Tales of the Knights Templar by Katherine Kurtz Read Free Book Online

investigate the allegations—for with all the Temple’s immunities, only the pope could do so.
    Pope Clement was appalled, and told the Grand Master of the charges upon his arrival, in May 1307. De Molay was aghast at first, but then became more puzzled than alarmed, for the charges seemed so outrageous to him that he could not countenance that anyone would believe them. Nor had any intimation of the charges been conveyed to him in his meeting with the king. Besides, what danger could there be? The Order of the Temple was responsible only to the pope, and could not be disciplined by any secular ruler for any offense; and as a holy Order, they were exempt from torture. Furthermore, the wealth of the Temple was backed by a well-disciplined standing army answerable only to the Grand Master.
    Still, the signs were becoming more and more difficult to ignore Though de Molay continued to maintain the outward conviction that nothing could happen, one must wonder just when he began to see … an end in sight.

End in Sight
    Lawrence Schimel
    E ven the Grand Master was not allowed to eat alone. To fast was temptation, to consume a penance, and at dusk a brother knight came and politely broke Jacques de Molay’s meditations on the state of the Order. De Molay smiled up at the younger knight, remembering that it was equally his duty to watch and make sure that his companion ate. The Knights Templar had been founded on this system of balances, and of late it seemed the only thing which kept the Order going.
    As they walked down the corridor toward the refectory, de Molay could not help continuing his musings, wondering if the Order had become obsolete, if it could survive now that the Crusades were over. They were deprived of their purpose: to protect travelers to the Holy Lands, to fight the Saracens in the name of the Lord. Already, de Molay had noticed among the men a furtive restlessness, for they lacked an outlet for their passions and desires. They were fighting men, and without an enemy to fight, they would turn upon themselves.
    The companion system had therefore been more rigorously enforced. Templars went abroad into the world in pairs, lest they find themselves embroiled in a conflict with nonbrothers. With two knights looking out for each other, one could calm the other down should his temper rise too close to boiling over. But the tension within the Order continued to rise, and without release it threatened to disrupt the Order entirely.
    De Molay did not yet know what he might do to solve these problems, and in the meantime he clung to the traditions and habits that had been established by wiser men before him. If it had not been for this young knight, he reflected, he would have stayed absorbed in his contemplation all evening, without even noticing the missed meal. He tried to recall the youth’s name, but could not; silence was not one of their official vows, but it had become an almost unspoken one within the Order. Too often, too much discussion led the men toward brawls, or the subject of women, while quiet contemplation left them to dwell upon the spirit of the Lord within them and their mission to fight in His name.
    De Molay stared down at his bowl of soup, with hardly the appetite for even a spoonful. He stirred its contents, still musing on the dilemmas of the Order. He wondered if things would change, if they would need to change for the Order to survive. And that terrified him. Vegetables swirled within the clear liquid and seemed to form the image of a face, a familiar face, the face of … was it his father? De Molay peered more closely. No, it was Hugues de Payens! Not his own father, but father and founder of the Order of the Temple of Jerusalem!
    De Molay wondered if he should share his discovery with his companion, or even the hall at large. But he wondered, too, if perhaps the vision was strictly personal, if the first Grand Master was trying to speak to his current successor of grave and important