Jacques De Molay

Little is known about De Molay's early life. He was born about 1240 in France. He entered the Order of Knights Templar as a young man and was elected its twenty-second Grand Master about 1295.

De Molay inherited the leadership of an Order undergoing a period of change. The Knights Templar was a military organization that had participated in the Crusades and earned a name for valor and heroism. The Knights were sanctioned by the Catholic Church and revered by the lay population. Both ecclesiastical and secular authorities lavished the Knights with material and legal privileges. For example, the Knights' immense property was exempt from all taxation and even from church tithes. The Knights were accountable only to the Church, and popes in Rome steadfastly upheld the Order's power and prestige. The unprecedented privileges bestowed upon the Knights soon resulted in growing animosity from certain segments of the clergy and the monarchy.

By the time De Molay assumed the position of Grand Master, it was clear that the Crusades were not achieving their goals. The lives of thousands of Knights had been lost in battle in the Holy Land. The non-Chris

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d scale: "the Templars administered their property well, they were themselves persons of capacity, and they were probably far more formidable as an organized society than either their numbers or wealth might imply" (Martin, 1978, p. 25). The Templars' castles were both monasteries and cavalry-barracks. The possible danger that such an efficient and highly organized society posed to the status quo was not lost on Philip. Philip realized that his campaign against the Knights Templar had no chance of success without the full support of the papacy, but this was relatively easy to achieve. Pope Clement V was a French pope of weak character. Philip had been instrumental in securing the papal election of Clement, and the pope's indebtedness to the monarch played a role in his cooperation. Nevertheless, Clement was unwilling to risk the challenge to papal power that would occur if the prosecution of the Templars was not based on legal and theological principles. Thus Philip opted to accuse the Templars of heresy, and chose his moves carefully to make the charges stick. It was under these circumstances that De Molay was summoned to a conference with Pope Clement in 1305. Ostensibly, the purpose of the conference was to discuss
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Approximate Word count = 1733
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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