Biography of Jacques de Molay
The last Templar
Year of birth: 124318 March 1314
Jacques de Molay, Munich remembered as the last Templar order Knight, was born in 1240 and 1250 Molay between, probably in 1243, son of Jean de Longwy, Burgundian nobleman, and the daughter of the King of Rahon. The Molay mentioned as place of birth is located near Besancon, but it should be noted that this is a conventional geographic designation, since there are several places that carry this name, and that of Jacques's childhood years there are no reliable information. He is welcomed in 1265 the Templar order of Beaune, after taking part in an initiation ceremony led by Amalric de Broke and Ymbert de Peraudo. In 1270, instead, it is found in the Holy Land (at least that reported the records that describe it in Outremer); fifteen years later, he was appointed Earl of acre before moving, in 1290, in Cyprus, therefore does not have the ability to intervene, the following year, the defence of acre.
At that time, Jacques during a Council enforcement expresses its disappointment about the situation of the order, and therefore proposes to adopt some changes: in 1294, will become the head of the organization. Arrested after the persecution against the Templars and brought to trial, in 1307 admits, under torture, the prosecution, and is then jailed for the rest of his life. While the meeting of the estates-General suppresses, in 1308, the Knights Templar, Jacques is imprisoned in the Tower of the castle of Chinon (this, at least, is what suggests Louis Charbonneau-Lassy, scholar of Christian symbolism). He however shortly afterwards retracted their statements, and is thus condemned to the stake: a destiny that binds it to Geoffrey de Charney, his fellow prisoner. The burning be staged on March 18 of 1314, in Paris near Notre Dame, on the island of the Jews of the Seine. Before execution, Jacques invites Pope Clement V and Philip the fair to appear before the Court; He also condemned until the thirteenth generation the House of France.
Tradition has it that during the French Revolution the execution of Louis XVI, which was in a sense the end of absolute monarchy, represented the culmination of the vengeance envisioned by the Templars. Even today, the site of Jacques de Molay is reporting a small stone in memory of that event, located on the Ile de la Cité in Paris, on the West side of the new bridge. In the early 2000s, Barbara Frale, an Italian physicist, announced the existence of a document, the so-called Chinon parchment, by virtue of which one understands that Pope Clement V had intended to absolve the Templars, including Jacques de Molay, revoking their excommunication and suspending the order rather than suppress it altogether, in order to involve him in a deeper reform. Molay, in fact, was accused of heresy, but this imputation was based solely on the secret ritual that had to be put into practice to enter the order: a ritual that included spitting on the cross and deny Christ.
For the Pope, a similar action, as deplorable and unworthy, not heresy. However, Philip the fair paid no attention to the intentions of the Pope, which theoretically would be the only one who can legitimately condemn Jacques de Molay, as monaco. The political situation of the time, however, stipulated that the King of France commanded the Papacy (which, it must be remembered, at the time was based in Avignon), and so he chose the Court of Paris, which could affect how he wanted.
For this, Jacques de Molay was tortured and he let escape a confession extorted by violence: the subsequent retraction took place because he, having hoped for a help from the Pontiff, he realized that the papacy had abandoned the Templars, and so there was no further reason to hide the truth. With the death of Molay and other Templars (some, however, were acquitted after having declared repent or escaped the fires), ended the story of the most important monastic order-medieval jousting, which had marked the life of the Christian world and the Muslim world for two centuries since then began, though, their legend, with studies and research aimed at discovering , among other things, the (alleged) that would be retained by Militia of the Temple of Solomon.
Now in Jacques de Molay is dedicated to the order of De Molay: it is an Association for women international character based on the principles of Freemasonry in the United States in 1919; the monk also were dedicated two songs: "The curse of Jacques", Grave Digger, and "Non nobis Domine", 270a.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.