Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/151

Rh and the other saints; it was therein also alleged that they performed divers acts of sacrilege, such as spitting and trampling upon the cross and the image of our Saviour. Two articles accused them of worshipping a cat as a mark of contempt for the Christian religion. Then followed eight items accusing them of a repudiation of the sacraments of the church. Six more recorded their belief in the power of the superiors of the Order to grant absolution. Then followed six others, imputing to the fraternity a number of acts during the reception of novices which cannot be further alluded to. Three more made it a crime that the reception was performed in secrecy. Abominations, too disgusting to be named, were the subject of the next seven, after which came twenty-one more, accusing them of the worship of idols, and the remaining articles related to matters of heretical depravity. The idol alluded to as an object of worship was described as having two carbuncles for eyes, “bright as the brightness of heaven,” and as being covered with an old skin embalmed, having the appearance of a piece of polished oil cloth. In their rites and ceremonies to this attractive object of worship they were supposed to roast infants, and to lubricate their idol with the fat. It was also said that they burned the bodies of their deceased brethren, and made the ashes into a powder, which they administered to the novices of the fraternity, to confirm them in their idolatry, together with other abominations too absurd and horrible to be recapitulated.

On the 19th October, 1307, the Grand Inquisitor commenced his examination of the knights confined within the Temple at Paris, whose number amounted to 140. These unfortunate men were, one after the other, subjected to the most fearful tortures under the practised hands of the Dominicans, at that time justly esteemed the most expert torturers of the age.

Whilst these revolting barbarities were being perpetrated in France, Philip had written to Edward II., who had just ascended the throne of England, enumerating the various accusations then being brought against the Order, and urging upon that monarch the advisability of his following the same line of conduct. To this letter Edward sent a reply,