The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar: A Tale of Power and Betrayal
The narrative of the Knights Templar, an order initially established in the early 12th century to safeguard Christian pilgrims, serves as a poignant exploration of the interplay between piety and power, ultimately leading to their tragic downfall. In the context of the First Crusade, these knights evolved from humble protectors to formidable warriors, amassing considerable wealth and influence that incited envy among secular rulers. By the end of the 13th century, their opulence and perceived secrecy rendered them vulnerable to the machinations of King Philippe IV of France, whose ambition for absolute authority culminated in a calculated campaign against them. This episode meticulously chronicles the relentless persecution of the Templars, illustrating how fabricated charges and torturous confessions precipitated a legal travesty that ultimately led to their dissolution in 1312. As we dissect this historical injustice, we are compelled to ponder the ramifications of unchecked power and the enduring legacy of those who faced persecution with remarkable resolve.
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Takeaways:
- The origin of the Knights Templar can be traced back to the early 12th century, specifically after the First Crusade when they sought to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land.
- Initially formed by a small group of French knights, the Templars evolved from humble guardians into a formidable military force during the Crusades, becoming renowned for their discipline and valor in battle.
- The Templars amassed considerable wealth and power, leading to suspicion and resentment from secular rulers, particularly King Philippe IV of France, who sought their downfall.
- The arrest and subsequent trials of the Knights Templar were marked by fabricated charges and extensive torture, reflecting the intersection of political ambition and ecclesiastical authority during the 14th century.
Transcript
Our story today begins in the early 12th century, in the aftermath of the First Crusade.
Speaker A:Jerusalem was in Christian hands.
Speaker A:But the roads leading to it were treacherous and teeming with bandits.
Speaker A: volatile environment, around: Speaker B:Their mission to protect Christian pilgrims on their perilous journey to the Holy Land in present day Israel and the surrounding area.
Speaker B:As one contemporary source puts it quote, pitying the plight of these Christians, eight or nine French knights the led by Ugta Payan vowed to devote themselves to the pilgrims protection and to form a religious community for that purpose.
Speaker A:These were not your typical feudal knights.
Speaker A:They called themselves the poor knights of Christ and the temple of Solomon.
Speaker A:Taking their name from their headquarters in the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Speaker A:Eventually they became known more simply as the Knights Templars, or simply the Templars.
Speaker B:They took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, much like monks.
Speaker B:But unlike traditional monks, the Templars also engaged in battle as warriors.
Speaker A:And warriors they were.
Speaker A:Over the next century the Templars quickly evolved.
Speaker A:From escorts of humble pilgrims, they became a highly disciplined elite fighting force, often the spearhead in crucial crusader battles.
Speaker A:Their rule forbade retreat unless overwhelmingly outnumbered and their ferocity in battle became legendary.
Speaker B:But as with so many stories of great power, the seeds of destruction were sown within the Templars own success.
Speaker A:By the end of the 13th century, the secrecy of the Templars now started to look suspicious to outsiders.
Speaker A:Their success had made them too rich, too powerful and too independent for the liking of ambitious secular rulers who were trying to consolidate their own power.
Speaker B: In: Speaker B:Wolves in sheep's clothing.
Speaker B:They ordered the two grand masters of the Templars to be burned at the stake.
Speaker A:According to legend, as the two grand masters of the Templars suffered an agonizingly slow death by fire, one of them, Jacques de Molay, cursed the Pope and King, summoning them to appear before God's judgment within a year and a day.
Speaker A:A popular version of the curse goes quote Pope Clement, King Philippe before one year I summon you to appear before the tribunal of God to receive your just judgment.
Speaker A:Cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed to the 13th generation of your races.
Speaker B:End quote Chilling words.
Speaker B: er a month later, In April of: Speaker B:In November of that same year, these Swift deaths of the Templar's chief persecutors, of course, only fueled the legend of the curse and solidified the image of De Molay and his brethren as martyrs.
Speaker A:Welcome back to history's greatest crimes.
Speaker A:I'm Michael.
Speaker B:And I'm Alina.
