MOLAY, .TacquEs DE, 1244-1314; h. Burgundy; of the families of Longvie and Raon. Nothing is known of his early life but that he was admitted to the order of knights tcmplars at Banne, in the diocese of Autun, and was promoted to be grand master about 1298. This was in the reign of Philip IV., who was endeavoring to replace the feudal system in France by a powerful monarchy, and who viewed with fear and distrust the growing influence of the knights templars, The success which had charac terized the erusades, and which bad been largely the work of this and the other tian orders, had now deserted them. Syria had again fallen a prey. to the Mohammed ans, and the•knights and hapitalers had retired to Cyprus. whence they sent forth a cry for help to the Catholic hierarchy and the Christian powers throughout Europe. But Europe was itself torn by the dissensions of petty potentates. De Molay,• however, determined to effect by strategy what he could not control by force; mut. taking advantage of the movement of the Mogul Tartars against Syria and Egypt, ingra tiated himself with the grand khan, and actually received command of one wing of his army, with which he invaded Syria in the spring of 1299. With the troops under his control he recovered Jerusalem from the infidels, and so awakened enthusiasm that a new crusade was urged upon the pope and the kings of France and England. But the unexpected success which had been achieved by Tartar aid was short-lived. In the following year the army of the grand khan was destroyed and Jerusalem again lost to the Christians. The templars returned to the island of Tortosa near rnpoli, with Jacques de Molay still at their head. They were attacked and defeated in 184 and obliged to flee to Cyprus. It was now that Philip IV. undertook to carry out the proj ect which he had formed to destroy the order whose supremacy he feared. The order was at this time powerful, well-organized—comprising most of the great nobles of Europe —and wealthy to a degree to excite the cupidity of so greedy a monarch as Philip. ln
the grasp of a mind so broad and a temperament so energetic as those of De Mohty, its possible future might well occasion dread to the ambitious and envious. With a design to impose upon the credulity of De Molay, Philip pretended to be anxious for a new crusade, and at his instigation Clement V. called the grand-masters of the templars and hospitalers to Europe. The call was answered by De Mulay, among the rest, who appeared in Paris in Aug., 1305, accompanied by a chosen band of distinguished knights of the order, and with treasure. lie made a triumphal entry into the capital, a fact which did not tend to allay the suspicions or alter the determination of the king, though he received his visitors with due hospitality. Repairing to Poictiers to render his allegiance to the pope, De Molay took the opportunity to ask an investigation of sin ister rumors which had been spread abroad by the enemies of the order. The pope, under the influence of Philip, directed that such an investigation should be undertaken; when the latter, assuming the order to be permission for active proceedings against the order, procured the arrest of every templar in France, and Oct. 13, 1307, Jacques de Yolay was seized iu the house of the temple and summoned before the inquisition. ,lthough the pope was indignant at this liberty on the part of Philip, and took action to suspend the power of the inquisition in the premises, the king persisted in his deter mination, and in May, 1310, caused 54 of the templars to be burned at the stake. De Molay was now put under examination by a papal commission, and was condemned to death.. He was dragged to the stake, loaded with fetters, " a feeble old man, bent and whitened by age and captivity," and died protesting to the end the innocence of the order—of which he was the last grand-master.