Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/300

 2S4 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE. custom of the Saracens and Tartars were observed towards persons so perverse, for they beheaded or cut in two those who thus per- verted the truth. He might have said more had not Guillaume de Plaisian, the royal agent, who pretended to be his friend, cautioned him as to the risk which he ran in thus constructivelv retracting his confession, and he contented himself with asking for time for consideration.* On August 12 Clement issued a series of bulls which res:u- lated the methods of procedure in the case, and showed that he was prepared fully to perform his part of the agreement with Philippe. The bull Faciens raise ricordiam, addressed to the prelates of Chris- tendom, recited at great length the proceedings thus far taken against the accused, and the guilt which they had spontaneously acknowledged ; it directed the bishops, in conjunction with inquisi- torial commissioners appointed by the pope, to summon all Tem- plars before them and make inquisition concerning them. After this provincial councils were to be summoned, where the guilt or innocence of the individuals was to be determined, and in all the proceedings the local inquisitors had a right to take part. The results of the inquisitions, moreover, were to be promptly trans- mitted to the pope. With this was enclosed a long and elaborate series of articles on which the accused were to be examined — arti- cles drawn up in Paris by the royal officials — and the whole was ordered to be published in the vernacular in all parish churches. The bull Regnans m caelis, addressed to all princes and prelates, repeated the narrative part of the other, and ended by convoking, for October 1, 1310, a general council at Tienne. to decide as to the fate of the Order, to consult as to the recovery of the Holy Land, and to take such action as might be required for the refor- mation of the Church. By another bull, Faciens miser icordiam, dated August 8, a formal summons was issued to all and singular of the Templars to appear before the council, personally or by pro- curators, on a certain day, to answer to the charges against the Order, and the Cardinal of Palestrina, who was in charge of them, was ordered to produce de Molay and the Preceptors of France, Normandy, Poitou, Aquitaine, and Provence to receive sentence. This was the simplest requirement of judicial procedure, and the
 * Du Puy pp. 33-4, 133. — Bull. Facicm miser icordiam. — Procfes, I. 34-5.