whole episcopate of France was engaged during the remainder of the year
1308 and through 1309 and 1310. All this, however, concerned merely the
members of the Order as individuals. The fate of the Templar possessions
depended upon the judgment to be rendered on the Order as a body
corporate, and for this purpose Clement had assigned for it a day on
which it was to appear by its syndics and procurators before the Council
of Vienne, to put in its defence and show cause why it should not be
abolished. Seeing that the officers and members were scattered in prison
throughout Europe, this was a manifest impossibility, and some method
was imperatively required by which they could, at least constructively,
be represented, if only to hear their sentence. Among the bulls of
August 12, 1308, therefore, there was one creating a commission, with
the Archbishop of Narbonne at its head, authorized to summon before it
all the Templars of France, to examine them, and to report the result.
Subsequent bulls of May, 1309, directed the commission to set to work,
and notified Philippe concerning it. August 8, 1309, the commission
assembled in the abbey of Sainte-Genevieve, and by letters addressed to
all the archbishops of the kingdom cited all Templars to appear before
them on the first working-day after Martinmas, and the Order itself to
appear by its syndics and procurators at the Council of Vienne, to
receive such sentence as God should decree. On the appointed day,
November 12, the commissioners reassembled, but no Templars appeared.
For a week they met daily, and daily the form was gone through of a
proclamation by the apparitor that if any one wished to appear for the
Order or its members the commission was ready to listen to him kindly,
but without result. On examining the replies of the prelates they were
found to have imperfectly fulfilled their duty. Philippe evidently
regarded the whole proceeding with distrust, and was not inclined to aid
it. A somewhat peremptory communication on November 18 was addressed to
the Bishop of Paris, explaining that their proceedings were not against
individuals, but against the whole Order; that no one was to be forced
to appear, but that all who so chose must be allowed to come. This
brought the bishop before them on November 22, with explanations and
apologies; and a summons to Philippe de Vohet and Jean de Jamville, the
papal and royal custodians of the Templars, brought those officials to
promise obedience. Yet the obstacles to the performance of their task
did not disappear. On the 22d they were secretly informed that some
persons had come to Paris in lay garments to defend the Order, and had
been thrown in prison. Thereupon they sent for Jean de Plublaveh,
_prévôt_ of the Châtelet, who said that by royal order he had arrested
seven men said to be Templars in disguise, who had come with money to
engage advocates in defence of the Order, but on torturing two of them
he had found this not to be the case. The matter proved to be of little
significance except as manifesting the purpose of the king to control
the action of the commission.[314]
At length the commission succeeded in securing the presence of de Molay,
of Hugues de Peraud, and of some of the brethren confined in Paris. De
Molay said he was not wise and learned enough to defend the Order, but
he would hold himself vile and miserable if he did not attempt it. Yet
he was a prisoner and penniless; he had not four deniers to spend, and
only a poor serving brother with whom to advise; he prayed to have aid
and counsel, and he would do his best. The commissioners reminded him
that trials for heresy were not conducted according to legal forms, that
advocates were not admitted, and they cautioned him as to the risk he
incurred in defending the Order after the confession which he had made.
Kindly they read over to him the report of the cardinals as to his
confession at Chinon; and on his manifesting indignation and
astonishment, Guillaume de Plaisian, who seems to have been watching the
proceedings on the part of the king, gave him, as we have already seen,
another friendly caution which closed his lips. He asked for delay, and
when he reappeared Guillaume de Nogaret was there to take advantage of
any imprudence. From the papal letters which had been read to him he
learned that the pope had reserved him and the other chiefs of the Order
for special judgment, and he therefore asked to have the opportunity of
appearing before the papal tribunal without delay. The shrewdness of
this device thus made itself apparent. It separated the leaders from the
rest; de Molay, Hugues de Peraud, and Geoffroi de Gonneville were led to
hope for special consideration, and selfishly abandoned their followers.
As for the brethren, their answers to the commission were substantially
that of Géraud de Caux--he was a simple knight, without horse, arms, or
land; he knew not how, and could not defend the Order.[315]
By this time Philippe seems to have been satisfied that no harm could
come from the operations of the commission. His opposition disappeared,
and he graciously lent them his assistance. November 28, a second
summons was sent to the bishops threatening them with papal indignation
for a continuance of their neglect, and, what was far more efficacious,
it was accompanied with orders from Philippe directing his jailers to
afford to the episcopal officials access to the imprisoned Templars,
while the baillis were instructed to send to Paris, under sure guard,
all Templars desiring to defend their Order.[316]
February 3, 1310, was the day named in this new citation. By the 5th
Templars began to pour in, nearly all eager to defend their Order. They
accumulated until the commission was embarrassed how to deal with them,
and finally, on March 28, five hundred and forty-six who had offered to
defend were assembled in the garden of the episcopal palace, where the
commissioners explained to them what was proposed, and suggested that
they should nominate six or eight or ten of their number to act as
procurators; they would not again have an opportunity of meeting, and
the commission would proceed on the 31st, but the procurators should
have access to them in their several prisons, and should agree with them
as to what defence should be offered. A promiscuous crowd, whose
differences of dialect rendered intercommunication impossible, abandoned
by their natural leaders and thus suddenly brought together, was not
fitted for deliberation on so delicate an emergency. Many hesitated
about acting without orders from the Master, for all initiative on the
part of subordinates was strictly forbidden by the Rule. The
commissioners seem to have been sincerely desirous of getting the matter
into some sort of shape, and finally, on the 31st, they ordered their
notaries to visit the houses in which the Templars were confined and
report their wishes and conclusions. This was a process requiring time,
and the reports of the notaries after making their daily rounds are
pitiful enough. The wretched prisoners floundered helplessly when called
upon to resolve as to their action. Most of them declared the Order to
be pure and holy, but knew not what to do in the absence of their
superiors. There was a general clamor, often on bended knees, for
readmission to the sacraments. Many begged to be assured that when they
died they should be buried in consecrated ground; others offered to pay
for a chaplain out of the miserable allowance doled to them; some asked
that the allowance be increased, others that they should have clothes to
cover their nakedness. They were urgent in the impossible request that
they should have experts and learned men to advise with and appear for
them, for they were simple and illiterate, chained in prison and unable
to act; and they further begged that security should be given to
witnesses, as all who had confessed were threatened with burning if they
should retract. A paper presented April 4 by those confined in the house
of the Abbot of Tiron is eloquent in its suggestiveness as to their
treatment, for the houses in which they were quartered had apparently
taken them on speculation. They assert the purity of the Order and their
readiness to defend it as well as men can who are fettered in prison and
pass the night in dark fosses. They further complain of the
insufficiency of their allowance of twelve deniers a day, for they pay
three deniers each per day for their beds; for hire of kitchen, napery,
and cloths, two sols six deniers per week; two sols for taking off and
replacing their fetters when they appear before the commission; for
washing, eighteen deniers a fortnight; wood and candles, four deniers a
day, and ferriage across from Nôtre Dame, sixteen deniers. It is evident
that the poor creatures were exploited relentlessly.[317]
The outcome of the matter was that on April 7 nine representatives
presented a paper in the name of all, declaring that without authority
from the Master and Convent they could not appoint procurators, but they
offer themselves one and all in defence of the Order, and ask to be
present at the council or wherever it is on trial. They declare the
charges to be horrible and impossible lies fabricated by apostates and
fugitives expelled for crime from the Order, confirmed by torturing
those who uphold the truth, and encouraging liars with recompenses and
great promises. It is wonderful, they say, to see greater faith reposed
in those corrupted thus by worldly advantage than in those who, like the
martyrs of Christ, have died in torture with the palm of martyrdom, and
in the living who, for conscience' sake, have suffered and daily suffer
in their dungeons so many torments, tribulations, and miseries. In the
universal terror prevailing they pray that when the brethren are
examined there may be present no laymen or others whom they may fear,
and that security may be assured them, for all who have confessed are
daily threatened with burning if they retract. In reply the
commissioners disavowed responsibility for their ill-usage, and promised
to ask that they be humanely treated in accordance with the orders of
the Cardinal of Palestrina, to whom they had been committed by the pope.
The Grand Master, they added, had been urged to defend the Order, but
had declined, and claimed that he was reserved for the pope.[318]
Having thus given the Templars a nominal opportunity for defence, the
commissioners proceeded to take testimony, appointing four of the
representatives, Renaud de Provins, Preceptor of Orleans, Pierre de
Boulogne, procurator of the Order in the papal court, and Geoffroi de
Chambonnet and Bertrand de Sartiges, knights, to be present at the
swearing of the witnesses, and to do what might be requisite without
constituting them formal defenders of the Order. These four on April 13
presented another paper in which, after alluding to the tortures
employed to extort confessions, they stated it to be a notorious fact
that to obtain testimony from Templars sealed royal letters had been
given them promising them liberty and large pensions for life, and
telling them that the Order was permanently abolished. This was
evidently intended as a protest to pave the way for disabling the
adverse witnesses, which, as we have seen, was the only defence in the
inquisitorial process, and with the same object they also asked for the
names of all witnesses. They did not venture to ask for a copy of the
evidence, but they earnestly requested that it should be kept secret, to
avert the danger that might otherwise threaten the witnesses. Subject to
the interruption of the Easter solemnities, testimony, mostly adverse to
the Order, continued to be taken up to May 9, from witnesses apparently
carefully selected for the purpose. On Sunday, May 10, the commissioners
were suddenly called together, at the request of Renaud de Provins and
his colleagues, to receive the startling announcement that the
provincial Council of Sens, which had been hastily assembled at Paris,
proposed to prosecute all the Templars who had offered to defend the
Order. Most of these had previously confessed; they had heroically taken
their lives in their hands when, by asserting the purity of the Order,
they had constructively revoked their confessions. The four Templars
therefore appealed to the commissioners for protection, as the action of
the council would fatally interfere with the work in hand; they demanded
_apostoli_, and that their persons and rights and the whole Order should
be placed under the guardianship of the Holy See, and time and money be
allowed to prosecute the appeal. They further asked the commissioners to
notify the Archbishop of Sens to take no action while the present
examination was in progress, and that they be sent before him with one
or two notaries to make a protest, as they can find no one who dares to
draw up such an instrument for them. The commissioners were sorely
perplexed and debated the matter until evening, when they recalled the
Templars to say that while they heartily compassionated them they could
do nothing, for the Archbishop of Sens and the council were acting under
powers delegated by the pope.[319]
It was no part of Philippe's policy to allow the Order any opportunity
to be heard. The sudden rally of nearly six hundred members, after their
chiefs had been skilfully detached from them, and their preparations for
defence at the approaching council promised a struggle which he
proceeded to crush at the outset with his customary unscrupulous energy.
