On the Margins of the Templars' Trial: The Case of Bishop Guichard of Troyes

Scholars often seek to account for the Templars’ trial by ‘genealogical’ means, tracing the course of events which had begun one and a half centuries earlier in Champagne and the Holy Land. Here I would like to change this perspective, by studying a contemporary case which is less famous yet nevertheless well documented, the trial of Guichard, bishop of Troyes in Champagne, and attempting to define its relationship to the Templars’ affair. ¹ The trial of Guichard de Troyes ² was one of a series of cases in the early fourteenth century in which politics and religion were intertwined. ³ At first sight, the case might seem to resemble an item in a modern gossip column, as it has many of the features of a court intrigue. However, I will propose that this case should be taken seriously: set in the heart of the tournant démoniaque identified by Alain Boureau as taking place in the years 1280–1330, ⁴ it could well provide a way into the ‘mysteries of state’ (Ernst H. Kantorowicz) of the France of Philip the Fair. ⁵