounded up so easily.

(23:01):
I agree.
But we have to remember thatin France at this time, the Templars
weren't a concentrated armypoised for battle.
Their properties were widespread.
They owned farms, they hadadministrative centers, preceptories.
They were vulnerable to aswift, coordinated police action
by a determined monarch whocontrolled the machinery of the state.

(23:22):
Their strength had beenfortified castles during wartime,
in the east, or in theirfinancial networks, not in resisting
the domestic power of theFrench king at their homes in peacetime,
the Templars, this monasticorder under papal protection, never
anticipated such a betrayalfrom a Christian monarch.
And of course, there's thedate itself.

(23:44):
Friday the 13th.
You know, while the origins ofthe superstition are complex and
debated, with some peoplepointing to earlier Norse myths or
even the Last Supper, there'sno denying that the dramatic, brutal
and widespread arrests of therevered Knights templar on Friday,
October 13, 1307, haspowerfully contributed to the day's

(24:08):
dark and unlucky reputationand popular culture.
Culture.

(24:28):
But now that they had arrestedand jailed a good portion of the
Templars, how did Philippe'smen prove these charges?
Overwhelmingly, through torture.
And the purpose of theTemplars torture was not to obtain
the actual truth, but toelicit the specific truth the accusers
wanted to hear.
Their methods were horrific.
The strappado involvedhoisting victims by their wrists,

(24:51):
bound behind their back, andthen dropping them over and over
again, dislocating their shoulders.
There was also stretching onthe rack, starvation and sleep deprivation.
One particularly gruesometechnique was foot roasting.
Charles Addison, a historianof the Templars, described it vividly.

(25:12):
Their legs were fastened in aniron frame and the soles of their
feet were greased over withfat or butter.
They were then placed beforethe fire and a screen was drawn forwards
and backwards so as tomoderate and regulate the heat.
Such was the agony produced bythis roasting operation that the

(25:33):
victim often went raving mad.
We even have testimony fromsome Templars about their ordeals.
One Templar recounted beingtortured with his hands tied so tightly
that blood ran to his fingernails.
He was also kept in a pit sosmall he could barely move for three
months before he confessed.

(25:53):
He said he was prepared to diefor the Order, but he could not endure
such prolonged torment underthese conditions.
It's hardly surprising that somany Templars, including the Grand
Master Jacques de Molayhimself, confessed to at least some
of the charges.
On October 24, 1307, de Molayadmitted to denying Christ and spitting

(26:16):
near, though not on, the Cross.
Malcolm Barber, anotherleading historian on the Templars,
argues that Philippe, or moreexactly his servants, used existing
disapproval of Templararrogance and wealth, dissatisfaction
with the loss of Holy Land,and frustration at the failure of

(26:38):
crusading as well assuperstition and homophobia to fabricate
this case in which theTemplars were accused of denying
Christ worshiping idols and sodomy.
The charges, themselves oftenvague and contradictory, point to
a predetermined agenda of guilt.

(26:59):
The torture was Merely themeans to achieve the desired end.
Confessions that would justifythe destruction of the Order.
Despite the brutality of theRoyal Inquisitions, Pope Clement
V did attempt to assert somepapal authority by initiating his
own inquiries throughspecially appointed commissions.

(27:20):
This led to a complex andoften contradictory series of hearings.
One of the most significantdocuments to emerge from the Pope's
inquiries is the Chinon parchment.
Just as an aside, thisdocument, the Chinon Parchment, was
only rediscovered in 2001 inthe Vatican Secret Archives.
And what does this ChinonParchment tell us, Elena?

(27:41):
It records the interrogationof Grandmaster Jacques de Molay and
other high ranking Templarleaders by the Pope's investigators
at the Chateau de Chinon inAugust of 1308.
According to this document,the leaders confessed to certain
irregularities, notably thedenial of Christ during the secret

(28:02):
initiation ceremony.
Perhaps as a test of obedienceor a simulated experience of what
they might face if captured by Saracens.
Crucially, the Papalrepresentatives then granted them
absolution and sought toreconcile them with the Church.
Historians have suggested thatthe Chinon document was a failed

(28:24):
attempt by the Pope topreserve the Templars through establishing
that the Order was notheretical and was therefore capable
of reform.
This implies Clement initiallyhoped for a path to reform, not utter
destruction like King Philippe.
While these papal inquirieswere underway, some Templars attempted

