In March 1309 the Papal court established itself at Avignon, which in those days was not within the kingdom of France and had the added benefit of offering the Pope a quick escape over the Italian border. In November 1309 the Papal commission into the order of the Templars began its sittings; this was the inquiry that Clement had agreed to establish after his meeting with Philip at Poitiers the previous year.
Slowly the accused Templars rallied, and Instead of confessing they began mounting a defence. By early May 1310 nearly six hundred Templars were defending their order, and they denied their previous confessions. In contrast to the Cathars, who truly were heretics and went to their deaths for what they believed, not one Templar was prepared to be martyred for the heresies which members of the order were supposed to have guarded so fiercely for so long, quite simply because there was no heresy, only the malignant Interpretation put on their practises by a malignant king.
Deeply worried by this growing confidence among the Templars, Philip took drastic action and had the Archbishop of Sens, a royal nominee, reopen his episcopal Inquiry against Individual Templars In his diocese. Obedient to his king, the archbishop found fifty-four Templars guilty as relapsed heretics-ln other words guilty of having revoked their earlier confesslons-and handed them over to the secular authorities. On 12 May 1310 In a field outside Pahs the fifty-four Templars were burnt at the stake. fet even after these burnings not all the remaining Templars were cowed nor was their morale completely crushed, though this Intimidation by burning did have Its effect, and many Templars fell silent or returned to their confessions.
World History
