Besides offering a necessary crash course on the history of the Knights Templar, this book highlights one of the most important documents from the Order's final years: the Chinon Parchment. Originally created in 1308, this official legal record has been recently recovered after missing for centuries. It is finally made widely available here in its original Latin with a new English translation.

In the early 14th century, after a long series of defeats in the Levant, the Order was charged with heresy by King Philip IV of France. The Chinon Parchment details a crucial step in subsequent papal investigations into the Knights Templar activities and contains curious and disturbing depositions of the Order's high-ranking officers, including its Grand Master, Jacques de Molay. The chief Templars were interrogated by specially appointed cardinals at the Castle of Chinon, in a setting where they were seemingly free to speak the truth without any intimidation or fear of torture. What was the outcome of these proceedings? Were the Knights Templar guilty of the charges raised against them? Did this most famous military order of the Middle Ages go through a process of degradation, eventually turning to blasphemy, misconduct and apostasy? Were the Knights Templar condemned by the Pope or were they pardoned? This book seeks to provide plausible answers to these questions.