The opportunity was favorable, for after long effort he had just
obtained from Clement the archbishopric of Sens (of which Paris was a
suffragan see) for a youthful creature of his own, Philippe de Marigny,
brother of his minister Enguerrand, who took possession of the dignity
only on April 5. The bull _Faciens misericordiam_ had prescribed that,
after the bishops had completed their inquests, provincial councils were
to be called to sit in judgment on the individual brethren. In pursuance
of this, the king through his archbishops was master of the situation.
Provincial councils were suddenly called, that for Sens to meet at
Paris, for Reims at Senlis, for Normandy at Pont de l'Arche, and for
Narbonne at Carcassonne, and a demonstration was organized which should
paralyze at once and forever all thought of further opposition to his
will. No time was wasted in any pretence of judicial proceedings, for
the canon law provided that relapsed heretics were to be condemned
without a hearing. On the 11th the Council of Sens was opened at Paris.
On the 12th, while the commissioners were engaged in taking testimony,
word was brought them that fifty-four of those who had offered to defend
the Order had been condemned as relapsed heretics for retracting their
confessions, and were to be burned that day. Hastily they sent to the
council Philippe de Vohet, the papal custodian of the Templars, and
Amis, Archdeacon of Orleans, to ask for delay. Vohet, they said, and
many others asserted that the Templars who died in prison declared on
peril of their souls that the crimes alleged were false; Renaud de
Provins and his colleagues had appealed before them from the council; if
the proposed executions took place the functions of the commission would
be impeded, for the witnesses that day and the day before were crazed
with terror and wholly unfit to give evidence. The envoys hurried to the
council-hall, where they were treated with contempt and told that it was
impossible that the commission could have sent such a message. The
fifty-four martyrs were piled in wagons and carried to the fields near
the convent of S. Antoine, where they were slowly tortured to death with
fire, refusing all offers of pardon for confession, and manifesting a
constancy which, as a contemporary tells us, placed their souls in great
peril of damnation, for it led the people into the error of believing
them innocent. The council continued its work, and a few days later
burned four more Templars, so that if there were any who still proposed
to defend the Order they might recognize what would be their fate. It
ordered the bones of Jean de Tourne, former treasurer of the Temple, to
be exhumed and burned; those who confessed and adhered to their
confessions were reconciled to the Church and liberated; those who
persisted in refusing to confess were condemned to perpetual prison.
This was rather more humane than the regular inquisitorial practice, but
it suited the royal policy of the moment. A few weeks later, at Senlis,
the Council of Reims burned nine more; at Pont de l'Arche three were
burned, and a number at Carcassonne.[320]
This ferocious expedient accomplished its purpose. When, on the day
after the executions at Paris, May 13, the commission opened its
session, the first witness, Aimery de Villiers, threw himself on his
knees, pale and desperately frightened; beating his breast and
stretching forth his hands to the altar, he invoked sudden death and
perdition to body and soul if he lied. He declared that all the crimes
imputed to the Order were false, although he had, under torture,
confessed to some of them. When he had yesterday seen his fifty-four
brethren carried in wagons to be burned, and heard that they had been
burned, he felt that he could not endure it and would confess to the
commissioners or to any one else whatever might be required of him, even
that he had slain the Lord. In conclusion he adjured the commissioners
and the notaries not to reveal what he had said to his jailers, or to
the royal officials, for he would be burned like the fifty-four. Then a
previous witness, Jean Bertrand, came before the commission to
supplicate that his deposition be kept secret on account of the danger
impending over him. Seeing all this, the commission felt that during
this general terror it would be wise to suspend its sittings, and it did
so. It met again on the 18th to reclaim fruitlessly from the Archbishop
of Sens, Renaud de Provins, who had been put on trial before the
council. Pierre de Boulogne was likewise snatched away and could not be
obtained again. Many of the Templars who had offered to defend the Order
made haste to withdraw, and all effort to provide for it an organized
hearing before the Council of Vienne was perforce abandoned. Whether
Clement was privy to this high-handed interruption of the functions of
his commission is perhaps doubtful, but he did nothing to rehabilitate
it, and his quiescence rendered him an accomplice. He had only
succeeded in betraying to a fiery death the luckless wretches whom he
had tempted to come forward.[321]
On April 4, by the bull _Alma Mater_, Clement had postponed the Council
of Vienne from October, 1310, until October, 1311, in consequence of the
inquisition against the Templars requiring more time than had been
expected. There was, therefore, no necessity for haste on the part of
the commission, and it adjourned until November 3. Its members were long
in getting together, and it did not resume its sessions until December
17. Then Guillaume de Chambonnet and Bertrand de Sartiges were brought
before it, when they protested that they could not act for the Order
without the aid of Renaud de Provins and Pierre de Boulogne. These, the
commission informed them, had solemnly renounced the defence of the
Order, had returned to their first confessions, and had been condemned
to perpetual imprisonment by the Council of Sens, after which Pierre had
broken jail and fled. The two knights were offered permission to be
present at the swearing of the witnesses, with opportunity to file
exceptions, but they declared themselves unfitted for the task and
retired. Thus all pretence of affording the Order a chance to be heard
was abandoned, and the subsequent proceedings of the commission became
merely an _ex parte_ accumulation of adverse testimony. It sat until
June, industriously hearing the witnesses brought before it: but as
those were selected by Philippe de Vohet and Jean de Jamville, care was
evidently taken as to the character of the evidence that should reach
it. Most of the witnesses, in fact, had been reconciled to the Church
through confession, abjuration, and absolution, and no longer belonged
to the Order which they had abandoned to its fate. Among the large
number of Templars who had refused to confess, only a few, and these
apparently by accident, were allowed to appear before it. There were
also a few who dared to retract what they had stated before the bishops,
but with these slender exceptions all the evidence was adverse to the
Order. In fact, it frequently happened that witnesses were sworn who
never reappeared to give their testimony, and that this was not
accidental is rendered probable by the fact that Renaud de Provins was
one of these. Finally, on June 5, the commission closed its labors and
transmitted without comment to Clement its records as part of the
material to guide the judgment of the assembled Church at the Council of
Vienne.[322]
* * * * *
Before proceeding to the last scene of the drama at Vienne, it is
necessary to consider briefly the action taken with the Templars outside
of France. In England, Edward II., on October 30, 1307, replied to
Philippe's announcement of October 16, to the effect that he and his
council have given the most earnest attention to the matter; it has
caused the greatest astonishment, and is so abominable as to be
well-nigh incredible, and, to obtain further information, he had sent
for his Seneschal of Agen. So strong were his convictions and so earnest
his desire to protect the threatened Order that on December 4 he wrote
to the Kings of Portugal, Castile, Aragon, and Naples that the
accusations must proceed from cupidity and envy, and begging them to
shut their ears to detraction and do nothing without deliberation, so
that an Order so distinguished for purity and honor should not be
molested until legitimately convicted. Not content with this, on the
10th he replied to Clement that the reputation of the Templars in
England for purity and faith is such that he cannot, without further
proof, believe the terrible rumors about them, and he begs the pope to
resist the calumnies of envious and wicked men. In a few days, however,
he received Clement's bull of November 22, and could no longer doubt the
facts asserted by the head of Christendom. He hastened to obey its
commands, and on the 15th elaborate orders were already prepared and
sent out to all the sheriffs in England, with minute instructions to
capture all the Templars on January 10, 1308, including directions as to
the sequestration and disposition of their property, and this was
followed on the 20th by similar commands to the English authorities in
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Possibly Edward's impending voyage to
Boulogne to marry Isabella, the daughter of Philippe le Bel, may have
had something to do with his sudden change of purpose.[323]
The seizure was made accordingly, and the Templars were kept in
honorable durance, not in prison, awaiting papal action; for there seems
to have been no disposition on the part either of Church or State to
take the initiative. The delay was long, for though commissions were
issued August 12, 1308, to the papal inquisitors, Sicard de Lavaurand
the Abbot of Lagny, they did not start until September, 1309, and on the
13th of that month the royal safe-conducts issued for them show their
arrival in England. Then instructions were sent out to arrest all
Templars not yet seized and gather them together in London, Lincoln, and
York, for the examinations to be held, and the bishops of those sees
were strictly charged to be present throughout. Similar orders were sent
to Ireland and Scotland, where the inquisitors appointed delegates to
attend to the matter. It apparently was not easy to get the officials to
do their duty, for December 14 instructions were required to all the