Speaker B:Today we delve into a story of piety twisted by power, a faith betrayed by greed, and of an order of warrior monks who soared to unimaginable heights, only to be brought crashing down in one of history's most notorious trials.
Speaker A:From protectors of pilgrims to Europe's bankers and a military elite, how did the Knights Templars, an order born of piety, assembled, amass such staggering power and wealth?
Speaker A:And how did that very success paint a target on their backs, leading to their brutal suppression?
Speaker A:This is the trial of the Knights Templar.
Speaker B:Okay, so between their establishment and the early 12th century to their dissolution in the early 14th century, the Templars went from being heroes to zeros in medieval Europe.
Speaker B:But before we can discuss why and how this happened, let's dig a little further into who the Templars were.
Speaker A:And to understand the Templars, we have to understand the context of the Crusades.
Speaker A:The Crusades were a series of religiously motivated military expeditions carried out by European Christians primarily between the 11th and 13th century.
Speaker A:Their stated goal was to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim rule.
Speaker B:The Crusades were the result of a variety of different factors.
Speaker B: ng up to the first crusade in: Speaker A:This move in the 10th and 11th centuries towards popular outward shows of piety both boosted power for religious leaders like the Pope and also created fertile ground for a mass movement.
Speaker B:That's right, Michael.
Speaker B: th century, in the year: Speaker B:That Pope was Pope Urban ii.
Speaker B:And through his ambassadors, the Emperor requested military assistance from the Pope for help in recovering lost territory from the Seljuq Turks, a powerful group of Sunni Muslims from Central Asia.
Speaker A: and much of the holy land by: Speaker A: By: Speaker A: And by: Speaker B: In November of: Speaker B:He emphasized the plight of the Byzantines and offered stories of anti Christian acts committed against pilgrims in the East.
Speaker B:And perhaps most importantly, he promised that those who went on Crusade would receive forgiveness and pardon for their past sins.
Speaker B:Those who made the ultimate sacrifice and died in pursuit of retaking the Holy Land would receive absolution for their sins, allowing them entrance into heaven.
Speaker A: e answered the pope's call in: Speaker A:And most of those 100,000 were unarmed and untrained in combat.
Speaker A: By: Speaker A: And by: Speaker B:So to be clear here, the casualty rate was extremely high for Crusaders and for pretty much everyone they came across as they made their way across Eastern Europe and into Central Asia.
Speaker B: , and they held onto it until: Speaker A:The success of the Crusaders encouraged even more people from across Western Europe to make pilgrimages to various sacred sites in the Holy Land.
Speaker A:Although the city of Jerusalem was relatively secure under Christian control, the surrounding regions were not bandits and marauding highwaymen.
Speaker A:Often, Christians themselves preyed upon traveling pilgrims.
Speaker B:Within this context stepped the poor Knights of Christ in the temple of Solomon, aka the Knights Templar.
Speaker B: In the year: Speaker A:The King granted the Templars, then just a small group of nine French knights, their own headquarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount in the Al Aqsa Mosque.
Speaker A:The knights took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, much like monks following a rule modeled on the Benedictine tradition.
Speaker A:The influential Saint Bernard of Clairvaux championed them, calling them a new kind of knighthood, men who were both monks and warriors.
Speaker B:In the ensuing decades, the Templars evolved from humble pilgrim escorts to a highly disciplined, elite fighting force, often leaders in later crusading battles.
Speaker B:As one account notes quote, Templars were often the advanced shock troops in key battles of the Crusades, as the heavily armored knights on their war horses would charge into the enemy lines ahead of the main army.
Speaker B: In fact, in the famous: Speaker A:In the beginning, the Templars had few financial resources and relied on donations to survive.
Speaker A:Their emblem was actually two knights riding a single horse, emphasizing the order's poverty.
Speaker B:But the Templars impoverished status didn't last long.
Speaker B:Their military prowess combined with their devout reputation brought them immense support.
Speaker B:Donations poured in from across Europe.
Speaker B:Land, castles, entire estates were gifted to the order by grateful monarchs and nobles.
