Jacques deMolay
He served as the 23rd and official last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Elected circa 1292, he promised to reform the order but was unable to lead the Templars through the Catholic inquisitions, and was burned at the stake by order of King Philip the Fair for refusing to damn the Order. In the dying words of deMolay himself, as scribed by the foremost 19th century Templar scholar Charles Addison:
To say that which is untrue is a crime both in the sight of God and man. Not one of us has betrayed his God or his country. I do confess my guilt, which consists in having, to my shame and dishonor, suffered myself, through the pain of torture and the fear of death, to give utterance to falsehoods imputing scandalous sins and iniquities to an illustrious Order, which hath nobly served the cause of Christianity. I disdain to seek a wretched and disgraceful existence by engrafting another lie upon the original falsehood.
The Jacques deMolay Folding Knife commemorates this ultimate sacrifice in a limited edition of 700 examples, commemorating the 700th anniversary deMolay’s arrest on Friday, October 13, 1307. The Templar Cross and skull & crossbones was first flown in memory of deMolay to let other ships know they were Templar-friendly. The alternating sections of enamel recall the tessellate floor of the Masonic Temple. The opposite scale contains an engraved replica of the famed Apprentice’s Pillar coated in translucent enamel and the All-Seeing Eye is subtly engraved on the inside.
The Blade on the Jacques deMolay Folding Knife is forged using Swedish Stainless (Damasteel DS93X) Damascus and a diamond is set in each side of the silver thumb stud.
Hard Enamel
The Jacues deMolay Collection continues in the spirit of artistic mastery and the tradition of Old World craftsmanship by combining the centuries-old technique of Guilloché with the art and expertise of Hard Enamel.
Hand-crafted in solid Sterling Silver, the scales of the knife are engraved, or diamond-cut in high and low relief using a centuries-old technique known as Guilloché.
Using a mortar and pestle, a composition of glass, water and metal oxides is ground for hours by hand. When settled, the water is removed, leaving the fine paste that is the basis for hard enamel. A quill is then used to apply each coat of the mixture to the surface of the metal, ensuring that the entire guilloché area is completely covered in enamel. The components are then fired in a furnace at temperatures exceeding 1,000° F, fusing the enamel to the metal and forming a layer of glass.
After cooling, the pieces are manually ground with a diamond file, restoring their proper shape and surface. This tedious process is repeated at length until the level of enamel reaches the depth required to cover the peaks and fill the valleys of each intricate guilloché pattern. When the final stages of firing are completed, the pieces are polished and buffed, revealing the velvet finish of translucent hard enamel.
Production of translucent hard enamel demands the highest levels of patience, experience and skill. A five-year apprenticeship is required to ensure that the highest levels of quality will be met in each individual Collection piece.
Statement of Jacques de Molay on March 14, 1314, the morning of the day he was slow-roasted at the stake by France’s King Philip IV and Pope Clement V:
“I think it only right that at so solemn a moment when my life has so little time to run I should reveal the deception which has been practiced and speak up for the truth. Before heaven and earth and all of you here as my witnesses, I admit that I am guilty of the grossest iniquity. But the iniquity is that I have lied in admitting the disgusting charges laid against the Order. I declare, and I must declare, that the Order is innocent. Its purity and saintliness are beyond question. I have indeed confessed that the Order is guilty, but I have done so only to save myself from terrible tortures by saying what my enemies wished me to say. Other knights who have retracted their confessions have been led to the stake, yet the thought of dying is not so awful that I shall confess to foul crimes which have never been committed. Life is offered to me, but at the price of infamy. At such a price, life is not worth having. I do not grieve that I must die if life can be bought only by piling one lie upon another.”
On Friday the 13th of October, 1307, Grand Master Jacques de Molay of the Knights Templar, along with all locatable Templar Knights in France on that day, were arrested by Philip IV “the Fair” King of France. King Philip owed more money to the Templars than he could ever repay in his lifetime and he needed more. What better way to eradicate his debt than to discredit his creditors? He manufactured evidence that the Templars were heretics, sent it on to Pope Clement V, and handed the Templars over to the French branch of the Church of Rome’s Inquisition. Meanwhile, Philip the Fair raided the Templar treasury office in Paris only to find the cupboards were bare.
De Molay was interrogated and tortured by the Inquisition for six and a half years. At the end he was offered a chance to make his confessions in public. Instead, he said, in part, the following:
“I think it only right that at so solemn a moment when my life has so little time to run I should reveal the deception which has been practiced and speak up for the truth. *** Other knights who have retracted their confessions have been led to the stake, yet the thought of dying is not so awful that I shall confess to foul crimes which have never been committed. Life is offered to me, but at the price of infamy. At such a price, life is not worth having.”
Usually, when we consider “making the ultimate sacrifice” we think in terms of simply giving up one’s life – usually on the battlefield. Jacques de Molay gave his life for the integrity of his Brothers, when he could have saved it for his own benefit. That to me is a far higher sacrifice than all.
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Jacques deMolay Writing Instrument also Available
By producing this breath-taking commemorative Folding Knife, David Oscarson has done a tremendous service for all those who honor de Molay. May it always serve to remind us not only of the martyrdom of de Molay but also of our Founding Fathers’ prudence to include freedom of religion in our U.S. Constitution. – C.C. Reilly, MPS