sheriffs to seize the Templars who were wandering in secular habits
throughout the land, and in the following March and again in January,
1311, the Sheriff of York was scolded for allowing those in his custody
to wander abroad. Popular sympathy evidently was with the inculpated
brethren.[324]
At length, on October 20, 1309, the papal inquisitors and the Bishop of
London sat in the episcopal palace to examine the Templars collected in
London. Interrogated singly on all the numerous articles of accusation,
they all asserted the innocence of the Order. Outside witnesses were
called in who mostly declared their belief to the same effect, though
some gave expression to the vague popular rumors and scandalous stories
suggested by the secrecy of proceedings within the Order. The
inquisitors were nonplussed. They had come to a country whose laws did
not recognize the use of torture, and without it they were powerless to
accomplish the work for which they had been sent. In their disgust they
finally applied to the king, and on December 15 they obtained from him
an order to the custodians of the prisoners to permit the inquisitors
and episcopal ordinaries to do with the bodies of the Templars what they
pleased, "in accordance with ecclesiastical law"--ecclesiastical law, by
the hideous perversion of the times, having come to mean the worst of
abuses, from which secular law still shrank. Either the jailers or the
episcopal officials interposed difficulties, for the mandate was
repeated March 1, 1310, and again March 8, with instructions to report
the cause if the previous one had not been obeyed. Still no evidence
worth the trouble was gained, though the examinations were prolonged
through the winter and spring until May 24, when three captured
fugitives were induced by means easily guessed to confess what was
wanted, of which use was made to the utmost. At length Clement grew
impatient under this lack of result. On August 6 he wrote to Edward that
it was reported that he had prohibited the use of torture as contrary to
the laws of the kingdom, and that the inquisitors were thus powerless to
extract confessions. No law or usage, he said, could be permitted to
override the canons provided for such cases, and Edward's counsellors
and officials who were guilty of thus impeding the Inquisition were
liable to the penalties provided for that serious offence, while the
king himself was warned to consider whether his position comported with
his honor and safety, and was offered remission of his sins if he would
withdraw from it--perhaps the most suggestive sale of an indulgence on
record. Similar letters at the same time were sent to all the bishops of
England, who were scolded for not having already removed the impediment,
as they were in duty bound to do. Under this impulsion Edward, August
26, again ordered that the bishops and inquisitors should be allowed to
employ ecclesiastical law, and this was repeated October 6 and 23,
November 22, and April 28, 1311--in the last instances the word torture
being used, and in all of them the king being careful to explain that
what he does is through reverence for the Holy See. August 18, 1311,
similar instructions were sent to the Sheriff of York.[325]
Thus for once the papal Inquisition found a foothold in England, but
apparently its methods were too repugnant to the spirit of the nation to
be rewarded with complete success. In spite of examinations prolonged
for more than eighteen months, the Templars could not be convicted. The
most that could be accomplished was, that in provincial councils held in
London and York in the spring and summer of 1311, they were brought to
admit that they were so defamed for heresy that they could not furnish
the purgation required by law; they therefore asked for mercy and
promised to perform what penance might be enjoined on them. Some of
them, moreover, submitted to a form of abjuration. The councils ordered
them scattered among different monasteries to perform certain penance
until the Holy See should decide as to the future of the Order. This was
the final disposition of the Templars in England. A liberal provision of
fourpence a day was made for their support, while two shillings was
assigned to William de la More, the Master of England, and on his death
it was continued to Humbert Blanc, the Preceptor of Auvergne, who,
fortunately for himself, was in England at the time of arrest, and was
caught there. This shows that they were not regarded as criminals, and
the testimony of Walsingham is that in the monasteries to which they
were assigned they comported themselves piously and righteously in every
respect. In Ireland and Scotland their examinations failed to procure
any proof against the Order, save the vague conjectures and stories of
outside witnesses industriously gathered together.[326]
* * * * *
In Lorraine, as soon as news came of the seizure in France, the
Preceptor of Villencourt ordered the brethren under him to shave and
abandon their mantles, which was virtually releasing them from the
Order. Duke Thiebault followed the exterminating policy of Philippe
with complete success. A large number of the Templars were burned, and
he managed to secure most of their property.[327]
In Germany our knowledge of what took place is somewhat fragmentary. The
Teutonic Order afforded a career for the German chivalry, and the
Templars were by no means so numerous as in France, their fate was not
so dramatic, and it attracted comparatively little attention from the
chroniclers. One annalist informs us that they were destroyed with the
assent of the Emperor Henry on account of their collusion with the
Saracens in Palestine and Egypt, and their preparation for establishing
a new empire for themselves among the Christians, which shows how little
impression on the popular mind was made by the assertion of their
heresies. For the most part, indeed, the action taken depended upon the
personal views of the princely prelates who presided over the great
archbishoprics. Burchard III. of Magdeburg was the first to act. Obliged
to visit the papal court in 1307 to obtain the pallium, he returned in
May, 1308, with orders to seize all the Templars in his province; and as
he was already hostile to them, he obeyed with alacrity. There were but
four houses in his territories: on these and their occupants he laid his
hands, leading to a long series of obscure quarrels, in which he
incurred excommunication from the Bishop of Halberstadt, which Clement
hastened to remove; by burning some of the more obstinate brethren,
moreover, he involved himself in war with their kindred, in which he
fared badly. As late as 1318 the Hospitallers are found complaining to
John XXII. that Templars were still in possession of the greater portion
of their property.[328]
The bull _Faciens misericordiam_ of August, 1308, sent to the German
prelates, reserved, with Clement's usual policy, the Grand Preceptor of
Germany for papal judgment. With the exception of Magdeburg, its
instructions for active measures received slack obedience. It was not
to much purpose that, on December 30 of the same year, he wrote to the
Duke of Austria to arrest all the Templars in his dominions, and
commissioned the Ordinaries of Mainz, Trèves, Cologne, Magdeburg,
Strassburg, and Constance as special inquisitors within their several
dioceses, while he sent the Abbot of Crudacio as inquisitor for the rest
of Germany, ordering the prelates to pay him five gold florins a day. It
was not until 1310 that the great archbishops could be got to work, and
then the results were disappointing. Trèves and Cologne, in fact, made
over to Burchard of Magdeburg, in 1310, their authority as commissioners
for the seizure of the Templar lands, and Clement confirmed this with
instructions to proceed with vigor. As regards the persons of the
Templars, at Trèves an inquest was held in which seventeen witnesses
were heard, including three Templars, and resulting in their acquittal.
At Mainz the Archbishop Peter, who had incurred Clement's displeasure by
transferring to his suffragans his powers as commissioner over the
Templar property, was at length forced to call a provincial council. May
11, 1310. Suddenly and unbidden there entered the Wild and Rheingraf,
Hugo of Salm, Commander of Grumbach, with twenty knights fully armed.
There were fears of violence, but the archbishop asked Hugo what he had
to say: the Templar asserted the innocence of the Order; those who had
been burned had steadfastly denied the charges, and their truth had been
proved by the crosses on their mantles remaining unburned--a miracle
popularly believed, which had much influence on public opinion. He
concluded by appealing to the future pope and the whole Church, and the
archbishop, to escape a tumult, admitted the protest. Clement, on
hearing of these proceedings, ordered the council to be reassembled and
to do its work. He was obeyed. The Wildgraf Frederic of Salm, brother of
Hugo and Master of the Rhine-province, offered to undergo the red-hot
iron ordeal, but it was unnecessary. Forty-nine witnesses, of whom
thirty-seven were Templars, were examined, and all swore to the
innocence of the Order. The twelve non-Templars, who were personages of
distinction, were emphatic in their declarations in its favor. Among
others, the Archpriest John testified that in a time of scarcity, when
the measure of corn rose from three sols to thirty-three, the commandery
at Mostaire fed a thousand persons a day. The result was a verdict of
acquittal, which was so displeasing to the pope that he ordered
Burchard of Magdeburg to take the matter in hand and bring it to a more
satisfactory conclusion. Burchard seems to have eagerly obeyed but the
results have not reached us. Archbishop Peter continued to hope for some
adjustment, and when, after the Council of Vienne, he was forced to hand
over the Templar property to the Hospitallers, he required the latter to
execute an agreement to return the manor of Topfstadt if the pope should
restore the Order.[329]
* * * * *
In Italy the Templars were not numerous, and the pope had better control
over the machinery for their destruction. In Naples the appeal of Edward
II. was in vain. The Angevine dynasty was too closely allied to the
papacy to hesitate, and when a copy of the bull _Pastoralis
proeeminentioe_, of November 21, 1307, was addressed to Robert, Duke of
Calabria, son of Charles II., there was no hesitation in obedience.
