Confessions at The Château Chion

Chinon is a town in west central France dominated by its castle, which sprawls on a hillside above the River Loire. The castle was enlarged by Henry II, King of England and Philip II Augustus in turn. (Henry II died there in 1189). It was also the place where Joan of Arc met the Dauphin in 1429. A dark phase of its history was during the suppression of the Knights Templar.

The Knights Templar of France were arrested en masse by the agents of King Philip IV, called Philip the Fair, on Friday 13 October 1307. The King had accused the Templars of secret involvement in heresy, blasphemy and idol worship, as well as of unsavoury sexual practices and institutional corruption. Whether he believed them guilty or not, he was bent on destroying them and seizing their land and wealth.

Above: dungeon carvings within Chinon, left by Templar prisoners

Some sixty Templars were imprisoned in Chinon for a time in 1308. These included the five most important Templars to be arrested in France, namely Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master, and the senior dignitaries Raymbaud de Caron (Preceptor of Outremer), Hugues de Pairaud (Visitor of the Order), Geoffroi de Gonneville (Preceptor of Aquitaine), and Geoffroi de Charney (Preceptor of Normandy). They were imprisoned in a keep called the Tour de Coudray. There they were visited and questioned by three cardinals sent by Pope Clement V. The lead Templars made limited confessions and said that they made them freely (at least according to the Chinon Parchment, which records them). This seems unlikely given that another Templar held at Chinon reputedly perished under torture.
The Castle survives in a ruinous state. Its dungeons contain carvings left by the Templar prisoners. These include strange geometric symbols including a Star of David, figures of saints including Saint Catherine of Alexandria, disembodied heads, grids divided into squares and triangles, hearts and crosses including Calvary crosses. (The crosses are similar to those found in Warwick and Lincoln Castles in England where other Templars were incarcerated).

Above: a view of Chinon

Chinon Parchment
The Chinon Parchment is a document recently brought to light in the Vatican Archives by researcher Dr Barbara Frale, who interpreted it as evidence that the Church secretly pardoned the Templars. Much of the documents contents are familiar from the trial records.

Three Cardinals sent by Pope Clement V questioned the five senior Templars over three days in August 1108. These were Berengar, Cardinal presbyter of SS Nerus and Archelius, Stephanus, cardinal presbyter of St. Ciriacus in Therminis, and Landolf, cardinal deacon of St. Angel. The cardinals interviewed the Templars individually- first Raymbaud de Caron, then Geoffroi de Charney, then Geoffroi de Gonneville, then Hugues de Pairaud, then Jacques de Molay. Their testimonies varied only slightly. Each said he had undergone a reception decades before, with nothing initially untoward. After receiving his cappa, each said he was led aside, and shown a cross (a picture in a book in de Gonneville's account) and told to denounce the one on the cross. All but de Caron said they had been instructed to spit on the cross in addition to denying the crucified one. And said they had denied Christ with the mouth and not the heart.

Raymbaud de Caron said that at his initiation, he had been told that it was better to be chaste, but if he could not it was better to do it secretly. He knew nothing of sodomy being practiced within the Order apart from that three brothers had been imprisoned for it in Pilgrims' Castle. All five senior Templars were vague on their knowledge of what went on at other receptions but most denied knowledge of the head, or of idolatry, obscene kisses or sodomy. Both de Caron and de Charney said they had confessed to Catholic priests soon after denying Christ. De Caron said he was absolved by a kinsman, the Bishop of Carpentras, and de Charney that he had told and been pardoned by the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Most claimed they were received only with a kiss to the mouth, though de Charney also mentioned a kiss to the stomach. Both de Gonneville and de Pairaud said they had been initiated in the New Temple, London. De Gonneville claimed that he had refused to deny the cross or spit at its image, even to spit at the receptor's hand on top of the cross. He said his receptor had let him off on the condition that if any Brother had asked him about it, he would tell them that he had done as required. Hugues Pairaud said his own father Humbert de Pairaud had presided at his initiation. He said that he himself had gone on to perform more receptions than any other Templar, and made postulants kiss the base of his spine, his stomach and his mouth- something he supposedly has not had to undergo himself, curiously. He alone testified to knowing of or having seen the head. All were vague about what they knew about the nature of other receptions. Jacques de Molay said he had been received at Beune in Autun, and that there he had been compelled to make the denial and spit, but had only spat near the crucifix. Each Templar agreed that they were confessing willingly and not through fear of torture (something which seems unlikely). At the end of each questioning the cardinals absolved the Templars of their sins, and reconciled them with the Catholic Church. The testimony was written down by Robert de Condet the church notary of Sissons and witnessed by other notaries and clerics.

It must be said that most of these confessions heard at Chinon make no sense, especially Hugues de Pairaud's, which is full of contradictions. The Templars evidently thought they had to confess something, so agreed a story between them. It's as though they intended them to read as nonsense, for example we have de Pairaud saying that he encouraged initiates to commit sodomy, but none did except the three imprisoned for it in the East; and saying also that the denial of Christ was a Templar tradition which he wished to see ended, when supposedly he was the one perpetuating it! The Templar chiefs probably made these token confessions for fear of reprisals which the king's men would have carried out against brethren imprisoned elsewhere had they denied every single thing at that point. The Chinon Parchment represents a kind of plea-bargaining on the Templars part.

Some have interpreted the Chinon parchment as showing that the Templars were secretly exonerated by the Church (or found innocent, the spitting on the cross etc. explained as some preparation for what the Templars may be compelled to do if captured by the Saracens). This is not what the parchment shows, though. It shows only that the Templars made limited confessions and were absolved. By the standards of the times, De Molay and de Charney would have made themselves 'relapsed heretics' by retracting these confessions, which they did spectacularly, back in Paris, in March 1314. De Molay, showing unusual resolve and lucidity, declared that he disdained to graft another lie onto the previous falsehoods, and that the Order was wholly innocent. The Preceptor of Normandy showed solidarity with him. The King, enraged, immediately condemned de Molay and de Charney to the flames, and they were burned at the stake on an island on the Seine. De Pairaud and de Gonneville languished on in prison, while it seems de Caron had already perished in custody.