Jacques DeMolay
Born in Vitrey, Department of Haute
Saone, France in the year 1244. At the age of 21, DeMolay joined the Order of Knights Templar.
In 1298, Jacques DeMolay was named Grand Master of the Knights Templar, a position of power and prestige. As Grand Master however, Jacques DeMolay was also in a difficult position. The Crusades were not achieving their goals. The non-Christian Saracens defeated the Crusaders in battle and captured many vital cities and posts. The Knights Templar and the Hospitals (another Order of Knights) were the only groups remaining to confront the Saracens.
The Knights Templar decided to reorganize and regain their strength. They traveled to the island of Cyprus, waiting for the general public to rise up in support of another Crusade.
Instead of public support, however, the Knights attracted the attention of powerful lords, who were interested in obtaining their wealth and power. In 1305, Philip the Fair, King of France, set about to obtain control of the Knights Templars. They had been accountable only to the Church. To prevent a rise in the power of the Church, and to increase his own wealth, Philip set out to take over the Knights.
The year 1307 saw the beginning of the persecution of the Knights. Jacques DeMolay, along with hundreds of others, were seized and thrown into dungeons. For seven years, DeMolay and the Knights suffered torture and inhuman conditions. While the Knights did not end, Philip managed to force Pope Clement to condemn the Templars. Their wealth and property were confiscated and given to Philip's supporters.
During years of torture, Jacques DeMolay continued to be loyal to his friends and Knights, refusing to disclose their location or the location of the funds of the Order. On March 18, 1314, DeMolay was tried by a special court. As evidence, the court depended on a forged confession.
Jacques DeMolay disavowed the forged confession. Under the laws of the day, the disavowal of a confession was punishable by death. Another Knight, Guy of Auvergne, likewise disavowed his confession and stood with Jacques DeMolay.
King Philip ordered them both to be burned at the stake that day, and thus the story of Jacques DeMolay became a testimonial to loyalty and friendship.
Execution of the last Grand Master
Jaques DeMolay was the twenty-third and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. His execution as a heretic in 1314 marked the ultimate end to the once proud order. DeMolay was born into a family of minor nobles in 1244, the year which saw the final loss of Jerusalem to the Muslims. He was initiated into the Order at the age of 21 in the town of Beaune in the Cote-d 'Or. His initiation was conducted by the English Master of the Temple, Humbert of Pairaud and the Master of the Temple of France, Aimery de La Roche. DeMolay traveled to the Holy Land in about 1275 and served under the Grand Master of the time, William de Beaujeu.
He was to become Master of the Temple of England and eventually, between April 1292 and December 1293 he became Grand Master of the Order. He was elected at a difficult time for the Order, they had sustained tremendous losses at the hands of the Muslims and had been forced to retreat from the Holy Land. DeMolay had traveled across Europe desperately seeking support for a Crusade to retake the Holy Land, but this was never to be. He had stayed at the Templar Headquarters on the island of Cyprus until 1306 when he was called back to France by Pope Clement V to discuss combining the Templar order with the Knights Hospitaller - a plan both parties were violently opposed to.
It was during this trip that he was arrested on Friday 13th August 1307 at the Paris Temple and taken into custody. DeMolay was then tortured by William Imbert, head of the Inquisition and was forced to make a confession he was later to recant in front of the Papal Commission in Vienne (Wednesday 26th November 1309). He stated,
"If I ,myself, or other Knights, have made confessions before the Bishop of Paris, or elsewhere, we have betrayed the truth - we have yielded to fear, to danger, to violence, we were tortured by our enemies"
Jaques DeMolay remained in prison for another 5 years with Geoffrey de Charney (Preceptor of Normandy), Hugh de Payraud (Visitor of the Order) and Guy de Auverene, until in 1314 Pope Clement set up a Papal Commission headed by the Bishop of Alba. This was not for the purpose of hearing the prisoners, but taking their guilt for granted was to pronounce their sentences.
The sentencing was a very public affair at the instruction of Philip IV. It took place on the 18th March 1314 in front of a huge crowd. The prisoners were brought forward onto a large wooden scaffold where the Bishop of Alba read out their alleged confessions and pronounced a sentence of life imprisonment. DeMolay was allowed to speak and addressed the crowd:
"It is just that, in so terrible a day, and in the last moments of my life, I should discover all the iniquity of falsehood, and make the truth triumph. I declare, then, in the face of heaven and earth, and acknowledge, though to my eternal shame, that I have committed the greatest crimes but it has been the acknowledging of those which have been so foully charged on the order. I attest - and truth obliges me to attest - that it is innocent! I made the contrary declaration only to suspend the excessive pains of torture, and to mollify those who made me endure them. I know the punishments which have been inflicted on all the knights who had the courage to revoke a similar confession; but the dreadful spectacle which is presented to me is not able to make me confirm one lie by another. The life offered me on such infamous terms I abandon without regret."
The speech caused an uproar of support
from the crowd and the proceedings were quickly halted by the Commissioners. The situation
was reported back to Philip who, without hesitation over-ruled the sentence of life
imprisonment and condemned DeMolay and Charney to death.
The following day the two Templars were taken to the Isle of Javiaux, a small island in the River Seine, and were put to death. Reports say they were slowly roasted over a hot, smokeless fire prolonging their agony as their flesh slowly cooked and blackened.
DeMolay insisted that his hands were not bound so that he could pray in his final moments and before he died he cursed both Philip and Pope Clement, summoning both of them to appear before God, the supreme judge, before the year was out. His last words were,
"Let evil swiftly befall those who have wrongly condemned us - God will avenge us."
Geoffrey de Charney is reported to have added,
"I shall follow the way of my master as a martyr you have killed him. You have done and know not. God willing, on this day, I shall die in the Order like him"
The chilling irony of the conclusion of this story is that DeMolays final words did, in fact, come true. Pope Clement V died only a month later on 20th April (he is suspected of having cancer of the bowel) and Philip IV was killed whilst hunting on 29th November 1314. ]
