ABSTRACT
The charges brought against the Order at their arrest and the subsequent inquisition and trials have given rise to considerable speculation as to whether there was any truth in the accusations, and what actually went on behind the closed doors of the Templar preceptory, whilst interpretation of the evidence from the trials has led to a number of theories on what the Templars believed. The burning for heresy in 1314 of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master, and the suppression of the Order have been seen not as the end of the Templars, but as part of a continuum that links the fourteenth century with today, with an unbroken line of Grand Masters stretching from de Molay into the twenty-first century.