Speaker B:Papal bulls from the Pope granted them extraordinary privileges.
Speaker B: For example, in: Speaker B:This ruling meant that they could pass freely through all borders.
Speaker B:They were exempt from all authority except that of the Pope.
Speaker B:And they were not required to pay any taxes.
Speaker B:In contrast, the Templars were actually allowed to collect their own tithes from local people.
Speaker A:So within 20 years, the Knights Templar had become an organization that worked largely independent of local bishops and kings and had its own revenue stream.
Speaker B:Exactly, Michael.
Speaker B:And this financial independence fueled another of the Templars great innovations.
Speaker B:Banking.
Speaker B:The Templars established what was arguably Europe's first international banking system.
Speaker B:They had fortified houses located all over Europe.
Speaker B:In the Holy Land, pilgrims and crusaders could deposit funds or valuables in say London or Paris and receive a letter of credit that they could then take with them and redeem in Jerusalem.
Speaker B:Jerusalem.
Speaker B:And this was revolutionary.
Speaker B:It provided security.
Speaker B:It facilitated the movement of vast sums of money.
Speaker B:The Templars managed royal treasuries, even holding the English crown jewels at one point as security on a loan.
Speaker A:But as the famous proverb states, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall.
Speaker A: cre in northwest Israel in in: Speaker A:At that time, a different Sunni Muslim group, the Mamluks of Egypt, captured Acre and forced Crusaders, including the Knights Templar, to flee, effectively ending the era of major crusades to the Levant.
Speaker B: The fall of acre in: Speaker B:And then they had to establish a new one on Cyprus, a Mediterranean island located to the south of Turkey and west of Syria.
Speaker A:Even more importantly, the fall of Acre removed much of the Templars reason for being the Holy Land was back in the hands of Muslim rulers, making it nearly impossible for European pilgrims to travel there.
Speaker A:But despite that, the Templars wealth, their vast network of properties and their financial influence didn't just remain, it grew.
Speaker B:And that created a dangerous paradox.
Speaker B:The Knights Templar were this incredibly wealthy, powerful, powerful transnational organization, largely answering only to the Pope.
Speaker B:But their original primary military justification was fading.
Speaker B:And as a result, it didn't take long for their great wealth, extensive land holdings in Europe and power to inspire resentment toward them.
Speaker B:Their secrecy, born from monastic discipline and the need for operational security, now started to look suspicious to outsiders.
Speaker B:The Templars success made them look too rich, too powerful and too independent for the liking of 13th century European rulers.
Speaker A:Enter King Philippe IV of France, often called Philip the Fair, Though his actions were anything but.
Speaker A: Reigning from: Speaker A:To centralize royal power and to fill his perpetually empty coffers.
Speaker A:Constant wars, especially against England and Flanders, and had bled the French treasury dry.
Speaker A: In: Speaker B:But that didn't solve King Philippe's money problems.
Speaker B:During that same Flemish war that Philippe received monetary aid from the Templars, he still imposed taxes until his French subjects literally revolted.
Speaker B:He was so desperate for funds that he resorted to extreme measures.
Speaker B:For example, in order to finance royal spending, King Philippe ordered a series of currency manipulations.
Speaker B:By creating new currencies and by reducing their metal content without changing their face value, he was essentially debasing the currency and cheating his own people.
Speaker A:Again, King Philippe's subjects revolted.
Speaker A:This time, the Knights Templar actively helped to defend the king and gave the king refuge during this incident.
Speaker B:But although King Philip was in a lot of debt, he was not a man to be trifled with, not even by the Pope.
Speaker B: learned this the hard way in: Speaker B:King Philippe's response was audacious.
Speaker B:His agents stormed the papal palace in Italy and physically assaulted the pope.
Speaker B:Boniface, who was an 86 year old man, died shortly thereafter, likely from shock and humiliation.
Speaker B:It was a stark demonstration that royal power could and would challenge the Vicar of Christ himself.
Speaker A:The violent attack on the Pope and his subsequent death had profound consequences.
Speaker A:The next popes were far more cautious in dealing with the French king.
