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On this day, April 3, 1312, the Knights Templar were dissolved by a decision of the Council of Vienna.

The final decision to dissolve the Knights Templar was made at the Council of Vienna on April 3, 1312.

Cyprus, it was officially announced on November 7, 1313, at the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Nicosia, by the papal legate Pierre de la Pleine Chassaigne, Bishop of Roden.

The chronicler Leontios Machairas, who also mentions the execution of the Knights Templar in Cyprus, “justifies” the pope’s decision by describing a “scandalous” secret initiation ceremony for a new member of the order. His account does not differ from similar descriptions of such secret rituals that we have from France and other places. However, we must not overlook the negative influence on public opinion of the propaganda against the Knights Templar, once the decision to exterminate them had been taken by the King of France and the Pope. What the Knights Templar were in reality, what their secret rituals were and what they aimed to achieve, and why the decision was made to execute them all, are topics much debated internationally and largely unknown to this day. Much has been written, and there is a vast international body of literature on the Knights Templar.