THE TEMPLARS. 317 Portugal belonged ecclesiastically to the province of Compos- tella, and the Bishop of Lisbon, commissioned to investigate the Order, found no ground for the charges. The fate of the Templars there was exceptionally fortunate, for King Diniz, grateful for their services in his wars with the Saracens, founded a new Order, that of Jesus Christ, or de Avis, and procured its approval in 1318 from John XXII. To this safe refuge the Templars and their lands were transferred, the commander and many of the precep- tors retaining their rank, and the new Order was thus merely a continuation of the old.* The pariod finally set for the Council of Yienne was approach- ing, and thus far Clement had failed to procure any evidence of weight against the Templars beyond the boundaries of France, where bishop and inquisitor had been the tools of Philippe's re- morseless energy. Clement may at the first have been Philippe's unwilling accomplice, but if so he had long since gone too far to retract. Whether, as believed by many of his contemporaries, he was sharing the spoils, is of little moment. He had committed himself personally to all Europe, in the bull of November 22, 1307, to the assertion of the Templars' guilt, and had repeated this em- phatically in his subsequent utterances, with details admitting of no retraction or explanation ; he, as well as they, was on trial before Christendom, and their acquittal by the council would be his conviction. He was, therefore, no judge, but an antagonist, forced by the instinct of self-preservation to destroy them, no mat- ter through what unscrupulous methods. As the council drew near his anxiety increased, and he cast around for means to secure the testimony which should justify him by proving the heresy of the Order. We have seen how he urged Edward II. to introduce torture into the hitherto unpolluted courts of England, and how he succeeded in having the brethren of Aragon tortured in violation of the liberties of the land. These were but specimens of a series of bulls, perhaps the most disgraceful that ever proceeded from a vicegerent of God. From Cyprus to Portugal, prince and prel- 6, 7.— Mariana, Lib. xv. c. 10 (Ed. 1789, p. 390, note).— Raynouard, pp. 128, 265- 66.— Aguirre, VI. 230.— La Fuente, Hist. Ecles. II. 368-70.
- Raynouard, pp. 204, 267. — Raynald. aim. 1317, No. 40.— Zurita, Lib. vi. c.
26.— La Fuente, II. 872.
