For everyone and about everything. Jacques de Molay and other most glorious knights in history Year of the burning of Jacques de Molay

Youth

As a master

At the same time, in anticipation of a great crusade, Jacques de Molay was trying to regain the lost positions of the order in the Holy Land. To this end, in 1301, the Templars captured the island of Arvad (Ruad), located not far from the Syrian coast. However, they could not keep him and in 1302 Arvad was surrendered to the Saracens.

The failures of the order contributed to the growing criticism of him. Back in 1274, for the first time, the question arose of uniting the two leading military monastic orders - the Temple and the Hospital. In 1305, Pope Clement again proposed to unite the orders. In his letter to Clement Mole criticized this proposal.

During his second visit to Europe, Molay learned about the intrigues of King Philip IV of France against the Templars. The master's unrestrained rigidity may have spelled the sad end of his order. In the autumn of 1307, the trial against the Templars began.

On process

Historians' estimates

The personality of the last master of the Knights Templar has not received an unequivocal assessment of historians. Marie-Louise Bulst-Thiele believes that Jacques de Molay was an ambitious person, but he did not enjoy the confidence of his predecessor and the convention of the order. . Malcolm Barber believes that the decision to elect Mole to the post of master of the order was unfortunate. “He found himself in conditions that he did not understand ... He could never realize that, together with his order, he had become an anachronism in a changing world,” writes the historian. Alain Demurger is more loyal to the master. He believes that he should by no means be considered narrow-minded or stupid. Moreover, according to the historian, it was difficult to find a better candidate for the post of master than Mole. However, he failed to reform the order. His resistance to unification with the Order of the Hospitallers may have been one of the prerequisites for the dissolution of the Knights Templar.

legends

Notes

Bibliography

Barber M. James of Molay, the Last Grand Master of the Order of the Temple // Studia Monastica 14 (1972).
Barber M. James of Molay // The Crusades. An Encyclopedia / Ed. A. V. Murray. Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
Bulst-Thiele M.-L. Sacrae Domus Militiae Templi Hierosolymitani Magistri: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Templerordens, 1118/9-1314. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1974.
Demurger A. Jacques de Molay: Le crépuscule des Templiers. Paris: Payot et Rivages, 2007.
Demurger A. The Last Templar: The Tragedy of Jacques de Molay, Last Grand Master of the Temple. London: Profile, 2004.
Menache S. The Last Master of the Temple: James of Molay // Knighthoods of Christ: Essays on the History of the Crusades and the Knights Templar/ Ed. Housley N. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007.
E. Zharinov. Great prophets. Master Jacques de Molay. M.: AST, 1999

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See what "Jacques de Molay" is in other dictionaries:

- (fr. Molay or fr. Molé) French surname. Jacques de Molay (1244 5/1249 50 1314) twenty-sixth and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Mathieu Mole (1584 1656) French statesman of the 17th century Louis Mole (1781 1855) ... ... Wikipedia

Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Mole. Jacques de Molay fr. Jacques de Molay ... Wikipedia

Knight of the Teutonic Order (the Templars have a red cross) Jacques de Molay (fr. Jacques de Molay; 1244 5/1249 50 March 18, 1314) the twenty-third and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Contents 1 Youth ... Wikipedia

Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Mole. Louis Mathieu Mole Louis Mathieu Mole ... Wikipedia

The heavy door slammed, interrupting Jacques de Molay's thoughts for a moment. But after a moment, the prisoner again plunged into a blissful state of peace and tranquility. The messenger, whom he had been waiting for so long, appeared before the Grand Master and assured him that all instructions had been carried out and the work of the Order would be continued. Pain and anxiety, which had not let go of the old Templar's heart for six long years of imprisonment, gave way to great gratitude. “It has happened, Lord…” In a few days, he will renounce all words against the Order, restore its holiness and purity, and on March 18, 1314, he will ascend the fire.

A few more days - such a small thing for someone who has not lost hope for six long years - and he will become truly free. Lord, with what a light soul he will leave this world! And now? Is there anything now that can limit his freedom?!

Jacques de Molay turned slowly to the east and closed his eyes. Feeling no pain in his senile joints and tortured legs, he knelt down on the cold stone floor. “Arise, shine, Jerusalem, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has ascended over you” - only the diligent scriptor who recorded every sound in this chamber could hear, for the rest was already uttered not by physical lips.

The Grand Master of the Order of the Temple prayed. With all the strength of his soul, he offered gratitude to the One for whom he lived, whom he served all his conscious life. He never asked for miracles, but hasn't a miracle happened now? The torch of the order mission, as predicted, did not go out, but was handed over to reliable hands, and there is no need to worry: the work will be continued. Elsewhere, but with the same symbols; that's exactly what he was told.

“The Lord will shine upon you, and His glory will appear upon you. And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness that rises above you ... "

Jacques de Molay prayed, and the surrounding reality gradually dissolved into bright images dear to his heart. They did not have the usual rigor and clarity; for the first time in his life, the stern knight, initiated into the mysteries of primitive Christianity, gave full vent to the love that pressed his chest.

Here he is kneeling before Saint Bernard. They are separated by two centuries. Does it matter now? All his life he dreamed of kneeling before the man who gave the Order the dream of a Temple. About the Temple, the decoration of which is "in the religious enthusiasm of its inhabitants", in which "one can bow before all kinds of virtue and good deeds." Saint Bernard, that great confessor, knew that the restoration of the Temple on earth would require a New Chivalry, miraculously combining monastic and knightly virtues. How many times, before being accepted into the Order, did Jacques de Molay reflect on his words: “If someone strongly resists the enemy in the flesh, relying only on the strength of the flesh, I can hardly note this, for there are many examples of this. Also, when someone fights demons and vices with spiritual strength alone; there is nothing surprising in this, although it deserves praise, for the world is full of monks. But when you see a man courageously girding himself with both of these swords, who does not consider this worthy of all surprise, especially since this has not happened before!

Every knight in the Order, in the very depths of his soul, dreamed of being trained under the auspices of Bernard - or anyone else, but in his spirit. According to the teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux, in order to distinguish where dark forces are hiding and not punish the innocent, the knight must first defeat the demons in himself, affirming himself in chastity, poverty, obedience, prayer and fasting. The Grand Master experienced for himself what this means, and more than once dissuaded hot young men from recklessness in choosing the knightly path, because they still did not know their true strength.

