The Knights Templar.

fessed the truth of the crimes , from which they were now endeavouring to exculpate all the Templars ? The very expressions of that defence clearly prove , that those thirteen Templars had not made any confessions . Since they explicitly declare , that if those knig hts who had made any confessions , do not now retract , it is because they are so overwhelmed with terror that they dare not retract , on account of the menaces with which they are daily alarmed : therefore they demand that those unhappy men may , without further risk , render homage to

the truth . Clement V . had regarded as an outrage against his authority those arbitrary measures carried on against them . He declared that to him alone belonged the right to judge and punish them . In consequence he required that the proceedings against the Templars should he carried on in his name ; and he appointed apostolic commissaries to hear the depositions against the Order .

Care was taken to have seventy-two Templars conveyed to Poitiers and presented before the Pope , in order that they should make the criminal confession so much wished for . I admit that those seventy-two chevaliers appeared before the Pontiff ; but they were such only who , previously broken down by torture , or yielding to seduction , mig ht have confessed in hopes of obtaining thereby life and liberty . In France the fate of those sufferers was so insupportable * that history attests that many of them lingered to death in their cells with hunger ; and that despair induced others to put an end to their miserable existence .

It would have been of great importance if Jacques de Molay had been taken before the Pontiff , who had particularly reserved for himself the decision on the fate of that great man and other chiefs of the Order . Without anticipating accounts relative to this Grand Master , I shall only remark that his enemies prevented thio interview , which might have given a favourable turn to their affairs : but instead of this , they appointed commissaries to examine him , and

other chiefs , at Chinon . It is evident that they wanted to transmit to the Pope , only those knights on which they might depend ; that is to say , those who , having apostatised from the Order , might serve as witnesses against the Grand Master in this famous examination , whereof I shall shortly say something more . Neither the names nor the confessions of those seventy-two Templars have

come to light , although it be said they were examined before his holiness . No statement of their examination exists . The agents of Philip sought only to furnish the Pope with motives and pretexts to ruin the Order , and they were successful .

Apostolic commissiaries repaired to Paris , and held that celebrated examination , which comprehended two hundred and thirty-one witnesses . The statement of that examination was read before the fathers of the council of Vienne . It did not afford proofs sufficient to enable them to resolve on the abolition of the Order ; and indeed , but a few observations will suffice to show that it does not merit the least credit from the impartial judge or historian . The greater part of the two hundred and thirty-one witnesses attest the

pretended crimes attributed to the Order . The improbability , inconsistency , and contradiction of those pretended crimes would suffice to invalidate that examination ; but what must be thought of it when it shall be seen of what kind of witnesses it was composed . The apostolic commissaries heard as witnesses the apostate Templars , who from the state of party accused , are transformed into that of accusers against the Order .