When the examination was closed, the inquisitors drew up a memorandum, showing that, from the apostolical letters, and the depositions and attestations of the witnesses, it was to be collected that certain practices had crept into the order of the Temple, which were not consistent with the orthodox faith.[379]
The Templars in France revoke their rack-extorted confessions--They are tried as relapsed heretics, and burnt at the stake--The progress of the inquiry in England--The curious evidence adduced as to the mode of holding the chapters of the order--As to the penance enjoined therein, and the absolution pronounced by the Master--The Templars draw up a written defence, which they present to the ecclesiastical council--They are placed in separate dungeons, and put to the torture--Two serving brethren and a chaplain of the order then make confessions--Many other Templars acknowledge themselves guilty of heresy in respect of their belief in the religious authority of their Master--They make their recantations, and are reconciled to the church before the south door of Saint Paul's cathedral--The order of the Temple is abolished by the Pope--The last of the Masters of the Temple in England dies in the Tower--The disposal of the property of the order--Observations on the downfall of the Templars.
Veggio 'l nuovo Pilato sì crudele, Che cio nol sazia, ma, senza decreto Porta nel TEMPIO le cupide vele. _Dante._ Del Purgatorio. Canto xx. 91.
In France, on the other hand, the proceedings against the order had assumed a most sanguinary character. Many Templars, both in the capital and the provinces, had made confessions of guilt whilst suffering upon the rack, but they had no sooner been released from the hands of their tormentors, and had recovered their health, than they disavowed their confessions, maintained the innocence of their order, and appealed to all their gallant actions, in ancient and modern times, in refutation of the calumnies of their enemies. The enraged Philip caused these Templars to be brought before an ecclesiastical tribunal convoked at Paris, and sentence of death was passed upon them by the archbishop of Sens, in the following terms:--
"You have avowed," said he, "that the brethren who are received into the order of the Temple are compelled to renounce Christ and spit upon the cross, and that you yourselves have participated in that crime: you have thus acknowledged that you have fallen into the sin of _heresy_. By your confession and repentance you had merited absolution, and had once more become reconciled to the church. As you have revoked your confession, the church no longer regards you as reconciled, but as having fallen back to your first errors. You are, therefore, _relapsed heretics(!)_ and as such, we condemn you to the fire."[380]