“Receive, Lord, all my freedom. Take my memory, mind and will. Everything that I have or have at my disposal, everything is given to me by You, and therefore I commit everything to Your full disposal, ”the lips repeated the words with which the training began.

Jacques de Molay, who until the last hour remained a simple warrior of Christ, suddenly remembered how more than forty years ago he had been consecrated as brother-knights by Amber de Pero, the general caretaker of Auden. Then the newly initiated first heard the words of this prayer, then for the first time their hidden meaning was explained to him, which became clear only many years later. His spiritual mentor, whose name he had no right to pass on to anyone, spoke of the acquisition of divine grace and the free choice of man. He explained to the neophyte, who was destined to become the 23rd, the last Grand Master of the Templars, how to find a source of strength and piety that will not dry up forever. Did he then know how his disciple Jacques de Molay would thank him and pray for his salvation? According to the teachings of the Templars, the physical nature of man is limited and mortal. Only being overshadowed by divine grace, can his soul blossom and bear truly beautiful fruits.

Self-confidence in the Order was condemned, but a simple reliance on the Lord, which paralyzes the free will of a knight, was considered an even greater mistake. No, the Kingdom of Heaven is being taken by storm!.. Familiar lines surfaced before the mind's eye of Jacques de Molay, and he could not help smiling: he should have called himself "poor and illiterate" at the trial. An illiterate Grand Master… But the words of St. Bernard were already in my head: “Take away free choice, and there will be nothing by which we are saved; take away grace, and that which is the cause of salvation will not be. The work of salvation cannot be accomplished without either one or the other: firstly, without that by which it is accomplished, and secondly, without that by which it is accomplished. Yes, this is exactly how the Templar, wearing a white cloak, should have thought of himself - a clean vessel, ready to contain and fulfill His will. A true warrior, ready to fight the demons for the desired purity. It is no coincidence that al-Harawi warned Saladin in his treatise On Military Cunning that the Knights of the Temple should be especially feared, "for these monks are obsessed in their religious zeal and do not pay attention to what is happening in the rest of the world."

Jacques de Molay smiled again and remembered the first years in the Order. The discipline was so severe and the day was so tightly scheduled that not only "the rest of the world" - there was no way to pay attention to yourself. “Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come ... ”- 13 times before matins in honor of the Virgin Mary and 13 times in honor of the saint to whom the day is dedicated, it is necessary to read “Our Father”. Then two liturgies and a midday service, at which the Templar is required to attend. Before eating, "Our Father" 30 times for the living and the same number for the dead and the dead. Then Supper and Compline… And do not forget to repeat “Our Father” 13 or 18 times during every hour of the day… He remembered how slowly, year after year, in his soul, severe religious obedience was transformed into a bright prayerful Anticipation.

“Not to us, Lord, not to us, but all for the glory of Your name!”

For the glory of Your name, O Lord, the pilgrims who seek You and sincerely strive to find Your light in Jerusalem were guarded. To the glory of Your name, roads were built and ships sailed far to the West. Your name was searched for in ancient manuscripts, bought in the East, in order to imprint it forever in stained-glass windows and statues of cathedrals. For the glory of Your name, 20,000 knights died in the Holy Land, but, Lord, they were the happiest of Christians, for they lived for Your glory! They were happy with the unearthly happiness of Communion, which can only be experienced in Your House, in the Temple, but wasn’t its revival the mission of the Templars - the Order of the Temple? .. “Solomon ... built Him a house,” the Scripture says. “But the Almighty does not live in man-made temples!” Not many, as commanded, were able to realize the greatness of this mission.

The face of the Grand Master became gloomy and severe; for a moment, his physical senses returned, and the pain again shackled his body. He remembered the whole farce of the trial, in which some people far from righteousness testified, while others made accusations. How much has been said about the body of the Order and not a single word about its Soul! Yes, the body of the Order, its physical shell, was not perfect. Like any body, it hurt and got tired, but this had no effect on the purity of the Soul of the Order, on faith, on the ideals that the knights zealously served and for which the knights died! Renouncing crucifixion during initiation (and this became the main accusation against the Order), the Templars rejected the principle of idolatry (God is not enclosed in a piece of wood; He cannot be a prisoner at all), striving to revive the purity of faith, purity of heart.

“Merciful God, I now sacrifice all my merits for the redemption of poor souls. And everything that after my death will be given and sacrificed for me, I entrust to You in advance ... "

Before the inner eye of Jacques de Molay, one after another, there were images of knights who were innocently executed or died under torture during the process. Soon, very soon, he will be as close to them as never before, and now all the flame of his heart rushed to one desire - to alleviate their posthumous fate and atone for their guilt before them. After all, whoever was right or wrong, he was the only one who took full responsibility for the fate of each of the knights, he was responsible for them before the Almighty. In the heart of the Templar, in a sacred alchemical union, great pain for the brothers and great love for them and their common Father were combined. His heart was exhausted, burning, burning with an immaterial fire, burning him from the inside and making him closer to God than ever. He knew this fire, as all the hierarchs of the Order knew it, who forever imprinted the image of a flaming heart on the wall in the cell of Chinon Castle, where they were temporarily kept. It was one of the secrets of the Order...

“Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come. May your will be done both on earth and in heaven... - repeated the dry lips of the Grand Master. - May Your Temple be reborn in the hearts of your sons, current and future knights. For we do not seek kingdoms from this world, but the human heart is Your true Temple. The heart is a small vessel, says St. Macarius of Egypt, but all things are contained in it - there is God, there are Angels, there is life and the Kingdom, there are treasures of grace. And if one can call it great happiness to carry divine grace in the human heart, then how can one sing the happiness of thousands of hearts that have acquired grace and sound in unison?! “It can be said that many have one heart and one soul,” St. Bernard wrote about the Templars. “And this heart and soul is more than human,” Jacques de Molay mentally added. After all, it was not luck, but an invisible Presence that patronized the Templars in battles and endowed them with superhuman courage that frightened the Saracens. Not money and knowledge, but divinely inspired craftsmanship made it possible to create a miracle of Gothic. Truly, the Temple was rebuilt on earth by the Knights of the Temple, reborn in its original meaning as the house of God, as His abode. For almost two centuries, faithful knights guarded the path of pilgrims to the Temple...

