lars still gave the lie to their traducers, but the
majority were cowed; further confessions were obtained, and the pope
was satisfied. The proudest, bravest and richest order in Christendom
was crushed or scattered to the four corners of the world; their vast
estates were nominally confiscated to the Knights Hospitallers. But
our "most dear brother in Christ, Philip the king, although he was not
moved by avarice nor intended the appropriation of the Templars'
goods"[77] had to be compensated for the expense of the prosecution:
the treasure of the order failed to satisfy the exorbitant claims of
the crown, and the Hospitallers were said to have been impoverished
rather than enriched by the transfer.

[Footnote 74: The indictment covers seven quarto pages. The charges
may be briefly classified as blasphemy, heresy, spitting and trampling
on the crucifix, obscene and secret rites, and unnatural crimes.]

[Footnote 75: An approved method of extracting confessions. As late as
1584 at the examination of a papal emissary, the titular archbishop of
Cashel, before the Lords Justices, Archbishop Loftus and Sir H. Wallop
at Dublin, the easy method failing to do any good "we made
commission," writes Loftus to Walsingham, "to put him to torture such
as your honour advised us, which was to toast his feet against the
fire with hot boots. Yielding to the agony he confessed,"
etc.--Froude's _History_, x. p. 619.]

[Footnote 76: There is a significant entry on page 273 of the
published trial: _in ista pagina nihil est scriptum_. The empty page
tells of the moment when the papal commissioners, having heard that
the fifty-four had been burned, suspended the sitting.]

[Footnote 77: _Nihil sibi appropriare intendebat._]

[Illustration: PALACE OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF SENS.]

The last act was yet to come. On 11th March 1314, a great stage was
erected in the _parvis_ of Notre Dame, and there, in chairs of state,
sat the pope's envoy, a cardinal, the archbishop of Sens, and other
officers of Christ's Church on earth. The Grand Master, Jacques de
Molay, and three preceptors were exposed to the people; their alleged
confession and the papal bull suppressing the order, and condemning
them to imprisonment for life, were read by the cardinal. But, to the
amazement of his Eminence, when the clauses specifying the enormities
to which the accused had confessed were being recited, the veteran
Master and the preceptor of Normandy rose, and in loud vo