2IO THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
became the headquarters from which they waged a courageous
but hopeless war against Islam.
Jacques de Molay and his band of Templars, reduced to
less than two hundred knights, lingered in Cyprus till 1306.
Then, on June 6th of that year, a letter come from the
Pope to the Grand Master. " We command you to join us
at once ", wrote Clement V, and de Molay unhesitatingly
obeyed the fatal summons.