But now Your Temple is destroyed, O Lord, and You only know the new dates for its restoration. And may Your will be done, and may the time come when the battle cry of the Templars “Long live God, Holy Love!” will sound again over the earth. Then the path of the knights to the doors of this Temple will be difficult and thorny, for it goes through the human heart. To the glory of Your name, out of great love for Heavenly Jerusalem, the Templars rediscovered this path, the path of love and compassion. On this path, great is that pilgrim who will be able to humble himself and wash the feet of the most unfortunate, loving him as You have loved us. Truly, as John said, "there is no greater love than that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Your Temple has been destroyed, O Lord, but in the future new knights will be found who are ready to go on a sacred campaign in order to restore Your Temple!

Above the heavens, God, arise
Spread Your glory over the earth!
God, my heart is ready
My heart is ready!

to the magazine "Man Without Borders"

uncrowned king
Jacques de Molay is a figure out of the ordinary, his bright life and martyrdom served as an occasion for the mythologization of chivalry, and he himself became the prototype of a fighter against the church and royalty, inspiring many generations of revolutionaries and atheists of all stripes. Being a victim of the political inquisitorial process, the Grand Master himself was by no means a sinless person, and his activities at the head of the Knights Templar threatened to destroy the foundations of the Christian world as early as the 14th century. King Philip the Handsome and Pope Clement V had every reason to see Jacques de Molay as the most dangerous competitor.

Horoscope of Jacques de Molay

Jacques de Molay

Let's start with what the Order of the Templars was for medieval Europe, and why its continued existence threatened not only the French crown, but the entire Western European world, the civilizational foundations of which were based on ideas about the sacred origin of royal power. As long as the king and the pope were the vicars of God on earth, the union of spiritual and temporal power guaranteed the progressive development of European society in line with the Christian worldview. But already in the 15th century, irreversible changes for the worse took place - the foundations of the foundations of the Gothic civilization shuddered. The times of the Renaissance became the prologue of a new chapter in the life of Christian Europe, painted in crimson color of unrest and fratricidal Huguenot and Hussite wars. Royal, as well as papal power, were doomed, but their fall was delayed by the abolition of the powerful supranational union of the Templars - an organization whose political resource made it possible to call the order the very first International. Nevertheless, the seeds of the God-fighting ideas sown by the Templars sprouted during the Enlightenment, and real fruits only in the 20th century, the bloody history of which goes back to the dark times of the Middle Ages.
The struggle between God and the devil has become the main leitmotif of the two-thousand-year history of Christianity, which some researchers rightly divide into two equal periods, one of which belongs to Christ, and the other to Antichrist. The appearance on the border of the 1st and 2nd millennia in the historical arena of numerous sects and heresies became the basis for the future emergence of secret societies: the Illuminati, Masons, Rosicrucians, etc., which completed the work of overthrowing the power of Christianity begun by the Templars. The Order of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon was one of the most effective mechanisms for the dissemination of Eastern occult teachings in Western Europe, and in the first place, the Jewish Kabbalah. Like everything new, hidden and incomprehensible, occultism, coupled with Kabbalistic astrology, attracted a huge number of new adherents to the order. The knowledge promised to neophytes could not be obtained outside the circle of knights, which became an ideal environment for the birth of the religion of Lucifer.

Baphomet

The Templars, as it turned out, worshiped a certain Baphomet - a strange monster with a goat's head, which seemed to the knights of the 13th century something very mysterious, exotic and deeply symbolic. In all occult publications, between the goat-legged Baphomet, embodying (strange as it may seem) the idea of astral light, and the eternal enemy of God, a sign of identity is placed. Obviously, the Templars and their successors had grounds for such analogies, because the very name of Lucifer is translated as “carrying light”.

(Here is an excerpt from the speech of the founder of the Ku Klus Klan, the sovereign - the grand master of the "SENIOR AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH CIRCLE OF FREEMASONS" Albert Pike, delivered on April 7, 1889, before the 32nd degree of the "Scottish Circle": "We honor God, but this - a god worshiped without prejudice. The religion of the Freemasons is called first of all to bring to us all initiates of the highest degrees in the purity of the Luciferian teaching. As the old law says: there is no light without shadow, there is no beauty without ugliness, and there is no white without black; therefore, the Absolute can exist only in two gods... That is why the teaching of Satanism is a heresy.And a truly pure, truly philosophical religion is faith in Lucifer, the god of light, equal to Adonai (Christ).But Lucifer, the god of light and goodness, is fighting for humanity against Adonai, the god darkness and cruelty.)

There is not the slightest doubt about the anti-Christian essence of the teachings of the Templars, who called themselves the knights of Solomon's temple.

The name of the Knights Templar comes from the French tample (“temple”), but has nothing to do with Christianity, since it means the Jewish temple of Solomon, on the ruins of which the residence of the knightly order in Jerusalem was built. The legend of the ritual murder of the chief builder of the temple, Hiram Abif, formed the basis of the mythologized ceremony of initiation into members of the Masonic lodge.

The ritual and ceremonial of the Knights Templar were adopted by the mystical secret societies that came to replace them: the Scottish Rite Masonic lodges, the Illuminati and other champions of occult doctrines persecuted by the Christian church.
For several centuries, Catholicism, with the help of the Dominican order, whose monks called themselves "the dogs of the Lord," relatively successfully resisted numerous heresies that sought to split the body of the Christian religion from the inside. At the same time, the number of innocent victims of the Inquisition grew exponentially, which could not but arouse the natural desire of ordinary believers to get rid of the constant fear for their lives. The need to reform the church has matured by itself, and the emergence of Protestantism from a historical point of view looks like something quite natural. But the internal struggle within the whole organism, which can be considered the Catholic church

When the severed head of the last Capet, King Louis XVI, fell into a basket substituted for her, a mysterious man announced to the crowd that Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order of the Templars defeated more than four hundred years ago, was finally avenged.

Non nobis, Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam
Not to us, Lord, not to us, but for the greater glory of Your name (lat.)
Motto of the Knights Templar

The Grand Master of the Knights of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, and the Commander of Normandy, Godefroy de Charnay, were burned alive on the Reed Island of the Seine on March 18, 1314. King Philip IV the Handsome watched the execution from the summer garden of his palace, celebrating his victory - with his royal will, he managed to destroy the greatest spiritual and knightly order, whose commanderships covered all of Catholic Europe. No one paid attention to the curse that the temple engulfed in flames threw in the face of the king. about penetrated, it is common for a heretic writhing in the fire to curse his tormentor. Jacques de Molay predicted a quick death for Philip IV the Handsome and Pope Clement V, and at the same time an unenviable lot for the royal descendants.

“Not even a year will pass before I call you to the Judgment of God! I curse you! A curse on your family up to the thirteenth generation! ”He shouted, testifies the French chronicler, a contemporary of those events, Godefroy of Paris.

