to do this three times; but the meaning of these acts Edwd. II. was, that every candidate for admission was regarded A.D. 1307. as a sinner of the deepest dye, and that, to betoken this, he denied his Saviour three times, like St. Peter, and that it was represented thus as the peculiar object of the institution to raise the degraded sinner to a pinnacle of Christian purity. of crimes was ex torture. Confession of the crimes imputed to them was ex- Confession torted from the Templars by tortures of horrible barbarity; and the victims were given to understand torted by that confession would be followed by pardon, while persistence in the assertion of innocence would be looked on as an aggravation of their crimes. and Edward II. property of plars. In England, it was long before torture was made Edward I. use of to force the Templars to confess; but both Edward II. and his father were actuated by the same seize the motives in attacking the order. Shortly after the the Temtotal loss of Palestine, Edward I. seized and appropriated to his own use the moneys accumulated by the Templars, alleging that the purpose for which their property had been granted to them no longer existed; and Edward II., on his accession, went with his minion Gaveston to the Temple in London, and carried off a large amount of treasure belonging to the order. Philip of France urges the King of the Tem So soon as Philip the Fair had issued orders for the seizure of all the Knights Templars in France, he wrote to the principal sovereigns of Europe, urging England them to follow his example, and, among others, to to imprison Edward II., who had just ascended the throne. The plars. young King expressed his disbelief in the charges against the Templars, but summoned the seneschal of Agen in Guienne, the originator of them, to appear before him, in order that he might be examined A.D. 1307. Edward refuses. Edwd. II. as to their truth. The result of the inquiry was, that, on the 4th December, A.D. 1307, Edward wrote to the Kings of Portugal, Castile, Aragon, and Sicily, expressing his disbelief in the charges, and a few days afterwards he wrote to the same effect to the Pope. But the Pope had issued a bull, a short time previously, calling on Edward to arrest all the Templars in his dominions; and, on receipt of the bull, the King, either believing in their guilt, or hoping to get possession of their wealth, promised obedience. The Pope urges com pliance and Edward yields. Templars arrested in England on Ja On the 8th of January, A.D. 1308, the Templars in all parts of England were suddenly arrested, and their mary 8th, property was seized by the King. Then followed A.D. 1308. scenes as lamentable, and as terrible, as those which The pri soners deny the truth of the charges brought against them. were simultaneously taking place in France. Warriors who had fought to the last in the Holy Land-greyheaded knights never before suspected of crimewere brought up before the Pope's inquisitors, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of London and Lincoln, and accused of a long series of crimes. In the meanwhile, a general scramble for their property took place, and the Archbishop of Canterbury ordered a papal bull to be published, threatening excommunication on all those who should protect, or show the least kindness to a Templar. The prisoners, one and all, indignantly denied the truth of the accusations. Witnesses were brought forward against them; but they could only say that they thought the mystery and secresy of their ceremonies were owing to bad motives, or that they had heard that they had done such and such things. But the Pope was not thus to be baffled, and Edward was not the man to resist his iniquitous tyranny. Torture Edwd. II. was ordered to be applied. The Pope wrote to A.D. 1308. Edward, upbraiding him for preventing the inquisi- The Pope tors from applying the rack. Edward weakly and torture wickedly yielded, and sent orders to the Constable of should be the Tower to deliver up the Templars to the in- and Edquisitors, to do with them as they might please. The prisoners, many of whom had been in prison for nearly four years, and were broken down by the misery they had endured, were brought up before the inquisitors, and again asked to confess their crimes. applied, ward yields. persist in their inno. They knew that, if they confessed, they would at They still once be set at liberty; and that, if they did not confess, they would be tortured: but yet, one and all cence, utterly denied the truth of the crimes imputed to them. yield. At length torture produced its effect. One after but at another, the prisoners admitted the truth of the lengththey charges brought against them, and were pardoned. To this general submission there were but few exceptions, the only one of note being William de la More, the Master of the Temple in England, who died in his dungeon in the Tower, persisting, to his last breath, in the innocence of his order. In France some of the pri soners defy the tor In France, more courage was shown by the prisoners. It may be that in England, the King dared not put to death any of the accused Templars; but it is certain that, while in England none suffered death turers. rather than confess themselves guilty, in France there were multitudes who endured horrible mortal agonies, slow burnings and torture, rather than do so. Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of Death of the order, in a moment of weakness had yielded, Master. and was called on to renew publicly the confession of the Grand A.D. 1308. Edwd. II. guilt extorted from him by torture. But the moment of weakness had passed away, and, although he well knew the terrible fate that would befall him, on being called on to avow his guilt in the face of an assembled multitude, he rose triumphantly, declaring that it was only the pain of torture that had caused him to admit the truth of the charges against him, asserting his innocence, and denouncing his judges, till he was interrupted and hurried back to prison. The next day he was slowly burnt to death. They must innocent. Thus ends the history of this great order; and be deemed from the nature of the evidence, and the mode in which their trial was conducted, it is impossible to come to any other conclusion than that, whether they were guilty or not guilty, the charges were utterly unsupported by a tittle of proof which, in a modern court of justice, would for an instant weigh against them.79 A.D. 1308. Events from the King's Marriage until the Death of At the end of January in the following year, the King went to France to marry Isabella, daughter of to Isabella Philip the Fourth (called the Fair), King of France. of France. She was only sixteen 14 years old, but was considered marriage Cause of long wars. to be the most beautiful woman of the time. The King sailed from Dover on the 22nd of January, was married, with great splendour, at Boulogne on the 28th, and returned to England on the 7th of February. "This marriage was the cause of the longest and bloodiest wars that ever desolated France, for it was in her name that Edward the Third made claims to the throne of France." 15 Although the King was absent from England for appointed kingdom. turn he little more than a fortnight, yet he appointed Gaves- Edwd. II. ton Guardian of the Kingdom during his absence, A.D. 1308. giving him power to control all Church preferments, Gaveston and granting to him feudal rights not usually con- guardian ceded to guardians, though of royal family. On of the his return, when the great men of the kingdom came on the to meet him at Dover, he received none with such king's reaffection as he bestowed on his minion Gaveston, disgusts "giving him the sumptuous presents of fine horses, by his love rings, jewels and other curiosities of great value presented to him by the King of France on his marriage."6 All these injudicious follies exasperated the nobles to such a degree that they demanded Gaveston's banishment, threatening to stop the King's coronation, unless he yielded to their demands. for Ga veston. mises The King, accordingly, promised, that, at the next King proParliament, he would yield whatever they should amendrequire of him; and the barons then consented to ment. the King and his Queen being crowned at Westminster Abbey on the 23rd of February. But still, the King's madness and Gaveston's insolence could not be kept within bounds. Edward appointed His coroGaveston to carry the crown before him at the coronation, and Gaveston insulted the nobles, by the superior splendour of his apparel, "being dressed finer than the King himself."7 The coronation oath taken by the King was as follows: nation. tion oath. "The Bishop of Winchester. Sir, will you keep Coronaand confirm by your Oath to the people of England, the laws established by the pious Kings your predecessors, and particularly the laws, customs, and liberties, granted to the clergy and people, by the glorious St. Edward, your predecessor ?' "King. I will, and promise it.' |