..His Legend
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His Life, His Trial, His Death…His Legend
The absence of accurate records prevents us from knowing Jacques de Molay’s precise date and place of birth. Nevertheless, clues found throughout the trial minutes and archives of European kingdoms of the era suggest that de Molay was born around 1245 in Haute Saone in the County of Burgundy, then part of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1265, de Molay was received into the Order at Beaune by Humbert de Pairaud, Visitor of France and England, and by French Master Amaury de la Roche.
Around 1270, de Molay traveled to the East, where his activities remain unclear. It is not known whether he was among the survivors at Acre who managed to escape to Cyprus with Thibaud Gaudin – Grand Master of the Order at the time – but he did take part in a chapter formed on the island in the fall of 1291. He was elected Grand Master of the Order before April 1292, soon after Gaudin’s death. From the time of his election, de Molay took care of urgent matters, forming a government and mounting a defense of both Cyprus and the kingdom of Little Armenia, the last Frankish possessions in the East….
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