Jacques de Molay painting by Francois Reshard, 1806

But very soon the last words of the Grand Master were remembered. The pontiff died a painful death from inflammation of the intestines already on April 20 of the same year, and on November 29 from paralysis after falling from a horse, he gave his soul and king to God. The rest of the participants in the conspiracy against the Templars also suffered an unenviable fate: some were prepared for a dagger in the gateway, while others were waiting for the gallows. The three sons of Philip IV, one after another succeeding each other on their father's throne, ruled mediocre and not for long - in 1328, Charles IV the Handsome died without leaving heirs, being the last representative of the older Capetian dynasty. The throne was inherited by the younger branches of the Hugh Capet family - first the Valois, and then the Bourbons. The last Bourbon to have the right to the French throne, Louis XVI, was executed on the guillotine on January 21, 1893 as "citizen Louis Capet".

The execution of Louis XVI some associate
with the curse of the last Grand Master of the Templars

According to the official version, the Order of the Templars was defeated because of heresy - the templars were accused of worshiping a certain Baphomet, an idol about which nothing is really known so far. Many historians, referring to violations in the trial and inconsistencies in the testimony of witnesses and scammers, argue that heresy was just a far-fetched pretext for action, and they see the reason in the colossal influence of the Templars, which did not suit Philip IV and threatened the authority of Clement V.

The Knights of the Temple did not hide their dissatisfaction with the policies of the Pope, under which the sale and purchase of church positions and sacred relics flourished. It is noteworthy that Dante, in his Divine Comedy, placed Clement V in the eighth circle of hell as a holy merchant. Yes, and the heresy of the templars could not be fully proved, and the burning of Jacques de Molay and Godefroy de Charnay was an auto-da-fé only in form, but not in content - the clergy did not hand them over to secular authorities for a death sentence - this was the initiative of Philip VI .

Pope Clement V

By the time of the defeat, the Order of the Templars, founded in 1119 in Jerusalem by nine knights led by Hugh de Peyen, numbered, according to various sources, from 15 thousand to 30 thousand knights, sergeants, militias and laborers. The brotherhood, founded as "poor knights", quickly turned into the richest military organization, in whose hands huge funds were concentrated, and which owned the richest lands. The former covenants were mainly adhered to by the monk-knights, who formed the backbone of the order and determined its policy. The lay knights, on the other hand, enjoyed the wealth and influence of the order with might and main (this is the type of templars shown in Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe" in the image of the main negative character Brian de Boisguillebert). The only reminder of the former poverty of the brotherhood was the seal, which depicted two riders on one horse. Being both a secular and spiritual organization, subordinate only to the Pope, by the beginning of the XIV century, the order had become "the largest creditor in Europe." Among his debtors was Philip IV...

The seal of the Templars served as a reminder that
that the first two brothers had only one horse

How could it happen that such a powerful organization was crushed overnight? First, the Templars were opposed by the Pope himself and the strongest monarch in Europe, who, for various reasons, were joined by less influential politicians. Secondly, the charter of the order forbade the Templars to raise a sword against fellow believers, if there is no direct threat to life - prison did not mean death. Thirdly, the templars considered the accusations ridiculous and hoped for the intercession of Clement V, but Philip IV the Handsome actually put him at the head of the Church, and the Pope turned a blind eye to the actions of the French king. Fourthly, not all members of the order were captured - it was physically impossible to do this, also because the Templars had quite influential patrons. Many French Templars simply disappeared.

“In Spain, there were orders of monk-knights modeled after the Temple: Calatrava, Alcantara, Santiago the Sword-bearer. When the Order of the Temple was abolished, the Templars were allowed to join these orders ... In Portugal, the Order of the Temple was simply transformed into the Order of Christ, which, along with the white cloak, retained the Templar cross, under which the great navigators would open the world ... In Germany they could not even be arrested, not to interrogate. At various regional councils they were fully justified,” writes the French historian Louis Charpentier.

In the painting by Alfredo Gameiro Roque "Departure of Vasco da Gama to India"
on the sails of the traveler's ships are clearly visible
Crane crosses of the Knights Templar

Be that as it may, the Knights Templar ceased to exist at the beginning of the XIV century, but still remains the most famous and mysterious knightly brotherhood. Its history is closely connected with the legend of the Grail. Some researchers are sure that the first nine brothers were able to acquire some secret knowledge in the cellars of the Temple of the Lord (in particular, they are called the Tables of the Law), which allowed the Templars not only to rise, but also to give a powerful impetus to the development of the entire Western civilization. In particular, it was the templars who laid the foundations of banking. They came up with receipts that allowed money to be deposited in one place and received in another. This made it possible for Europeans to move between cities without fear for the safety of their wealth.

In addition, the rise of the Templars coincided with the building boom in the West - the greatest works of European architecture were created during the existence of the order. The templars themselves built dozens of abbeys and temples, notable for their unusual Gothic architecture. In addition, it is believed that they financed the construction of many cathedrals, including Chartres. Allegedly, the construction of such structures was the result of the acquisition by the templars of the divine laws of numbers, weights and measures. The most interesting thing is that after the disappearance of the order, the mass construction of structures of similar magnitude ceased. This gives reason to associate the Templars with Freemasons - Freemasons.

Chartres Cathedral has survived from the end of the 13th century to the present day almost untouched:
it has never been restored or rebuilt

Many believe that the surviving Templars preserved the divine knowledge received in the Holy Land and passed it on to adherents of various secret societies. There is no direct evidence for this, but such rumors have become fertile ground for various kinds of hypotheses and speculation. For example, some classify Joan of Arc as a Templar, although the entry of women into the brotherhood is expressly prohibited by the charter of the templars, which was developed by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Others insist that the Templars were heretics and associated with the devil, and their activities were destructive, not constructive. Accordingly, the surviving descendants and successors of the Templars continue to intrigue humanity.

In modern mass culture, a rather negative image of the templars has developed, as greedy for profit, arrogant arrogant people who justly paid for their sins. Be that as it may, there are still people who are trying to find the treasures of the Templars, whether it be divine knowledge or gold and precious stones hidden by the Knights of the Temple in their hiding places.

Undoubtedly he was a man of character, proud, sometimes arrogant, but never swaggering; no doubt it was not always easy with him, he knew how to be implacable when it came to protecting the interests of his order. He acknowledged that in certain circumstances the Templars could certainly act intemperately towards the white clergy in defense of their rights. Of course, he considered himself one of them. He was unshakable in his idea of his order and its mission: it is an independent order that is under the tutelage of the pope only, and its task is to defend Cyprus and recapture the Holy Land.