Orders were speedily sent out to all the provinces under the Neapolitan
crown to arrest the Templars and sequestrate their property. Philip,
Duke of Achaia and Romania, the youngest son of Charles, was forthwith
commanded to carry out the papal instructions in all the possessions in
the Levant. January 3, 1308, the officials in Provence and Forcalquier
were instructed to make the seizure January 23. The Order was numerous
in those districts, but the members must have mostly fled, for only
forty-eight were arrested, who are said to have been tried and executed,
but a document of 1318 shows that Albert de Blacas, Preceptor of Aix and
St. Maurice, who had been imprisoned in 1308, was then still enjoying
the Commandery of St. Maurice, with consent of the Hospitallers. The
Templar movables were divided between the pope and king, and the landed
possessions were made over to the Hospital. In the kingdom of Naples
itself, some fragmentary reports of the papal commission sent in 1310
to obtain evidence against the Order as a whole and against the Grand
Preceptor of Apulia, Oddo de Valdric, show that no obstacle was thrown
in the way of the inquisitors in obtaining by the customary methods the
kind of testimony desired. The same may be said of Sicily, where, as we
have seen, Frederic of Aragon had admitted the Inquisition in 1304.[330]
In the States of the Church we have somewhat fuller accounts of the
later proceedings. Although we know nothing of what was done at the time
of arrest, there can be no doubt that in a territory subjected directly
to Clement his bull of November 22, 1307, was strictly obeyed; that all
members of the Order were seized and that appropriate means were
employed to secure confessions. When the papal commission was sent to
Paris to afford the Order an opportunity to prepare its defence at the
Council of Vienne, similar commissions, armed with inquisitorial powers,
were despatched elsewhere, and the report of Giacomo, Bishop of Sutri,
and Master Pandolfo di Sabello, who were commissioned in that capacity
in the Patrimony of St. Peter, although unfortunately not complete,
gives us an insight into the real object which underlay the ostensible
purpose of these commissions. In October, 1309, the inquisitors
commenced at Rome, where no one appeared before them, although they
summoned not only members of the Order, but every one who had anything
to say about it. In December they went to Viterbo, where five Templars
lay in prison, who declined to appear and defend the Order. In January,
1310, they proceeded to Spoleto without finding either Templars or other
witnesses. In February they moved to Assisi, where they adopted the form
of ordering all Templars and their fautors to be brought before them,
and this they repeated in March at Gubbio, but in both places without
result. In April, at Aquila, they summoned witnesses to ascertain
whether the Templars had any churches in the Abruzzi, but not even the
preceptor of the Hospitallers could give them any information. All the
Franciscans of the place were then assembled, but they knew nothing to
the discredit of the Order. A few days later, at Penna, they adopted a
new formula by inviting all Templars and others who desired to defend
the Order to appear before them. Here two Templars were found, who were
personally summoned repeatedly, but they refused, saying that they would
not defend the Order. One of them, Walter of Naples, was excused, owing
to doubts as to his being a Templar, but the other, named Cecco, was
brought before the inquisitors and told them of an idol kept for worship
in the treasure-chamber of a preceptory in Apulia. In May, at Chieti,
they succeeded in getting hold of another Templar, who confessed to
renouncing Christ, idol-worship, and other of the charges. By May 23
they were back in Rome issuing citations, but again without result. The
following week they were back at Viterbo, resolved to procure some
evidence from the five captives imprisoned there, but the latter again
sent word that none of them wished to appear before the inquisitors or
to defend the Order. Five times in all they were summoned and five times
they refused, but the inquisitors were not to be balked. Four of the
prisoners were brought forward, and by means which can readily be
guessed were induced to talk. From the 7th of June to the 19th, the
inquisitors were employed in receiving their depositions as to
renouncing Christ, spitting on the cross, etc., all of which was duly
recorded as free and spontaneous. On July 3 the commissioners were at
Albano issuing the customary summons, but on the 8th their messenger
reported that he could find no Templars in Campania and Maritima; and a
session at Velletri on the 16th was similarly fruitless. The next day
they summoned other witnesses, but eight ecclesiastics who appeared had
nothing to tell. Then at Segni they heard five witnesses without
obtaining any evidence. Castel Fajole and Tivoli were equally barren,
but on the 27th, at Palombara, Walter of Naples was brought to them from
Penna, the doubts as to his membership of the Order having apparently
been removed. Their persistence in this case was rewarded with full
details of heretical practices. Here the record ends, the industrious
search of nine months through these extensive territories having
resulted in finding eight Templars, and obtaining seven incriminating
depositions.[331] Even making allowance for those who may have succeeded
in escaping, it shows, like the rest of the Italian proceedings, how
scanty were the numbers of the Order in the Peninsula.
In the rest of Italy Clement's bull of 1307, addressed to the
archbishops and ordering an inquest, seems to have been somewhat slackly
obeyed. The earliest action on record is an order, in 1308, of Frà
Ottone, Inquisitor of Lombardy, requiring the delivery of three Templars
to the Podestà of Casale. Some further impulsion apparently was
requisite, and in 1309 Giovanni, Archbishop of Pisa, was appointed
Apostolic Nuncio in charge of the affair throughout Tuscany, Lombardy,
Dalmatia, and Istria, with a stipend of eight florins _per diem_, to be
assessed on the Templar property. In Ancona the Bishop of Fano examined
one Templar who confessed nothing, and nineteen other witnesses who
furnished no incriminating evidence, and in Romagnuola, Rainaldo,
Archbishop of Ravenna, and the Bishop of Rimini interrogated two
Templars at Cesena, both of whom testified to the innocence of the
Order. The archbishop, who was papal inquisitor against the Templars in
Lombardy, Tuscany, Tarvisina, and Istria, seems to have extended his
inquest over part of Lombardy, though no results are recorded. Papal
letters were published throughout Italy, empowering the inquisitors to
look after the Templar property, of which the Archbishops of Bologna and
Pisa were appointed administrators; it was farmed out and the proceeds
remitted to Clement. Rainaldo of Ravenna sympathized with the Templars,
and no very earnest efforts were to be expected of him. He called a
synod at Bologna in 1309, where some show was made of taking up the
subject, but no results were reached, and when, in 1310, his vicar,
Bonincontro, went to Ravenna with the papal bulls, he made no secret of
his favor towards the accused. At length Rainaldo was forced to action,
and issued a proclamation, November 25, 1310, reciting the papal
commands to hold provincial councils for the examination and judgment of
the Templars, in obedience to which he summoned one to assemble at
Ravenna in January, 1311, calling upon the inquisitors to bring thither
the evidence which they had obtained by the use of torture. The council
was held and the matter discussed, but no conclusion was reached.
Another was summoned to meet at Bologna on June 1, but was transferred
to Ravenna and postponed till June 18. To this the bishops were ordered
to bring all Templars of their dioceses under strict guard, the result
of which was that on June 16, seven knights were produced before the
council. They were sworn and interrogated _seriatim_ on all the
articles as furnished by the pope, which they unanimously denied. The
question was then put to the council whether they should be tortured,
and it was answered in the negative, in spite of the opposition of two
Dominican inquisitors present. It was decided that the case should not
be referred to the pope, in view of the nearness of the Council of
Vienne, but that the accused should be put upon their purgation. The
next day, however, when the council met this action was reversed and
there was a unanimous decision that the innocent should be acquitted and
the guilty punished, reckoning among the innocent those who had
confessed through fear of torture and had revoked, or who would have
revoked but for fear of repetition of torture. As for the Order as a
whole, the council recommended that it should be preserved if a majority
of the members were innocent, and if the guilty were subjected to
abjuration and punishment within the Order. In addition to the seven
knights there were five brethren who were ordered to purge themselves by
August 1, before Uberto, Bishop of Bologna, with seven conjurators; of
these the purgations of two are extant, and doubtless all succeeded in
performing the ceremony. It was no wonder that Clement was indignant at
this reversal of all inquisitorial usage and ordered the burning of
those who had thus relapsed--though the command was probably not obeyed,
as Bishop Bini assures us that no Templars were burned in Italy. The
council further, in appointing delegates to Vienne, instructed them that
the Order should not be abolished unless it was found to be thoroughly
corrupted. For Tuscany and Lombardy, Clement appointed as special
inquisitors Giovanni, Archbishop of Pisa, Antonio, Bishop of Florence,
and Pietro Giudici of Rome, a canon of Verona. These were instructed to
hold the inquests, one upon the brethren individually and one upon the
Order. They were troubled with no scruples as to the use of torture and,
as we shall presently see, secured a certain amount of the kind of
testimony desired. Venice kindly postponed the inevitable uprooting of
the Order, and when it eventually took place there was no unnecessary
hardship.[332]
Cyprus was the headquarters of the Order. There resided the marshal,
Ayme d'Osiliers, who was its chief in the absence of the Grand Master,
and there was the "Convent," or governing body. It was not until May,
1308, that the papal bull commanding the arrest reached the island, and
there could be no pretence of a secret and sudden seizure, for the
Templars were advised of what had occurred in France. They had many
enemies, for they had taken an active part in the turbulent politics of
the time, and it had been by their aid that the regent, Amaury of Tyre,
had been placed in power. He hastened to obey the papal commands, but
with many misgivings, for the Templars at first assumed an attitude of
defence. Resistance, however, was hopeless, and in a few weeks they
submitted; their property was sequestrated and they were kept in
honorable confinement, without being deprived of the sacraments. This
continued for two years, until, in April, 1310, the Abbot of Alet and
the Archpriest Tommaso of Rieti came as papal inquisitors to inquire
against them individually and the Order in general, under the guidance
of the Bishops of Limisso and Famagosta. The examination commenced May 1
and continued until June 5, when it came abruptly to an end, in
consequence, doubtless, of the excitement caused by the murder of the
Regent Amaury. All the Templars on the island, seventy-five in number,
together with fifty-six other witnesses, were duly interrogated upon the
long list of articles of accusation. That the Templars were unanimous in
denying the charges and in asserting the purity of the Order shows that
torture cannot have been employed. More convincing as to their innocence
is the evidence of the other witnesses, consisting of ecclesiastics of
all ranks, nobles, and burghers, many of them political enemies, who yet
rendered testimony emphatically favorable. As some of them said, they
knew nothing but good of the Order. All dwelt upon its liberal
charities, and many described the fervor of the zeal with which the
Templars discharged their religious duties. A few alluded to the popular
suspicions aroused by the secrecy observed in the holding of chapters
and the admission of neophytes; the Dominican Prior of Nicosia spoke of
the reports brought from France by his brethren after the arrest and
Simon de Sarezariis, Prior of the Hospitallers, said that he had had
similar intelligence sent to him by his correspondents, but the evidence
is unquestionable that in Cyprus, where they were best known, among
friends and foes, and especially among those who had been in intimate
relations with the Templars for long periods, there was general sympathy
for the Order, and that there had been no evil attributed to it until
the papal bulls had so unqualifiedly asserted its guilt. All this, when
sent to Clement, was naturally most unsatisfactory, and when the time
approached for the Council of Vienne, he despatched urgent orders, in
August, 1311, to have the Templars tortured so as to procure
confessions. What was the result of this we have no means of
knowing.[333]
* * * * *
In Aragon, Philippe's letter of October 16, 1307, to Jayme II. was
accompanied with one from the Dominican, Fray Romeo de Bruguera,
asserting that he had been present at the confession made by de Molay
and others. Notwithstanding this, on November 17 Jayme, like Edward II.,
responded with warm praises of the Templars of the kingdom, whom he
refused to arrest without absolute proof of guilt or orders from the
pope. To the latter he wrote two days later for advice and instructions,
and when, on December 1, he received Clement's bull of November 22, he
could hesitate no longer. Ramon, Bishop of Valencia, and Ximenes de
Luna, Bishop of Saragossa, who chanced to be with him, received orders
to make in their respective dioceses diligent inquisition against the
Templars, and Fray Juan Llotger, Inquisitor-general of Aragon, was
instructed to extirpate the heresy. As resistance was anticipated, royal
letters were issued December 3 for the immediate arrest of all members
of the Order and the sequestration of their property, and the inquisitor
published edicts summoning them before him in the Dominican Convent of
Valencia, to answer for their faith, and prohibiting all local officials
from rendering them assistance. Jayme also summoned a council of the
prelates to meet January 6, 1308, to deliberate on the subject with the
inquisitor. A number of arrests were effected; some of the brethren
shaved and threw off their mantles and succeeded in hiding themselves;
some endeavored to escape by sea with a quantity of treasure, but
adverse storms cast them back upon the coast and they were seized. The
great body of the knights, however, threw themselves into their castles.
