258 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE. be proved in other lands besides France. To enable Philippe to enjoy the expected confiscations in his own dominions, confis- cation must be general throughout Europe, and for this the co- operation of the Holy See was essential. Clement subsequently de- clared that Philippe broached the subject to him in aD its details before his coronation at Lyons, November 14, 1305,* but the papal bulls throughout the whole matter are so infected with mendacity that slender reliance is to be placed on their statements. Doubt less there was some discussion about the current reports defaming the Order, but Clement is probably not subject to the imputation which historians have thrown upon him, that his summons to de Molay and de Villaret in 1306 was purely a decoy. It seems to me reasonable to conclude that he sent for them in good faith, and that de Molay's own imprudence in establishing himself in France, as though for a permanence, excited at once the suspicions -and cupidity of the king, and ripened into action what had pre- viously been merely a vague conception.f If such was the case, Philippe was not long in maturing the project, nor were his agents slow in gathering material for the accusation. In his interview with Clement at Poitiers, in the spring of 1307, he vainly demanded the condemnation of the memor} 7 of Boniface VIII. , and, failing in this, he brought for- ward the charges against the Templars, while temporarily drop- ping the other matter, but with equal lack of immediate result. Clement sent for de Molay, who came to him with Eaimbaud de Caron, Preceptor of Cyprus, Geoffroi de Gonneville, Preceptor of Aquitaine and Poitou, and Hugues de Peraud, Visitor of France, the principal officers of the Order then in the kingdom. The charges were communicated to them in all their foulness. Clem-
- Bull. Pastor alia praeminentim (Mag. Bull. Rom. Supplem. IX. 126). — Bull.
Faciena miaericordiam (lb. p. 136). — The Itineraries of Philippe and the record of pastoral visitations by Bertrand de Goth (Clement V.) sufficiently disprove the legendary story, originating with Villani, of the conditions entered into in advance at St. Jean d'Angely between Philippe and Clement (see van Os, De Abolitione Ordinis Templariorum, Herbipoli, 1874, pp. 14—15). None the less, however, was Clement practically subordinated to Philippe. t Schottmuller's theory (Der Untergang des Templer-Ordens, I. 91) that Clem- ent summoned the chiefs of the two Military Orders to arrange with them for the protection of the Holy See against Philippe appears to me destitute of all prob- ability.