Speaker B: In: Speaker B:Pope Clement V, described by some as timid and chronically ill, proved to be a much more pliable figure for King Philippe.
Speaker A: A few Years later, in: Speaker A:He moved the entire papal court from Rome to Avignon, a city in southern France.
Speaker A:This began the so called Avignon papacy, a period where the papacy was widely seen as a tool for the French crown.
Speaker B:With a compliant Pope in his backyard, King Philippe had the perfect opportunity to deal with his domestic problems, particularly his massive debts and the existence of a wealthy independent order like the Templars.
Speaker B:The Templars were in many ways a state within a state, possessing vast lands, fortresses and their own lines of command answering only to the Pope.
Speaker B:And for a king bent on absolute power and desperate for cash, they were an irresistible target.
Speaker A:And Philippe had the perfect instrument for his dirty work.
Speaker A:Jeum de Nogaret, his keeper of the seal and Chief Minister.
Speaker A:Nogaret was a brilliant lawyer, but utterly unscrupulous.
Speaker A:He was a master of propaganda and legal chicanery.
Speaker A: tack on Pope Boniface back in: Speaker A:Just prior to the attack, he drew up a list of 29 charges against the Pope, including black magic, sodomy, heresy and blasphemy.
Speaker B:A few years later, the same lawyer, Jeom de Nogaret, would be at the center of another list of accusations against the Knights Templar.
Speaker B:These accusations, primarily related to heresy, may have originated from disgruntled former Templars, although it's unclear, adding to the murkiness of this part of history.
Speaker B:It's also unclear whether King Philip truly believed the charges against the Templars or simply used them as a convenient tool.
Speaker A:But his words were unequivocal.
Speaker A:He described the Templars and their crimes as a bitter thing, a lamentable thing, a thing which is horrible to contemplate, terrible to hear of a detestable crime in execrable evil, an abominable work, a detestable disgrace, a thing almost inhuman, indeed, set apart from all humanity.
Speaker B: th of: Speaker B: ,: Speaker A:The language within was calculated to incite horror and justify the drastic actions to come.
Speaker A:Philip's directive painted the Templars not as holy warriors, but as monstrous heretics.
Speaker A:He stated that they were accused of denying Christ, spitting on crucifixes and images of Christ, engaging in homosexual acts and worshipping idols and false gods.
Speaker B:In one very detailed example in the order, it stated that the Templars had denied Christ three times and spat three times on his image.
Speaker B:Then stripped of their secular clothing and brought naked before the senior Templar in charge of the reception, they were kissed by him.
Speaker B:The members were then obliged to participate in carnal relations with other members of the order if requested.
Speaker B:And finally, they wore a small belt that had been consecrated by touching a strange idol.
Speaker A:It's important to note that many historians believe these accusations were not unique to the Templars, but were standard tropes, often leveled against groups branded as heretics or political enemies in this medieval period.
Speaker A:And the Templars traditional secrecy around their initiation rights made them particularly vulnerable to such slanderous interpretations.
Speaker B:The King and his officials knew that these were incredibly serious and shocking charges, and they clearly were designed to strip the Templars of any public sympathy.
Speaker A:As the royal orders were opened, the surprise was absolute and the arrests began.
Speaker A:Simultaneously, throughout France.
Speaker A:Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Templars were seized in this meticulously planned operation.
Speaker A:Even the Grand Master Jacques de Molay was arrested in Paris, reportedly just after attending the funeral of King Philippe's own sister in law.
Speaker A:Jean de Nogaret.
Speaker A:Philippe's lawyer and right hand man, personally oversaw the arrests in the capitol.
Speaker B:Pope Clement V, nominally the Templar's ultimate protector, was reportedly incensed by Philippe's unilateral action.
Speaker B:He even wrote to Philippe on October 27th protesting the arrests.
Speaker A:But Philippe held all the cards.
Speaker A:He had the Templars in his dungeons and his inquisitors were already at work.
Speaker A:Faced with a fait accompli and largely a barrage of coerce confession, Clement's indignation quickly turned to capitulation.
