for they had been accused of treachery,', murder, idola- try, Islamism, and many other villainies ; and demanded a rigid investigation, in order that, if proved innocent, they might receive public absolution ; if culpable, suffer condemnation. Under these pretexts, Philip strongly urged the pope to proceed against the Temple, and the latter, finally yielding to the king's importunity and threats, inaugurated the investigation, and sent to Philip for all possible information. Philip affected to take the request for information as a permission to proceed against the order himself. Accordingly, on Oct. 13, 1307, every Templar in the realm was made a prisoner. Jacques de j\Iolay was seized in the house of the Temple, and summoned before the Inquisition of France, Oct. 24, 1307. According to the reijort of his interrogatorj', he made fidl confession of having denied Christ, and of having been guilty of other crimes. Confession was bribed out of some by offers of indulgence ; wrung from others by the dread of torture, or bj' actual torture. The pope, enraged by the king's liberty, suspended the powers of the inquisitor, and forbade the bishops to con- tinue their proceedings against the Temple. Philip IV simulated ready and complete submission; but at the same time he urged all the princes of Europe to follow his example, endeavored to embitter the French against the Templars, and finally invented a circular letter from the grand -master to all the brethren and subjects in prison, advising them to acknowledge the crimes he himself had confessed. Aug. 20, 1308, Jacques de Molay himself was subjected to a second examina- tion by a special commission of cardinals and agents of the king; but as the commission proved very treacher- ous in their conduct towards him, he finally tired of the proceedings, and demanded that he be brought before the Roman pontiff; " for," said he, " to the pope alone belongs the power of judging the grand-master of the order, and to his judgment I refer." March 2, 1310, he was again summoned by the papal commission, but per- sisted in his determination to be judged by the pope only. While the papal commission was still in session, Philip IV, tiring of their slow progress, and fearing that the power of the Temple was not yet crushed, sum- moned fifty-four more of the Templars before a council at Paris, and caused them to be burned the same day. May 11, 1310. The pope now became anxious for his own authority, appointed a new commission to hasten a decision in the case of Jacques de Molay, and he was by it condemned to death. Just as the fatal sentence was about to be pronounced, De Molay arose, and in a calm, clear voice thus addressed his judges: '-Before heaven and earth, on the verge of death, where the least falsehood bears like an intolerable weight upon the soul, I protest that we have richly deserved death, not on account of any heresy or sin of which we our- selves or our order have been guiltv, but because we have yielded, to save our lives, to the seductive words of the pope and of the king ; and so by our confessions brought shame and ruin on our blameless, holy, and or- thodox brotherhood." The cardinals stood confounded, the people could not repress a profound sj^mpathy, and the assembly was hastily broken up to meet another day. But the king, who had been informed of all, or- dered the grand-master to be burned immediate!}'. He was led forth to the flames, a feeble old man, loaded with fetters, bent and whitened by age and captivi- ty. He sustained his sufferings with perfect firmness and resolution, protesting to the end in favor of the innocence of his order, and perishing bravely — the last champion of Christianity against the Orient, the last liberator of Jerusalem, the last grand -master of the Temple. See Porter, History of the Knights of Malta, i, 180, 190 sq.; Sutherland, Achievements of the Knights of Malta, vol. i, eh. ix; IMilman, History of Latin Chi-istianity, vol. vi, bk. xii, ch. i and ii ; Hase, Church History, p. 319; and especially the excellent article in Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generak, xxxv, 79 sq. (J.P.L.)
MOLCIIO
434 MOLDAVL\ AXD WALLACHIA