This man was so inexorable and constant in thoughts and goals that he seemed stubborn, but he was neither limited nor stupid. He believed in the crusade; he believed in the possibility of recapturing Jerusalem. But no matter what they say here and there, by 1300 the ideal of the crusade had not yet died. Jerusalem did not become the dream of groundless visionaries. And Jacques de Molay had practical experience. He knew what he wanted, but was open to discussion. He knew how to negotiate, was not deprived of diplomatic and even pedagogical talents, as his relationship with the king of Aragon showed: in the case of Cardona in 1302, as in the case of the appointment of Exemen de Lenda as master of Aragon, he managed to resolve delicate situations and defend his point of view without touching the king and being able to make the necessary concessions.

He was supposedly hot-tempered, according to the testimony of the (only) Tyrian Templar, and so much so that he raged fiercely at the French king and pope. The circumstances of this incident are known (an enormous loan given to the king by the Parisian treasurer), but doubtful; it is not clear at what particular moment of the second trip to Western Europe this incident could have occurred. Be that as it may, this bears little resemblance to both his usual manners and his behavior in relations with monarchs and with Pope Boniface VIII. His relationship with Pope Clement V did not appear to be particularly cordial, but he is not known to have ever lost his temper; the tone of both memos addressed to the pope by him is respectful. His relations with Edward I, Jaime II, Charles II were cordial. With Philip the Handsome, they look more restrained, but does the lack of documents distort the picture (in contrast to relations with the pope, especially with Jaime II and, to a lesser extent, with Edward I)? They completely disagreed on the issue of uniting the orders, but this is not a reason for furious anger. By the way, it is known that in June 1307 the Grand Master spoke to the king about the problem of the charges brought against the order; again, there are no reports of outbursts of anger. However, Philip the Handsome did not provoke outbursts of anger: he listened, often without saying a word, but shook his head. His interlocutors were listened to, and they could get the impression that they were understood.

Naturally, Jacques de Molay had weaknesses, shortcomings: firmness and constancy in views are virtues, but stubborn adherence to them quickly becomes a drawback. Let me remind you in this connection of the question of the unification of orders. Both memoirs compiled by him, on the crusade and especially on the unification of the orders, although sometimes they reveal a fair amount of common sense, also reflect political short-sightedness. The Grand Master also showed a little naive complacency; there were also some weaknesses, quite human!

The personality of Jacques de Molay can be seen more clearly and from a different angle - the relationship that he maintained within the order with brothers, dignitaries or simple Templars. Again, one must look carefully through the prism of sources, it creates deformations: on the one hand, this is numerous information, most often gleaned from letters, on the states of the Aragonese crown and almost nothing more; on the other hand, data from the interrogation protocols of the trial, in which objectivity is not the main advantage.

Jacques de Molay managed to establish friendly relations with the members of the order and showed hospitality to all, whether Templars or not, who visited him in Cyprus. The letters he exchanged with the Catalan Templar Pedro de San Justo are letters from two friends. Pedro de San Justo served as commander of Corbins, Mallorca, Ambel, Alfambra and finally Peñiscola (he owed the last appointment to the Grand Master). In the corpus of letters written by Jacques de Molay, five are addressed to him; there are also letters from Pedro de San Justo sent to the Grand Master. Sometimes these letters were sent purely for personal purposes - for example, to inquire about the health of the correspondent. As a letter dated November 1, 1300:

Know that we have received your kind letters through the holder, from which we learned that you are in good health, and we are very pleased. Since you wish to know what state we are in, you will be able to learn about this state and the news of our land [Cyprus] through people who are sent to your country.

In another letter, Pedro de San Justo instructs the Grand Master to order prayers for a Catalan brother, Dalmau de Roccabert, who may have been captured by the infidels or ill. Jacques de Molay thanks him in return.

The tone of correspondence with other Catalan or Aragonese correspondents - Arnaud de Bagyuls, Berenguer Gvamir, Berenguer de Cardona - is just as friendly, even if there is not so obvious friendly relations here as with Pedro de San Justo. Jacques de Molay was loyal to his friends and kept his promises. He defended Berenguer de Cardona, whose resignation in 1302 was sought by the King of Aragon, but he lamented the refusal of Cardona to satisfy the requests of the master, who wanted to reward loyal Templars, like Bernardo de Tamari or Pedro de Castillon, that is, to give them commanderships in Catalonia or Aragon.

In Cyprus, Jacques de Molay warmly welcomed guests from Europe: Raymond Lull was received with great joy (hylariter), as the editor of his Uya soelanda writes; Berenguer de Cardona, twice, in 1300-1301. and in 1306, who traveled to Cyprus, tells that he was met by the Grand Master, who was preparing to leave for the West, and spent three days in his company, which gave him great pleasure.

In his principles of leadership of the order, Jacques de Molay was not an autocrat, did not deviate from the statutes, ruled with the help of the chapter, and in his mastery there was not even a trace of conflict with the latter, not like in the Order of the Hospital under Guillaume de Villars at the same time. During his two trips to the West, he held provincial and general chapters. He ruled the order with people he trusted and who trusted him; with people whom he knew well, whom he met and communicated with in the East and in Cyprus; with people born in his region, in the county of Burgundy, but also with natives of other places, especially the states of the Aragonese crown. Was it a choice dictated by political imperatives, preferring an alliance with Aragon over an alliance with France? Possibly, but again the Catalans and Aragonese are better known to us, because their names appear more often in the rich documentation preserved in Barcelona. Here, from documents that are closer to the realities of everyday life of the Templars of the region, it is easier to feel the atmosphere of trust and friendship that I described above. But nothing says that there were other relations with the Templars of France, England or Italy. Beware of Argument a silentio[from default (lat.)].

In general, no discord between Jacques de Molay and the dignitaries of the order is known. Perhaps there were some disagreements with Hugh de Pero, but they can be guessed rather than clearly seen from the sources. Having made the reservation that the latter are incomplete, it can be argued that the authority of Jacques de Molay in the order was not disputed during his entire master's degree. What cannot be said about the masters of the Order of the Hospital, who were his contemporaries - Ed de Pene, Guillaume de Villars and Fulk de Villars (the latter was removed after a short time).