Speaker A:As usual, Pope Clement was under the thumb of the French king.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:End quote.
Speaker A:While enforcement varied greatly outside of the Kingdom of France, this papal decree effectively legitimized King Philippe's brutal crackdown on an international scale.
Speaker B:It's astonishing how a military order famed for its discipline and fighting prowess could be rounded up so easily.
Speaker A:I agree.
Speaker A:But we have to remember that in France at this time, the Templars weren't a concentrated army poised for battle.
Speaker A:Their properties were widespread.
Speaker A:They owned farms, they had administrative centers, preceptories.
Speaker A:They were vulnerable to a swift, coordinated police action by a determined monarch who controlled the machinery of the state.
Speaker A:Their strength had been fortified castles during wartime, in the east, or in their financial networks, not in resisting the domestic power of the French king at their homes in peacetime, the Templars, this monastic order under papal protection, never anticipated such a betrayal from a Christian monarch.
Speaker B:And of course, there's the date itself.
Speaker B:Friday the 13th.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:Culture.
Speaker A:But now that they had arrested and jailed a good portion of the Templars, how did Philippe's men prove these charges?
Speaker A:Overwhelmingly, through torture.
Speaker A:And the purpose of the Templars torture was not to obtain the actual truth, but to elicit the specific truth the accusers wanted to hear.
Speaker B:Their methods were horrific.
Speaker B:The strappado involved hoisting victims by their wrists, bound behind their back, and then dropping them over and over again, dislocating their shoulders.
Speaker B:There was also stretching on the rack, starvation and sleep deprivation.
Speaker B:One particularly gruesome technique was foot roasting.
Speaker B:Charles Addison, a historian of the Templars, described it vividly.
Speaker B:Their legs were fastened in an iron frame and the soles of their feet were greased over with fat or butter.
Speaker B:They were then placed before the fire and a screen was drawn forwards and backwards so as to moderate and regulate the heat.
Speaker B:Such was the agony produced by this roasting operation that the victim often went raving mad.
Speaker A:We even have testimony from some Templars about their ordeals.
Speaker A:One Templar recounted being tortured with his hands tied so tightly that blood ran to his fingernails.
Speaker A:He was also kept in a pit so small he could barely move for three months before he confessed.
Speaker A:He said he was prepared to die for the Order, but he could not endure such prolonged torment under these conditions.
Speaker A:It's hardly surprising that so many Templars, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay himself, confessed to at least some of the charges.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker B:Malcolm Barber, another leading historian on the Templars, argues that Philippe, or more exactly his servants, used existing disapproval of Templar arrogance and wealth, dissatisfaction with the loss of Holy Land, and frustration at the failure of crusading as well as superstition and homophobia to fabricate this case in which the Templars were accused of denying Christ worshiping idols and sodomy.
Speaker A:The charges, themselves often vague and contradictory, point to a predetermined agenda of guilt.
Speaker A:The torture was Merely the means to achieve the desired end.
Speaker A:Confessions that would justify the destruction of the Order.
Speaker B:Despite the brutality of the Royal Inquisitions, Pope Clement V did attempt to assert some papal authority by initiating his own inquiries through specially appointed commissions.
Speaker B:This led to a complex and often contradictory series of hearings.
Speaker B:One of the most significant documents to emerge from the Pope's inquiries is the Chinon parchment.
Speaker B: ent, was only rediscovered in: Speaker A:And what does this Chinon Parchment tell us, Elena?
Speaker B: hateau de Chinon in August of: Speaker B:According to this document, the leaders confessed to certain irregularities, notably the denial of Christ during the secret initiation ceremony.
Speaker B:Perhaps as a test of obedience or a simulated experience of what they might face if captured by Saracens.
Speaker B:Crucially, the Papal representatives then granted them absolution and sought to reconcile them with the Church.
Speaker A:Historians have suggested that the Chinon document was a failed attempt by the Pope to preserve the Templars through establishing that the Order was not heretical and was therefore capable of reform.
Speaker A:This implies Clement initially hoped for a path to reform, not utter destruction like King Philippe.
