320 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE. Palestrina, whom he had appointed their custodian, to present them for that purpose ; he had organized a commission expressly to listen to those who were willing to defend it, and to arrange for them to nominate procurators, and he had uttered no protest when Philippe's savage violence had put an end to the attempt. Now the council had met and the chiefs of the Order were not brought before it. The subject was too delicate a one to be trusted to the body of the council, and a picked convocation was formed of prel- ates selected from the nations represented — Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Hungary, England, Ireland, and Scotland — to discuss the matter with the pope and cardinals. On a day in November, while this body was listening to the reports sent in by the inquis- itors, suddenly there appeared before them seven Templars offer- ing to defend the Order in the name, they said, of fifteen hundred or two thousand brethren, refugees who were wandering in the mountains of the Lyonnais. In place of hearing them, Clement promptly cast them into prison, and when, a few days later, two more, undeterred by the fate of their predecessors, made a similar attempt, they were likewise incarcerated. Clement's principal emotion was fear for his own life from the desperation of the out- casts, leading him to take extra precautions and to advise Philippe to do the same. This was not calculated to make the prelates feel less keenly the shame of what they were asked to do, for which the only reason alleged was the injury to the Holy Land arising from the delay to be anticipated from discussion ; and when the matter came to a vote only one Italian bishop and three Frenchmen (the Archbishops of Sens, Reims, and Rouen, who had burned the relapsed Templars) were found to record themselves in favor of the infamy of condemning the Order unheard. They might well hesitate. In Germany, Italy, and Spain provincial councils had solemnly declared that they couJd find no evil in the Order or its members. In England the Templars had only con- fessed themselves defamed of heresy. In France alone had there been any general confession of guilt. Even if individuals were guilty, they had been condemned to appropriate penance, and there was no warrant for destroying without a hearing so noble a mem- ber of the Church Militant as the great Order of the Temple.*
- Bull. Vox in excelso (Van Os, pp. 72-4).— Du Puy, pp. 177-8.— Ptol. Lucens.
