Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/273

 THE TEMPLARS. 257 Philippe's ministers and agents — Guillaume de Nogaret, Guil- laume de Plaisian, Eenaud de Roye, and Enguerrand de Marigny — were quite fitted to appreciate such an opportunity to relieve the royal exchequer, nor could they be at a loss in finding testi- mony upon which to frame a formidable list of charges, for we have already seen how readily evidence was procured from ap- parently respectable witnesses convicting Boniface VIII. of crimes equally atrocious. In the present case the task was easier: the Templars could have been no exception to the general demoraliza- tion of the monastic Orders, and in their ranks there must have been many desperate adventurers, ready for any crime that would bring a profit. Expelled members there were in plenty who had been ejected for their misdeeds, and who could lose nothing by gratifying their resentments. Apostates also were there who had fled from the Order and were liable to imprisonment if caught, besides the crowd of worthless ribalds whom the royal agents could always secure when evidence for any purpose was wanted. These were quietly collected by Guillaume de Nogaret, and kept in the greatest secrecy at Corbeil under charge of the Dominican, Humbert. Heresy was, of course, the most available charge to bring. The Inquisition was there as an unfailing instrument to secure conviction. Popular rumor, no matter by whom affirmed, was sufficient to require arrest and trial, and when once on trial there were few indeed from whom the inquisitorial process could not wring conviction. When once the attempt was determined upon the result was inevitable.* Still, the attempt could not be successful without the concur- rence of Clement V., for the inquisitorial courts, both of the Holy Office and of the bishops, were under papal control, and, besides, public opinion would require that the guilt of the Order should related before the papal commission in March, 1311, show the popular belief that there was a terrible secret in the Order which none of its members dared reveal (Proces, I. 644-5). It is perhaps a coincidence that in 1307 the Teutonic Order was likewise ac- cused of heresy by the Archbishop of Riga. Its Grand Master, Carl Beffart, was summoned by Clement, and with difficulty averted from his Order the fate of the Templars.— Wilcke, II. 118. Joann. de S.Victor. (Bouquet, XXI. 649-50). III.— 17
 * Proces des Templiers, I. 36, 168.— Chron. Anonyme (Bouquet, XXI. 137).—