In the interrogation protocols, some information can be gleaned about how the Templars perceived their Grand Master. Templars and witnesses from Cyprus, not Templars, speak positively about the faith and piety of the master. According to Jean de Bey, a lay knight, royal viscount of Nicosia, the Templars believed in the sacraments. As evidence, he cited the fact that “often saw how the master and brothers of the order in Nicosia, in the church of the Order of the Temple, devoutly listen to mass and prayers and devoutly take communion, like any other good Christian.” Another knight, Balian de Saxon (actually de Soissons), testifies in the same vein, with particular reference to Jacques de Molay. The manifestations of mercy on the part of Jacques de Molay are especially emphasized by Etienne Cahors, a cleric from Nicosia, who saw how “the master of the Temple at the gate of the Temple house in Nicosia distributes numerous alms in money to the poor who were near the gate”; he confirms the testimonies of the Templars themselves, for example, brother Pierre de Banetia, who said that the master himself did mercy and did it every week in the house of the Temple.

So the witnesses answered the question of the commission regarding the practice of mercy and hospitality in the order. The members of the commission at the same time asked three other questions concerning the Grand Master personally: the first was whether he gave absolution of sins, while, being a layman, he had no right to do so. It is known that he talked on this subject with Philip the Handsome, confessing that he sometimes did this; The interrogated brothers basically answered this question in the negative. The second question concerned the power he, along with his "monastery", had in the order; the answers were the same - yes, the orders that he gave, he and his monastery obeyed; but many of the interrogated Templars saw in this almost absolute obedience to the master the reason for the persistence in the order of the errors for which he was reproached. Witnesses were also asked if they knew that the Grand Master had admitted the errors of which the Order was accused. The answers to this question before the papal commission in Paris were generally positive: delusions persisted in the order for a long time, because this was allowed by the Grand Master and other dignitaries and commanders, which caused a scandal; on the other hand, some witnesses gave evidence of this kind: "he heard that the Grand Master and others confessed to errors, but he does not know what."

Of course, these are the answers of the Templars interrogated in Paris after 54 of them were sent to the stake, but this does not in the least detract from the truth of the fact that the master did make some confessions. However, in Cyprus, the interrogated Templars did not want to believe this, and in Elna, where the Templars utterly denied all accusations, Pierre Bleda, a Templar from Mas Deu in Roussillon, energetically expressed an opinion widely supported by fellow prisoners: “If the Grand Master of the Order of the Temple did confessions that are attributed to him, I, for my part, will never believe it, he lied with his throat and distorted everything.

But before the fateful date of May 12, 1310, when 54 Parisian Templars were put to the stake and the resistance of those who wanted to protect the order was broken, a different tone sounded in the testimony and testimonies. First of all, the Templars felt freer in their speeches, and some could afford less conventional remarks about the Grand Master. From the evidence collected from February to May 1310 in Paris, it follows that the Templars generally trusted their Grand Master. This was clearly seen when the question arose of appointing commissioners to protect the order.

The Pontifical Commission allowed the Templars in the various prisons where they were held to consult, so that they could develop a common point of view on this issue and appoint a commissioner from each place of detention. Peter of Bologna and Renaud of Provins, both chaplains who, together with the two knights, will eventually become commissioners of the order, first of all asked on March 28 whether the commissioner or commissioners would be appointed by the Grand Master, "to whom we all obey"; another declared that he relied on the Grand Master for the protection of the order; the Templars held in the house of the Prior Cournet, 21 people, said that "they have a head and chiefs, that is, the Grand Master of their order, to whom they owe obedience", but nevertheless expressed their readiness to defend the order if the Grand Master does not do this . There are many more such references. In conclusion, we quote three statements. Those who were kept in the house of Jean Rossel asked, before making a decision on the appointment of commissioners, the opportunity to "see the master of the Temple and brother Hugh de Perot, commander of France, and all worthy people, brothers of the Temple, in order to consult ...". The Templars held in Saint-Martin-des-Champs (there were thirteen of them) stated that "they have a head to whom they are subject" and that they "believe that their Grand Master is good, just, honest, faithful and pure from the delusions of which he is accused. Count Friedrich of Mainz, Commander of the Temple in the Rhineland, spent more than twelve years overseas. He lived for a long time next to the Grand Master, was his colleague and returned to the West together with him. "He always behaved and still behaves like a good Christian - as good as it is possible to be."

From these contradictory (in particular, because they reflect the situation at different times and in different places) evidence, it follows that the Templars, at one time or another admitting delusions, as a rule, did not personally accuse Jacques de Molay - even those who, while giving testimony, more or less stubbornly concealed some of the customs of the order. When Templar interrogators were asked when these dubious customs were introduced into the order, few gave a clear answer. In many ways, confused, they mentioned one or another great master, God, Berar, Mole himself, but this is rare. Most often, the Templars unofficially blamed the order itself for this, or, more precisely, what I would call the system.

However, this does not relieve Jacques de Molay of responsibility, and with this question I would like to end the book.

Responsibility of Jacques de Molay

Mole was unable to save his order. Did he have such an opportunity? Not a fact, but it cannot be ruled out. Jacques de Molay, during his tenure as Master of the Order of the Temple, had to face challenges and make choices; sometimes he made a good choice, sometimes - less successful and even bad.

The choice of an alliance with the Mongols was the right one. Many historians are not specialists in the crusades and military monastic orders, and in fact the few studies and publications of recent years made by Anglo-Saxon and Israeli historians still mechanically repeat that in 1291 everything was over, the crusades lost their meaning, the order The temple (it is curious that only he) was no longer needed; at the same time, they add that the Templars, for the most part, returned to Europe with their rude soldierly manners - they drank (like the Templars), did not hesitate to kiss men and women on the lips (beware of the Templar's kiss), and in Germany they were made almost the holders of brothels (Tempelhof, and certainly they were the bankers of Europe. All attempts at least to give new shades to these commonplaces have so far failed. So, in 1291, the Order of the Temple became useless, and in 1292 poor Jacques de Molay was chosen head an organization that was just about to be scrapped, which means that what happened in 1307 was not difficult to predict.Everyone knows that there is no smoke without fire, but the historian should constantly ask himself: who started the fire? for who lit the last fires of the Temple is well known!

