Between the years 1307 and 1312 the military-religious Order of the Temple was investigated on charges of heresy and dissolved by papal provision. Over seven hundred years later, there is still no consensus on the root cause of the fall of the Templars. Views divide roughly into two camps, both of which date from the original events: either the king of France destroyed the order for his own political and/or financial gain; or the order fell because of its failures and corruption within its ranks.

The Interrogations

In 1307–8, Templars were arrested in France, Cyprus, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, the Low Countries, England, Scotland, and Ireland, and interrogated on charges of blasphemy (including denying Christ, spitting on the Cross, and worshipping an idol-head) and sexual depravity. As such sins were associated with heresy, normal procedures against heretics were used to investigate the case. There were apparently no Templars in Greece, Sicily, or Eastern Europe, the papal inquisitors to Britain and Ireland reported that there were no Templars in Scandinavia, and few Templars were arrested in Germany. The Templars arrested in France and the parts of the Low Countries controlled by the king of France were told that if they did not confess they would be tortured until they did; but if they confessed (as they were told that their com rades had done) they would be well treated. Despite these tried-and-tested interrogation techniques, contemporaries reported that thirty-six Templars in Paris died under torture rather than confess to any of the charges. Their testimonies were not recorded. Of one hundred and thirty-eight recorded Templar testimonies from the interrogations in Paris in October to November 1307, only four Templars appear not to have confessed to the charges.

However, not all rulers outside France wished to arrest the Templars and few Templars within their realms confessed. The trial continued in fits and starts until March 1312, when Pope Clement V dissolved the Templars by papal provision at the Church council of Vienne. There was no detailed discussion of the case at the council, and Clement himself indicated that the evidence against the Templars was not conclusive, stating that he was dissolving the order because its reputation had been damaged beyond repair.