The Suppression Of The Templars In England.

THE SUPPRESSION OF THE TEMPLARS IN ENGLAND .

( Continued from page 176 . ) THE English Templars were confined in prisons at London , Lincoln , and York . During the summer of 1308 a Bull arrived from the Pope , appointing certain commissioners to hear ancl try the charges made against them .

The commissioners appointed were the Patriarch of Jerusalem , the Archbishops of Canterbury and York , the Bishops of London , Chichester , and Lincoln , Deodafce Abbot of Lagny , ancl Sicard de St . Vaur , Canon of Narbonne , Auditor of the Pope . The commissioners were all ecclesiastics , and as such probably not exempt from the jealousy with which the Order was regarded by Churchmen . One of themhoweverat leastJohn DalderbBishop of

, , , y , Lincoln , was a man of singular piety and uprightness , and , from the notices of the matter contained in his register , we gather that he by no means liked the business on which he was employed . In fact , the way in which he shrank from the part assigned to him , and fenced with the papal requirements , inclines us to believe that he did not believe in the guilt of the men in whose trial and condemnation he was forced to bear an unwilling part . Neither is this to be

wondered at . For the results of the first examination of the English Templars held in London , October 21 st , 1308 , at which it is probable that Bishop Dalderby was present , were as follows : The Templars were interrogated whether the chapters and receptions oi the Knights were held in secret and b y night ; whether in these chapters were committed any offences against Christian morals ancl the faith of the Church ; whether they denied the Redeemer and ' worshipped idols ; whether they held heretical opinions on any of the

sacraments . The Kni ghts , brought one by one before the commissioners , denied calmly , specifically , ancl distinctly , every one of these charges . A chaplain of the Order , Ralph de Burton , was examined at greater length than the others , and his denials were full and specific . Then witnesses were examined ; seventeen who were supposed to be most cognizant of the doings of the Templars were questioned . They were clergy , public notaries , and others . None of

them had anything to allege against the Templars in support of the charges made against them . During the winter of 1308 ancl 1309 various examinations were held . Nothing was elicited to the prejudice of the Order . In June , the Grand Preceptor , William de la Moore , was specially examined on the charge of having presumed as a layman to give absolution . He explained that the form used for a peccant brother was to strike him three blows with the

scourge , and then say to him , " Brother , pray to God to remit thy sins . " He had never used the form , " I absolve thee . " The commissioners could not find anything on which to condemn the Order . Yet , urged on by pressure from the Pope , ancl fearing to go against his decisions , they made a sort of lame condemnation . They do not indeed give any countenance to the charge of immorality , apostacy , and magic , but they seem to assert that the charge of

giving absolution is proved , as also the secrecy of the receptions , and the binding members of the Order by oaths not to reveal what took place at these receptions . Certain evidence which had been tendered to them b y hostile witnesses they kept back . "They seem , " says Deal Milman , "to have been ashamed of it , as well they might . " One of the commissioners , at any rate , did not desire to be further mixed up in the matter . At the beginning of October , 1309 , Bishop Dalderby sent to his brother commissioners what is entered in his register under the title " Excusatio -. "