Ramon Sa Guardia, Preceptor of Mas Deu in Roussillon, was acting as
lieutenant of the Commander of Aragon, and fortified himself in Miravet,
while others occupied the strongholds of Ascon, Montço, Cantavieja,
Vilell, Castellot, and Chalamera. On January 20, 1308, they were
summoned to appear before the Council of Tarragona, but they refused,
and Jayme promised the prelates that he would use the whole forces of
the kingdom for their subjugation. This proved no easy task. The
temporal and spiritual lords promised assistance, except the Count of
Urgel, the Viscount of Rocaberti, and the Bishop of Girona; but public
sympathy was with the Templars. Many noble youths embraced their cause
and joined them in their castles, while the people obeyed slackly the
order to take up arms against them. The knights defended themselves
bravely. Castellot surrendered in November, soon after which Sa Guardia,
in Miravet, rejected the royal ultimatum that they should march out with
their arms and betake themselves by twos and threes to places of
residence, from which they were not to wander farther than two or three
bow-shots, receiving a liberal allowance for their support, while the
king should ask the pope to order the bishops and inquisitors to
expedite the process. In response to this Sa Guardia addressed Clement a
manly appeal, pointing out the services rendered to religion by the
Order; that many knights captured by the Saracens languished in prison
for twenty or thirty years, when by abjuring they could at once regain
their liberty and be richly rewarded--seventy of their brethren were at
that moment enduring such a fate. They were ready to appear in judgment
before the pope, or to maintain their faith against all accusers by
arms, as was customary with knights, but they had no prelates or
advocates to defend them, and it was the duty of the pope to do so. A
month after this Miravet was forced to surrender at discretion, and in
another month all the rest, except Montço and Chalamera, which held out
until near July, 1309. Clement at once took measures to get possession
of the Templar property, but Jayme refused to deliver it to the papal
commissioners, alleging that most of it had been derived from the
crown, and that he had made heavy outlays on the sieges; the most that
he would promise was that if the council should abolish the Order he
would surrender the property, subject to the rights and claims of the
crown. Clement seems to have sought a temporary compromise. In letters
of January 5, 1309, he announces that the Templars of Aragon and
Catalonia, like faithful sons of the Church, had written to him offering
to surrender their persons and property to the Holy See, and to obey his
commands in every way; he therefore sends his chaplain, Bertrand, Prior
of Cessenon, to receive them and transfer them to the custody and care
of the king, taking from him sealed letters that he holds them in the
name of the Holy See. Whether Jayme assented to this arrangement as to
the property does not appear, but he was not punctilious about the
persons of the Templars, and on July 14 he issued orders to the viguiers
to deliver them to the inquisitor and ordinaries when required. In 1310
Clement sent to Aragon, as elsewhere, special papal inquisitors to
conduct the trials. They were met by the same difficulties as in
England: in Aragon torture was not recognized by the law, and in 1325 we
find the Cortes protesting against its use and against the inquisitorial
process as infractions of the recognized liberties of the land, and the
king admitting the protest and promising that such methods should not be
employed except for counterfeiters, and then only in the case of
strangers and vagabonds. Still the inquisitors did what they could. At
their request the king, July 5, 1310, ordered his baillis to put the
Templars in irons and to render their prison harsher. Then the Council
of Tarragona interfered and asked that they be kept in safe but not
afflictive custody, seeing that nothing had as yet proved their guilt,
and their case was still undecided. In accordance with this, on October
20, the king ordered that they should be free in the castles where they
were confined, giving their parole not to escape under pain of being
reputed heretics. This was not the way to obtain the desired evidence,
and Clement, March 18, 1311, ordered them to be tortured, and asked
Jayme to lend his aid to it, seeing that the proceedings thus far had
resulted only in "vehement suspicion." This cruel command was not at
first obeyed. In May the Templars prayed the king to urge the Archbishop
of Tarragona to have their case decided in the council then impending,
and Jayme accordingly addressed the archbishop to that effect, but
nothing was done, and in August he ordered them to be again put in
chains and harshly imprisoned. The papal representatives were evidently
growing impatient, as the time set for the Council of Vienne was
approaching, and the papal demands for adverse evidence remained
unsatisfied. Finally, on the eve of the assembling of the council, the
king yielded to the pope. September 29 he issued an order appointing
Umbert de Capdepont, one of the royal judges, to assist at the judgment,
when sentence should be rendered by the inquisitors, Pedro de Montclus
and Juan Llotger, along with the Bishops of Lerida and Vich, who had
been especially commissioned by the pope. We have no knowledge of the
details of the investigation, but there is evidence that torture was
unsparingly used, for there is a royal letter of December 3 ordering
medicaments to be prepared for those of the Templars who might need them
in consequence of sickness or torture. At last, in March, 1312, the
Archbishop of Tarragona asked to have them brought before his provincial
council, then about to assemble, and the king assented, but nothing was
done, probably because the Council of Vienne was still in session; but
after the dissolution of the Order had been proclaimed by Clement, and
the fate of the members was relegated to the local councils, one was
held, October 18, 1312, at Tarragona, which decided the question so long
pending. The Templars were brought before it and rigorously examined.
November 4 the sentence was publicly read, pronouncing an unqualified
acquittal from all the errors, crimes, and impostures with which they
were charged; they were declared beyond suspicion, and no one should
dare to defame them. In view of the dissolution of the Order the council
was somewhat puzzled to know what to do with them, but after prolonged
debate it was determined that until the pope should otherwise decree
they should reside in the dioceses in which their property lay,
receiving proper support from their sequestrated lands. This decree was
carried out, and when the property passed into the hands of the
Hospitallers it was burdened with these charges. In 1319 a list of
pensions thus payable by the Hospitallers would seem to show that the
Templars were liberally provided for, and received what was due to
them.[334]
Jayme I. of Majorca was in no position to resist the pressure brought
upon him by Philippe le Bel and Clement. His little kingdom consisted of
the Balearic Isles, the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne, the
Seignory of Montpellier and a few other scattered possessions at the
mercy of his powerful neighbor. He promptly therefore obeyed the papal
bull of November 22, 1307, and by the end of the month the Templars in
his dominions were all arrested. In Roussillon the only preceptory was
that of Mas Deu, which was one of the strongholds of the land, and there
the Templars were collected and confined to the number of twenty-five,
including the Preceptor, Ramon Sa Guardia, the gallant defender of
Miravet, who after his surrender was demanded by the King of Majorca and
willingly joined his comrades. We know nothing of what took place on the
islands beyond the fact of the arrest, but on the mainland we can follow
with some exactness the course of events. Roussillon constituted the
diocese of Elne, which was suffragan to the archbishopric of Narbonne.
May 5, 1309, the archbishop sent to Ramon Costa, Bishop of Elne, the
articles of accusation with the papal bull ordering an inquest. The good
bishop seems to have been in no haste to comply, but, pleading illness,
postponed the matter until January, 1310. Then, in obedience to the
instructions, he summoned two Franciscans and two Dominicans, and with
two of his cathedral canons he proceeded to interrogate the prisoners.
It is evident that no torture was employed, for in their prolonged
examinations they substantially agreed in asserting the purity and piety
of the Order, and their chaplain offered in evidence their book of
ritual for receptions in the vernacular, commencing, "_Quan aleum proom
requer la compaya de la Mayso_." With manly indignation they refused to
believe that the Grand Master and chiefs of the Order had confessed to
the truth of the charges, but if they had done so they had lied in their
throats--or, as one of them phrased it, they were demons in human skin.