Speaker B:While these papal inquiries were underway, some Templars attempted to mount a defense for themselves.
Speaker B:They argued forcefully for the Order's innocence, challenging the legality of the proceedings and demanding to know who their accusers were and to see the evidence amassed against them.
Speaker A:As more Templars began to retract the confessions forced from them under torture, the King saw his carefully constructed case beginning to unravel.
Speaker A:His response was swift and brutal.
Speaker A: In May: Speaker A:Notably, the Archbishop had an established relationship with the King.
Speaker A:Two days after being put in charge, the Archbishop declared 54 Templars who had recanted their confessions to be relapsed heretics.
Speaker B:And the punishment for a relapsed heretic was death by fire.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:This horrific mass execution sent a clear and terrifying message to any other Templars considering recanting.
Speaker B:Withdraw your confession, it seemed to say, and you will burn.
Speaker B:The organized defense of the Order effectively collapsed.
Speaker A:This entire process was riddled with legal irregularities.
Speaker A:Even by the standards of the 14th century, the Templars as a religious order, were supposed to be subject only to the Pope.
Speaker A:Yet King Philip initiated their arrests and trials.
Speaker A:The accused were routinely denied legal counsel not informed on the specific charges against them for extended periods, and not allowed to confront their accusers.
Speaker A:And of course, the systemic use of torture to extract confessions rendered the entire evidentiary basis of the trial a sham.
Speaker B:The charge of being a relapsed heretic was a particularly cynical legal tool.
Speaker B:Once a Templar confessed even under unimaginable pain, and then later found the courage to tell the truth and retract that confession, they weren't given a new trial.
Speaker B:They were simply condemned for changing their story.
Speaker B:So it was a legal death trap.
Speaker A:So the Shenan Parchment, which attempted to find some reconciliation for the Templars, ultimately meant little in the face of Philip's brute force and political machinations.
Speaker A:He held the Templars in his prisons and he controlled the narrative through his own inquisitors and propaganda.
Speaker A:Any papal attempt at a more moderate resolution was effectively crushed by the flames that consumed those 54 knights.
Speaker B:Around the same time, King Philippe pushed the Pope to decide the ultimate fate of the Templars.
Speaker B:The King must have thought that Pope Clement would simply carry out his wishes against the Order and destroy them for good.
Speaker A: In response, in: Speaker A:But many of the Council Fathers were hesitant to fully condemn the Order.
Speaker A:They felt the evidence was too weak, largely just based on the coerced torture confessions.
Speaker A:And they believe that the Templars should be allowed to mount a proper defense.
Speaker A:But rather than decide in favor of the Templars, after lengthy discussion, the Council left the matter unresolved.
Speaker B:So they just tried to avoid making a decision at all?
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:But King Philippe was not a patient man.
Speaker A:Frustrated by the Council's indecision and the potential for his grand scheme to unravel, he took matters into his own hands.
Speaker A: In March: Speaker A:One contemporary noted that a frustrated King Philippe held a general assembly of his kingdom in nearby Lyon and began to menace Pope Clement.
Speaker A:It seems that Clement's capitulated and agreed to suppress the Templars.
Speaker B: of: Speaker B:This bull formally dissolved the Order of the Knights Templar.
Speaker A:It's crucial to understand the legal subtleties in this Bull.
Speaker A:It did not condemn the Order as a whole for heresy based on a definitive judicial sentence by the Council.
Speaker A:Many at The Council still doubted their guilt.
Speaker A:Instead, Clement suppressed the Order by way of provision or apostolic ordinance.
Speaker B:In short, this was an administrative act.
Speaker B:The Pope declared that due to the grave scandal that had arisen, the infamy surrounding the Order, which we should note was largely manufactured by Philip, the confessions obtained, which were very dubious, and the apparent impossibility of reforming the Order while it existed under such a cloud, it was being suppressed.
Speaker B:In other words, for the good of the Church and to prevent further scandal.
Speaker B:The Bull itself states, in view of the suspicion, infamy, loud insinuations and other things which have been brought against the Order, and also the secret and clandestine reception of the brothers of this Order, in view, moreover, of the serious scandal which has arisen from these things, which it did not seem could be stopped while the Order remained in being.
