IV. a few years her crime was punished with the CHAP. general execration of mankind. She saw her paramour expire on a gibbet, and spent the remainder of her life in disgrace and obscurity. of the or I must not close this account of Edward's Abolition reign without noticing the abolition of the der of knights templars. That celebrated order was templars.! established in 1118 by the patriarch of Jerusalem, and originally consisted of nine poor knights, who lived in community near the site of the ancient temple, and took on themselves the voluntary obligation of watching the roads in the neighbourhood of the city, and of protecting the pilgrims from the insults of robbers and infidels.117 By degrees their number was surprisingly augmented: they were the foremost in every action of danger: their military services excited the gratitude of christendom: and in every nation legacies were annually left, and lands successively bestowed on the templars. But wealth and power generated a spirit of arrogance and independence, which exasperated both the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. As long indeed as the knights were usefully employed against the infidels, their enemies were silent but after their expulsion from the holy land, they indulged in indolence and luxury, and reports the most prejudicial to the reputa 117 Wil. Tyr. xii. 7. IV. 1307. Oct. 12. CHAP. tion of the order began to be circulated and credited. Philip le bel had repeatedly denounced it to the pope Clement V.: and at last, impatient of delay, ordered all the knights in his dominions to be arrested, and on examination obtained from many a confession of the most shocking and infamous practices. Clement was dissatisfied with the precipitance of the king: but to stay the proceedings would have been to proclaim himself the protector of guilt, and he therefore reserved the future prosecution of the inquiry to the apostolic see. In different bulls addressed to the sovereigns of christendom, he detailed the charges brought against the order, of profligacy, idolatry, and apostacy: requested that the knights in their respective territories might be placed in confinement: and appointed judges to inquire into their guilt or innocence.118 In England and Ireland they were all apprehended on the same day, and kept in safe but honourable custody.119 The process against them lasted for three years: and if it be fair to judge from the informations taken in England, however we may condemn a few individuals, we 1308. Jan. 7. 118 Rym. iii. 30. 101. 119 One of the king's clerks was sent to the sheriff of each county with an order for him to take a certain number of good and lawful men, and with them to swear to execute the sealed orders, which the bearer should deliver to him. These were then opened, and authorized the arrest of the templars. Rym, iii. 34. 43. IV. 1312. March 22. May 2. must certainly acquit the order.120 The result CHAP. of the inquiries made in the different countries was laid before the pontiff in the council of Vienne; and after much deliberation he published a bull, suppressing the institute, not by way of a judicial sentence establishing its guilt, but by the plenitude of his power, and as a measure of expediency rather than of justice. 121 That the property of the templars might be still preserved for the purposes for which it had been originally given, it was determined to transfer it to the knights hospitallers: but when the papal bull, containing this ordinance, arrived in England, Edward suspended its execution for more than a year: and if he at last assented, it was not till he had made a protestation, that he did it for objects of national utility, and without abandoning his own right or the right of any of his subjects to the possessions in question. 122 Eleven years later he consulted the judges, who replied that by the law of the land, all the possessions of the templars had reverted as escheats Aug. 1. 1313. Nov. 24. 120 The whole process may be seen in Wilkins, ii. 329–400. 121 Non per modum diffinitivæ sententiæ, cum eam super hoc secundum inquisitionem, et processus super his habitos non possemus ferre de jure, sed per viam provisionis seu ordinationis apostolicæ. Rym. iii. 323. 122 Rym. iii. 451. 457. The king had ordered that the master of the templars in England should be allowed two shillings per day, the other knights four pence per day for their support out of their former property. Rym. iii. 327. 349. 472, to the lords of the fees: and immediately an act of parliament was passed, assigning them to the hospitallers, for the same purposes for which they had been originally bestowed on the templars, 123 123 Stat. at large, x. App. 23. END OF VOL. III. B. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Strect |