On October 13, 1307, over 140 Templars in France were arrested by order of King Philip IV. They were tortured to confess to charges of heresy.
This was the end of one of the most powerful and progressive orders of the Catholic Church of its time.
The royal agents also arrested the Grand Master Jacques de Molay himself, the Grand Visitor Hugo de Peyraud, the treasurer and four other high dignitaries. The official charges were heresy, idolatry, sodomy and desecration of relics. They were accused of spitting on the cross, eating children and corpses, and serving the devil.
The full list consisted of 117 accusations. The Templars were subjected to unheard-of torture by the Inquisition, during which many broke their promises. And when, by order of Philip the Fair, 54 brothers were burned in Paris, the order lost the strength to fight for survival and was dissolved by the decision of the Council of Vienna in 1312. In the meantime, it had already been banned by Pope Clement V, and its properties and lands had been confiscated.
Four high-ranking officials of the order were sentenced to life imprisonment. According to legend, after hearing his sentence, the Grand Master and Prior of Normandy Jacques de Molay angrily objected: "The Order is holy and innocent, and you yourselves are guilty of betraying and slandering it!" The sentence was commuted to death that same day. The four were burned at the stake. Tradition has it that when the flames engulfed him, the old man Molay cried out: "The King and the Pope can rule over our bodies, but not over our souls!" After which he cursed his murderers with the promise to bring them before God's judgment within a year. And indeed - Pope Clement V and King Philip IV died within the time set by the Templar. And France entered a difficult period of disasters that lasted centuries.