Heroic death: A melancholic existentialist psychobiography of Jacques de Molay [Author Accepted Manuscript]

This psychobiography aimed to reconstruct the life and death of Jacques de Molay (1243-1314), with particular focus upon his heroism as a mitigating psychological mechanism against the terror of death. Jacques de Molay was purposively sampled as subject. He was the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, an order of knighthood founded during the Crusades and dedicated to the mission of protecting Christian pilgrims and defending the Holy Land. He was confronted by betrayal; arrest; torture; confessions of heresy under duress; and public execution. Jacques de Molay’s life offers an exemplary illustration of the melancholic existentialist theory of Ernest Becker, who posited that mortality creates profound existential anxiety. This drives individuals to seek meaning in a ‘heroic struggle’, as an anxietybuffering mechanism, to stifle the terror of death and dying. This psycho-historical analysis was conducted via the methodology of psychobiography. Publicly available historical and biographical data sources were utilized, and significant evidence across the lifespan of de Molay were extracted using the indicators of biographical salience promulgated by Irving Alexander. Salient themes and events were interpreted via Becker’s melancholic existential theory, with particular emphasis upon heroism. Jacques de Molay’s role as Grand Master represented his heroic dedication to the Knights Templar and their mission. The torture he endured and his refusal to betray the Templars’ ideals exemplified a heroic struggle against mortality. Instead of capitulating to terror and falsehood, de Molay faced his death maturely, thereby achieving existential authenticity and symbolic immortality.