Jacques De Molay | The Famous Knights Templar Grand Master ☩⚔️♞

Even today, Jacques de Molay fascinates. From Cursed Kings to Assassin’s Creed to The Da Vinci Code. Yet, while anchored in myth, he remains a famous unknown, usually deprecated, whose history is unknown. There he is.

Jacques de Molay was the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, elected in 1298 when the Order had just been established in Cyprus. Where some operations against Islam were launched. Having come to the West, where there were many houses of the Order. Jacques de Molay composed two memorials to the Pope, one to give his views on the papal project of the crusade. The other to consider – and especially to reject.

The possibility of a merger of military orders was desired for a quarter of a century by popes and councils. Molay’s refutation, animated above all by the desire to preserve the advantages of the Temple. And the prerogatives of the Grand Master, made a wrong impression. Learning of the denunciations of which the Order had been the victim, he called for an investigation.

Who was the most famous Templar Knight?

Originally a petty French nobleman, Jacques de Molay is probably the most famous Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Alongside the Order’s founder, Hughes de Payens. The exact date of his birth is unknown. But when questioned by royal prosecutors in Paris on 24 October 1307. He declared that he had become a Knight Templar 42 years ago, in 1265.

Jacques de Molay (1240/1250-1314) was the most famous and last Grand Templar Knight (1292-1314). The Order being dissolved by Pope Clement V in 1312.

The authentic history is quite different from the often far-fetched claims of Brown. And the plethora of epigones inspired by his novels. The last Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, is far from the mysterious figure. With almost supernatural powers portrayed by the American writer.

Who was the last Knights Templar?

Dying at the stake one day in March 1314 on the top of the Ile de la Cité in Paris, Jacques de Molay lost the fight for the survival of his Order. But through his sacrifice, the last grand Master of the Knights Templar entered posterity.

Jacques de Molay (1244-1314) was the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, a military. And religious Order founded in the 12th century, whose trial was brought by Philippe le Bel in 1307. And still fuels many legends and controversies today.

Trapped in a machine that overtook him and dealt a fatal blow to the Templars. He perished seven hundred years ago in the flames of the stake for refusing to renounce the most potent Order in the West.

Read also: Where Is the Holy Grail?

Who is Jacques de Molay?

There are few true stories about Jacques de Molay and many myths. But there is little specific information about his roots and life. One legend says that during his journey along the Camino de Santiago in the late 13th century, he left his sword in the castle of Ponferrada in Spain.

Originally a French marquis, Jacques de Molay is probably the most famous Grand Master. Alongside the founder of the Order, Hughes de Payens.

On 18 March 1314, Jacques de Molay, the last Master of the Templar Order, was burnt at stake in Paris. The curse struck his murderer hard. Following a concerted action by the King of France, Philip IV, known as “the Beautiful,”. Who also learned how to bring Pope Clement V to his side, the destruction of the Templar Order began on 13 October 1307. With the arrest of all the Templars throughout France at the same time.

Was Jacques de Molay a sage?

On 18 March 1314, Jacques de Molay and several other Templars, after enduring torture and many other humiliations, were sent to their deaths. De Molay was an older man, tired of life and proud of his achievements. He knew the tragedy that occurred to his brothers and himself resulted from a scheme.

Jacques de Molay was a sage leader. He was the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Templar. He led the Order from 20 April 1292 and was its great reformer.

Jacques was also aware that the King of France decided to torture and eventually executed innocent people – the loyal knights of France. So when he died, he cursed all those who wished him dead.

Was Jacques de Molay burned at stake?

Arrested with the other Templars of France on 13 October 1307, Molay confessed – without, it seems, having been tortured – the errors of the Order in matters of faith and morals; he wrote to all his brothers to encourage them to reveal what they knew.

Jacques de Molay, the greatest Templar master knight, was burned at stake alive. Before this tragic event, he renewed in August 1308, before the commission of cardinals appointed by the Pope, the confessions he had made before the royal investigators and the Inquisition. As the Pope reserved his judgment on certain dignitaries, Molay refused to cooperate with the papal commission in November 1309.

