The Templars

The Articles of the Accusation • 12 August, 1308

These are the articles on which inquiry should be made against the Order of the Knighthood of the Temple.
Namely that each in his reception denied Christ, sometimes Christ crucified, sometimes Jesus, and sometimes God, and sometimes the Holy Virgin, and sometimes all the saints of God.
Item, that the brothers as a whole did this.
Item, that the majority of them did this.
Item, that sometimes they urinated and trampled, and caused others to urinate, on this cross, and several times they did this on Good Friday.

She, being curious, believing that she would find a sign of sanctity, stripped the body and found an image of a crucifix hanging on the bare flesh next to the anus.

Item, that they adored a certain cat, which sometimes appeared to them in their assembly.
Item, that in the reception of the brothers of the said Order or at about that time, sometimes the receptor and sometimes the received were kissed on the mouth, on the navel, or on the bare stomach, and on the buttocks or at the base of the spine.

He had been importuned for homosexual purposes, and when he had strongly refused to be corrupted by this “vicious sin,” the brother “had struck him on the jaw and broken three teeth, and he appeared deformed and fractured in the mouth.”

Item, that they were kissed sometimes on the navel.
Item, that they were kissed sometimes on the base of the spine. Item, that they were kissed sometimes on the penis.

A certain Hospitaller called the Templars “anus kissers.”

Item, that they told the brothers whom they received that they could have carnal relations together.
Item, that it was licit for them to do this.
Item, that they did this, or many of them did.

They brought a head and put it upon the altar on two cushions, and the head was indeed a face of flesh, with the hairs of a dog, very bluish in color and stained, with a beard.

Item, that in each province they had idols, namely heads, of which some had three faces, and some one, and others had a human skull.
Item, that they said that the head could save them.
Item, that it could make riches.
Item, that it gave them the riches of the Order.
Item, that it made the trees flower.
Item, that it made the land germinate.

And then the Visitor stood up, saying to all: “We must proceed, adore it and make homage to it, which helps us and does not abandon us.” And from the nape of the neck to the shoulders it was completely encrusted with precious stones of gold and silver.

Item, that….all or two-thirds of the Order, knowing the said errors, neglected to correct them.
Item, that they neglected to inform Holy Mother Church.

Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978