Chinon Parchment

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The Chinon Parchment is a historical document that has recently been made famous by Dr Barbara Frale's discovery that Pope Clement V secretly absolved the last Grand Master Jacques de Molay, and the rest of leadership of the Knights Templar, in 1308, from charges brought against them by the Medieval Inquisition.

An investigation was carried out by agents of the Pope to verify claims against the accused in the castle of Chinon in the diocese of Tours. The parchment was dated August 17–20, 1308. According to the document, Pope Clement V instructed Berengar, cardinal priest of SS. Nereus and Achileus, Stephanus, cardinal priest of St. Ciriacus in Therminis, and Landolf, cardinal deacon of St. Angel, to conduct the investigation on the accused Knights Templar. The cardinals thus

"…declare through this official statement directed to all who will read it… the very same lord Pope wishing and intending to know the pure, complete and uncompromised truth from the leaders of the said Order, namely Brother Jacques de Molay, Grandmaster of the Order of Knights Templar, Brother Raymbaud de Caron, Preceptor (of) the commandaries of Templar Knights in Outremer, Brother Hugo de Pérraud, Preceptor of France, Brother Geoffroy de Gonneville, Preceptor of Aquitania and Poitou, and Geoffroy of Charny, Preceptor of Normandy, ordered and commissioned us specifically and by his verbally expressed will in order that we might with diligence examine the truth by questioning the grandmaster and the aforementioned preceptors — one by one and individually, having summoned notaries public and trustworthy witnesses."

Raymbaud de Caron was the first to be interrogated on August 17, 1308. After the interrogation, the cardinals granted absolution thus:

"…After this oath, by the authority of lord Pope specifically granted to us for that purpose, we extended to this humbly asking Brother Raymbaud, in a form accepted by the Church the mercy of absolution from the verdict of excommunication that had been incurred by the aforementioned deeds, restoring him to unity with the Church and reinstating him for communion of the faithful and sacraments of the Church."

Second to be interrogated on the same day was Geoffroy de Charny. He was also absolved. The third to be interrogated on the same day was Geoffroy de Gonneville. He too was absolved.

On August 19, 1308, Hugo de Pérraud was fourth to be interrogated. He was likewise absolved.

The Grandmaster was interrogated last on August 20, 1308. The cardinal interrogators also gave their absolution. According to the document, all interrogations of the accused spanning from the 17th to the 20th of August 1308 were always in the presence of the notaries public and the gathered witnesses. Among the accusations were sodomy, denouncing God, illicit kisses, spitting on the cross, and worshiping an 'idol'.

The body of the text details the appearance of the accused, the swearing in of the accused, charges against the accused, the questioning of the accused (excerpt of De Molay's interrogation: "When he was asked whether he had confessed to these things due to a request, reward, gratitude, favor, fear, hatred or persuasion by someone else, or the use of force, or fear of impending torture, he replied that he did not. When he was asked whether he, after being apprehended, was submitted to any questioning or torture, he replied that he did not."), the denunciations, requests of absolution by the accused, and the granting of absolution by the agents of the pope; all of these were always in the presence of witnesses. An excerpt of absolution given to de Molay thus reads:

"After this, we concluded to extend the mercy of absolution for these acts to Brother Jacques de Molay, the Grandmaster of the said Order, who in the form and manner described above had denounced in our presence the described and any other heresy, and swore in person on the Lord’s Holy Gospel, and humbly asked for the mercy of absolution, restoring him to unity with the Church and reinstating him to communion of the faithful and sacraments of the Church."

The Chinon Parchment was able to establish the actual secret practices of the Templars. All the accused admitted to having been asked by their receptors during their initiation to denounce the Cross and spit at the crucifix. Geoffroy de Gonneville alone did not succumb under duress of denouncing and spitting on the Cross. All others admitted however to "denouncing in words only, not in spirit". All denied the practice of sodomy; however, kisses were admitted having been given as a sign of respect. It can also be inferred that all initiates were told to "…to abstain from partnership with women, and, if they were unable to restrain their lust, to join themselves with brothers of the Order". Only Hugo de Pérraud admitted in seeing the "head of an idol" the Templars were accused of worshiping, in Montpellier, in the possession of Brother Peter Alemandin, Preceptor of Montpellier. Hugo further added that he wished the customs or traditions of the Order during initiation be abolished to correct such malpractices. They all added that their transgressions to the Catholic faith were fully confessed to a priest or bishop, penances made and absolutions granted. The document also made aware the very secretive ways of initiations and practices of the Order.

The Chinon parchment itself was prepared by Robert de Condet cleric of the diocese of Soissons, an apostolic notary. The apostolic notaries public were Umberto Vercellani, Nicolo Nicolai de Benvenuto, Robert de Condet, and Master Amise d’Orleans le Ratif. The witnesses of the proceedings were Brother Raymond, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Theofred, Annecy diocese, Master Berard (Bernard?) de Boiano, archdeacon of Troia, Raoul de Boset, confessor and canon from Paris, and Pierre de Soire, overseer of Saint-Gaugery in Cambresis. Furthermore, according to the document, three other copies were made but in fuller detail by the other notaries public. All documents were sealed and signed by the participants. According to the document:

"…Their words and confessions were written down exactly the way they are included here by the notaries whose names are listed below in the presence of witnesses listed below. We also ordered these things drawn up in this official form and validated by the protection of our seals."

As an interesting aside, one of the accused, Geoffrey de Charny, is linked with the Shroud of Turin.

Before its discovery, accusations were made on the Knights Templar, Pope Clement V and the Catholic Church. Others conclude, that the secretive ways of the Order were partly to blame for their downfall. The Chinon parchment therefore puts this episode and the repercussions of the dissolution of the Knights Templar in a better light and in the proper context of historical events operating at the time. It should be noted further that since the subject of the Chinon Parchment on the Knights Templar and the players leading to its downfall is controversial in nature, a complete reading of the source is encouraged to remove bias.

The Chinon Parchment has been referred to in several reference books on the Templars. For example, the parchment was published by Baluze during the 1600s in a book called "Vitae Paparum Avenionensis" (Lives of the Popes of Avignon).

In 2002, Dr. Barbara Frale found a copy of the parchment in the Vatican Secret Archives. Frale has published her discovery about the Chinon Parchment in the Journal of Medieval History and wrote a book in Italian on the subject in 2004.

Chinon refers to a town in France, where the interrogation of Jacques de Molay et al. took place.

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