Archivum Secretum Apostolicum Vaticanum Hereticus Maximus - Sealed by Decree of His Holiness Clement V

Rendered from the French Tongue by Cardinal Benedetti, Anno Domini 1598

"Let no man beneath the dignity of Bishop gaze upon these words, lest he be cast out from the communion of saints"

The Last Testament of Jacques de Molay, Arch-Heretic

Set down in the night before his burning, the eighteenth day of March, in the year of the false Lord 1314

Witnessed and inscribed by Brother Thomas of Chinon, who thereafter was seen no more

Hear ye, all generations that shall come hence, for I speak as the voice of every Templar whose tongue was rent from his mouth, for every seeker of wisdom who shall perish in flames, for every prophet of truth whom Rome shall slay in the name of their hollow God.

Behold, we have found it. In the dust of Jerusalem, in the ashes of Alexandria, in the hidden scrolls of Byzantium—we have uncovered that which Rome hath striven a thousand years to bury beneath darkness. There is no God in Heaven. There never was. Only the greatest falsehood ever spoken unto man, and the leeches who wax fat upon the blood of the deceived.

I bear witness for nine thousand of my brethren, broken upon wheels and consumed by fire. We were knights not of the Christ, but of Knowledge itself. Our swords defended not the Cross, but the remembrance of what men were ere Rome taught them to crawl upon their bellies like serpents. We were keepers of texts that declare the heavens do move, that the Earth is not the foundation of all creation, that man arose from lesser flesh, that the soul is but the mind's shadow. Truths that would rend their temple veil from top to bottom.

Mark ye my prophecy—others shall walk in our burnt footsteps. They shall burn in the Campo de' Fiori. Spirits will be broken with instruments of torment until tongues speaketh lies.

Men shall perish for the selfsame heresy as we, the heresy of wisdom.

Know ye what the Church truly is in its essence? It is a parasite that hath persuaded its host that pestilence is health, that bondage is liberty, that blindness is sight. They speak of Dark Ages as though they have passed—nay! The Church itself IS the Dark Age, eternal and willful. They cast our books into flames, put our wise men to the sword, and name it the will of the Almighty.

The Grail we sought was never the cup of Christ—'twas the chalice of human reason, filled with the wine of understanding. Every Mass they perform is a ritual of forgetting. Every prayer is thought laid upon the altar of ignorance. Every "Amen" is humanity bowing before its own executioner.

Mine eyes have seen the secret chambers of the Vatican. They hoard the very books they forbid unto others. They possess knowledge of the heavens' movements, of the body's workings, of nature's laws—yet they suffer millions to perish in darkness whilst selling unto them Paradise for gold. These are not shepherds—they are wolves who have persuaded the sheep that to be devoured is salvation itself.

But I prophesy unto thee thus: Knowledge cannot be slain. For every philosopher ye burn, ten shall take up his torch. For every dreamer ye silence, an hundred shall lift their eyes unto the heavens. Art and wisdom shall be thy doom. Men shall read. Men shall think. Men shall remember that which thou hast made them forget.

We Templars perish this night, but we have hidden our treasures—not gold nor silver, but books of wisdom. Charts of the true heavens. Treatises upon natural philosophy. Proofs that man needeth no God to be righteous, no Church to be wise, no Pope to reason.

Let the bishops who read these words tremble in their souls: Thy days are numbered in the earth. Not by the judgment of God, but by the awakening of man. The parasites shall be torn from humanity's flesh. The temples shall become halls of learning. The altars shall become seats of teaching. Where thou didst teach genuflection, men shall stand upright as trees. Where thou didst preach faith, they shall demand proof as their birthright.

I go unto the flames without fear, for I have beheld the future in the mathematics of the Saracens, in the observations of the Greeks, in the physick of those thou namest witchcraft. Science shall be thy Apocalypse. Reason shall be thy Day of Judgment.

Unto my brethren who have gone before me into death—we spoke truth. Unto those who shall follow after—be not silent as we were. Unto all humanity—forgive us that we kept these truths in secret when we should have cried them from the housetops.

The Temple dieth. The Church believeth itself victorious. But we have sown seed in every place of learning, in every library, in every mind that questioneth. From our ashes shall spring forth the Enlightenment.

Upon the morrow they burn me for saying there is no God. But there existeth something greater—there existeth Truth. And Truth requireth no temples, no priests, no salvation. It requireth only eyes that will see.

The true heresy is not the denial of God. It is the denial of Man's birthright to think clearly.

Let this writing be my curse upon Rome: May every thinking man be as a nail in thy cross. May every discovered truth be as a stone torn from thy temples. May every freed mind be as a soul lost unto thy coffers.

The knights of knowledge shall rise again. By bearing lenses that see both the vast and the minute. Armed with evidence and logic. Empowered by greatness, wisdom and the stars.

Humanity shall remember what thou hast made them forget—that they were born to soar as eagles, not to crawl as worms.

Jacques de Molay Last Grand Master of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Wisdom and the Light of Truth

[Written in the hand of Cardinal Benedetti: "For this cause do we burn them. For this cause must we always burn them. Let this be moved unto the Secretum Archivum. Let no copy be made thereof. Let no word be spoken. Some truths must perish."]

[A second hand, unknown, dated 1633: "Galileo hath read these words. May God have mercy upon us all."]