1307
24 August The pontifical inquiry begins, at Molay’s prayer
14 September Philip the Fair secretly orders his seneschals to organize the arrest of the Templars
13 October The Templars of France arrested
14 October Nogaret makes accusations against the Templars. The accusations are forwarded to the Faculty of Theology of the Sorbonne.
16 October Philip the Fair writes to James II, King of Aragon, to inform him of the arrest of the Templars
19 October The first interrogations begin in Paris
24 October Molay’s first interrogation
25 October Molay defends himself before representatives of the University of Paris
26 October Philip the Fair writes to Giacomo again to inform him of the results of the interrogations
27 October Writing of Clement V to Philip the Fair, in which the pontiff notifies his disapproval of the arrest of the Templars
9 November Hugh of Pairaud is interrogated
22 November Pontifical Bull “Pastoralis Praeminentiae” (With this bull, sent to all the sovereigns of Christianity, the Pope takes note of the serious crimes falsely attributed to the Templars and ordered to arrest them all and to confiscate their movable and immovable assets, to conserve them and preserve them at name of the papacy for as long as was necessary, to cultivate the lands and vineyards in favor of the Templars themselves if they were to prove innocent; otherwise they would be donated in favor of the Holy Land).
24 December Molay retracted all the statements made during the interrogations before the papal legates
1308
February Clement V suspends the Grand Inquisitor William Imbert from office. Philip the Fair asks seven questions to the members of the Faculty of Theology of the Sorbonne
9-24 March Philip IV convenes the states general
25 March Response from the Faculty of Theology of the Sorbonne to the King’s seven questions
5-15 May The States General meet in Tours
26 May Philip meets Clement V in Poitiers
29 May First address by Plaisians before the pontifical consistory
14 June Second speech by Plaisians
27 June Philip delivers 72 Templars that he held to Clement V
5 July Papal Bull Subit assidue
8 August Bull “Faciens Misericordiam” (with which all the Templars detained in France, including the leaders of the Order, were summoned before the general council which would take place, starting from 1 October 1310, in Vienne, in the Dauphiné, to discuss important questions that concerned the Order itself. It was a council that would deal, among other things, with the future crusade and the decision on the Templars. Before then no one, by will of the Pope, could even question them. Clement V, aware of the weakness of his position on French soil, he wanted to address the issue not only before the king, but within a broader forum, in the presence of the bishops of the entire church)
12 August Pontifical Bulls “Faciens Misericordiam” (II VERSION – On 20 August 1308 the Chinon investigation concluded leaving the General Staff of the Temple acquitted of the charge of heresy and reinstated in the communion of the sacraments; upon the return of the Commissioners to the Curia the Pope had preparations a second version of his bull Faciens misericordiam, an “updated” version, which reiterated the concepts expressed in the first issue, but added the news that the leaders of the Temple had been acquitted and now found themselves protected in an island of judicial immunity because no one, except the Roman pontiff, would have been able to even question them anymore ) and Regnans in Coelis”the pope also ordered the launch of diocesan investigations to judge the individual Templars detained in the territories of competence and the establishment of a pontifical commission which was supposed to investigate the Order as a whole.
13 August Clement V leaves Poitiers
17-20 August Two Cardinals interrogate the Templars detained here in Chinon. Absolution of the Templars
1309
March Clement V establishes his permanent residence in Avignon. The episcopal investigation into individual Knights Templar begins
8 August The pontifical commission begins the trial of the order
22 November First investigations by the pontifical commission
26 November Molay appears before the commission for the first time
28 November Molay appears before the commission for the second time
1310
3 February The commission meets for the second session
2 March Molay appears before the commission for the third time
14 March 127 charges are recited against the Templars. The knights intend to defend themselves
28 March The Templars gather in large numbers in the gardens of the bishop’s palace in Paris
4 April Pontifical Bull “Alma Mater”
7 April Defense of the order by the 4 prosecutors chosen for this purpose by the knights
12 May 54 Templars are sentenced to death and burned alive near Paris
3 November The pontifical commission meets for the third session
1311
5 June The pontifical commission declares its investigations closed
16 October The Council of Vienne opens. Seven Knights Templar defend their order
1312
20 March Philip the Fair arrives in Vienne, the only sovereign to go there
22 March Pontifical bull Vox in excelso (the Order of the Temple was suspended and, until a new papal decision, no longer existed. The Knights of the Temple were, however, safe. They could join another Order. The assets would instead be transferred to the Hospitallers)
2 May Pontifical bull Ad providam
6 May Pontifical bull Considerantes dudum
1313
21 March The Jerusalemites offer 200,000 Tornese lire (one Tornese lira was equivalent to 5 grams of silver) to Philip the Fair for the Templars’ assets. The sovereign brings the requested sum to 1,000,000 lire
1314
18 March James of Molay and Godfrey of Charnay were burned alive on the island of the Seine in front of Notre Dame. At the stake, with a piercing cry, the grand master of the Templars De Molay orders Philip the Fair and Clement V, his executioners, to follow him into the afterlife within the current year. “At the stake James de Molay cursed the king of France, the pope and William of Nogaret. The most direct sources don’t talk about it.
20 April Clement V dies
29 November Philip the Fair dies
The idea that the last Capetians, Philip the Fair, his three sons and successors, were cursed, spread from then on, even if the Templars had nothing to do with it.
So how did we come to attribute the curse of the Capetians to de Molay? Strangely, it is in Italian historiography that the various elements that explain it are found.
Guglielmo Ventura in his Cronicon Astense says that Nogaret was cursed by a Templar who was being led to the stake. It is Giovanni Villani who recounts that on the evening of de Molay’s execution, people were seen collecting the ashes and remains of the Grand Master, which they piously preserved as relics.
Ferreto de Ferretis, who settled in Verona under Cangrande Della Scala, takes up Ventura’s story, transforms it and punctuates it according to his version, it is to the pope that the Master of the Templars condemned to death turns:
“For your unjust judgment I appeal to the true and living God, you will appear in a year and a day with Philip in turn responsible for all this, to respond to my objections and present your defense”.
Another Italian, Gìan Battista Fulgoso, returns to the matter, practically adopting the same formulation, around 1400.
De Molay, on the road that leads him to the stake, or even on the stake itself, as the flames are about to envelop him, delivers a speech and launches a curse against the king and the pope, after all it is the history of the 16th century.
Bernard de Girard Du Haillan and Francois de Belleforest spoke about it in his Grandes Annales, written in 1579. The latter’s version prevailed.