The Knights Templars.

chapter-room , ancl saw a person about to be professed slain , because he would not deny Christ . Afterwards , the boy was asked by his father to become a Templar , which he refused to do , telling him what he had seen ; whereupon he was slain . These are but a few of the absurdities deponed to by the witnesses .

Chapter X.

CHAPTER X .

Proceedings in England continned . —De Vaur exhibits two rack-extorted confessions taken in France . —Depositions of Le Mareschal . —BeBemey . —De Gertia . —John Walby de Bust . —Gaspard do Nafferton . —Abandoned -women heard as witnesses against the Order . —The depositions of witnesses read over to the Templars . —They demand

¦ c ' p ies . —Their answer . —The Inquisitors resort to more violent measures . —French Dominicans sent over to apply the torture . —TVJO Serving Brethren and a Chaplain alone confess . —Compromise between the Inquisitors and the Templars . —The Order suppressed . —A . D . 1310-1313 .

Sicard de Vaur , perceiving that little credit would be given to the hearsay evidence of the enemies of the Order , to intimidate the Templars , and incline them to confess to the hideous charges , exhibited two rack-extorted confessions

which had been obtained in France . The Templars whose names were attached to these were Robert de St . Just and Geoffrey de Goneville . St . Just had been received by Imbert de Peraut , the Grand Prior of England , but arrested in

France , be bad been tortured there . His confession runs , that upon his reception he denied Christ , and spat beside the Cross . De Goneville ' s confession will be found in chapter fifth of the present work . Both of these Knights had revoked their confessions , but this was carefully suppressed

by the Inquisitor . The confessions , however , did not forward the views of De Vaur , and William de la More affirmed that the Templars who had made such lied . Ferinsius le Mareschal , a secular Knight ,

beingexamined , deponed , that his grandfather entered the Order as active , healthy , ancl gay as a bird ; but , on the third day from taking the vows , he died , as the witness " now suspects , because he refused to take part in the wickedness practised

by the Templars . " William de Berney , an Augustine monk , had heard a Templar say , in the presence of several respectable people , at the ¦ funeral of the parish priest of Duxworth , near Cambridge , that a man , after death , had no more soul than had a dog . John de Gertia , a Minorite , was told by a woman , named Cotacota , who had

heard it from Exvalethus , Preceptor of London , that one of the servants of the Templars entered the Temple Hall , where the chapter was held , and secreted himself . After the door had been shut and locked by the last Templar who entered , and

the key carried by him to the superior , the assembled brethren went into another room , and took from a closet a certain black figure , with shining eyes , and a cross . They placed the cross before the Master , and the " culuni idoli vel figuraa" they

placed upon the cross , and carried it to the Master , who kissed the idol in ano , ancl all the others did . the same after him . When they had finished kissing the idol , they all spat three times upon the cross , except one , who refused , saying , " I was a bad man in the world , ancl placed myself in this Order for the salvation of my soul . What could

I do worse ? I will not do it . " Upon this the brethren said , " Take heed , ancl do as you see the Order do . " But he declared that he would not ; whereupon they placed him in a well , that stood in the midst of their house , which they covered

up , and left him to perish there . Being asked as to the time when the woman heard this , De Gertia answered , that she had told him of it about fourteen years back , at London , where she kept a shop for her husband , Robert Cotacota . John Walby

de Bust , also a Minorite , had heard John de Dingeston say , that he had heard that there was in . a secret place of the house of the Templars at London , a gilded head , ancl that when one of the Masters was on his death-bed , he summoned

to his presence several of the Preceptors , and tolcl them that , if they wished for power , dominion , and honour they must worship that head .

The evidence of Gaspard de Nafferton , the parish priest of Ryde , is very important , as he deponed to having been at one time a chaplain of the Order . He was in the Order at the time of the reception of William de Pokelington . He

recollected well that this person made his appearance at the Temple on Sunday evening , with the equipage and habit of a member of the Order , accompanied by William de la More ; the Grand Prior of England , William de Grafton , Preceptor

of Ribbestane and Fontebriggs , and other brethren . During the first watch of that same night , they assembled in chapel , ancl caused De Nafferton to be awakened to say mass . After he had celebrated mass , they made him ancl his clerk , go out into the hall beyond the cloister , and then sent for De Pokelington . On his entry into the chapel ,