Geoffroi de Charney Geoffroi de Charney , ( first name sometimes spelled Geoffrey , surname sometimes spelled de Charnay and de Charny ) , was Preceptor of Normandy for the Knights Templar . Charney was accepted into the Order of Knights Templar at a young age by Amaury de la Roche , the Preceptor of France . Present at the ceremony was brother Jean le Franceys , Preceptor of Pédenac . In 1307 de Charny was arrested , along with the entire Order of Knights Templar in France , and in 1314 was burned at the stake . History , Motivation , Inquisition and Imprisonment . The Order of the Templars was originally created to protect the Pilgrims on the road to Jersaleum . The Templars ' mission was then expanded to fight in the Crusades . The persecution of the Templars began in France as a plan by King Philip IV , with the complicity of Pope Clement V . On October 13 , 1307 , the King ordered a dramatic arrest of all Templars in France . The Pope , Clement V , in November 22 , 1307 , under pressure from the King , also issued a papal decree , called " Pastoralis praceminentiae " , ordering all monarchs of the Christian faith to arrest all Templars and confiscate their lands in the name of the Pope and the Church . Though the order went out to England , Iberia , Germany , Italy and Cyprus , the leader , Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay , Geoffrey de Charney and many other Templars were in France , and , under the orders of the French king , were arrested and severely tortured until they confessed to the series of horrible crimes of which they were accused . In 1307 , the Pope sent two Cardinals to interview Jacques de Molay and Hugues de Pairaud , a Templar who is referred to as " the visitor of France " , at which time they recanted their confessions and told the other Templars to do the same . Two other Templars , Pierre de Bologna and Renaud de Provins also tried to convince other Templars to recant their confessions and by early May 1310 , close to six hundred did so . After that Pierre de Bologna was never seen again and Renaud de Provins was sentenced to life imprisonment . Initial Charges . Geoffroi de Charney , along with the other Templars in France were arrested on October 13 , 1307 . Scores of charges were leveled at them , many were notably similar charges to those directed at other of Philip ' s enemies , such as heresy , sodomy and blasphemy . There were five initial charges lodged against the Templars . The " first " was the renouncement of Christ and spitting on the cross during initiation into the Order . The " second " was the stripping of the man to be initiated and the thrice kissing of that man by the Preceptor on the navel , posteriors and the mouth . The " third " was telling the neophyte ( novice ) that unnatural lust was lawful and indulged in commonly . The " fourth " was that the cord worn by the neophyte day and night was " consecrated " by wrapping it around an idol in the form of a human head with a great beard , and that this idol was adored in all chapters . The " fifth " was that the priests of the order did not consecrate the host in celebrating Mass . Many of these charges were made against Boniface before his capture , escape and eventual death shortly thereafter in 1308 . Philip ' s agents pursued these charges in the name of the French King of France as they were successful in the past against other enemies of the King . On August 12 , 1308 , the charges would be increased and would become more outrageous , one specifically stated that the Templars worshipped an idols , specifically made of a cat and a head , the latter having three faces . The lists of articles 86 to 127 [ 3 ] would add many other charges . Recantation and death of Templar leaders in France . Eventually King Philip ' s Inquisitors succeeded in making Jacques de Molay confess to the charges . On 18 March 1314 , de Molay and de Charney , recanted their confessions , stating they were innocent of the charges and they were only guilty of betraying their Order by confessing to something they did not do under duress . They were immediately found guilty of being relapsed heretics , for which the punishment was death . This effectively silenced the other Templars . Philip continued to pressure and threaten the Pope to officially disband the Order , and things came to a dramatic end in 1314 with the public execution by burning of leader Jacques de Molay , and Geoffroi de Charney . Death . Sadly , at this time , we know more about this man ' s imprisonment and death , than we know of his life , except that in his imprisonment and death , he showed tremendous courage . His exact day of death in disputed by scholars . This source records his death as follows : ( Note : The day varies by one day , not unusual for the chronicles of the Middle Ages ) : " The cardinals dallied with their duty until March 19 , 1314 , when , on a scaffold in front of Notre Dame , de Molay , Geoffroi de Charney , Master of Normandy , Ilugues de Peraud , referred to as " a visitor of France " , and Godefroi de Gonneville , Master of Aquitaine , were brought forth from the jail in which for nearly seven years they had lain , to receive the sentence agreed upon by the cardinals , in conjunction with the Archbishop of Sens and some other prelates whom they had called in . Considering the offences which the culprits had confessed and confirmed , the penalty imposed was in accordance with rule — that of perpetual imprisonment . The affair was supposed to be concluded when , to the dismay of the prelates and wonderment of the assembled crowd , de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney arose . They had been guilty , they said , not of the crimes imputed to them , but of basely betraying their Order to save their own lives . It was pure and holy ; the charges were fictitious and the confessions false . Hastily the cardinals delivered them to the Prevot of Paris , and retired to deliberate on this unexpected contingency , but they were saved all trouble . ' When the news was carried to Philippe he was furious . The King was furious and they were both pronounced relapsed heretics to be burned without a further hearing ; the facts were notorious and no formal judgment by the papal commission need be waited for . That same day , by sunset , a pile was erected on a small island in the Seine , the Isle des Juifs , near the palace garden . There de Molay and de Charney were slowly burned to death , refusing all offers of pardon for retraction , and bearing their torment with a composure which won for them the reputation of martyrs among the people , who reverently collected their ashes as relics ' . Legacy and the Curse . The fact that , in little more than a month , Pope Clement V died in torment of the loathsome disease thought to be lupus , and that in eight months Philip IV of France , at the age of forty - six , was killed by an accident while hunting , necessarily gave rise to the legend that de Molay had cited them before the tribunal of God . Such stories became legend among the people , whose sense of justice had been scandalized by the whole affair . Even in distant Germany , Philippe ' s death was spoken of as a retribution for his destruction of the Templars , and Clement was described as shedding tears of remorse on his death - bed for three great crimes , the poisoning of Henry VI , Holy Roman Emperor and the ruin of the Templars and Beguines . Author Malcolm Barber has researched this legend and concluded that it originates from " La Chronique métrique attribuée à Geffroi de Paris " ( ed . A . Divèrres , Strasbourg , 1956 , pages 5711 - 5742 ) . Geoffrey of Paris was " apparently an eye - witness , who describes Molay as showing no sign of fear and , significantly , as telling those present that God would avenge their deaths " .