Contemporary attitudes concerning the Templars' affair: propaganda's fiasco?

This study attempts to re-examine the correlation between propaganda and public opinion during the Templars' trial and to define the influence of propaganda and its effect on contemporary society. The re-examination of the sources and especially the chronicles, which have been partly overlooked by scholars, suggests new conclusions, namely a fiasco of Capetian propaganda. If Philip IV the Fair was successful in his attempt to abolish the Order of the Temple, it was due to the influence he exercised over Pope Clement V and not over European public opinion.