Jacques de Molay

Jacques (James) de Molay served as the last grandmaster of the Order of the Templar. From the French village of Molay, he was received into the Temple in 1265, and upon his transition into grandmaster in 1292 or 1293, he tried to revive the Crusades, travelling through Europe and leading raids in areas such as Egypt and the Palestinian coast.1 Molay made the greatest efforts possible, wanting to ensure he was not the leader of an unemployed Order. He was located at the Templar’s headquarters in Cyprus until the Pope requested his presence in Europe. In 1307, after hearing the slander King Philip was telling other monarchs regarding the Order, Molay requested the Pope to open a papal investigation, as there was nothing to hide.2 However, soon after he and Temple members throughout all of France were taken into custody by French officials.

 

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This piece by Jules David captures the death of Jacques de Molay.8

 

Molay admitted to denying Christ, spitting on the floor after refusing to spit on the cross, and denied homosexual acts.3 The day following his confession, he was brought into the public eye, in front of an audience of scholars, theologians, and other Templar leaders to confess. He then wrote an open letter to his fellow Templars, ordering them to confess.4 When papal cardinals intervened, he recanted his confession, saying he was scared of torture. However, all evidence suggests the grandmaster was not tortured, but that perhaps he was working under the assumption that if he confessed, the matter would end quickly and nothing serious would actually happen, as had happened in similar instances throughout Europe.5 Things got more confusing once the pope ordered his own inquisitions. Molay was the last to be questioned by three cardinals, where he went back to his original confession.6 As a result, he was sentenced to life in prison; after finding this out he again rejected his confession, which led him to be burnt at the stake as a relapsed heretic.7

  1. Malcolm Barber, Crusaders and Heretics, 12th-14th Centuries (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2003), 103.
  2. Frale, Barbara. “The Chinon Chart: Papal Absolution to the Last Templar, Master Jacques de Molay.” Journal of Medieval History 30, no. 2 (2004): 127.
  3. Barber, Malcolm, and Keith Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources, Manchester University Press, 2007, 253.
  4. Julien Théry, “A Heresy of State: Philip the Fair, the Trial of the “Perfidious Templars,” and the Pontificalization of the French Monarchy,” Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 39, no. 2 (2013): 128. doi:10.5325/jmedirelicult.39.2.0117.
  5. Barber, Crusaders and Heretics, 105.
  6. Ibid, 105.
  7. Ibid, 107.
  8. Burette, Théodose. Execution de Jacques Molay, grand maître des Templiers. 1839. Histoire de France,  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Execution_de_Jacques_Molay,_grand_maitre_des_Templiers.png.