The Flight of the Templar Master of Lombardy (1308) - blow to Papal Credibility

The general perception is that on 13 October 1307, all Knights Templar in France were arrested. This is not accurate. At some places in France Knights Templar were safe. Or were they?
This is the story of Giacomo da Montecucco, Knight Templar, in 1307 General Preceptor ("Master") of the Templar Knights of Lombardy, Tuscia, Land of Rome and of Sardinia ànd one of two personal Chamberlains to Pope Clement V at Poitiers.

Recent scholarship examines a pivotal but underappreciated incident in the suppression of the Knights Templar: the nocturnal escape the flight from the Pope's court at Poitiers of Giacomo da Montecucco on February 13, 1308, only four months after the widespread Templar arrests in France. This episode illuminates the complex political dynamics between Pope Clement V and King Philip IV of France at the time. 

On October 13, 1307, Philip the Fair orchestrated the mass arrest of Templars throughout France, accusing them of heresy, idolatry, and sodomy. This unprecedented action bypassed papal authority, despite the Order's direct and exclusive jurisdiction under the Holy See. Extensive historical scholarship indicates that these proceedings constituted a profound assault on the Church's traditional monopoly over religious matters, fundamentally altering the balance of power between secular and ecclesiastical authorities.

While most Templars were imprisoned, those serving in Pope Clement V's domestic household at Poitiers, including Giacomo da Montecucco, Master of the Templar province of Lombardy (Northern Italy), who also was one of two papal cubicularii (chamberlains, the other being Olivier de Penne), received protection out of deference to the pontiff. These Templar Knight were personally very important to the Pope. They guarded his bedroom (cubiculum) and slept near the door, escorted him and played an important role at his side during ceremonies. Other Templars who were staying in Poitiers to deal with business at the Curia but that did not belong to the Pope's household, were all made prisoners and taken to the royal castle of Loches.

At the end of November 1307, in publishing the bull Pastoralis praeeminentiae, Clement V suspended the powers of French inquisitors and prelates prosecuting the Templars, attempting to reassert ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the trials. By taking himself the initiative of widespread arrests, he had hopes of regaining the upper hand, denying repeatedly the claim of King Philip that he (the King) was in fact acting with the approval of the Pope. 

Nevetheless, Giacomo decided to escape on February 13, 1308, probably triggered by a waning confidence that the Pope would be able to withstand succesfully the increasing royal pressure. The escape proved catastrophic for papal credibility.

According to contemporary correspondence from a proctor at the papal court, Clement V expressed profound frustration before the assembled cardinals on his loss of credibility, lamenting that critics could now argue: "If he is unable to hold a single man in custody, how could he be expected to hold two thousand (Templars)?" The pope immediately ordered all remaining Templar brothers at the Curia imprisoned, excommunicated anyone who aided Giacomo, and offered an extraordinary bounty of 10,000 florins for information leading to his capture. 

Giacomo, however, successfully evaded capture, crossing the Alps to northern Italy by mid-March 1308, and reaching his home region. This is documented by a letter with which he gave a proxy to the Preceptor of the Templar house of Milan to act in his name. Giacomo signed this document with his full titles (General Preceptor of the Templar Knights of Lombardy, Tuscia, Land of Rome and of Sardinia) as if to challenge the king of France and the pope, whose protection he had felt was not reliable. He apparently avoided prosecution during subsequent trials. His name re-appeared in documents from Piedmont dated 1311 and 1314, without the title of Commander. In 1316 the bishop of Ivrea even granted him -unless it was another man with the same name- a parish not very far from Montecucco, the lordship of which had belonged to his ancestors.

Giacomo's decision to flee was a wise one. From the a list of seven leading Templar dignitaries whose judgement Clement V, in 1312, eventually took personally upon himself, the last Templar Master Jacques de Molay and the Preceptor of Normandy, Geoffroy de Charny, were burned in Paris on March 18, 1314. Two other dignitaries, Hugues de Pairaud and Geoffroy de Gonneville, were at the same day sentenced to lifetime imprisonment, and may well have died in jail, Hugues not before 1321. Only the second pontifical cubicular, Olivier de Penne, who unlike Giacomo remained loyal to the pope, probably was from 1313 to 1318 Commander of the former Templar house of La Capelle-Livron in southwestern France, which passed to the Hospital, though a case of "different person, same name" may not be excluded. 

This blog is mainly based on, and quotes minor fragments of, the paper The Flight of the Master of Lombardy (13 February 1308) and Clément V's Strategy in the Templar Affair: A Slap in the Pope's Face by Julien Théry, 2016, Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia, 70/1 p. 35-44. Additional sources and/or further reading Barber, M. (2006). The Trial of the Templars, Cambridge University Press; Frale, B. (2004). The Chinon Chart: Papal Absolution to the Last Templar Master Jacques de Molay. Journal of Medieval History, 30(2), 109-134; Menache, S. (1998). Clement V. Cambridge University Press; Nicholson, H. J. (2009). The Knights Templar on Trial: The Trial of the Templars in the British Isles, 1308-1311. The History Press; Théry, J. (2013). A Heresy of State: Philip the Fair, the Trial of the 'Perfidious Templars', and the Pontificalization of the French Monarchy, Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures, 39(2), 117-148. The illustration shows a miniature (originally in color) depicting Pope Innocent IV (the predecessor of Clement V), sitting on a throne. On the sides of the Pope stand two soldiers, dressed in green and armed with sword and shield. The helmet of the first soldier is adorned with two wings; the shield of the other, all red, is marked with the papal keys. The soldiers might depict two Templar Knights, serving as Chamberlains, or members of their security detail. Source: G. Gerola (1929, La iconografia di Innocenzo IV e lo stemma pontificio, «Archivio della Reale Società Romana di Storia Patria» 52 (1929), 471-84, consulted October 14, 2025. Fair Use intended.

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