ABSTRACT
The sudden arrest of the Templars in France on 13 October 1307, their subsequent interrogation and trial, and the eventual dissolution of the order by Pope Clement V in 1311 make for one of the most captivating and controversial episodes in the long struggle between Church and State during the medieval period. The Templar affair also represents a transition from the haphazard method of investigating heresy developed in the thirteenth century, which responded primarily to local conditions, to a more formalized and ritualized process that would characterize the inquisition during the remainder of the medieval period. This standardization of practice and theory became codified in texts and manuals and gave the inquisitorial process a reliability and uniformity that was conspicuously lacking in civil judicial procedure.
