300 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE. accomplish the work for which they had been sent. In their dis- gust they finally applied to the king, and on December 15 they obtained from him an order to the custodians of the prisoners to permit the inquisitors and episcopal ordinaries to do with the bodies of the Templars what they pleased, " in accordance with ecclesiastical law" — ecclesiastical law, by the hideous perversion of the times, having come to mean the worst of abuses, from which secular law still shrank. Either the jailers or the episcopal offi- cials interposed difficulties, for the mandate was repeated March 1, 1310, and again March 8, with instructions to report the cause if the previous one had not been obeyed. Still no evidence worth the trouble was gained, though the examinations were prolonged through the winter and spring until May 24, when three captured fugitives were induced by means easily guessed to confess what was wanted, of which use was made to the utmost. At length Clement grew impatient under this lack of result. On August 6 he wrote to Edward that it was reported that he had prohibited the use of torture as contrary to the laws of the kingdom, and that the in- quisitors were thus powerless to extract confessions. 2so law or usage, he said, could be permitted to override the canons provided for such cases, and Edward's counsellors and officials who were guilty of thus impeding the Inquisition were liable to the penal- ties provided for that serious offence, while the king himself was warned to consider whether his position comported with his honor and safetv, and was offered remission of his sins if he would with- draw from it — perhaps the most suggestive sale of an indulgence on record. Similar letters at the same time were sent to all the bishops of England, who were scolded for not having already re- moved the impediment, as they were in duty bound to do. Under this impulsion Edward. August 20, again ordered that the bishops and inquisitors should be allowed to employ ecclesiastical law, and this was repeated October 6 and 23, Xovember 22, and April 28, 1311 — in the last instances the word torture being used, and in all of them the king being careful to explain that what he does is through reverence for the Holy See. August 18, 1311, similar in- structions were sent to the Sheriff of York.*
- Wilkins. Coucil. Mag. Brit. II. 329-92. — Rymer, III. 195, 202-3, 224-5,
227-32, 2G0, 274.— Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. V. pp. 455-7.
