328 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE. denials were worthy of confidence rather than the confessions.* As time wore on the conviction as to their innocence strengthened. Boccaccio took their side. St. Antonino of Florence, whose histor- ical labors largely influenced opinion in the fifteenth century, as- serted that their downfall was attributable to the craving for their wealth, and popular writers in general adopted the same view. Even Kaynaldus hesitates and balances arguments on either side, and Campi assures us that in Italy, in the seventeenth century, they were regarded by many as saints and martyrs. At length, about the middle of the seventeenth century, the learned Du Puy undertook to rehabilitate the memory of Philippe le Bel in a work of which the array of documentary evidence renders it indispensa- ble to the student. Giirtler, who followed him with a history of the Templars, is evidently unable to make up his mind. Since then
- Godefroi de Paris, v. 6131-45. Cf 3876-81, 3951-2.— Proems des Templiers,
H. 195. Some of the contemporaries outside of France who attribute the affair to the greed of Philippe and Clement are — Matt. Neoburg. (Albert Argentinens.) Chron. ann. 1346 (Urstisii II. 137). — Sachsische Weltchronik, erste bairische Fortsetzung, ann. 1312 (Mom Germ. II. 334).— Stalwegii Chron. ann. 1305 (Leibnit. III. 274). — Bothonis Chron. ann. 1311 (Leibnit. III. 374). — Chron. Comitum Schawenburg (Meibom. I. 499). — Jo. Hocsemii Gest. Episcc. Leodiens. (Chapeaville.il. 345-6). — Chron. Astens. c. 27 (Muratori S. R. I. XL 192-4).— Istorie Pistolesi (lb. XL 518). — Villani Chron. vni. 92. Authorities who assume the guilt of the Templars are — Ferreti Vicentini Hist. (Muratori S. R. I. IX. 1017-18).— Chron. Parmens. ann. 1309 (lb. IX. 880). — Albertin. Mussat. Hist. August. Rubr. x. (lb. X. 377). — Chron. Guillel. Scoti (Bouquet, XXI. 205).— Hermanni Corneri Chron. ann. 1309 (Eccard. II. 971-2). The old German word Tempelhaus, signifying house of prostitution, conveys the popular sense of the license of the Order (Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1307). Henri Martin assumes that the traditions of the north of France are adverse to the Templars, and that those of the south are favorable. He instances a Breton ballad in which the "Red Monks," or Templars, are represented as ferocious de- bauchees who carry off young women and then destroy them with the fruits of guilty intercourse. On the other hand, at Gavarnie (Bigorre), there are seven heads which are venerated as those of martyred Templars, and the popular belief is that on the night of the anniversary of the abolition of the Order a figure, armed cap-a-pie and bearing the white mantle with a red cross, appears in the cemetery and thrice cries out, k ' Who will defend the holy temple ; who will liber- ate the sepulchre of the Lord ?" when the seven heads answer thrice, " No one, no one ! The Temple is destroyed !" — Histoire de France, T. IV. pp. 496-7 (£d. 1855).
