Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/153

Rh countries, the accusations being practically the same, and the result not very dissimilar. Whilst, however, the examinations of the prisoners were prosecuted in England with comparatively little cruelty, those undergone by the unfortunate victims of Philip’s malevolence were coupled with every species of torture which the diabolical ingenuity of the Dominicans could devise. A large number perished under the hands of the questioners, and many more sought a temporary relief from their agonies by confessions which admitted the justice of the accusations brought against them.

There still remained steadfast an heroic band, whose powers of endurance had enabled them to survive the tortures under which their weaker brethren had succumbed, and the constancy of whose courage had carried them through even that fearful trial, and had given them the power manfully and firmly to maintain their innocence to the last. Of these noble examples of the true Christian soldier, fifty-four were burnt alive in Paris in a single day. They died, testifying to the last to the fair fame of their Order, and the fearful injustice of the persecution to which they had fallen victims.

It was at length determined, between the Pope and the king, that matters should be brought to a close; a solemn council was therefore convoked in the winter of 1311, to decide upon the ultimate.fate of the fraternity. The members of this council, ecelesiastics though they were, and antagonistic as they had so often proved themselves to the Templars, shrank, when the critical moment arrived, from the task of utterly annihilating an Order which for so many years had, by its noble deeds in the Christian cause, gained for itself the applause of every gallant spirit throughout Europe. Neither Philip nor Clement was to be turned from his fell purpose by the reluctance of a council of scrupulous ecclesiastics. The latter, in virtue of that plenary authority to which his position entitled him, decreed, on his own responsibility, and without even the form of sanction from the council, the utter and immediate suppression of the fraternity. After much discussion, and a variety of counter propositions, it was decided that all the estates of the Templars throughout Europe were to be transferred to the knights of St. John, the revenues arising therefrom to be consecrated to the defence of