Consequently, without being heard, Clement V, in April 1312, suppressed the Order and, in December, referred the trial of dignitaries to three cardinals.

Why was Jacques de Molay burned at stake?

Back in France, Jacques de Molay came into fierce conflict with Philip. Because of his ambition to be recognized as the leader of the Order (Rex Bellator – warrior king). The King’s secret adviser, Guillaume de Nogaret, now seems to have informed Philip of the scandals that had broken out in several regions of France. Where the Knights Templar owned property, about their ugly and anti-religious behavior. Suggesting that he might take advantage of these rumors to undermine the Order.

The authors claim that the Church turned against the Knights Templar and burned Jacques de Molay at the stake because they knew the secret history of Jesus. Which differed from that assumed by the Church. In 1357 the shroud was first exhibited to the public by the family of the grandson of Geoffrey de Charney. The Templar who had been burned at stake with de Molay.

Furious, Philip IV ordered the Grand Master to be burned at stake, and the sentence was carried out on the Ile de la Cite. There has been much talk of a curse that Jacques de Molay had put on his persecutors. Who did indeed die before the end of 1314. Moreover, all the sons of Philip IV died without descendants. So after only 14 years, the Capetian dynasty, which had ruled France for more than three centuries, would die out.

Jacques De Molay

Representation of the Burning of Jacques de Molay

You might also want to know

Legend has it that, before being consumed by the flames of the stake, Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, pronounced a curse, calling upon Pope Clement V, King Philip the Fair, and his minister, Nogaret, to be judged before the year was out.

The French sovereign was present at the execution and listened to the dreadful words unmoved. For him, the brutal scene he witnessed was one episode among many in the long and relentless struggle he waged for money and power. Only that, without knowing it, he was almost at the end of the road. By a strange coincidence, all three upon whom the curse had been cast were to pass from the world of the living until the end of 1314, that is, until the fulfillment of the doom pronounced by the greatest of the knightly monks, burned as heretics.

Order of Jacques de Molay

Jacques De Molay is taken as a model and inspiration for one of the most influential youth organizations in the US, DeMolay International, with nearly 20,000 members and which has included the cosmonaut Neil Armstrong, the writer John Steinbeck and former US President Bill Clinton.

In the world, there is even a masonic Order called the “Order of Jacques de Molay,” initiated exclusively by the youngest sons of Masons, between 15 and 21 years old. A child over the age of 14 is considered discerning and decides whether or not he wants to come, just as he decides to join a sports club or a youth association. It is not the only organization children can enter and withdraw from whenever they want.

Freemasonry has left its mark on history, and the events orchestrated perhaps by Freemasonry on 18 March are proof of this.

Primary Takeaways

Molay probably did not change his position, confessing the general vices of the Order while admitting himself moderately guilty. It was precisely for these confessed crimes that he was, on 19 March 1314, sentenced by the cardinals to life imprisonment.
In six years of investigation, the Grand Master had repeatedly raised procedure points. Still, he had never protested against the falsity of the charges brought against the King by the people. The prospect of perpetual imprisonment inspired a sign of courage that had no doubt taken away the hope of an eventual settlement with the Pope by then: he protested against his conviction. He declared that he deeply regretted confessing to false crimes.
The archbishops gave themselves the night to reflect. That same evening, the King’s men executed Molay and the Normandy professor Charnay under medieval law that punished renegades with death. Molay climbed to the stake with resignation and courage.

Conclusion

Of the twenty-three Grand Masters who succeeded to the head of the Order of the Temple between 1120 and 1312. Jacques de Molay is undoubtedly the only one whose memory the public retains. Maurice Druon’s Les Rois maudits immortalized him. And recent media. From the Da Vinci Code to Assassin’s Creed, has spread his name around the world.

Yet, if rooted in myth, Jacques de Molay has hardly captivated historians. He is a “famous stranger,” usually disparaged, about whom much uncertainty persists. Even for his actual dates – birth, election, or death. But the record of his actions is far from poor. It is these sources, systematically studied and compared with the various existing memoirs. That offer to shed new light on the great Master: freed from stereotypes, Jacques de Molay can finally emerge from the shadows.

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