Hey Riffer, here is part 2 of this awesome history lesson:
Of de Molay’s death it is recorded (the account varies by one day, not unusual for chronicles of the middle ages):
“The cardinals dallied with their duty until 19 March 1314, when, on a scaffold in front of Notre Dame, Jacques de Molay, Templar Grand Master, Geoffroi de Charney, Master of Normandy, Hugues de Peraud, Visitor of France, and Godefroi de Gonneville, Master of Aquitaine, were brought forth from the jail in which for nearly seven years they had lain, to receive the sentence agreed upon by the cardinals, in conjunction with the Archbishop of Sens and some other prelates whom they had called in. Considering the offences which the culprits had confessed and confirmed, the penance imposed was in accordance with rule—that of perpetual imprisonment. The affair was supposed to be concluded when, to the dismay of the prelates and wonderment of the assembled crowd, de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney arose. They had been guilty, they said, not of the crimes imputed to them, but of basely betraying their Order to save their own lives. It was pure and holy; the charges were fictitious and the confessions false. Hastily the cardinals delivered them to the Prevot of Paris, and retired to deliberate on this unexpected contingency, but they were saved all trouble. When the news was carried to Philippe he was furious. A short consultation with his council only was required. The canons pronounced that a relapsed heretic was to be burned without a hearing; the facts were notorious and no formal judgment by the papal commission need be waited for. That same day, by sunset, a pile was erected on a small island in the Seine, the Isle des Juifs, near the palace garden. There de Molay and de Charney were slowly burned to death, refusing all offers of pardon for retraction, and bearing their torment with a composure which won for them the reputation of martyrs among the people, who reverently collected their ashes as relics.”
It is said that Jacques de Molay cursed King Phillip and his descendants from his execution pyre. The story of the shouted curse appears to be a combination of words by a different Templar, and those of de Molay. An eyewitness to the execution stated that de Molay showed no sign of fear, and told those present that God would avenge their deaths. Another variation on this story was told by the contemporary chronicler Ferretto of Vicenza, who applied the idea to a Neapolitan Templar brought before Clement V, whom he denounced for his injustice. Some time later, as he was about to be executed, he appealed ‘from this your heinous judgement to the living and true God, who is in Heaven’, warning the pope that, within a year and a day, he and Philip IV would be obliged to answer for their crimes in God’s presence.
It is true that Philip and Clement V both died within a year of Molay’s execution, Clement finally succumbing to a long illness on 20 April 1314, and Philip in a hunting accident. Then followed the rapid succession of the last Capetian kings of France between 1314 and 1328, the three sons of Philip IV. Within 14 years from the death of de Molay, the 300-year-old Capetian collapsed. Even in distant Germany Philippe’s death was spoken of as a retribution for his destruction of the Templars, and Clement was described as shedding tears of remorse on his death-bed for three great crimes, the poisoning of Henry VI, the ruin of the Templars and Beguines.
Weird huh? Well, take er easy.
ill leave ya with this passage of scripture hopefully it will strike a chord with ya.