I have recently been reading a bit online about Jacques de Molay, but it's not really clear what actually happened, why he was burned to death, and what he and the Templars actually believed. And why did he go back and forth with confessing and then retracting his confessions several times? I don't really understand his motives or how heresy like this was handled by the government/church at the time. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.
I don't think there's any direct evidence that the confession was false, but it probably was. The accusations were so lurid, like the blood libel accusations against Jews, that it seems impossible that they were true.
More realistically, the Templars were rich, powerful and they held a lot of royal debt. Phillip had every reason to frame them.
As for why de Molay confessed and then recanted: he was tortured. A person will say almost anything if tortured enough. But given time to reflect, he would recant. Then be tortured some more. And so on. I think it's actually a testament to his bravery that he kept recanting. And in the end, he could have chosen life imprisonment, but he didn't. He chose the fire.