Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Extract Of The Defence Made By Seventy-Five Templars.
Certainly it Avas a bold and laudable resolution which they adopted , in sending deputies to the fathers of the council of Vienne , for to plead before that august assembly , the cause of virtue and of misfortune . The holocaustal fires for human victims were still smoking . The
oppressors Avere constantly in quest of the outlawed Templars . Malice was not yet glutted . Nevertheless , those heroes yield to that noble and generous despair , which sometimes attends virtue upon extraordinary and solemn occasions . At the very moment when the council of Vienne was occupied in
reading over the informations lodged against the Order , suddenly there appeared in the assembly nine Templars , who offer to undertake the defence of their persecuted Order . They had a right . A council was convened against them . The maxims of religion , and of justice required that they should be heard
there , since sentence was about to be pronounced upon their fate their fortune , their glory , and their reputation for probity , for honour , and for catholicity . It was their duty . The other knights , from the midst of their tortures , from the summits of their funeral pyres , from the centre of
the undulating flames had imposed this duty upon them , at a time when with their last breath they had attested their own innocence , and that of the entire Order .
Those nine chevaliers address the council . They expose , with frankness and sincerity , the object of their mission . They declare themselves the emissaries of nearly two thousand Knights Templars . They voluntarily present themselves under the sanction of the
public faith . Their misfortunes and proscription Avere respectable titles , more especially in the presence of the chief and the fathers of the church . A solemn discussion was about to take place . The council itself Avas not to be the only judge . Europe , the Christian world , the
present generation , would have to ratify or to condemn the judgment of the council . What did Clement ? The answer fills me with indignation , with horror , and with grief . But , however painful , I must declare it . Truth is a debt which should be discharged to the memory of so
many illustrious victims . It is due to the present generation , and even to the virtue of the Pontiffs and the Pastors , who in less dreadful times cause the errors of some of their predecessors to be forgotten . I must reveal a mystery not hitherto disclosed .
Clement V . caused those brave and generous men to be arrested ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Extract Of The Defence Made By Seventy-Five Templars.
Certainly it Avas a bold and laudable resolution which they adopted , in sending deputies to the fathers of the council of Vienne , for to plead before that august assembly , the cause of virtue and of misfortune . The holocaustal fires for human victims were still smoking . The
oppressors Avere constantly in quest of the outlawed Templars . Malice was not yet glutted . Nevertheless , those heroes yield to that noble and generous despair , which sometimes attends virtue upon extraordinary and solemn occasions . At the very moment when the council of Vienne was occupied in
reading over the informations lodged against the Order , suddenly there appeared in the assembly nine Templars , who offer to undertake the defence of their persecuted Order . They had a right . A council was convened against them . The maxims of religion , and of justice required that they should be heard
there , since sentence was about to be pronounced upon their fate their fortune , their glory , and their reputation for probity , for honour , and for catholicity . It was their duty . The other knights , from the midst of their tortures , from the summits of their funeral pyres , from the centre of
the undulating flames had imposed this duty upon them , at a time when with their last breath they had attested their own innocence , and that of the entire Order .
Those nine chevaliers address the council . They expose , with frankness and sincerity , the object of their mission . They declare themselves the emissaries of nearly two thousand Knights Templars . They voluntarily present themselves under the sanction of the
public faith . Their misfortunes and proscription Avere respectable titles , more especially in the presence of the chief and the fathers of the church . A solemn discussion was about to take place . The council itself Avas not to be the only judge . Europe , the Christian world , the
present generation , would have to ratify or to condemn the judgment of the council . What did Clement ? The answer fills me with indignation , with horror , and with grief . But , however painful , I must declare it . Truth is a debt which should be discharged to the memory of so
many illustrious victims . It is due to the present generation , and even to the virtue of the Pontiffs and the Pastors , who in less dreadful times cause the errors of some of their predecessors to be forgotten . I must reveal a mystery not hitherto disclosed .
Clement V . caused those brave and generous men to be arrested ,