Welcome to the Night Chronicles.

In the autumn of 1307, horsemen rode across the roads of France carrying identical sealed packages. They were forbidden to open them until the appointed morning. For twenty-nine days, dozens of royal officials across the country kept the forbidden document in their possession—and not a single one divulged. And at dawn on October 13th, the wax was broken simultaneously. By evening, an entire international organization that for a century and a half had answered only to the Pope and to no one else had ceased to exist.

Seven years later, its leader would be burned on an island in the Seine.

And there would never be a verdict convicting the Order. Not a single one. For the entire seven years.

In this episode, you will learn:

∙ Why the Templars were accused of heresy, not wealth or insubordination—and who stood at the only door through which the King of France could enter.

∙ What's really written on the parchment that lay in the Vatican archives for seven hundred years—and why the word "vindication" doesn't apply to it, despite being constantly used.

∙ What the Templar case looked like in places beyond the French crown's reach: Cyprus, Italy, and the German lands. The outcome was the same everywhere, and not at all what was expected in Paris.

∙ Who were the six hundred people who gathered in Paris in the spring of 1310, what did they demand of the prosecution—and why did they all suddenly fall silent for one week in May?

∙ One boring administrative document, signed a year earlier, after which the Order's defense had almost no chance. No conspiracy, no forgery—a routine bureaucratic procedure.

∙ What really happened to the Order's money: the king didn't open the chest; he acted much more coldly, and the bill was presented to those who inherited the property.

∙ Where did the man who was the only one to demand his accusers identify themselves by name disappear to? And what do documents from one Italian city reveal about this?

This isn't a story about treasures, secret societies, and a bearded idol.

This is a story about how an institution that only yesterday seemed untouchable is being dismantled.

First, any answer is made dangerous. Then, those who know how to answer professionally are eliminated. Then, one day, they show the rest what happens to those who decide to speak. And after that, there's no need to prove anything—it's enough to say that things can't go on like this.

If you're interested not in the Templar legend, but in what really happened between 1307 and 1314, you have an hour to do it.

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