Non-Templar witnesses in the Templar Trial
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/OM.2024.010Keywords
history, the Middle Ages, military orders, heresy, rumour, Templars, trials, non-Templar witnessesAbstract
Although non-Templars were questioned about various matters during the Templar trial, including the location of brothers and their property, they were most frequently asked about alleged Templar wrongdoing. It was, however, only in areas where Templars denied the charges or where few Templars were arrested that many outsiders were interrogated. Varying measures were adopted to secure their assistance. Eye-witnesses often spoke favourably of the Templars’ conduct, although some did express concerns. The strongest criticism was voiced by those relying on second-hand reports and rumour; but their testimony is not convincing. Non-Templars were questioned two or more years after Philip IV had initiated proceedings against the Order, and there was plenty of time for rumours to be spread and elaborated. Some non-Templar witnesses were also influenced by matters unrelated to the charges against the Templars. Witnesses in some western countries, where Templars had no military role and were known mainly as landowners, were much more hostile than those in Cyprus. It has also been claimed that it was in the interests of the orders of friars to denigrate the Templars, although this may be questioned. Non-Templar evidence, however, was of little importance in determining the fate of the Templars: it was only in the British Isles that it may have had some significance.
References
PRIMARY SOURCES:
Barcelona. Archivo Capitular, Codex 149A, 149B.
Barcelona. Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Cancillería Real, Varia de Cancillería 412.
Madrid. Archivo Histórico Nacional, Órdenes Militares, Libro 1349.
Annales Londonienses. In Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Vol. 1. Edited by William Stubbs. Rolls Series 76. London: Longman: 1882.
Appendice ai Monumenti ravennati dei secoli di mezzo del conte Marco Fantuzzi. Vol. 1. Edited by Antonio Tarlazzi. Ravenna: Tipographia Calderini, 1869.
Bartholomew Cotton, Historia anglicana. Edited by Henry R. Luard. Rolls Series 16. London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1859.
Brown, Elizabeth A. R., and Alan Forey. “Vox in excelso and the Suppression of the Knights Templar: The Bull, its History, and a New Edition.” Mediaeval Studies 80 (2018): 1‒58.
Bullarium Carmelitanum. Vol. 1. Edited by Eliseo Monsignani. Rome: Typographia Georgii Plachi, 1715.
Caravita, Renzo. Rinaldo da Concorrezzo, arcivescovo di Ravenna (1303‒1321), al tempo de Dante. Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1964 (Source edition no. 49).
Cartulaire général de l’ordre des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem. Vol. 2. Edited by Joseph Delaville Le Roulx. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1897.
Cartulaire général de l’ordre des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem. Vol. 3. Edited by Joseph Delaville Le Roulx. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1899.
Conciliorum oecumenicorum generaliumque decreta. Vol. 2, No. 1. Edited by Giuseppe Alberigo et al. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.
Il Corpus normativo templare: Edizione dei testi romanzi con traduzione e commento in italiano. Edited and translated by Giovanni Amatuccio. Galatina: Congedo Editore, 2009.
Councils and Synods, with Other Documents relating to the English Church. Vol. 2. Edited by Frederick M. Powicke and Christopher R. Cheney. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
Le Dossier de l’affaire des Templiers. Edited by Georges Lizerand. Paris: Société d’Édition “Les Belles Lettres”, 1964.
Field, Sean L. “Royal Agents and Templar Confessions in the Bailliage of Rouen.” French Historical Studies 39 (2016): 35‒71.
Field, Sean L. “The Templar Confessions in Bigorre, December 1307 and March 1308.” In Political Ritual and Practice in Capetian France: Studies in Honour of Elizabeth A. R. Brown, edited by M. Cecilia Gaposchkin and Jay Rubenstein, 351‒382. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021.
Field, Sean L. “Torture and Confessions in the Templar Interrogations at Caen, 28‒29 October 1307.” Speculum 91 (2016): 297‒327.
