THE TEMPLARS. 299 similar commands to the English authorities in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Possibly Edward's impending voyage to Boulogne to marry Isabella, the daughter of Philippe le Bel, may have had something to do with his sudden change of purpose.* The seizure was made accordingly, and the Templars were kept in honorable durance, not in prison, awaiting papal action ; for there seems to have been no disposition on the part either of Church or State to take the initiative. The delay was long, for though commissions were issued August 12, 1308, to the papal inquisitors, Sicard de Lavaur and the Abbot of Lagny, they did not start until September, 1309, and on the 13th of that month the royal safe- conducts issued for them show their arrival in England. Then in- structions were sent out to arrest all Templars not yet seized and gather them together in London, Lincoln, and York, for the ex- aminations to be held, and the bishops of those sees were strictly charged to be present throughout. Similar orders were sent to Ireland and Scotland, where the inquisitors appointed delegates to attend to the matter. It apparently was not easy to get the offi- cials to do their duty, for December 14 instructions were required to all the sheriffs to seize the Templars who were wandering in secular habits throughout the land, and in the following March and again in January, 1311, the Sheriff of York was scolded for al- lowing those in his custody to wander abroad. Popular sympathy evidently was with the inculpated brethren.f At length, on October 20, 1309, the papal inquisitors and the Bishop of London sat in the episcopal palace to examine the Tem- plars collected in London. Interrogated singly on all the numer- ous articles of accusation, they all asserted the innocence of the Order. Outside witnesses were called in who mostly declared their belief to the same effect, though some gave expression to the vague popular rumors and scandalous stories suggested by the secrecy of proceedings within the Order. The inquisitors were nonplussed. They had come to a country whose laws did not rec- ognize the use of torture, and without it they were powerless to
- Rymer, Foedera, III. 18, 34-7,43-6.
t Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. III. pp. 316, 477.— Rymer, Feed. III. 168-9, 173, 179-80, 182, 195, 203-4, 244. The pay assigned to the inquisitors was three florins each per diem, to be assessed on the Templar property (Regest. ubi sup.).
