So although the king gave notice of the Crown’s intention to try every Templar in France, announcing the engagement of his confessor William of Paris, “inquisitor of heretical depravity,” to lead the effort and promising to freeze Templar assets until the truth was determined, a close reading of the arrest warrant revealed nothing beyond a hysterically exaggerated account of the Templars’ idiosyncratic induction ceremony, puffed up with insults and titillating hearsay.