Foedera, conventiones, litterae et cuiuscumque acta publica. Vol. 1, No. 2. Edited by Thomas Rymer. London: Eyre and Strahan, 1816.
Jacobi Grace Kilkenniensis Annales Hiberniae. Edited and translated by Richard Butler. Dublin: Irish Archaeological Society, 1842.
Little, A. G. “A Record of the English Dominicans, 1314.” English Historical Review 5 (1890): 107‒112; 6 (1891): 752‒753.
Memoriale fratris Walteri de Coventria. Vol. 2. Edited by William Stubbs. Rolls Series 58. London: Longman, 1873.
Memorias del rey D. Fernando IV de Castilla. Vol. 2. Edited by Antonio Benavides. Madrid: José Rodgríguez, 1860.
Ménard, Léon. Histoire civile, ecclésiastique et littéraire de la ville de Nismes. Vol. 1. Paris: Hugues D. Chaubert et Claude Hérissant fils, 1750.
Mercati, Angelo. “Interrogatorio di Templari a Barcellona (1311).” Spanische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens 6 (1937): 240‒251.
Nicolotti, Andrea. “L’Interrogatorio dei Templari imprigionati a Carcassonne.” Studi medievali, 3rd series 52 (2011): 697‒729.
Papsttum und Untergang des Templerordens. Vol. 2. Quellen. Edited by Heinrich Finke. Münster: Aschendorffsche Buchhandlung, 1907.
The Proceedings against the Templars in the British Isles. Vol. 1. Edited by Helen J. Nicholson. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.
The Proceedings against the Templars in the British Isles. Vol. 2. Translated by Helen J. Nicholson. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.
Le Procès des Templiers. Vol. 1. Edited by Jules Michelet. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1841.
Le Procès des Templiers. Vol. 2. Edited by Jules Michelet. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1851.
Le Procès des Templiers d’Auvergne. Edited by Roger Sève and Anne-Marie Chagny-Sève. Paris: CTHS, 1986.
Processus contra Templarios in Francia: Procès-verbaux de la procédure menée par la commission pontificale à Paris (1309‒1311). Vol. 1. Edited by Magdalena Satora. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
Regestum Clementis papae V. Vol. 3. Rome: Typographia Vaticana, 1886.
The Register of William Greenfield, Lord Archbishop of York, 1306‒1315. Vol. 4. Edited by William Brown and A. Hamilton Thompson. Surtees Society 152. Durham: Andrews, 1938.
Il Registro di Andrea Sapiti, procuratore alla curia avignonese. Edited by Barbara Bombi. Rome: Viella, 2007.
Registrum Henrici Woodlock, diocesis Wintoniensis, A.D. 1305‒1316. Vol. 1. Edited by A. W. Goodman. Canterbury and York Society 43. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940.
Registrum Roberti Winchelsey, Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi. Vol. 2. Edited by Rose Graham. Canterbury and York Society 52. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956.
La Règle du Temple. Edited by Henri de Curzon. Paris: Renouard, 1886.
Ricoldo of Monte-Croce. Pérégrination en Terre Sainte et au Proche Orient. Edited by René Kappler. Paris: H. Champion, 1997.
Sans i Travé, Josep M. “L’Inedito processo dei Templari in Castiglia (Medina del Campo, 27 aprile 1310).” In Acri 1291: La fine della presenza degli ordini militari in Terra Santa e i nuovi orientamenti nel XIV secolo, edited by Francesco Tommasi, 227‒264. Perugia: Quatroemme, 1996.
Die Statuten des Deutschen Ordens nach den ältesten Handschriften. Edited by Max Perlbach. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1860.
The Templars. Edited and translated by Malcolm Barber and Keith Bate. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.
The Trial of the Templars in Cyprus: A Complete English Edition. Translated by Anne Gilmour-Bryson. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
The Trial of the Templars in the Papal State and the Abruzzi. Edited by Anne Gilmour-Bryson. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1982.
Der Untergang des Templer-Ordens. Vol. 2. Edited by Konrad Schottmüller. Berlin: Siegfried Mittler, 1887.