(28:46):
to mount a defense for themselves.
They argued forcefully for theOrder's innocence, challenging the
legality of the proceedingsand demanding to know who their accusers
were and to see the evidenceamassed against them.
As more Templars began toretract the confessions forced from
them under torture, the Kingsaw his carefully constructed case

(29:07):
beginning to unravel.
His response was swift and brutal.
In May 1310, the king namedArchbishop of Sens to conduct the
ongoing proceedings.
Notably, the Archbishop had anestablished relationship with the
King.
Two days after being put incharge, the Archbishop declared 54

(29:28):
Templars who had recantedtheir confessions to be relapsed
heretics.
And the punishment for arelapsed heretic was death by fire.
On May 12, 1310, the 54accused knights were burned at the
stake in a field outside of Paris.
This horrific mass executionsent a clear and terrifying message

(29:51):
to any other Templarsconsidering recanting.
Withdraw your confession, itseemed to say, and you will burn.
The organized defense of theOrder effectively collapsed.
This entire process wasriddled with legal irregularities.
Even by the standards of the14th century, the Templars as a religious

(30:12):
order, were supposed to besubject only to the Pope.
Yet King Philip initiatedtheir arrests and trials.
The accused were routinelydenied legal counsel not informed
on the specific chargesagainst them for extended periods,
and not allowed to confronttheir accusers.
And of course, the systemicuse of torture to extract confessions

(30:33):
rendered the entireevidentiary basis of the trial a
sham.
The charge of being a relapsedheretic was a particularly cynical
legal tool.
Once a Templar confessed evenunder unimaginable pain, and then
later found the courage totell the truth and retract that confession,

(30:54):
they weren't given a new trial.
They were simply condemned forchanging their story.
So it was a legal death trap.
So the Shenan Parchment, whichattempted to find some reconciliation
for the Templars, ultimatelymeant little in the face of Philip's
brute force and political machinations.
He held the Templars in hisprisons and he controlled the narrative

(31:16):
through his own inquisitorsand propaganda.
Any papal attempt at a moremoderate resolution was effectively
crushed by the flames thatconsumed those 54 knights.
Around the same time, KingPhilippe pushed the Pope to decide
the ultimate fate of the Templars.
The King must have thoughtthat Pope Clement would simply carry

(31:37):
out his wishes against theOrder and destroy them for good.
In response, in 1311 and 1312,Pope Clement convened and oversaw
the Council of Vienne, themain focus of which was the Templars
and what would become of them.
But many of the CouncilFathers were hesitant to fully condemn
the Order.
They felt the evidence was tooweak, largely just based on the coerced

(32:01):
torture confessions.
And they believe that theTemplars should be allowed to mount
a proper defense.
But rather than decide infavor of the Templars, after lengthy
discussion, the Council leftthe matter unresolved.
So they just tried to avoidmaking a decision at all?
That's right.
But King Philippe was not apatient man.

(32:23):
Frustrated by the Council'sindecision and the potential for
his grand scheme to unravel,he took matters into his own hands.
In March 1312, Philippe showedup at the Council of Vienne, not
as a humble petitioner, butwith a significant military force,
effectively intimidating thePope and the Council members.
One contemporary noted that afrustrated King Philippe held a general

(32:47):
assembly of his kingdom innearby Lyon and began to menace Pope
Clement.
It seems that Clement'scapitulated and agreed to suppress
the Templars.
Under this immense pressure,on March 22 of 1312, Pope Clement
V issued the papal bull, Voxin Excelso.

(33:08):
This bull formally dissolvedthe Order of the Knights Templar.
It's crucial to understand thelegal subtleties in this Bull.
It did not condemn the Orderas a whole for heresy based on a
definitive judicial sentenceby the Council.
Many at The Council stilldoubted their guilt.
Instead, Clement suppressedthe Order by way of provision or

(33:32):
apostolic ordinance.
In short, this was anadministrative act.
The Pope declared that due tothe grave scandal that had arisen,
the infamy surrounding theOrder, which we should note was largely
manufactured by Philip, theconfessions obtained, which were
very dubious, and the apparentimpossibility of reforming the Order

(33:55):
while it existed under such acloud, it was being suppressed.
In other words, for the goodof the Church and to prevent further
scandal.
The Bull itself states, inview of the suspicion, infamy, loud
insinuations and other thingswhich have been brought against the
Order, and also the secret andclandestine reception of the brothers

(34:18):
of this Order, in view,moreover, of the serious scandal
which has arisen from thesethings, which it did not seem could
be stopped while the Orderremained in being.
It is not without bitternessand sadness of heart that we abolish
the aforesaid Order of theTemple by an irrevocable and perpetually

(34:38):
valid decree.
So this was Pope Clement's wayto satisfy Philippe's demand for
dissolution without theCouncil having to issue a full formal
condemnation of heresy againstthe entire Order, which many were
unwilling to do.
This leads us to the nextimportant question.
What would become of theTemplars legendary wealth?