Speaker B:It is not without bitterness and sadness of heart that we abolish the aforesaid Order of the Temple by an irrevocable and perpetually valid decree.
Speaker A:So this was Pope Clement's way to satisfy Philippe's demand for dissolution without the Council having to issue a full formal condemnation of heresy against the entire Order, which many were unwilling to do.
Speaker B:This leads us to the next important question.
Speaker B:What would become of the Templars legendary wealth?
Speaker B:Their vast network of lands, castles and financial assets.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:This meant to ensure the wealth continued to serve Christian purposes, particularly the defense of Christendom.
Speaker B:But one can imagine that didn't quite go according to plan, especially with Philippe.
Speaker A:The fair involved precisely in reality, a massive land and asset grab is what ensued.
Speaker A:King Philippe himself seized a huge portion of the Templar wealth in France.
Speaker A:He even had the audacity to charge the Hospitallers an enormous sum, 200,000 livres, to cover his costs for prosecuting the Templars.
Speaker B:Other monarchs and nobles across Europe followed suit, taking what they could.
Speaker B:In England, for example, King Edward II also dragged his feet in transferring assets to the Hospitallers, allowing his nobles to pick over the Templar estates first.
Speaker B:As one source bluntly puts it, quote, the Templars enormous fortune was officially transferred to the Order of St. John, but much of it ended up in the hands of secular rulers.
Speaker B:End quote.
Speaker A:So the stated religious purpose for redistributing the assets was largely a smoke stream for royal and noble greed.
Speaker B:It certainly appears that way.
Speaker B:Interestingly, in Portugal, King Denis the First took a different approach.
Speaker B:He negotiated with Pope Clement V to transfer Templar sets not to the Hospitallers, but to a newly created Portuguese order, the Order of Christ.
Speaker B:This effectively preserved much of the Templar structure and wealth within Portugal under a new name and national allegiance.
Speaker B:So it highlights how national interests often trumped papal decrees and the practical aftermath of the suppression.
Speaker A: r was officially dissolved in: Speaker A:But the faith of its highest leaders was yet to be sealed.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:They were to hear their final sentence, perpetual imprisonment.
Speaker B:But what happened next shocked everyone.
Speaker B:Instead of meekly accepting their fate, both de Molay, who is now an old man in his 70s, and De Charnay made a dramatic and defiant stand.
Speaker B:They publicly recanted the confessions that had been tortured out of them years before.
Speaker B:They proclaimed the innocence of the Knights Templar and declared that their only true crime was having lied under duress and betraying the Order to save their own lives.
Speaker A:The contemporary chronicler Geoffrey de Paris captured the essence of de Molay's final words.
Speaker A:He reportedly shouted, God knows who is wrong, who has sinned.
Speaker A:I declare the Order is innocent.
Speaker A:Its purity and saintliness are beyond question.
Speaker A:I have indeed confessed that the Order is guilty, but I have done so only to save myself from terrible tortures.
Speaker A:Life is offered to me, but at the price of infamy.
Speaker A:At such a price, life is not worth having, end quote.
Speaker B:That's an incredible act of courage.
Speaker B:Keeping in mind that the penalty for.
Speaker A:A relapsed heretic was death, King Philippe was predictably furious.
Speaker A:This public recantation threatened to unravel the entire narrative of Templar guilt that he had so carefully constructed.
Speaker A:There was no deliberation, no further trial.
Speaker A:Philippe ordered that de Molay and de Charny were burned at the stake as relapsed heretics that very same evening.
Speaker A:The execution took place on a small island in the River Seine in Paris, possibly in view of the royal palace.
Speaker B:Eyewitnesses accounts, including that of Geoffrey of Paris, described both men facing their agonizing deaths by slow burning, with remarkable composure and courage, maintaining their innocence to the very end.
Speaker B:Geoffrey of Paris noted that de Molay showed no sign of fear and telling those present that God would avenge their deaths.
