The Templars were in a helpless position. In the first place they were numerically far weaker than is often supposed — there were probably less than 4,000 in the whole of Europe, and only about half of those were in France; the knights amongst the French Templars numbered only a few hundred. Then they were quite unprepared, organizationally and psychologically, to stand up to the onslaught which the king had so carefully planned. They lived scattered, in their many houses, through the length and breadth of the land. Seized suddenly, without any warning, kept in complete ignorance concerning their fellows in other areas, and often in solitary confinement, they were told that countless Templars had already confessed to all the charges. If they confessed in their turn, they would be spared, set at liberty, reconciled to the Church; if not, they would be executed.(16) If this failed to produce the desired effect, torture was applied — and the tortures could include having one’s feet roasted until the bones fell from their sockets (one Templar actually exhibited a handful of his bones at a later enquiry).(17) In such circumstances it is hardly surprising that, in the first interrogations, in Paris, only four Templars out of 138 refused to confess to any ot the offences.
All levels of the order were involved: great officers who were famed throughout Christendom; knights who had proved themselves in battle; heads of preceptories great and small; but above all the smaller fry — sergeants, husbandmen from the estates, even shepherds. Confessions poured forth, but the content of the confessions varied greatly.(18) All except six admitted to spitting on the cross at their reception — but they differed as to whether the cross was a crucifix or a painted cross or a picture in a missal or even the cross which all Knights Templars wore on their robes; also, as to whether the act had been performed in front of the altar or behind it or in a secret room, in the presence of many or alone. Three-quarters confessed to some “indecent” kisses at their reception — but differed as to whether they had given or received them; and only a third knew anything about a kiss at the base of the spine. Some seventy said that they had been instructed to commit sodomy — but all save two or three denied having committed it. On the other hand, few had anything to say about the mysterious idol — though Hugues de Pairaud, the second most important personage in the order in France, admitted that he had seen, touched and adored it.(19) This was quite in order: the royal instructions made it plain that only the greatest officers were supposed to know about it. Nevertheless in some later interrogations all such limitations were dropped, and the idol turned out to be known to everyone, after all.(20)
Meanwhile a massive propaganda campaign was launched against the order. Franciscan and Dominican friars, who had always been bitterly hostile to the Temple, acted as the king’s spokesmen and carried the officially sanctioned slanders into every comer of the land. Moreover, at least some of the Templars were compelled to appear in public and condemn themselves — just like the accused in Stalin’s show trials six centuries later. One of the surviving documents tells how, on 26 October — that is, a fortnight after the arrests — 32 of the Paris Templars appeared before a brilliant assembly of clergy and university doctors and confirmed the accuracy of their confessions.(21) Even the grand master was involved in these performances. Jacques de Molay was first interrogated on 25 October when, without being tortured, he confessed that at his reception, many years before, he had denied Christ and had spat near the crucifix. On the very same day this great dignitary was called upon to repeat his admission before an audience of leading personalities, clerical and lay. With a show of deep remorse he declared that the Temple, though founded to defend the Holy Land, had long since been seduced by Satan. Now God in his mercy had, through his servant Philip the Fair, uncovered these enormities; and the grand master could only implore the assembly to pardon him and his companions, and to plead their cause before the pope and the king.(22)
Pope and king: Philip had managed to convey, not only to the grand master but to the general public, the impression that the arrest of the Templars had been carried out with the knowledge and consent of Pope Clement. The reality was very different. Clement was outraged to see his own prerogatives disregarded and his name taken in vain; and he was not convinced, either, of the Templars’ guilt. But there was little he could do about it. However indignant he might feel, and whatever efforts he might make to assert his independence, he remained a weak man in a weak position, and no match at all for the astute and ruthless Philip. During the following months the king was to reduce the pope, by a mixture of bullying, cajolery and trickery, to the position of a mere accomplice.
Clement’s first reaction to the arrests was to hold a series of secret consistories of cardinals, and to assure the Templars in his entourage that they could rely on his protection. Almost immediately something happened to shake him: a prominent Templar, who was one of his own personal attendants, came forward to confess that at his reception he had denied Christ — and not privately, either, but in front of a great assembly of the order, under the grand master himself.(23) Apparently it did not strike the pope as odd that this particular Templar had been received into the order at the age of eleven; or occur to him that the king might have had a hand in this strange declaration. In a bull issued on 22 November, entitled Pastoralis praeeminentiae, he summoned the monarchs of western Europe to arrest the Templars in their territories and to secure their properties in the name of the Church.(24) But then doubts overcame him again. Two cardinals whom he had sent to Paris to investigate returned full of misgivings; for in their presence some of the imprisoned Templars, including Jacques de Molay and Hugues de Pairaud, had withdrawn their confessions.
Early in 1308 Clement made his one real attempt at resistance. He refused to condemn the order; he suspended the inquisitorial powers of inquisitors and bishops; and he explicitly reserved to himself all decisions concerning the fate of the Temple and its possessions. Philip’s answer was to intensify the propaganda campaign against the Temple and to launch one against the pope. In May 1308 the Estates General met at Tours to consider the matter — a huge assembly, to which the third estate alone sent some 700 delegates. The summons, written by Nogaret, already declared the Temple guilty: “Oh grief! The abominable error of the Templars, so bitter, so lamentable, is not hidden from you…” All the accusations — denying Christ, spitting and trampling on the cross, worshipping idols, indecent kisses, sodomy — are solemnly listed as proven offences, which together represent a threat to the very cosmos: “Heaven and earth are agitated by the breath of so great a crime, and the elements are disturbed.... Against so criminal a plague everything must rise up: laws and arms, every living thing, the four elements.... ”(25) No wonder that the Estates General voted almost unanimously for the execution of the Templars.