Pope Clement V

 Philip IV of France would not have found it so easy to destroy the Knights Templar if the pope of the period had been a strong character interested either in righteousness -- or his own independence and power. Whether idealistic or merely self-interested, a man with backbone could have stood up to Philip IV -- and turned the Templars into his army. Clement V, however, was a Frenchman with an apparent admiration for Philip IV. Very probably he owed his election to the papacy to Philip and thereafter lived in fear of displeasing the powerful French monarch. 

 In the excerpt below, Lord Geoffrey of Najac, at the end of an audience with the Pope on another topic, raises the issue of the Templars.

 “Is that all, Monsieur?” the Pope enquired of Geoffrey.

“No.” Geoffrey surprised them all — not least Louis and Marie, who had been prepared for everything up to now. “Your Holiness, I was myself a Templar novice, and I fought beside Saint Louis in Egypt. At Damietta, I was wounded and at Mansourah, I was knighted by Saint Louis himself.” He thrust his leg forwards and indicated the spurs with the lilies of France. “I did not join the Temple, but I fought and lived with hundreds of Templars. I am convinced that the charges against them are groundless...." The room was deathly still, and Geoffrey could sense that he had managed to move most of the men around him.

“It is...” the Pope started rather hesitantly, “certainly possible that the ... poison of heresy, sodomy and corruption has not yet spread across the Channel or the Pyrenees. But am I to believe that all the hundreds of confessions — including that of the senior officers of the Temple —are all lies?”

“I can remember the feel of Greek fire upon my skin, Your Holiness, and I know that I would have said anything to make the burning stop. Anything!” Geoffrey stressed. He was staring straight at the Pope, their eyes fixed on one another and the rest of the room was forgotten.

“Leave us!” the Pope ordered abruptly, sitting up and gesturing irritably to all the cardinals, bishops and abbots.

“Your Holiness —” Father Elion tried to intervene.

“Especially you, Father!” Clement hissed.

Geoffrey turned to Louis and gestured for him to withdraw as well. Muttering and whispering, they all withdrew through one of the various doors until the Pope and Geoffrey were utterly alone. The Pope then gestured for him to come closer.

Geoffrey mounted the first two steps of the papal throne and waited. He was separated from Clement by no more than a yard. He could see that the Pope wore white powder on his face and a touch of rouge. He smelled of sweet bath water. He remembered that this was a man who openly kept a mistress, a noblewoman thirty years younger than himself.

“Monsieur de Preuthune,” Clement opened slowly, “you are a courageous man. You fought against the Saracen for your faith—"

“As did the Knights Templar for nearly two hundred years!” Geoffrey’s fervour combined with the unexpected hope that he might be able to influence this weak man made him forget himself. Ardently he argued, “I was trained in the Temple, Your Holiness. More God-fearing and devout men cannot have been born. They abhorred greed and vanity and simple pleasures and devoted themselves only to the service of God. It is impossible that these charges of heresy and idol worship are anything more than false accusations designed to discredit them.”

The Pope scowled and lifted his hand in startled reproach. He had not expected the same impudence from this nobleman he had had to suffer from the King and his ministers. Geoffrey bit his tongue. “As we were saying, you fought against the Saracen for the sake of your faith, and we know that the Saracens outnumbered the army of Saint Louis many, many times. You are undoubtedly courageous,” the Pope conceded. Geoffrey sensed, however, that this was not entirely a compliment. Clement continued, “You are also a man of simple, straightforward faith. A man of the sword, you are not used to intrigue and the need for discretion. So let us help you, my son.” He paused, looked Geoffrey straight in the eye, and then said slowly and deliberately. “You are a subject of the King of France, and if you do not wish to hang for treason, then you would do well to forget your Templar past.”

Geoffrey could not tell if he were being warned or threatened.

The Pope leaned towards him and whispered. “We too are in great danger. We are the King’s prisoner. The King would not hesitate to charge us with the same crimes as the Templars as he did our predecessor. We are powerless against him. Neither excommunication nor any other spiritual sanction impresses him. Do you think we haven’t tried? Haven’t you noticed how the city swarms with his soldiers?” Since the arrival of the King in Poitiers, Pope Clement lived in daily fear of kidnapping or outright murder. Hadn’t Nogaret seized another Boniface VIII by force and driven him to an early grave? Probably with poison.

Geoffrey saw the fear in the Pope’s eyes and the trembling of his thin hands. This self-indulgent, frightened old man was supposed to be Christ’s vicar? Geoffrey’s disbelief gave way to contempt. This old man cared only for his own survival — and his comfort and the trappings of power. He was not even willing to fight for the substance of his authority. He was prepared to live a sham. He would be content as long as all his creature comforts were met and people pretended to respect him.

Geoffrey chose his words with deliberation, and he spoke softly but distinctly, his eyes fixed on the watery, pale eyes of the Pontiff, “If you had not allowed the King to arrest all the Knights Templar in this kingdom, you could have called upon an army!”

