heretics and apostates in French territory. The scholars were asked to ponder whether a secular ruler was “obliged or permitted” to act when he “hears the name of the Lord blasphemed and the Catholic faith rejected by heretics, schismatics or other unbelievers.” They were asked to judge whether the Templars—“a unique sect composed of many individuals so horrible, so abominable”—could be judged under secular law as knights, rather than only under canon law as churchmen.
