On the 1st of March, the king sent orders to the constable of the Tower, and to the sheriffs of Lincoln and of York, to obey the directions of the inquisitors, or of one bishop and of one inquisitor, with regard to the confinement of the Templars in separate cells, and he assigns William de Diene to assist the inquisitors in their arrangements. Similar orders were shortly afterwards sent to all the gaolers of the Templars in the English dominions.[372]
On the 3rd of March five fresh interrogatories were exhibited by the inquisitors, upon which thirty-one Templars were examined at the palace of the bishop of London, the chapel of St. Alphage, and the chapter-house of the Holy Trinity. They were chiefly concerning the reception and profession of the brethren, the number that each examinant had seen received, their names, and as to whether the burials of the order were conducted in a clandestine manner. From the replies it appears that many Templars had died during their imprisonment in the Tower. The twenty-sixth prisoner examined was the Master of the Temple, Brother William de la More, who gives an account of the number of persons he had admitted into the order during the period of his mastership, specifying their names. It is stated that many of the parishioners of the parish adjoining the New Temple had been present at the interment of the brethren of the fraternity, and that the burials were not conducted in a clandestine manner.
In Ireland, in the mean time, similar proceedings against the order had been carried on. Between the 11th of February and the 23rd of May, thirty Templars were examined in Saint Patrick’s Church, Dublin, by Master John de Mareshall, the pope’s commissary, but no evidence of their guilt was obtained. Forty-one witnesses were then heard, nearly all of whom were monks. They spoke merely from hearsay and suspicion, and the gravest charges brought by them against the fraternity appear to be, that the Templars had been observed to be inattentive to the reading of the holy Gospels at church, and to have cast their eyes on the ground at the period of the elevation of the host.[373]
On the 30th of March the papal inquisitors opened their commission at Lincoln, and between that day and the 10th of April twenty Templars were examined in the chapter-house of the cathedral, amongst whom were some of the veteran warriors of Palestine, men who had moistened with their blood the distant plains of the far East in defence of that faith which they were now so infamously accused of having repudiated. Brother William de Winchester, a member of twenty-six years’ standing, had been received into the order at the castle de la Roca Guille in the province of Armenia, bordering on Palestine, by the valiant Grand Master William de Beaujeu. He states that the same mode of reception existed there as in England, and everywhere throughout the order. Brother Robert de Hamilton declares that the girdles were worn from an honourable motive, that they were called the girdles of Nazareth, because they had been pressed against the column of the Virgin at that place, and were worn in remembrance of the blessed Mary; but he says that the brethren were not compelled to wear them, but might make use of any girdle that they liked. With regard to the confessions made in France, they all say that if their brethren in that country confessed such things, they lied![374]
At York the examination commenced on the 28th of April, and lasted until the 4th of May, during which period twenty-three Templars, prisoners in York Castle, were examined in the chapter-house of the cathedral, and followed the example of their brethren in maintaining their innocence. Brother Thomas de Stanford, a member of thirty years’ standing, had been received in the East by the Grand Master William de Beaujeu, and Brother Radulph de Rostona, a priest of the order, of twenty-three years’ standing, had been received at the preceptory of Lentini in Sicily by Brother William de Canello, the Grand Preceptor of Sicily. Brother Stephen de Radenhall refused to reveal the mode of reception, because it formed part of the secrets of the chapter, and if he discovered them he would lose his chamber, be stripped of his mantle, or be committed to prison.[375]
On the 20th of May, in obedience to the mandate of the archbishop of York, an ecclesiastical council of the bishops and clergy assembled in the cathedral. The mass of the Holy Ghost was solemnly celebrated, after which the archbishop preached a sermon, and then caused to be read to the assembled clergy the papal bulls fulminated against the order of the Temple.[376] He exhibited to them the articles upon which the Templars had been directed to be examined; but as the inquiry was still pending, the council was adjourned until the 23rd of June of the following year, when they were to meet to pass sentence of condemnation, or of absolution, against all the members of the order in the province of York, in conformity with ecclesiastical law.[377]
On the 1st of June the examination was resumed before the papal inquisitors at Lincoln. Sixteen Templars were examined upon points connected with the secret proceedings in the general and particular chapters of the order, the imposition of penances therein, and the nature of the absolution granted by the Master. From the replies it appears that the penitents were scourged three times with leathern thongs, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, after which they were absolved either by the Master or by a priest of the order, according to the particular circumstances of each case. It appears, also, that none but preceptors were present at the general chapters of the order, which were called together principally for the purpose of obtaining money to send to the Grand Master and the chief convent in Palestine.[378]
After closing the examinations at Lincoln, the abbot of Lagny and the canon of Narbonne returned to London, and immediately resumed the inquiry in that city. On the 8th and 9th days of June, Brother William de la More, the Master of the Temple, and thirty-eight of his knights, chaplains, and sergeants, were examined by the inquisitors in the presence of the bishops of London and Chichester, and the before-mentioned public notaries, in the priory of the Holy Trinity. They were interrogated for the most part concerning the penances imposed, and the absolution pronounced in the chapters. The Master of the Temple was required to state what were the precise words uttered by him, as the president of the chapter, when a penitent brother, having bared his back and acknowledged his fault, came into his presence and received the discipline of the leathern thongs. He states that he was in the habit of saying, “Brother, pray to God that he may forgive you;” and to the bystanders he said, “And do ye, brothers, beseech the Lord to forgive him his sins, and say a pater-noster;” and that he said nothing further, except to warn the offender against sinning again. He declares that he did not pronounce absolution in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost! and relates, that in a general chapter, and as often as he held a particular chapter, he was accustomed to say, after prayers had been offered up, that all those who did not acknowledge their sins, or who appropriated to their own use the alms of the house, could not be partakers in the spiritual blessings of the order; but that which through shamefacedness, or through fear of the justice of the order, they dared not confess, he, out of the power conceded to him by God and the pope, forgave him as far as he was able. Brother William de Sautre, however, declares that the president of the chapter, after he had finished the flagellation of a penitent brother, said, “I forgive you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” and then sent him to a priest of the order for absolution; and the other witnesses vary in their account of the exact words uttered, either because they were determined, in obedience to their oaths, not to reveal what actually did take place, or else (which is very probable) because the same form of proceeding was not always rigidly adhered to.
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]