The Pope recoiled. His pointed nose was running and a drop of water hung between the nostrils. “What —"

“The Templars owed their allegiance to no king, only to you. You could have surrounded yourself with the best-trained knights in Christendom, and then you could have challenged Philip — or any king — to any test of strength you liked. They would have died for you, Your Holiness, with the same elan and devotion with which they died for Jerusalem and Acre. You could have made kings dance to your tune or set them aside — instead of letting them treat you like a pawn.”

Clement had gone pale as he stared at Geoffrey. Hastily, he brushed the drop from his nose with the back of his gloved hand and looked away. He swallowed. Geoffrey could see the Adam’s apple bobbing in his scrawny throat.

“With your permission,” Geoffrey said coldly, and he backed off the dais.

“Wait!” Clement cried, and Geoffrey waited, but it was too late. They both knew it was too late.

The Pope swallowed and wiped again at his running nose. Finally, he muttered in a tone of defeat, “Go with God.” Clement hastily gave a hint of blessing, and Geoffrey made a suggestion of a bow. Then he turned his back on the frightened man occupying the Shoes of the Fisherman and strode out of the audience chamber.

The Tale of the English Templar is available in paperback and ebook format from all major online retail platforms.

 

An escaped Templar, an intrepid, old crusader, and a discarded bride

embark on a quest for justice in the face of tyranny. 

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The Templar Tales

The Templar Tales

My current project, Tales of Chivalry, is composed for three series: Tales from the Languedoc, Tales from the Kingdom of Cyprus (AKA: The Lion of Karpas) and The Templar Tales. The latter are three independent novels in which Knights Templar play an important role. The novels are interrelated and share some characters, notably Sir Geoffrey de Preuthune, but each novel stands on its own. Two of the books, The Templar of St. John the Baptist, and The English Templar, focus on key events in the history of the Knights Templar, namely the fall of Christian Palestine to the armies of Islam at the end of the 13th century and the destruction of the Knights Templar by King Philip IV of France in the early 14th century respectively. The first novel in the series, St. Louis’ Knight, in contrast, is more a scene setter, introducing Sir Geoffrey; it is set in the Seventh Crusade.

The Templar trilogy was inspired by a trip to Cyprus. Sitting in the window seat of the Hospitaller fortress at Kolossi, wandering through the ruins of a medieval sugar mill, and strolling through the cloisters of Bellapais, images of knights crowded my brain, clamoring for a voice. As I learned more about the Knights Templar and visited southern France, the source of Templar wealth, I could not sleep at night for the stories that demanded telling. There, in the mighty castle of Najac, where Templars were held prisoner, and in the Templar commanderies of Collioure and Cahors, the voices became so insistent that I felt compelled to write the stories down – even though they were still only shadowy and half-formed. I published three novels at my own expense.

It was a foolish thing to do. Novels need to ripen and mature. Even the most insistent voices can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, falsely translated. The Cypriot Knight and Sir Jean of Acre were embryonic stories, not novels. Seventeen years later, I cringed when I reread The Cypriot Knight and winced when I took Sir Jean of Acre in my hands again. I realized what a rough draft these early publications were. Fortunately, both books were also out of print. I saw this as an opportunity to rework good raw material into better books.

The Templar Tales now consist of the following books:

St. Louis’ Knight

King Louis IX and his crusading army are trapped in Egypt. To prevent his sword, with a sacred relic in the hilt, from falling into the hands of the Saracen, the dying Grand Master of the Knights Templar entrusts it to his newly-knighted former squire, Sir Geoffrey de Preuthune. Shaken by the loss of all his Templar brothers, Sir Geoffrey has denied the divinity of Christ, and the Grand Master makes him pledge that he will not rejoin the Knights Templar until he understands God’s will. Geoffrey’s search for understanding leads him to Cyprus and a fateful encounter with the daughter of a Cathar heretic.

The Templar of Saint John

Sir Jean de Preuthune believes his father committed a grave sin by failing to return Grand Master de Sonnac’s sword, containing a finger bone of John the Baptist in the hilt, to the Knights Templar. He is determined to right his father’s wrong by taking vows as a Knight Templar. He sets out to free the Holy Land, but even so powerful a relic in the hand of a devout crusader cannot alone defeat the powerful armies of Islam under the able leadership of the Sultan Kala’un. As one Christian stronghold after another falls to the Saracens, Sir Jean must re-evaluate his mission and faith.

·        The English Templar

Passing through France from England to Cyprus with dispatches, the Templar knight Sir Percy de Lacy is caught up in the surprise arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307. He is tortured until he confesses to sins he did not commit. When he manages to crawl off the prisoner transport taking him to Paris, Sir Percy wants only to die, . But Sir Percy’s rescuer, Felice de Preuthune, and her grandfather Sir Geoffrey have no intention of letting Sir Percy die. While Sir Geoffrey and Sir Percy fight back against the French King and the Pope, Felice fights her own battle for their souls.