Terminus MCCCIVX

About the artwork

« Terminus MCCCXIV », acrylique on linen canvas 73/54 cm On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the Knights Templar grandmaster Jacques de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested under the accusation of various heredities. King Philip was already deeply in debt to the Templars from his war with the English and decided to seize upon the rumors for his own purposes. He began pressuring the Church to take action against the order, as a way of freeing himself from his debts. The Knights Templar’s suffered tortures, many of them hanged and 6 was burned alive at the stake in Paris, 18 March 1314.