With regard to the cord of chastity, an humble peasant serving brother
explained not only that it was procured wherever they chose, but that if
it chanced to break while ploughing it was at once temporarily replaced
with one made of reeds. The voluminous testimony was forwarded, with a
simple certificate of its accuracy, by Bishop Ramon, August 31, 1310,
which shows that he was in no haste to transmit it. It could have proved
in no sense satisfactory, and there can be little doubt that the cruel
orders of Clement, in March, 1311, to procure confessions by torture
were duly obeyed, for Jean de Bourgogne, sacristan of Majorca, was
appointed by Clement inquisitor for the Templars in Aragon, Navarre, and
Majorca, and the same methods must unquestionably have been followed in
all the kingdoms. After the Council of Vienne there ensued a rather
curious controversy between the archbishops of Tarragona and Narbonne on
the subject. The former, with the Bishop of Valencia, was papal
custodian of Templar property in Aragon, Majorca, and Navarre. He seems
thus to have imagined that he held jurisdiction over the Templars of
Roussillon, for, October 15, 1313, he declared Ramon Sa Guardia absolved
and innocent, and directed him to live with his brethren at Mas Deu,
with a pension of three hundred and fifty livres, and the use of the
gardens and orchards, the other Templars having pensions ranging from
one hundred to thirty livres. Yet, in September, 1315, Bernard,
Archbishop of Narbonne, ordered Bishop Ramon's successor Guillen to
bring to the provincial council which he had summoned all the Templars
imprisoned in his diocese, together with the documents relating to their
trials, in order that their persons might be disposed of. King Jayme I.
had died in 1311, but his son and successor, Sancho, intervened, saying
that Clement had placed the Templars in his charge, and he would not
surrender them without a papal order--the papacy at that time being
vacant, with little prospect of an early election. He added that if they
were to be punished it belonged to him to have them tried in his court,
and to protect his jurisdiction he appealed to the future pope and
council. This was effectual, and the Templars remained undisturbed. A
statement of pensions paid in 1319 shows that of the twenty-five
examined at Mas Deu in 1310 ten had died; the remainder, with one
additional brother, were drawing pensions amounting in the aggregate to
nine hundred and fifty livres a year. On the island of Majorca there
were still nine whose total pensions were three hundred and sixty-two
livres ten sols. In 1329 there were still nine Templars receiving
pensions allotted on the Preceptory of Mas Deu, though most of them had
retired to their houses, for they do not appear to have been restricted
as to their place of residence. By this time the indomitable Ramon Sa
Guardia's name had disappeared. One by one they dropped off, until in
1350 there was but a single survivor, the knight Berenger dez Coll.[335]
In Castile no action seems to have been taken until the bull _Faciens
misericordiam_ of August 12, 1308, was sent to the prelates ordering
them to act in conjunction with the Dominican, Eymeric de Navas, as
inquisitor. Fernando IV. then ordered the Templars arrested, and their
lands placed in the hands of the bishops until the fate of the Order
should be determined. There was no alacrity, however, in pursuing the
affair, for it was not until April 15, 1310, that Archbishop Gonzalo of
Toledo cited the Master of Castile, Rodrigo Ybañez, and his brethren to
appear before him at Toledo. For the province of Compostella, comprising
Portugal, the archbishop held a council at Medina del Campo, where
thirty Templars and three other witnesses were examined, all of whom
testified in favor of the Order; a priest swore that he had heard the
confessions of many Templars on their death-beds, as well as others
mortally wounded by the infidel, and all were orthodox. No better
success attended inquests held by the Bishop of Lisbon at Medina Celi
and Orense. The only judicial action of which we have notice was that of
the Council of Salamanca for the province of Compostella, where the
Templars were unanimously acquitted, and the cruel orders to torture
them issued the next year by Clement seem to have been disregarded.
After the Order was dissolved the Templars for the most part continued
to lead exemplary lives. Many retired to the mountains and ended their
days as anchorites, and after death their bodies remained incorruptible,
in testimony of the saintliness of their martyrdom.[336]
Portugal belonged ecclesiastically to the province of Compostella, and
the Bishop of Lisbon, commissioned to investigate the Order, found no
ground for the charges. The fate of the Templars there was exceptionally
fortunate, for King Diniz, grateful for their services in his wars with
the Saracens, founded a new Order, that of Jesus Christ, or de Avis, and
procured its approval in 1318 from John XXII. To this safe refuge the
Templars and their lands were transferred, the commander and many of the
preceptors retaining their rank, and the new Order was thus merely a
continuation of the old.[337]
* * * * *
The period finally set for the Council of Vienne was approaching, and
thus far Clement had failed to procure any evidence of weight against
the Templars beyond the boundaries of France, where bishop and
inquisitor had been the tools of Philippe's remorseless energy. Clement
may at the first have been Philippe's unwilling accomplice, but if so he
had long since gone too far to retract. Whether, as believed by many of
his contemporaries, he was sharing the spoils, is of little moment. He
had committed himself personally to all Europe, in the bull of November
22, 1307, to the assertion of the Templars' guilt, and had repeated this
emphatically in his subsequent utterances, with details admitting of no
retraction or explanation; he, as well as they, was on trial before
Christendom, and their acquittal by the council would be his conviction.
He was, therefore, no judge, but an antagonist, forced by the instinct
of self-preservation to destroy them, no matter through what
unscrupulous methods. As the council drew near his anxiety increased,
and he cast around for means to secure the testimony which should
justify him by proving the heresy of the Order. We have seen how he
urged Edward II. to introduce torture into the hitherto unpolluted
courts of England, and how he succeeded in having the brethren of Aragon
tortured in violation of the liberties of the land. These were but
specimens of a series of bulls, perhaps the most disgraceful that ever
proceeded from a vicegerent of God. From Cyprus to Portugal, prince and
prelate were ordered to obtain confessions by torture; in some places,
he said, it had been negligently and imprudently omitted, and the
omission must be repaired. The canons required that in such cases those
who refused to confess must be submitted to a "religious torturer" and
the truth thus be forced from them. So earnest was he that he wrote to
his legate in Rhodes to go to Cyprus and personally see that it was
done. The result in such cases was to be sent to him as speedily as
possible.[338]
How much of human agony these inhuman orders caused can never be known.
It was not merely that those who had hitherto been spared the rack were
now subjected to it, but, in the eagerness to supplement the evidence on
hand, those who had already undergone torture were brought from their
dungeons and again subjected to it with enhanced severity, in order to
obtain from them still more extravagant admissions of guilt. Thus at
Florence thirteen Templars had been duly inquisitioned in 1310, and some
of them had confessed. Under the fresh papal urgency the inquisitors
again assembled in September, 1311, and put them through a fresh series
of examinations. Six of them yielded testimony in every way
satisfactory--the adoration of idols and cats and the rest. Seven of
them, however, were obstinate, and testified to the innocence of the
Order. The inquisitors showed their appreciation of what Clement wanted
by sending him only the six confessions. The other seven brethren, they
reported, had been duly tortured, but had stated nothing that was worth
the sending, as they were serving brethren or newly initiated members
who, presumably, were ignorant--although elsewhere the most damaging
evidence had been obtained from such brethren and utilized. Clement
evidently knew his man when he selected the Archbishop of Pisa as the
head of this inquisition. We happen to have another illustration of the
results of Clement's urgency in preparing for the council. In the
Château d'Alais the Bishop of Nîmes held thirty-three Templars who had
already been examined and confessions extorted from some of them, which
had mostly been retracted. Under Clement's orders for fresh tortures
twenty-nine survivors of these (four having meanwhile died in prison)
were brought out in August, 1311. Some of them had already been
tortured three years before, but now all were tortured again, with the
result of obtaining the kind of testimony required, including
demon-worship.[339]
In spite of all these precautions it required the most arbitrary use of
both papal and kingly influence to force from the council a reluctant
assent to what was evidently regarded by Christendom as the foulest
injustice. It is, perhaps, significant that the acts of the council
vanished from the papal archives, and we are left to gather its
proceedings from such fragmentary allusions as occur in contemporary
chroniclers and from the papal bulls which record its results. Good
orthodox Catholics have even denied to it the right to be considered
OEcumenic, in spite of the presence of more than three hundred bishops
from all the states of Europe, the presidency of a pope, and the book of
canon laws which was adopted in it, no one knows how.[340]
The first question to be settled was Clement's demand that the Order
should be condemned without a hearing. He had, as we have seen, solemnly
summoned it to appear, through its chiefs and procurators, before the
council, and had ordered the Cardinal of Palestrina, whom he had
appointed their custodian, to present them for that purpose; he had
organized a commission expressly to listen to those who were willing to
defend it, and to arrange for them to nominate procurators, and he had
uttered no protest when Philippe's savage violence had put an end to the
attempt. Now the council had met and the chiefs of the Order were not
brought before it. The subject was too delicate a one to be trusted to
the body of the council, and a picked convocation was formed of prelates
selected from the nations represented--Spain, France, Italy, Germany,
Hungary, England, Ireland, and Scotland--to discuss the matter with the
pope and cardinals. On a day in November, while this body was listening
to the reports sent in by the inquisitors, suddenly there appeared
before them seven Templars offering to defend the Order in the name,
they said, of fifteen hundred or two thousand brethren, refugees who
were wandering in the mountains of the Lyonnais. In place of hearing
them, Clement promptly cast them into prison, and when, a few days
later, two more, undeterred by the fate of their predecessors, made a
similar attempt, they were likewise incarcerated. Clement's principal
emotion was fear for his own life from the desperation of the outcasts,
leading him to take extra precautions and to advise Philippe to do the
same. This was not calculated to make the prelates feel less keenly the
shame of what they were asked to do, for which the only reason alleged
was the injury to the Holy Land arising from the delay to be anticipated
from discussion; and when the matter came to a vote only one Italian
bishop and three Frenchmen (the Archbishops of Sens, Reims, and Rouen,
who had burned the relapsed Templars) were found to record themselves in
favor of the infamy of condemning the Order unheard. They might well
hesitate. In Germany, Italy, and Spain provincial councils had solemnly
declared that they could find no evil in the Order or its members. In
England the Templars had only confessed themselves defamed of heresy. In
France alone had there been any general confession of guilt. Even if
individuals were guilty, they had been condemned to appropriate penance,
and there was no warrant for destroying without a hearing so noble a
member of the Church Militant as the great Order of the Temple.[341]
Clement vainly used every effort to win over the Council. The most that
he could do was to prolong the discussion until the middle of February,
1313, when Philippe, who had called a meeting of the Three Estates at
Lyons, hard by Vienne, came thence with Charles de Valois, his three
sons and a following numerous enough to impress the prelates with his
power. A royal order of March 14 to the Seneschal of Toulouse to make a
special levy to defray the expenses of the delegates sent by that city
successively to Tours, Poitiers, Lyons, and Vienne, "on the business of
the faith or of the Templars," shows how the policy, begun at Tours, of
overawing the Church by pressure from the laity of the kingdom was
unscrupulously pursued to the end. Active discussions followed. Philippe
had dexterously brought forward again the question of the condemnation
of Boniface VIII. for heresy, which he had promised, a year previous, to
abandon. It was an impossibility to grant this without impugning the
legitimacy of Boniface's cardinals and of Clement's election, but it
served the purpose of affording an apparent concession. The combined
pressure brought to bear upon the council became too strong for further
resistance, and the Gordian knot was resolutely severed. In a secret
consistory of cardinals and prelates held March 22, Clement presented
the bull _Vox in excelso_, in which he admitted that the evidence did
not canonically justify the definitive condemnation of the Order, but he
argued that it had been so scandalized that no honorable men hereafter
could enter it, that delay would lead to the dilapidation of its
possessions with consequent damage to the Holy Land, and that,
therefore, its provisional abolition by the Holy See was expedient.
