On 13 October 1307, Philip IV ordered the arrest of every Knights Templar member in France. The heresy accusations were at the heart of this, but to bring down the whole order Philip would need more, so allegations were built upon and hastily invented. For example, it was known that order members would exchange a ‘kiss of peace’ on the lips. This singular piece of evidence was mutated to accuse the order of ritualistic sodomy. To gain the confessions Philip wanted, order members weren’t just interrogated but tortured, leading to a slew of false confessions – even Molay confessed to defacing a
...more
