Jacques de Molay

"This was the truth de Molay died for: the Divine Right of Kings is nothing but the reflection of sunlight upon gold. When the Crown and Church are ground to dust, we who control the gold will decide the future."

―François-Thomas Germain's reflections on de Molay, 1793.^[src]^-[m]

Jacques Bernard de Molay (1244 – 1314) was the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and a Sage. As a consequence of his deliberate sacrifice during the disbandment of the Knights Templar, the Order was forced into hiding in order to survive.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Jacques de Molay was born a Sage in 1244 in Molay in the Free County of Burgundy. In 1265, de Molay was inducted into the Templar Order in Beaune. After the fall of Acre, the Order met in Cyprus in September 1291. On 20 April 1292, de Molay was elected Grand Master, leading the Templars to the height of their power.^[1] Around this time, he possessed the original Shroud of Eden, which later wound up in the hands of a fellow French Templar, Geoffroy de Charny.^[2]

In 1305, Pope Clement V asked the leaders of various military orders in Europe for their opinions on a new crusade and the merging of three main knightly orders of the Knights Hospitalier. While de Molay opposed the merge, King Philip IV of France favored it, specifically wishing to merge the orders into a force under his command.^[3]

Grand Master[]

At some point during his tenure as Grand Master, de Molay wrote the Codex Pater Intellectus, a journal detailing his thoughts on the Templars, as well as his knowledge of the Isu gained through visions of his past life as the Isu scientist Aita. With the Templars already serving as an economic power through their banking, de Molay suggested in his Codex that the Order should control humanity through finances rather than through the aristocracy and monarchy.^[4]

Even as the Templars entered a Golden Age, King Philip sought to disband the Order and claim its wealth, partly in order to erase his immense financial debts to them. In the meantime, the Assassins had begun to weaken the Templars in Europe. Philip unknowingly served the Assassins through his advisor Guillaume de Nogaret, the French Brotherhood's Mentor.^[5]

Capture[]

"The Assassins are far older than Masyaf, my friend. Their anarchic delusions are virulent as the plague, and less easily eradicated. We will not prevail this night. But if you make haste, we may yet save our Order."

―De Molay to his advisor, 1307.^[src]^-[m]

On 13 October 1307, Templars across France were arrested in a series of coordinated raids. Led by Esquieu de Floyrac and the Master Assassin Thomas de Carneillon, Assassins disguised as Flemish mercenaries also attacked the Templar headquarters at the Temple. As the attack commenced, de Molay spoke with his advisor and deduced that the Assassins were responsible.^[6]

Tragedy of Jacques de Molay 12 — King Philip's men arresting de Molay

The advisor expressed his belief that the Brotherhood had collapsed following the fall of Masyaf to the Mongol Empire decades earlier, but de Molay told him that the Assassins had not been destroyed, only driven to the shadows. Subsequently instructing the advisor to hide his Codex and the Templars' Sword of Eden, de Molay led his men into battle. While the advisor successfully hid the Codex and Sword, de Carneillon assassinated him before the man could rescue the Grand Master from being captured.^[6]

As a result of the raids, nearly every Templar in France was arrested.^[6] In 1312, Pope Clement officially dissolved the Templar Order in his papal bull Vox in excelso and all of their assets were gifted to the Knights Hospitalier.^[1]

Trial and execution[]

"Pope Clement, hear me! Before this year is out, you will answer for your crimes before God almighty. And you, King Philip, no punishment is too heinous for the great evil you have inflicted upon the Temple. I curse you! Curse you to the thirteenth generation of your blood! You shall be cursed!"

―De Molay's dying words, 1314.^[src]^-[m]

Following the Templars' arrest, de Nogaret levelled charges against them, including heresy, blasphemy, and the worship of a deity known as Baphomet. During his imprisonment, de Molay was tortured by de Nogaret, Philippe de Marigny, and William of Paris, and was forced to confess to these charges. As their Grand Master, de Molay understood that the Templars could no longer survive in a public image and decided to make the ultimate sacrifice. Before his death, he sent nine of his most trusted men—each of whom possessed vital knowledge of the Templars, the Isu, and the Assassins—out into the world to continue the Templars' work in secret.^[7]

Tragedy of Jacques de Molay 13 — De Molay cursing King Philip in his final moments

On 18 March 1314, de Molay allowed himself to be burned at the stake alongside Geoffroi de Charney. As he burned to death, he cursed Philip to the "thirteenth generation of [his] blood".^[6] By allowing himself to be executed, de Molay saved the lives of his remaining brethren and made their enemies believe that the Order had died along with him.^[7]

Legacy[]

In 1429, while in the same prison cell that had once held de Molay, the Assassin Jean de Metz told Gabriel Laxart to use his Eagle Vision to decipher de Molay's scribbles, but Laxart proved unable to do so.^[8]

In the late 18th century, de Molay's Codex would be uncovered by the silversmith and Sage François-Thomas Germain, who used de Molay's writings about controlling the world through finance rather than oligarchy to help bring about the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.^[4] Also during the Revolution, de Molay's descendant Anne murdered two descendants of his interrogators. She failed to murder the third, which resulted in the French Assassin Arno Dorian handing her over to the authorities.^[5]

De Molay was later commemorated in 1937 by the Templar Order's new public front, Abstergo Industries. An image of him was displayed prominently in a room accessible only to members of the Order's Inner Sanctum.^[7]

In 2001, researchers at the Vatican Secret Archives uncovered the Chinon Parchment written in 1308 by Pope Clement which absolved de Molay of all charges.^[1]

In 2016, while reliving the memories of his ancestor Gabriel Laxart, the Inner Sanctum member Simon Hathaway sent a record of de Molay's scribbles to Abstergo cryptologist Zachary Morgenstern for deciphering.^[8]

Trivia[]

Contrary to other known Sages, Jacques de Molay did not appear to be affected with heterochromia, though this was an oversight by the development team.^[9]
One of de Molay's real-life portraits showed his cape having a black cross though this was actually the symbol of the Teutonic Order.
According to some myths, de Molay cursed both Philip IV and Clement V. The former died when he suffered a stroke while hunting, with his family's, the House of Capet, rule over France coming to an end less than 30 years later, while Clement succumbed to a longtime illness the same year that de Molay was executed.
Alan Rikkin was of the opinion that de Molay's view of the Templars' role was idealistic and misguided, seeing his failure as proof that the Order was meant to follow a different path in the 21st century.^[10]
Jacques de Molay, along with Robert de Sablé and Armand Bouchart, is one of the only three characters in the games that historically were Templars.