ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on Vox in excelso, that many of Clement's thought-processes are revealed and it is upon the bull itself. It also explains that Clement V believed that he was doing God's will in ridding the earth of the Templar Order, at least at the outset. Possibly, he realised only later on that he was being manipulated by the French king. The destruction of the Order will, nevertheless, be an action ordered by God not man, with Clement V acting as God's agent. Clement never heard a deposition from James of Molay, the grand master, or the other major dignitaries held at Chinon, identified as the general master and the visitor of France, and of the overseas lands, and the grand preceptors of Normandy, Aquitaine and Poitiers, and certain others. The chapter discusses that Clement had been told terrible tales concerning both the Order itself and its members, tales which he could not believe, given the Order's honourable beginnings.