SECONDARY SOURCES:
Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978; 2006, 2nd edition.
Benavides, Antonio. Memorias del rey D. Fernando IV de Castilla. Vol. 1. Madrid: José Rodgríguez, 1860.
Burgtorf, Jochen. “The Trial of the Templars in Germany.” In The Templars: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of a Military Order, edited by Jochen Burgtorf, Shlomo Lotan and Enric Mallorquí-Ruscalleda, 238‒248. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
Cabanelas, Darió. “Un franciscano heterodoxo en la Granada nasri, Fray Alfonso de Mella.” Al-Andalus 15 (1950): 233‒250.
Callan, Maeve B. The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish: Vengeance and Heresy in Medieval Ireland. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2015.
Caravita, Renzo. “La ‘purgazione’ nel processo inquisitorio: Il caso dei Templari processati a Ravenna.” In XV Convegno di Ricerche Templari, 7‒32. Latina: Edizioni Penne e Papiri, 1998.
Carraz, Damien. “Églises et cimetières des ordres militaires: Contrôle des lieux sacrés et dominium ecclésiastique en Provence.” In Lieux sacrés et espace ecclésial (IXe‒XVe siècle), 277‒312. Cahiers de Fanjeaux 46. Toulouse: Éditions Privat, 2011.
Courtenay, William J. “Inquiry and Inquisition: Academic Freedom in Medieval Universities.” Church History 58 (1989): 168‒181.
Edbury, Peter. “The Suppression of the Templars in Cyprus, 1307‒1312.” St John Historical Society Proceedings (2003): 24‒38.
Fita, Fidel. Actas inéditas de siete concilios españoles desde el año 1282 hasta el de 1314. Madrid: F. Maroto e hijos, 1882.
Forey, Alan. “Could Alleged Templar Malpractices have remained undetected for Decades?” In The Debate on the Trial of the Templars (1307‒1314), edited by Jochen Burgtorf, Paul F. Crawford, and Helen J. Nicholson, 11‒19. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.
Forey, Alan. “Ex-Templars in England.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 53 (2002): 18‒37.
Forey, Alan. The Fall of the Templars in the Crown of Aragon. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.
Forey, Alan. “The Military Order of St. Thomas of Acre.” English Historical Review 92 (1977): 481‒503.
Forey, Alan. “Novitiate and Instruction in the Military Orders in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.” Speculum 61 (1986): 1‒17.
Forey, Alan. The Templars in the Corona de Aragón. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
Fuguet Sans, Joan. L’Arquitectura dels Templers a Catalunya. Barcelona: Rafael Dalmau, 1995.
Galbraith, G. R. The Constitution of the Dominican Order, 1216‒1360. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1925.
Gilmour-Bryson, Anne. “The London Templar Trial Testimony: ‘Truth’, Myth, or Fable.” In A World explored: Essays in Honour of Laurie Gardiner, edited by Anne Gilmour-Bryson, 44‒61. Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 1993.
Gilmour-Bryson, Anne. “Sodomy and the Knights Templar.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 7 (1996): 151‒183.
Gilmour-Bryson, Anne. “Testimony of Non-Templar Witnesses in Cyprus.” In The Military Orders: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick, edited by Malcolm Barber, 205‒211. Aldershot: Variorum, 1994.
Golubovich, Girolamo. Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa e dell’oriente francescano. 1st series, vol. 4. Quaracchi: Tipografia del Collegio di S. Bonaventura, 1923.
Guzzo, Cristian. “Milites Templi Hierosolimitani in regno Siciliae: Vecchi documenti, nuove acquisizioni.” In I Templari nell’Italia centro-meridionale: Storia ed architettura, edited by Cristian Guzzo, 57‒129. Tuscania: Edizioni Penne e Papiri, 2008.
Hamilton, Bernard. The Medieval Inquisition. London: Edward Arnold, 1981.
Helmholz, Richard H. “Crime, Compurgation and the Courts of the Medieval Church.” Law and History Review 1 (1983): 1‒26.