Speaker A:And this leads us to the famous curse of de Molay that we mentioned at the very beginning of this episode.
Speaker A:Legend has it that as the flames consumed him, Jacques de Molay cursed Pope Clement and King Philippe, summoning them to appear before God's judgment within a year and a day.
Speaker B: er a month later, in April of: Speaker B:And when Clement died, he wasn't all that old.
Speaker B:He was actually only around 50 years old.
Speaker B:His cause of death appears to be related to cancer of the stomach or intestines.
Speaker B:The really weird moment for Clement actually took place after the Pope's death.
Speaker B:According to one account, while Pope Clement's body was lying in state, a thunderstorm arose during the night and lightning struck the church where the body lay, setting it on fire.
Speaker B:And the fire was so intense that by the time it was extinguished, the Pope's body was completely destroyed.
Speaker A:I'm sure that raised a lot of eyebrows.
Speaker B:It certainly did.
Speaker B: ippe also died in November of: Speaker B:While the King was out hunting, he suffered a cerebral stroke and died a few weeks later.
Speaker B:Later, adding to that, the King's three sons didn't have much luck either.
Speaker B:All three became king, but all three died in quick succession and without male heirs.
Speaker A:The swift deaths of the Templar's chief prosecutors, of course, only fueled the legend of the curse and solidified the image of de Molay and his brethren as martyrs.
Speaker B:The historical verdict on the trial of the Knights Templar is almost unanimous.
Speaker B:It was a gross miscarriage of justice, driven by King Philippe's insatiable greed and his ambition to consolidate absolute power, facilitated by a weakened and coerced papacy.
Speaker B:The charges were largely fabricated, and the confessions were extracted through systematic torture.
Speaker A: of the two Templar leaders in: Speaker A:By recanting their forced confessions and facing death with courage, they transformed themselves in the public imagination from condemned heretics into martyrs for their order.
Speaker A:This act, combined with the dramatic timing of their persecutors deaths, created an enduring narrative of injustice and divine retribution that has fueled the Templar legend for over 700 years.
Speaker B:And while Philippe IV certainly achieved his immediate goals, which were eliminating a powerful independent entity and seizing considerable wealth, the suppression of the Templars had a broader, perhaps unintended consequence.
Speaker B:It served as a stark demonstration of the rising power of secular monarchies over established international institutions, including the papacy itself.
Speaker B:If the King of France could orchestrate the destruction of the mighty Knights Templar, then few other independent bodies within his realm could feel entirely secure.
Speaker A:The trial of the Knights Templar wasn't just the end of a powerful order.
Speaker A:It was a brutal display of royal ambition, a saga of coerced confessions and a Crime that has echoed through history, leaving behind a legacy of mystery, martyrdom, and a chilling example of justice.
Speaker A:Betrayed.
Speaker B:And despite their official dissolution, the Knights Templar have never truly vanished from the popular imagination.
Speaker B:Legends of hidden treasure, arcane knowledge, the Holy Grail, and supposed links to groups like the Freemasons continue to fascinate and inspire.
Speaker B:A testament to their dramatic rise and even more dramatic criminal fall.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:And I would say that most people have associated the Holy Grail with the Knights Templar since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Speaker B:The theory that the Knights Templar were guardians of the Holy Grail actually originated earlier than that, sometime in the 19th century.
Speaker B: In: Speaker B:In his work, the author actually suggested that the Grail was not a physical relic, but rather a symbol of the secret knowledge that the Templars sought.
Speaker A:But even if there is not real historical evidence linking the Templars to the search of the Grail, what's interesting is that the secrecy and wealth of the Knights Templar and their connection to the Holy Grail from way back in the high Middle Ages was historically significant enough to remain attached to their popular image in modern culture.
Speaker A:As well as.
Speaker A:One of my favorite quotes, which is he chose poorly.
Speaker B:Excellent point, Michael.
Speaker B:Thanks for tuning into our fiery episode of the Templars.
Speaker B:I'm Elena.
Speaker A:And I'm Michael.
Speaker B:Until next time, stay curious.
Speaker A:Sam.
