98 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
This old rue des Francs-Masons bears proof that in Moissac there
once existed builder craftsmen benefiting from exemptions; from this it
is hardly an audacious jump to connect their origin to the Benedictines
and Templars.
The Introduction of the Templars
into Builders AssociationsThe last interaction the Templars had with the builders associations was
their own introduction into these groups following the destruction of
the Order.
Certain authors have taken this even further, maintaining that after
the execution of grand master Jacques de Molay, the Order continued
and that he was succeeded by other grand masters without interruption.
Of course, the line of descent varies according to author. For Cadet-
Gassicourt it was the grand master Molay himself who, foreseeing the
tragic end of the Order and his own execution while in his cell at the
Bastille, charged his nephew Beaujeu with the task of creating four
great lodges in Paris, Edinborough, Stockholm, and Naples, whose pur-
pose would be the destruction of spiritual power (the pope) and tem-
poral power (the king).^18 In the Acta Latomorum, Thory explains it as
follows:
Jacques de Molay, foreseeing the misfortunes that threatened an
order whose existence he wished to perpetuate, designated as his
successor Brother Jean-Marc Larmenius of Jerusalem, who
invested the grand masters destined to succeed him with patriar-
chal authority as well as magisterial power by virtue of the charter
of transmission he was given in 1324. The original of this charter,
consigned to the Treasury under the title Tabula aurea by order of
the Temple, contains the acceptance, signed propria manu, of all
the grand masters to have succeeded Larmenius.Baron von Hund, the 1756 creator of the Rite of Strict Observance,
provided this version of the story: After the Order's downfall, the
provincial grand master of Auvergne, Pierre d'Aumont, fled with two