Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/275

 THE TEMPLARS. 259 ent subsequently had the audacity to declare to all Europe that de Molay before his arrest confessed their truth in the presence of his subordinates and of ecclesiastics and laymen, but this is a manifest lie. The Templars returned to Paris evidently relieved of all anxiety, thinking that they had justified themselves com- pletely, and de Molay, on October 12, the eve of the arrest, had the honor to be one of the four pall-bearers at the obsequies of Catharine, wife of Charles de Valois, evidently for the purpose of lulling him with a sense of security. Nay, more, on August 24, Clement had written to Philippe urging him to make peace with England, and referring to his charges against the Templars in their conversations at Lyons and Poitiers, and the representations on the subject made by his agents. The charges, he says, appear to him incredible and impossible, but as de Molay and the chief of- ficers of the Order had complained of the reports as injurious, and had repeatedly asked for an investigation, offering to submit to the severest punishment if found guilty, he proposes in a few days, on his return to Poitiers, to commence, with the advice of his car- dinals, an examination into the matter, for which he asks the king to send him the proofs.* No impression had evidently thus far been made upon Clement, and he w r as endeavoring, in so far as he dared, to shuffle the affair aside. Philippe, however, had under his hands the machinery requisite to attain his ends, and he felt assured that when the Church was once committed to it, Clement w^ould not venture to withdraw. The Inquisitor of France, Guillaume de Paris, was his confessor as well as papal chaplain, and could be relied upon. It w r as his official duty to take cognizance of all accusations of heresy, and to summon the secular powder to his assistance, wmile his aw- ful authority overrode all the special immunities and personal in- violability of the Order. As the Templars were all defamed for heresy by credible witnesses, it was strictly according to legal form for Frere Guillaume to summon Philippe to arrest those within his territories and bring them before the Inquisition for trial. As Eccles. Lib. xxiv. (Muratori S. R. I. XI. 1228).— Contin. Guill. Naugiac. arm. 1307. — Raynouard, pp. 18, 19.— Van Os De Abol. Ord. Templar, p. 43.— Proces des Templiers, II. 400.— Mag. Bull. Rom. IX. 131.— Proces, I. 95.— Du Puy, Traitez concernant 1'Histoire de France, Paris, 1700, pp. 10, 117.
 * Villani Chron. vin. 91-2.— Raynald. aim. 1311, No. 26.— Ptol. Lucens. Hist.