April 3 the second session of the council was held, in which the bull
was published, and Clement apologized for it by explaining that it was
necessary to propitiate his dear son, the King of France. If the popular
belief was that the sentence was rendered by Philippe's command, it was
not without justification. Thus, after all this cruelty and labor, the
Order was abolished without being convicted. There can be little doubt
that the council acquiesced willingly in this solution of the question.
The individual members were thus relieved of responsibility, and they
felt that the Order had been so foully dealt with that policy required
injustice to be carried out to the bitter end.[342]
The next point to be determined was the disposition of the Templar
property, which gave rise to a long and somewhat bitter debate. Various
plans were proposed, but finally Clement succeeded in procuring its
transfer to the Hospitallers. It may not be true that they bribed him
heavily to accomplish this, but such a belief prevailed extensively at
the time, and sufficiently illustrates the estimate entertained of him
by his contemporaries. May 2 the bull _Ad providam_ announced that,
although in view of the proceedings thus far had the Order could not
legally be suppressed, it was provisionally and irrevocably abolished by
apostolic ordinance; it was placed under perpetual inhibition, and any
one presuming to enter it or to assume its habit incurred _ipso facto_
excommunication. All the property of the Order was assumed by the Holy
See, and was transferred to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem,
saving in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Majorca, and Portugal. As
early as August, 1310, Jayme of Aragon had urged his brother monarchs to
unite with him in defending their claims before the papal court; and
though he disregarded Clement's invitation to appear in person before
the council to state his reasons, the three kings took care to have
their views energetically represented. Elsewhere, all who occupied and
detained such property, no matter what their rank or station, were
required, under pain of excommunication, to hand it over to the
Hospitallers within a month after summons. This bull was sent to all
princes and prelates, and the latter were instructed to enforce the
surrender of the property by a vigorous use of excommunication and
interdict.[343]
The burning question as to the property being thus settled, the less
material one as to the persons of the Templars was shuffled off by
referring them to their provincial councils for judgment, with the
exception of the chiefs of the Order still reserved to the Holy See. All
fugitives were cited to appear within a year before their bishops for
examination and sentence; failure to do so incurred _ipso facto_
excommunication, which if endured for another year became condemnation
for heresy. General instructions were given that the impenitent and
relapsed were to be visited with the utmost penalties of the law. Those
who, even under torture, denied all knowledge of error afforded a
problem insoluble to the wisdom of the council and were referred to the
provincial councils to be treated as justice and the equity of the
canons required: to those who confessed, the rigor of justice should be
tempered with abundant mercy. They were to be placed in the former
houses of the Order or in monasteries, taking care that no great number
should be herded together, and be decently maintained out of the
property of the Order. Interest in the subject, however, passed away
with the alienation of the property, and few provincial councils seem to
have been held save those of Tarragona and Narbonne already mentioned.
Many Templars rotted to death in their dungeons; some of the so-called
"relapsed" were burned; many wandered over Europe as homeless vagabonds;
others maintained themselves as best they might by manual labor. In
Naples, curiously enough, John XXII. in 1318 ordered them to be
supported by the Dominicans and Franciscans. When some attempted to
marry, John XXII. pronounced that their vows were still binding and
their marriages void, thus admitting that their reception had been
regular and not vitiated. He likewise assumed their orthodoxy when he
permitted them to enter other Orders. A certain number of them did so,
especially in Germany, where their fate was less bitter than elsewhere,
and where the Hospitallers welcomed them by formal resolution of the
Conference of Frankfurt-am-Mayn in 1317. The last Preceptor of
Brandenburg, Frederic of Alvensleben, was received into the Hospital
with the same preferment. In fact, popular sympathy in Germany seems to
have led to the assignment to them of revenues of which the Hospitallers
complained as an insupportable burden, and in 1318 John XXII. ordered
that they should not be so provided for as to enable them to lay up
money and live luxuriously, but should have merely a living and garments
suited to spiritual persons.[344]
There remained to be disposed of de Molay and the other chiefs reserved
by Clement for his personal judgment--a reservation which, as we have
seen, by inspiring them with selfish hopes, led them to abandon their
brethren. When this purpose had been accomplished Clement for a while
seemed to forgot them in their drear captivity. It was not till December
22, 1313, that he appointed a commission of three cardinals, Arnaud of
S. Sabina, Nicholas of S. Eusebio, and Arnaldo of S. Prisca, to
investigate the proceedings against them and to absolve or condemn, or
to inflict penance proportionate to their offences, and to assign to
them on the property of the Order such pensions as were fitting. The
cardinals dallied with their duty until March 19, 1314, when, on a
scaffold in front of Nôtre Dame, de Molay, Geoffroi de Charney, Master
of Normandy, Hugues de Peraud, Visitor of France, and Godefroi de
Gonneville, Master of Aquitaine, were brought forth from the jail in
which for nearly seven years they had lain, to receive the sentence
agreed upon by the cardinals, in conjunction with the Archbishop of Sens
and some other prelates whom they had called in. Considering the
offences which the culprits had confessed and confirmed, the penance
imposed was in accordance with rule--that of perpetual imprisonment. The
affair was supposed to be concluded when, to the dismay of the prelates
and wonderment of the assembled crowd, de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney
arose. They had been guilty, they said, not of the crimes imputed to
them, but of basely betraying their Order to save their own lives. It
was pure and holy; the charges were fictitious and the confessions
false. Hastily the cardinals delivered them to the Prévôt of Paris, and
retired to deliberate on this unexpected contingency, but they were
saved all trouble. When the news was carried to Philippe he was furious.
A short consultation with his council only was required. The canons
pronounced that a relapsed heretic was to be burned without a hearing;
the facts were notorious and no formal judgment by the papal commission
need be waited for. That same day, by sunset, a pile was erected on a
small island in the Seine, the Isle des Juifs, near the palace garden.
There de Molay and de Charney were slowly burned to death, refusing all
offers of pardon for retraction, and bearing their torment with a
composure which won for them the reputation of martyrs among the people,
who reverently collected their ashes as relics. It remained for a modern
apologist of the Church to declare that their intrepid self-sacrifice
proved them to be champions of the devil. In their death they triumphed
over their persecutor and atoned for the pusillanimity with which they
had abandoned those committed to their guidance. Hugues de Peraud and
the Master of Aquitaine lacked courage to imitate them, accepted their
penance, and perished miserably in their dungeons. Raimbaud de Caron,
the Preceptor of Cyprus, had doubtless been already released by
death.[345]
The fact that in little more than a month Clement died in torment of the
loathsome disease known as lupus, and that in eight months Philippe, at
the early age of forty-six, perished by an accident while hunting,
necessarily gave rise to the legend that de Molay had cited them before
the tribunal of God. Such stories were rife among the people, whose
sense of justice had been scandalized by the whole affair. Even in
distant Germany Philippe's death was spoken of as a retribution for his
destruction of the Templars, and Clement was described as shedding tears
of remorse on his death-bed for three great crimes, the poisoning of
Henry VI. and the ruin of the Templars and Beguines. An Italian
contemporary, papalist in his leanings, apologizes for introducing a
story of a wandering outcast Templar carried from Naples to the presence
of Clement, bearding him to his face, condemned to the stake, and from
the flames summoning him and Philippe to the judgment-seat of God within
the year, which was marvellously fulfilled. These tales show how the
popular heart was stirred and how the popular sympathies were
directed.[346]
In fact, outside of France, where, for obvious reasons, contemporary
opinion was cautious in expression, the downfall of the Templars was
very largely attributed to the remorseless cupidity of Philippe and
Clement. Even in France public sentiment inclined in their favor.
Godefroi de Paris evidently goes as far as he dares when he says:
"Dyversement de ce l'en parle,
Et ou monde en est grant bataille--
--L'en puet bien décevoir l'yglise
Mès l'en ne puet en nule guise
Diex décevoir. Je n'en dis plus:
Qui voudra dira le seurplus."
