GIACOMO di MOLAY. — Last grand master of the Order of the Templars. Born probably near Cintrey (Haute-Saône) around 1244. Admitted to the Order of the Templars in 1265, he departed for the Holy Land around 1270. Visitor of the Templars in England in 1293, elected grand master in 1294, he resided in Cyprus, where the headquarters of the Order had been transferred after the loss of S. Jean d’Acre (1291). Summoned before Clement V on 6 June 1306, he defended the Order against the project of union with the Hospitallers of S. John of Jerusalem and declared himself in favor of a new Crusade (see his memoranda of 1306–1307, S. Baluze-G. Mollat, Vitae Paparum Avenionensium, III, Paris 1921, pp. 145–54).
Arrested by order of Philip the Fair on 13 Oct. 1307, along with all the Templars of France, he had to answer for the infamous rumors directed against the Order. Overcome by fear, on 24–25 Oct. 1307, before the Faculty of Theology of Paris and the King’s men, he made statements that he retracted the following spring before the papal commissioners.
The Pope reserved the continuation of the affair (Feb. 1308). But a campaign of pamphlets, the accusations against the Order brought before the Assembly of Notables at Tours (11–20 May 1308), the interview at Poitiers with the King (27 June 1308), and new statements by the prisoners at Chinon (Aug. 1308) overcame Clement V’s resistance.
In Nov. 1309, G. did not renew his confessions, but neither did he defend the Order. His contradictory attitude has given rise to controversy. It seems that he acted under the impulse of fear. Following the suppression of the Order of the Templars (3–11 March 1312), three cardinals condemned him to perpetual imprisonment. The King’s Council subjected him to the torment of fire on 18 March 1314 in Paris, on the Île de la Cité. G. died declaring his Order innocent.