And yet - no, in 1291 it was not all over! The crusade, the idea of a crusade - that was the present and even the future. Perhaps, rather, in the form that prevailed in the XII and XIII centuries, St. Louis began to change it. The crusade had to give way to mission, to conversion by the word; opponents changed, new territories appeared. But to say that they no longer thought about Jerusalem and other holy places in Syria and Palestine is not serious. At the end of the XIII and the beginning of the XIV centuries. there was still a chance - an alliance with the Mongols. As long as this chance was real, that is, until the death of Ghazan in 1304, a crusade against Jerusalem remained possible. I will even say that the chances of success have never been as great as in 1299-1303. And we must pay tribute to Jacques de Molay, who, more than others - the Pope, the King of France, the Order of the Hospital, etc. - believed in this opportunity and tried to realize it.

But after 1304, even if a Mongol embassy arrived in Poitiers as early as 1307, the strategy of alliance with the Mongols was already dead and abandoned; something else had to be proposed, and I have to say that they could no longer come up with it - the Mole project was purely traditional, the Villaret project was a little newer. While discussing these projects with the Pope, Fulk de Villaret began the conquest of Rhodes, which would take four years of effort. In 1306, when Molay and then Villaret set off for the West, no one could yet say what would come of it. The Tyrian Templar, always perspicacious, took the necessary brief pause before writing:

In this manner, the Lord sent mercy to the noble master of the Hospital and the worthy people of the house, so that they would own this place quite freely and completely freely, and it would remain in their power and regardless of other power, and may the Lord support them with His great mercy in their good deeds , amen.

By that time, Jacques de Molay was in prison, and the order of the Temple was broken. So, Mole's last years should not be judged in comparison with the conquest of Rhodes and the Hospitaller initiative, but on the basis of his behavior during the storm that hit his order.

The first mistake of Jacques de Molay at first, perhaps, was just a failure. He failed to reform the order of the Temple and, of course, began to with From what it followed, Jacques de Molay undoubtedly announced his desire to reform in the autumn of 1291 in Cyprus. At the beginning of his first trip to the West, during the general chapter at Montpellier in August 1293, he won agreement on such reforms, which others may call "reforms". This could be the beginning of a process; this was his end. But the order had one undoubted ailment, which, as I think, Jacques de Molay knew, but did not realize either the extent of it or the consequences. This affliction was caused by a salacious ritual included in the reception ceremony. The testimony of the Templars at the trial cannot, of course, be taken at face value. Jacques de Molay, let me remind you, admitted there only two facts, namely, renunciation and spitting on the cross (in fact, to the side). This ritual, which is a mockery of newcomers, happened only once in the Templar's career, during his reception; it was not always carried out in its entirety, and more often than many people think, it was not carried out at all. There were, of course, perverts who overdid it here, as in any mockery of newcomers - such was Gerard de Villiers, Master of France in recent years.

When the French king and pope seized on this problem from 1305, the question of reforming the order went beyond asking whether meat should still be eaten three times a week or not. To reform the order meant to eradicate obscene customs in the practice of reception. But Jacques de Molay did not.

Maybe he couldn't. I have already said that I consider him more like Tom Berard, the great reformer, than like Guillaume de Baue. Perhaps he ran into obstacles within the order. Hugues de Perot, for example, was not a strong enough rival or opponent to prevent him from running the order and pursuing policies in accordance with his views (I mean the alliance with the Mongols), but he was powerful enough in France to block an ambitious reform program. In any case, Jacques de Molay did not insist enough on the implementation of this program of reforms, inspired by the initial "state of grace" and the hopes taken from the first trip to the West.

But maybe he didn't want to? Maybe he never thought about it? Because he did not realize - neither he nor the other Templars - the full gravity of the facts. It was a tradition, no consequences were expected from this. Not only the Templars turned a blind eye to this. What is to be thought of those Franciscan or Dominican brethren who, according to many Templars - who confessed to them after having encountered these humiliating and reprehensible customs during the reception - expressed surprise, indignation, and most often distrust, but limited themselves to that several additional fasts were prescribed for a sinner brother during the year? Apparently not one of the formidable exterminators of heresy that the Dominicans were known felt the need to take a closer look at these customs and expose them. This allows us to better understand how the notion that "it's not so serious" was able to firmly insinuate itself into the minds of the Templars and their leaders. It really wasn't that serious! The papal commission came to this conclusion with relief. But meanwhile the king and his advisers decided otherwise and made of these customs the basis for attacks for the Order of the Temple. The work of the papal commission revealed the true extent of things, but it was too late - the order had already died.

Jacques de Molay became a hostage to this erroneous assessment. He could not help but "recognize" these customs (even if he kept them to a minimum), and therefore could not prevent the king and his agents from using this recognition against him and his order in the way they did. After that, neither his own fate nor the fate of the order depended on him. He found himself between two reefs: he had to either confirm his confessions and lose even a modicum of respect for himself, or refuse them at the risk of being accused of lying and falling back into heresy. More than weakness or fear of torture, this explains the change in his testimony, even if he mentions the fear of torture here and there - you should have saved face! He tried unsuccessfully to get out of the trap set by Nogare and Plesian, but one of the components of which was provided by the order of the Temple itself. It seemed to him that he had found a solution when, from November 28, 1309, he refused to participate in the process launched by the bull "Faciens misericordiam" and to cooperate with the papal commission. Closing himself in silence, he excluded himself from the process and no longer influenced the course of events.

Jacques de Molay failed to reform his order because he could not correctly assess the pernicious influence of the reception ceremony on the Templars themselves. This is evidenced by the reproaches of many Templars: according to them, the task of exposing these errors and eradicating them was clearly neglected. Whose address are the reproaches? Masters, dignitaries, but also reproach yourself. The law of silence within the order of the Temple was observed unconditionally. Jacques de Molay, we must give him his due, died for his ideas - for those in which he was brought up in the Order of the Temple, for those in which he continued to believe, becoming Grand Master: the crusade, the Holy Land, the independence of the order. Perhaps this fidelity to ideas, his stubbornness also contributed to the death of the Order of the Temple? Partly yes.

Indeed, Jacques de Molay made another mistake, long before the trial, by rejecting the union of the orders. His motives are not deserving of contempt, even if he presented the arguments against the unification very clumsily. There is a famous phrase that the young Tancredi says to Prince Salina in Lampedusa's Leopard: "If we want everything to continue, we must first change everything." This rule is mutatis mutandis[changing what should be changed (lat.)] can be applied to the problem facing the order of the Temple - the Temple had to disappear in order to survive. He needed to unite with the order of the Hospital, so that an independent military-monastic order under the tutelage of the papacy alone had a chance to survive. Of course, it was not easy for Jacques de Molay to decide on this, because he saw well that about" suggests such a union: “It means to act very hostilely and very severely, forcing people […] to change their lives and manners, or to choose another order if they do not want it.” They demanded from the Temple not to unite with the Hospital, but to merge into the Hospital, to dissolve in the Hospital. And everyone knew well that the association of orders proposed at that time should end with the creation of a military order subordinate to the king of France, whose head could be the king, and if not, then certainly one of his sons. Jacques de Molay did not want this. And is it possible to believe that Fulk de Villaret and Clement V, not to mention Edward I or Jaime II, wanted such a solution to the problem of the unification of the orders?