It required courage animated by a lofty sense of duty when, at the
height of the persecution, the Dominican, Pierre de la Palu, one of the
foremost theologians of the day, voluntarily appeared before the papal
commission in Paris to say that he had been present at many examinations
where some of the accused confessed the charges and others denied them,
and it appeared to him that the denials were worthy of confidence
rather than the confessions.[347] As time wore on the conviction as to
their innocence strengthened. Boccaccio took their side. St. Antonino of
Florence, whose historical labors largely influenced opinion in the
fifteenth century, asserted that their downfall was attributable to the
craving for their wealth, and popular writers in general adopted the
same view. Even Raynaldus hesitates and balances arguments on either
side, and Campi assures us that in Italy, in the seventeenth century,
they were regarded by many as saints and martyrs. At length, about the
middle of the seventeenth century, the learned Du Puy undertook to
rehabilitate the memory of Philippe le Bel in a work of which the array
of documentary evidence renders it indispensable to the student.
Gürtler, who followed him with a history of the Templars, is evidently
unable to make up his mind. Since then the question has been argued pro
and con with a vehemence which promises to leave it one of the unsettled
problems of history.[348]
Be this as it may, Philippe obtained the object of his desires. After
1307 his financial embarrassments visibly decreased. There was not only
the release from the obligation of the five hundred thousand livres
which he had borrowed of the Order, but its vast accumulations of
treasure and of valuables of all kinds fell into his hands and were
never accounted for. He collected all the debts due to it, and his
successors were still busy at that work as late as 1322. The extensive
banking business which the Templars had established between the East and
the West doubtless rendered this feature of the confiscation exceedingly
profitable, and it is safe to assume that Philippe enforced the rule
that debts due by convicted heretics were not to be paid. Despite his
pretence of surrendering the landed estates to the pope, he retained
possession of them till his death and enjoyed their revenues. Even those
in Guyenne, belonging to the English crown, he collected in spite of the
protests of Edward, and he claimed the Templar castles in the English
territories until Clement prevailed upon him to withdraw. The great
Paris Temple, half palace, half fortress, one of the architectural
wonders of the age, was retained with a grip which nothing but death
could loosen. After the property had been adjudged to the Hospitallers,
in May, 1312, by the Council of Vienne with Philippe's concurrence, and
he had formally approved of it in August, Clement addressed him in
December several letters asking his assistance in recovering what had
been seized by individuals--assistance which doubtless was freely
promised; but in June, 1313, we find Clement remonstrating with him over
his refusal to permit Albert de Châteauneuf, Grand Preceptor of the
Hospital, to administer the property either of his own Order or that of
the Temple in France. In 1314 the General Chapter of the Hospital gave
unlimited authority to Leonardo and Francesco de Tibertis to take
possession of all the Temple property promised to the Order, and in
April an _arrêt_ of Parlement recites that it had been given to the
Hospital at Philippe's special request, and that he had invested
Leonardo de Tibertis with it; but there was a reservation that it was
liable for the expenses of the imprisoned Templars and for the costs
incurred by the king in pushing the trials. This was a claim elastic
both in amount and in the time required for settlement. Had Philippe's
life been prolonged it is probable that no settlement would have been
made. As it was, the Hospitallers at last, in 1317, were glad to close
the affair by abandoning to Philippe le Long all claim on the income of
the landed estates which the crown had held for ten years, with an
arrangement as to the movables which virtually left them in the king's
hands. They also assumed to pay the expenses of the imprisoned Templars,
and this exposed them to every species of exaction and pillage on the
part of the royal officials.[349]
In fact, it is the general testimony that the Hospitallers were rather
impoverished than enriched by the splendid gift. There had been a
universal Saturnalia of plunder. Every one, king, noble, and prelate,
who could lay hands on a part of the defenceless possessions had done
so, and to reclaim it required large payments either to the holder or to
his suzerain. In 1286 the Margrave Otto of Brandenburg had entered the
Order of the Temple and had enriched it with extensive domains. These
the Margrave Waldemar seized, and did not surrender till 1322, nor was
the transfer confirmed till 1350, when the Hospital was obliged to pay
five hundred silver marks. In Bohemia many nobles seized and retained
Templar property; the chivalrous King John is said to have kept more
than twenty castles, and Templars themselves managed to hold some and
bequeath them to their heirs. Religious orders were not behindhand in
securing what they could out of the spoils--Dominicans, Carthusians,
Augustinians, Celestinians, all are named as participators. Even the
pious Robert of Naples had to be reminded by Clement that he had
incurred excommunication because he had not surrendered the Templar
property in Provence. In fact, he had secretly sent orders to his
seneschal not to deliver it to the Archbishops of Arles and Embrun, the
commissioners appointed by the pope, and before he was finally obliged
to make it over he realized what he could from it. Perhaps the Hospital
fared better in Cyprus than elsewhere, for when the papal nuncio, Peter,
Bishop of Rhodes, published the bull, November 7, 1313, the Templar
possessions seem to have been made over to it without contest. In
England, even the weakness of Edward II. made a feeble attempt to keep
the property. Clement had ordered him, February 25, 1309, to make it
over to the papal commissioners designated for the purpose, but he seems
to have paid no attention to the command. After the Council of Vienne we
find him, August 12, 1312, expressing to the Prior of the Hospital his
surprise that he is endeavoring under the color of papal letters to
obtain possession of it, to the manifest prejudice of the dignity of the
crown. Much of it had been farmed out and alienated to Edward's
worthless favorites, and he resisted its surrender as long as he dared.
When forced to succumb he did so in a manner as self-abasing as
possible, by executing, November 24, 1313, a notarial instrument to the
effect that he protested against it, and only yielded out of fear of the
dangers to him and his kingdom to be apprehended from a refusal. It may
be doubted whether his orders were obeyed that it should be burdened
with the payment of the allowances to the surviving Templars. He
succeeded, however, in getting a hundred pounds from the Hospitallers
for the London Temple; and in 1317 John XXII. was obliged to intervene
with an order for the restitution of lands still detained by those who
had succeeded in occupying them.[350]
The Spanish peninsula had been excepted from the operation of the bull
transferring the property to the Hospital, but subject to the further
discretion of Clement. As regards the kingdom of Majorca he exercised
this discretion in 1313 by giving King Sancho II. the personal property,
and ordering him to make over the real estate to the Hospital, under
condition that the latter should be subject to the duties which had been
performed by the Temple. Even this did not relieve the Hospitallers from
the necessity of bargaining with King Sancho. It was not until February,
1314, that the lands on the island of Majorca were surrendered to them
in consideration of an annual payment of eleven thousand sols, and an
allowance of twenty-two thousand five hundred sols to be made on the
mesne profits to be accounted for since the donation was made. All
profits previous to that time were to remain with the crown. No
documents are extant to show what was done on the mainland, but
doubtless there was a similar transaction. In addition to this the
pensions of the Templars assigned on the property were a heavy burden
for many years.[351]
In Aragon there was less disposition to accede to the papal wishes.
Constant struggle with the Saracen had left memories of services
rendered, or sharpened the sense of benefits to come from some new Order
devoted wholly to national objects, which could not be expected of a
body like the Hospitallers, whose primary duty was devotion to the Holy
Land. The Templars had contributed largely to all the enterprises which
had enlarged the boundaries of the kingdom. They had rendered faithful
service to the monarchy in the council as well as in the field; to them
was in great part attributed the rescue of Jayme I. from the hands of de
Montfort, and they had been foremost in the glorious campaigns which had
earned for him the title of _el Conquistador_. Pedro III. and Jayme II.
had scarce had less reason for gratitude to them, and the latter, after
sacrificing them, naturally desired to use their forfeited property for
the establishment of a new Order from which he might expect similar
advantages, but Clement's engagements with the Hospitallers were such
that he turned a deaf ear to the king's repeated representations. On
the accession of John XXII., however, matters assumed a more favorable
aspect, and in 1317 Vidal de Vilanova, Jayme's envoy, procured from him
a bull authorizing the formation of the Order of Nuestra Señora de
Montesa, affiliated to the Order of Calatrava, from which its members
were to be drawn. Its duties were defined to be the defence of the
coasts and frontier of Valencia from corsairs and Moors; the Templar
property in Aragon and Catalonia was made over to the Hospitallers,
while the new Order was to have in Valencia not only the possessions of
the Temple, but all those of the Hospital, except in the city of
Valencia and for half a league around it. In 1319 the preliminaries were
accomplished, and the new Order was organized with Guillen de Eril as
its Grand Master.[352]
In Castile Alonso XI. retained for the crown the greater part of the
Templar lands, though, along the frontier, nobles and cities succeeded
in obtaining a portion. Some were given to the Orders of Santiago and
Calatrava, and the Hospitallers received little. After an interval of
half a century another effort was made, and in 1366 Urban V. ordered the
delivery within two months of all the Templar property to the
Hospitallers, but it is safe to assume that the mandate was disregarded,
though in 1387 Clement VII., the Avignonese antipope, confirmed some
exchanges made of Templar property by the Hospitallers with the Orders
of Santiago and Calatrava.[353] Castile, as we have already seen, was
always singularly independent of the papacy. In Portugal, as mentioned
above, the property was handed over as a whole to the Order of Jesus
Christ.
In the Morea, where the Templar possessions were extensive, Clement had,
as early as November 11, 1310, exercised rights of proprietorship by
ordering his administrators, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the
Archbishop of Patras, to lend to Gautier de Brienne, Duke of Athens,
all the proceeds which they had collected, and all that they might
collect for a year to come.[354]
Thus disappeared, virtually without a struggle, an organization which
was regarded as one of the proudest, wealthiest, and most formidable in
Europe. It is not too much to say that the very idea of its destruction
could not have suggested itself, but for the facilities which the
inquisitorial process placed in able and unscrupulous hands to
accomplish any purpose of violence under the form of law. If I have
dwelt on the tragedy at a length that may seem disproportionate, my
apology is that it affords so perfect an illustration of the
helplessness of the victim, no matter how high-placed, when once the
fatal charge of heresy was preferred against him, and was pressed
through the agency of the Inquisition.
* * * * *