(35:02):
Their vast network of lands,castles and financial assets.
The subsequent papal bull, adprovatum, issued on May 2, 1312,
decreed that all Templarproperties were to be transferred
to another military order, theKnights Hospitaller, also known as
the Order of St. John.

(35:23):
This meant to ensure thewealth continued to serve Christian
purposes, particularly thedefense of Christendom.
But one can imagine thatdidn't quite go according to plan,
especially with Philippe.
The fair involved precisely inreality, a massive land and asset
grab is what ensued.
King Philippe himself seized ahuge portion of the Templar wealth

(35:46):
in France.
He even had the audacity tocharge the Hospitallers an enormous
sum, 200,000 livres, to coverhis costs for prosecuting the Templars.
Other monarchs and noblesacross Europe followed suit, taking
what they could.
In England, for example, KingEdward II also dragged his feet in

(36:08):
transferring assets to theHospitallers, allowing his nobles
to pick over the Templarestates first.
As one source bluntly puts it,quote, the Templars enormous fortune
was officially transferred tothe Order of St. John, but much of
it ended up in the hands ofsecular rulers.
End quote.
So the stated religiouspurpose for redistributing the assets

(36:30):
was largely a smoke stream forroyal and noble greed.
It certainly appears that way.
Interestingly, in Portugal,King Denis the First took a different
approach.
He negotiated with PopeClement V to transfer Templar sets
not to the Hospitallers, butto a newly created Portuguese order,

(36:51):
the Order of Christ.
This effectively preservedmuch of the Templar structure and
wealth within Portugal under anew name and national allegiance.
So it highlights how nationalinterests often trumped papal decrees
and the practical aftermath ofthe suppression.

(37:29):
So the Order of the KnightsTemplar was officially dissolved
in 1312, its assets scattered.
But the faith of its highestleaders was yet to be sealed.
After years languishing inPhilippe's dungeons, Grandmaster
Jacques de Molay and Geoffroyde Charnay, the Preceptor of Normandy,
were brought before acommission of cardinals on March
18, 1314.

(37:51):
They were to hear their finalsentence, perpetual imprisonment.
But what happened next shocked everyone.
Instead of meekly acceptingtheir fate, both de Molay, who is
now an old man in his 70s, andDe Charnay made a dramatic and defiant
stand.
They publicly recanted theconfessions that had been tortured

(38:14):
out of them years before.
They proclaimed the innocenceof the Knights Templar and declared
that their only true crime washaving lied under duress and betraying
the Order to save their own lives.
The contemporary chroniclerGeoffrey de Paris captured the essence
of de Molay's final words.

(38:36):
He reportedly shouted, Godknows who is wrong, who has sinned.
I declare the Order is innocent.
Its purity and saintliness arebeyond question.
I have indeed confessed thatthe Order is guilty, but I have done
so only to save myself fromterrible tortures.
Life is offered to me, but atthe price of infamy.

(38:58):
At such a price, life is notworth having, end quote.
That's an incredible act of courage.
Keeping in mind that thepenalty for.
A relapsed heretic was death,King Philippe was predictably furious.
This public recantationthreatened to unravel the entire
narrative of Templar guiltthat he had so carefully constructed.

(39:21):
There was no deliberation, nofurther trial.
Philippe ordered that de Molayand de Charny were burned at the
stake as relapsed hereticsthat very same evening.
The execution took place on asmall island in the River Seine in
Paris, possibly in view of theroyal palace.
Eyewitnesses accounts,including that of Geoffrey of Paris,

(39:42):
described both men facingtheir agonizing deaths by slow burning,
with remarkable composure andcourage, maintaining their innocence
to the very end.
Geoffrey of Paris noted thatde Molay showed no sign of fear and
telling those present that Godwould avenge their deaths.
And this leads us to thefamous curse of de Molay that we

(40:05):
mentioned at the verybeginning of this episode.
Legend has it that as theflames consumed him, Jacques de Molay
cursed Pope Clement and KingPhilippe, summoning them to appear
before God's judgment within ayear and a day.
Pope Clement V died just overa month later, in April of 1314.
And when Clement died, hewasn't all that old.

