"The Templars, on leaving the Holy Land, upon the disastrous termination of the last Crusade and the fall of Acre, had taken temporary refuge in the island of Cyprus. After some vain attempts to regain a footing in Palestine and to renew their contests with the infidels, who were now in complete possession of that country, the Knights had retired from Cyprus and repaired to their different Commanderies in Europe, among which those in France were the most wealthy and the most numerous.
At this period Philip IV, known in history by the sobriquet of Philip the Fair, reigned on the French throne, and Clement V. was the Pontiff of the Roman Church. Never before had the crown or the tiara been worn by a more avaricious King or a more treacherous Pope. Clement, when Bishop of Bordeaux, had secured the influence of the French monarch toward his election to the papacy by engaging himself by an oath on the sacrament to perform six conditions imposed upon him by the king, the last of which was reserved as a secret until after his coronation.
This last condition bound him to the extermination of the Templars, an order of whose power Philip was envious and for whose wealth he was avaricious. Pope Clement, who had removed his residence from Rome to Poictiers, summoned the heads of the military orders to appear before him for the purpose, as he deceitfully pretended, of concerting measures for the inauguration of a new Crusade. James de Molay, the Grand Master of the Templars, accordingly, repaired to the papal court. While there the King of France preferred a series of charges against the Order, upon which he demanded its suppression and the punishment of its leaders.
The events that subsequently occurred have been well called a black page in the history of the order.
On the 13th of October, 1307, the Grand Master and one hundred and thirty-nine Knights were arrested in the palace of the Temple, at Paris, and similar arrests were on the same day made in various parts of France. The arrested Templars were thrown into prison and loaded with chains. They were not provided with a sufficiency of food and were refused the consolations of religion. Twenty-six princes and nobles of the court of France appeared as their accusers; and before the judgment of their guilt had been determined by the tribunals, the infamous Pope Clement launched a bull of excommunication against all persons who should give the Templars aid or comfort.
The trials, which ensued, were worse than a farce, only because of their tragic termination. The rack and the torture were unsparingly applied. Those who continued firm in a denial of guilt were condemned either to perpetual imprisonment or to the stake. Addison (editors note: Charles Addison was another author writing about the Templars in the 1800's ) says that one hundred and thirteen were burnt in Paris and others in Lorraine, in Normandy, at Carcassonne, and at Senlis."
http://www.templarhistory.com/scotland.html#top
above link the full article
http://www.templarhistory.com/history.html
Above link a very comprehensive site on the templars
Odin