Helmholz, Richard H. The Ius Commune in England. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Hyams, Paul. “Due Process versus the Maintenance of Order in European Law: The Contribution of the ius commune.” In The Moral World of the Law, edited by Peter Coss, 62‒90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Javierre Mur, Aurea L. “Aportación al estudio del proceso contra el Temple en Castilla.” Revista de archivos, bibliotecas y museos 69 (1961): 47‒100.
Josserand, Philippe. “Le Procès de l’ordre du Temple en Castille.” In La Fin de l’ordre du Temple, edited by Marie-Anna Chevalier, 135‒152. Paris: Geuthner, 2012.
Lambert, Malcolm. Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, 2nd edition.
Martínez Diez, Gonzalo. Los Templarios en la Corona de Castilla. Burgos: Editorial La Olmeda, 1993.
Medieval Carmelite Heritage: Early Reflections on the Nature of the Order. Edited by Adrian Staring. Rome: Institutum Carmelitanum, 1989.
Mentzel-Reuters, Arno. Arma spiritualia: Bibliotheken, Bücher und Bildung im Deutschen Orden. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003.
Militzer, Klaus. “The Templar Trial and the Teutonic Order.” In The Templars: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of a Military Order, edited by Jochen Burgtorf, Shlomo Lotan, and Enric Mallorquí-Ruscalleda, 251‒262. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
Murr, Christoph Gottlieb von. Über den wahren Ursprung der Rosenkreuzer und des Freymaurerordens, nebst einem Anhange zur Geschichte der Tempelherren. Sulzbach: I. E. Seidel, 1803.
Nicholson, Helen J. The Knights Templar on Trial: The Trial of the Templars in the British Isles, 1308‒1311. Stroud: History Press, 2009.
Nicholson, Helen J. “The Testimony of Brother Henry Danet and the Trial of the Templars in Ireland.” In In laudem Hierosolymitani: Studies in Crusades and Medieval Culture in Honour of Benjamin Kedar, edited by Iris Shagrir, Ronnie Ellenblum, and Jonathan Riley-Smith, 411‒423. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.
Nicholson, Helen J. “The Trial of the Templars in Britain and Ireland.” In The Templars: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of a Military Order, edited by Jochen Burgtorf, Shlomo Lotan, and Enric Mallorquí-Ruscalleda, 209‒233. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
Raynouard, François-Just-Marie. Monumens historiques, relatifs à la condamnation des chevaliers du Temple et à l’abolition de leur ordre. Paris: Adrien Égron, 1813.
Robson, Michael. The Franciscans in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006.
Sans i Travé, Josep M. “Els Testimonis aliens a l’orde en el procés contra els templers a la península Ibèrica.” In Miscel.lània Josep M. Puig Salellas: En homenatge, edited by Josep Serrano Daura, 201‒221. Barcelona: Societat Catalana d’Estudis Jurídics, 2011.
Schenk, Jochen. “Aspects and Problems of the Templars’ Religious Presence in Medieval Europe from the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Century.” Traditio 71 (2016): 273‒302.
Smith, Katherine Allen. War and the Making of Medieval Monastic Culture. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2011.
Théry, Julien. “Fama: L’opinion publique comme preuve judiciaire. Aperçu sur la révolution médiévale de l’inquisitoire (XIIe‒XIVe siècles).” In La preuve en justice de l’antiquité à nos jours, edited by Bruno Lemesle, 119‒147. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2003.
Toomaspoeg, Kristjan. “La Fine dei Templari in Sicilia (1305‒1327).” In Religiones militares: Contributi alla storia degli ordini religioso-militari nel medioevo, edited by Anthony Luttrell and Francesco Tommasi, 155‒170. Città di Castello: Selecta Editrice, 2008.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Author, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu & Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
CC BY ND 4.0. The Creator/Contributor is the Licensor, who grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work on the fields indicated in the License Agreement.
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 80
Number of citations: 0