(40:28):
He was actually only around 50years old.
His cause of death appears tobe related to cancer of the stomach
or intestines.
The really weird moment forClement actually took place after
the Pope's death.
According to one account,while Pope Clement's body was lying
in state, a thunderstorm aroseduring the night and lightning struck

(40:51):
the church where the body lay,setting it on fire.
And the fire was so intensethat by the time it was extinguished,
the Pope's body was completely destroyed.
I'm sure that raised a lot of eyebrows.
It certainly did.
King Philippe also died inNovember of 1314, the same year that
de Molay was executed.

(41:11):
While the King was outhunting, he suffered a cerebral stroke
and died a few weeks later.
Later, adding to that, theKing's three sons didn't have much
luck either.
All three became king, but allthree died in quick succession and
without male heirs.
The swift deaths of theTemplar's chief prosecutors, of course,

(41:32):
only fueled the legend of thecurse and solidified the image of
de Molay and his brethren as martyrs.
The historical verdict on thetrial of the Knights Templar is almost
unanimous.
It was a gross miscarriage ofjustice, driven by King Philippe's
insatiable greed and hisambition to consolidate absolute
power, facilitated by aweakened and coerced papacy.

(41:56):
The charges were largelyfabricated, and the confessions were
extracted through systematic torture.
The final defiant stand of thetwo Templar leaders in 1314 was incredibly
powerful.
By recanting their forcedconfessions and facing death with
courage, they transformedthemselves in the public imagination
from condemned heretics intomartyrs for their order.

(42:19):
This act, combined with thedramatic timing of their persecutors
deaths, created an enduringnarrative of injustice and divine
retribution that has fueledthe Templar legend for over 700 years.
And while Philippe IVcertainly achieved his immediate
goals, which were eliminatinga powerful independent entity and

(42:41):
seizing considerable wealth,the suppression of the Templars had
a broader, perhaps unintended consequence.
It served as a starkdemonstration of the rising power
of secular monarchies overestablished international institutions,
including the papacy itself.
If the King of France couldorchestrate the destruction of the

(43:02):
mighty Knights Templar, thenfew other independent bodies within
his realm could feel entirely secure.
The trial of the KnightsTemplar wasn't just the end of a
powerful order.
It was a brutal display ofroyal ambition, a saga of coerced
confessions and a Crime thathas echoed through history, leaving
behind a legacy of mystery,martyrdom, and a chilling example

(43:26):
of justice.
Betrayed.
And despite their officialdissolution, the Knights Templar
have never truly vanished fromthe popular imagination.
Legends of hidden treasure,arcane knowledge, the Holy Grail,
and supposed links to groupslike the Freemasons continue to fascinate
and inspire.
A testament to their dramaticrise and even more dramatic criminal

(43:48):
fall.
Absolutely.
And I would say that mostpeople have associated the Holy Grail
with the Knights Templar sinceIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The theory that the KnightsTemplar were guardians of the Holy
Grail actually originatedearlier than that, sometime in the
19th century.
In 1818, the Austrian pseudohistorical writer Joseph von Hammer

(44:12):
Purgstahl connected the Grailto myths surrounding the Knights
Templar that cast the order asa secret society dedicated to mystical
knowledge and relics.
In his work, the authoractually suggested that the Grail
was not a physical relic, butrather a symbol of the secret knowledge
that the Templars sought.
But even if there is not realhistorical evidence linking the Templars

(44:36):
to the search of the Grail,what's interesting is that the secrecy
and wealth of the KnightsTemplar and their connection to the
Holy Grail from way back inthe high Middle Ages was historically
significant enough to remainattached to their popular image in
modern culture.
As well as.
One of my favorite quotes,which is he chose poorly.

(44:58):
Excellent point, Michael.
Thanks for tuning into ourfiery episode of the Templars.
I'm Elena.
And I'm Michael.
Until next time, stay curious.

(45:23):
Sam.

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The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar: A Tale of Power and Betrayal

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