Secretum Templi II

Secretum Templi II

This compendium of documents consists of records from the interrogations of the Templars that occurred after the Order was accused of heresy and various other crimes. Most of these are records of the interrogations at Chinon (August 17–20, 1308), Lleida (February 15-March 17, 1310), Medina del Campo (April 1310), and Valladolid (May 1310). Other documents include a letter from the Papal envoy in Lleida dated the 6th of March 1311, Berardo de Poggio Bustone, to the bishops of the Kingdom of Aragon concerning the preparation of the investigations against the Templars and a sentence of absolution given to the Spanish Templars by the Council of Tarragona (November 4–7, 1312), which nonetheless disbanded the Order, allowing some of the members to join other orders or assigning them life pensions.

The Crusades’ Greatest Warriors

Founded in 1119 and headquartered at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar, emerged out of a need to protect pilgrims from bandits and anyone else who would harm them. It grew from an impoverished order of only 9 knights into the richest, most powerful monastic military order of the Middle Ages with a network of 1,000 commanderies and fortifications stretching from the Holy Land to Scotland. They also helped to develop many banking techniques like checks and letters of credit and are considered to be the world’s first multi-national corporation.
In fact, only 10% of the Templars were actually knights, the rest of the order, numbering as much as 20,000 at its peak, were in charge of the banking, bureaucracy, and logistics supporting their military operations. Nonetheless, those brothers who trained for war did so with religious fervor and fought without fear of death and as such, the presence of even a small number of Templars on a battlefield could be enough to change the outcome of an engagement. They were simply some of the most capable warriors in the entire Crusades.

Downfall of the Templars

As the Crusaders were gradually pushed out of the Holy Land, the Templars found themselves without a mission and became the victims of a conspiracy by King Philip IV of France. Heavily indebted to the Order, Philip levelled accusations of heresy at the Templars and on Friday October 13th, 1307 had many of the order’s top members arrested. They were subsequently tortured into giving false confessions and burned at the stake – while also having their assets seized by the French Crown of course. Pope Clement V, a French pontiff who was the first Avignon pope and arguably a puppet of the French King, disbanded the order in 1312, with most of the Templars assets and membership going over to the Hospitallers and other orders.
As he burned at the stake and prayed, Grand Master Jacques de Molay predicted that he would soon meet both Clement and Philip before God saying “God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death”. Clement was dead within a month, Philip was dead eight months later, and his male line was extinguished by 1328. The whole affair scandalized people’s sense of justice and it was whispered across Europe that this had been divine punishment for sins of the King and the Pope.