MOLAY, iinVI5',.1.tcQt•Es BERNARD DE fc.1243 1314 ). The last grand master of the Templars. lie was a naive of Ircirgundv, and entered the Order of Templars in 1203, and was elected grand master in 1298. About this lime Philip IV. of France (1283-1311) undertook to carry out the project which he had formed to (lest re' the Order, chiefly because the French monarchy was in sore financial straits, and the were very wealthy. With a design to impose 'upon the credulity of Molay. Philip pretended to he :BIN jot', for a new crusade. and at his instigation Clement V. Palled the grand masters of the Tem plans and Knights of Saint John to Europe. The call was answered by Molay, who appeared in France in the fall of 1300, accompanied by a chosen band of distinguished knights of the Order. Ile repaired to Poitiers in 1307 to ren der his allegiance to the Pope, but nothing'was mentioned about investigating the affairs of the Order. Soon after Philip himself api)e:Ired before Clement and preferred charges, demand ing the dissolution of the Order. The Pope, under the influence of Philip—fmr this was the beginning of the French or Avignon Papacy— directed that an investigation should be under taken. The King, however, did not await the
proceedings of the Pope against the Order, hut procured the arrest of every Templar in France, and on October 13, 1307, Jacques de Molay was seized in the house of the Temple and taken be fore special commissioners of the Inquisition. Although the Pope was imlignant at this pre sumption on the part of Philip. and suspended the power of the Inquisition in the premises, the King finally compelled him to take part in the action. .Molay was examined by a Papal emit Mission and confessed the truth of some of the charges under torture, and on March 11, 1314, he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment. Be, however, immediately retracted all he had said, and thereupon was burnt the same evening, protesting the innocence of the Order. Consult: Prutz, Entivicklung and Interyang des Tempel kerrenordens (Berlin, ISSS) : Lea, History of the Inquisition, vol. iii. (Philadelphia, 1888). See TEMPLARS, KNIGHTS.