And yet, by rejecting the unification of the orders, Jacques de Molay did not give the pope, Villaret, himself the opportunity to play the card that I thought was the strongest. The unification of the orders, if the pope had negotiated it quickly enough with their heads, might curb the ambitions of the King of France and prevent him from carrying out his hegemonic plans. Of course, there was a risk that the idea would fail and that all the sovereigns of Christendom would demand the same thing demanded by the king of France. Then the united order would have split into a corresponding number of national orders.

Note that the destruction of the Order of the Temple did not allow achieving the goal that Raymond Lull or Pierre Dubois set for the king and which he seems to have approved of himself - the creation of a single order under his control. In Vienne, the pope managed to obtain consent to the transfer of the property of the Temple to the Hospital against the will of the French king. And, paradoxically, in two states where the sovereigns, having rejected the idea of combining the Temple with the Hospital, decided to create a single order in their state, without condemning the Temple and without destroying it, they partially succeeded. In the Aragonese crown, this was only possible in the kingdom of Valencia, where the Order of Montesa was created, uniting the possessions of the Temple and the Hospital, but in Catalonia and Aragon the property of the Temple received the Hospital. In the Kingdom of Portugal, the merger of the Hospital and the Temple did not happen: the property and houses of the order of the Temple were transferred to the new order of Christ, and the former Templars became (again - because they were called so originally) the Knights of Christ.

The last mistake of Jacques de Molay, committed this time during the process, was that he relied on the judgment of the pope. I have already outlined the reasons for his tossing during interrogations. From November 1309, he tried to get out of the trap, relying entirely on the papal court. However, all the Templars just as naively trusted the words of Clement V. Deciding from now on to remain silent before the papal commission, Jacques de Molay excluded himself from the game; therefore, he did not take part in the great impulse of the Templars at the beginning of 1310, remained uninvolved in this touching attempt to protect and save the order. But he was the head of this order, the Templars still trusted him. He did not fulfill his duties to the end, betrayed the trust of the Templars. He did not have much freedom of maneuver, but by leading the movement he would have strengthened it, and who knows what consequences such a decision would entail! He, too, would risk falling on the fire. Maybe he wasn't ready for it yet?

Four years later, he was ready. The riot was in vain, but it was beautiful.

“Mole lived at a time when the order needed leaders who would be heroes; alas, he was just a poor and good man,” wrote Georges Liezeran. This judgment has become traditional, but it is partly false. Was a hero needed? No, rather a sly one, someone like Nogare. "Heroes" of this kind the Order of the Temple did not generate.

Until 1306, when it was necessary to carry out the mission for which the Order of the Temple was created - to carry out military service in the name of the church, the crusade and the liberation of Jerusalem - Jacques de Molay performed it brilliantly. But when it became necessary to maneuver among the reefs, to unravel the maneuvers of the king, Nogare or Plesian, to resist the Inquisition, Mole was no longer up to par. This situation is partly due to previous mistakes; the lack of intelligence of the Grand Master and, it must be admitted, of the Templars in general, is also to blame for it. Jacques de Molay was no longer at the level of the situation, but he was not elected for this. Was there a person in the order then who could reach the level of the situation? They can name Hugo de Perot. But, although he knew better than Mole the intricacies of European politics at that time, it does not seem that he had a sufficient scale of personality, and his behavior at the trial shows this.

Heroism under the walls of Acre and in the dungeons of Philip the Handsome - the same thing? I doubt. How to act heroically in front of Guillaume de Nogaret? Jacques de Molay belonged to the old and petty nobility, not to the barons. Staying in the ranks of the Order of the Temple contributed to the rise of new people, like people from the small and medium nobility. All the great masters of the order belonged to this category. Of these was Jacques de Molay. Undoubtedly, he was not upset by the position he had reached - the leadership of one of the most prestigious orders of the Christian world, the opportunity to maintain relations with the pope, kings, princes. Was his head spinning? Not particularly. An elderly man (let's not forget that when the storm hit the order, he was between sixty and seventy), experienced, cautious, he led the order wisely, reasonably and showing common sense for many years. Finally, he was smart enough to understand that he had fallen into a trap, but not smart enough to get out of it. In any case, he, not wanting and not knowing this, saved the church by sacrificing himself: Clement V, leaving Jacques de Molay and his order to the mercy of fate, made Philip the Handsome abandon the idea of holding a process of condemnation of the memory of Boniface VIII - Pope, with with whom Jacques de Molay maintained such good relations.

Notes:

Mich. II. P. 244-420. - Forey, A. J. Towards a profile of the Templars In the early fourteenth century // The military orders. Vol.l. Fighting for the faith and caring for the sick. Edited by Malcolm Barber. Aldershot: Variorum, 1994. Vol. I.P. 200 et seq.

Mich. I.P. 42-45. - G.Lizerand, Le Dossier… P. 167.

Baluze. T.II. P. 156-160. Translation [in French]: Leroy S. Art. cit.(note 13). R. 211 et seq.

See publications on the general history of the Order of the Temple: Barber, Malcolm. The new knighthood: a history of the Order of the Temple. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1994. - Demurger, Alain. Les Templiers: une chevalerie chretienne au Moyen age. Paris: Ed. du Seuil, 2005. - Nicholson, Helen. The knights templar: a new history. Stroud: Sutton, 2001.

Mich. I. P. 42. - Translation: G.Lizerand, Le Dossier… P. 164: “ipse erat miles Illiteratus et pauper…”

Ibid. P. 389 - Translation: Le Proces des templiers traduit, presente et annote par Raymond Oursel. Paris: Denoel, 1955. P. 181.

See Attachment. Corpus of Letters, Nos. 5, 10, 12 and 18.

I. P. 465.

Lizerand, G. Les deposits du Grand Maitre, Jacques de Molay, au proces des Templiers (1307-1314) // Le Moyen Age. 17 (1913). P. 106.

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