March 22, 1312

Vox in excelso

Clement V dates Vox in excelso, suppressing the Templar Order

The pope abolished the Templars while explicitly refusing to convict the order by a definitive sentence.

22 March 1312

On 22 March 1312 Clement V committed to writing and presented the decision embodied in Vox in excelso, suppressing the Order of the Temple with conciliar approval.

He did so by papal ordinance or provision, expressly “not by definitive sentence,” because the evidence did not permit a canonical condemnation of the entire order as heretical.

The decree abolished the order's rule, habit and name, and forbade anyone to enter the order, wear its habit or act as a Templar.

What it did not settle

The persons and property of the order were reserved for later papal and ecclesiastical decisions. Vox in excelso did not transfer the assets to the Hospitallers; that was ordered separately by Ad providam on 2 May 1312, with Iberian exceptions.

Jacques de Molay, the imprisoned grand master, was not sentenced by this bull; his personal fate was reserved for later judgment.

The bull did not convict the order of heresy — but it also did not declare it innocent.

Dated in March, read in April

Philip IV had entered Vienne on 20 March with a large retinue and demanded abolition, while Clement faced a council whose prelates had generally considered the evidence insufficient for condemning the order without hearing its defence.

The decision was publicly proclaimed, and Vox in excelso read aloud, at an open council session on 3 April 1312, with Philip IV and his three sons present.

Accounts that call either day “the dissolution date” are referring to different legal stages.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 8 sources not yet audited

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What the sources leave uncertain

The bull bears the date 22 March, but its public reading and proclamation before the open council occurred on 3 April. Accounts that call either day 'the dissolution date' are referring to different legal stages.
The conventional date is Julian/Old Style.
Translations alternate between 'suppress,' 'abolish' and 'dissolve'; 'suppress' best reflects the bull's administrative rather than judicial mechanism.