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Article THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. ← Page 5 of 10 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Knights Templar.
themselves with the confessions made by the prisoners before the Pope and the King of the crimes laid to their charge . And it was upon this confession , pursuant to the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff , that the judges determined amongst themselves to condemn them onl y to perpetual imprisonment in case they adhered to their former
confession . But as it was a matter of great consequence to calm the minds of the people , who Avere shocked at the vast number of fires that had been lighted up for human sacrifices in the several provinces of the kingdom , and it behoved them above all things , to convince the people of Paris that it was with justice that so many Templars had been
condemned to be burnt alive , they required these four chiefs of the Templars to make a public and sincere declaration of all the abuses and crimes committed by the Order if they had a mind to save their lives , or expected that the Pope and King should keep their word with them .
For this puqaose a scaffold Avas erected in the court before the cathedral , and thither the prisoners Avere conveyed by an armed force . Then one of the legates standing up , opened the dismal ceremony with a discourse , wherein he enlarged upon all the impieties and abominations of which , he said , the Templars had been convicted by their own
acknowledgments . And in order to leave the public no room for doubt , he called upon the Grand Master and other chiefs to reneAv , in the hearing of the people , the confessions which they had made before the Pope of their crimes and errors .
It Avas in all probability to induce them to make this declaration , that on the one hand , he assured them of a complete pardon ; and that on the other , the executioners , to intimidate them , erected a pile of AA * ood , as if they were to be burnt the moment that they revoked their confessions .
The priors of France and Aquitain , either through sincerity or fear at the sight of so dreadful a punishment , persisted in their first confessions . But when it came to the Grand Master ' s turn to speak , that prisoner shaking his chains , to their great surprise advanced , with a countenance full of resolution , to the edge of the scaffold .
Then , raising his voice to be the better heard , " It is but just , " cries he , " that in this terrible day , and in the last moments of my life , I lay open the iniquity of falsehood and make the truth to triumph . I declare then , in the presence of heaven and earth , and I own , though to my eternal shame and confusion , that I have committed the greatest
of crimes . That crime alone of having acknowledged as culpable an Order Avkich truth obliges me now to declare innocent . I made the first declaration they required of me only to suspend the excruciating tortures of the rack , and to mollify my tormentors . I am very sen-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Knights Templar.
themselves with the confessions made by the prisoners before the Pope and the King of the crimes laid to their charge . And it was upon this confession , pursuant to the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff , that the judges determined amongst themselves to condemn them onl y to perpetual imprisonment in case they adhered to their former
confession . But as it was a matter of great consequence to calm the minds of the people , who Avere shocked at the vast number of fires that had been lighted up for human sacrifices in the several provinces of the kingdom , and it behoved them above all things , to convince the people of Paris that it was with justice that so many Templars had been
condemned to be burnt alive , they required these four chiefs of the Templars to make a public and sincere declaration of all the abuses and crimes committed by the Order if they had a mind to save their lives , or expected that the Pope and King should keep their word with them .
For this puqaose a scaffold Avas erected in the court before the cathedral , and thither the prisoners Avere conveyed by an armed force . Then one of the legates standing up , opened the dismal ceremony with a discourse , wherein he enlarged upon all the impieties and abominations of which , he said , the Templars had been convicted by their own
acknowledgments . And in order to leave the public no room for doubt , he called upon the Grand Master and other chiefs to reneAv , in the hearing of the people , the confessions which they had made before the Pope of their crimes and errors .
It Avas in all probability to induce them to make this declaration , that on the one hand , he assured them of a complete pardon ; and that on the other , the executioners , to intimidate them , erected a pile of AA * ood , as if they were to be burnt the moment that they revoked their confessions .
The priors of France and Aquitain , either through sincerity or fear at the sight of so dreadful a punishment , persisted in their first confessions . But when it came to the Grand Master ' s turn to speak , that prisoner shaking his chains , to their great surprise advanced , with a countenance full of resolution , to the edge of the scaffold .
Then , raising his voice to be the better heard , " It is but just , " cries he , " that in this terrible day , and in the last moments of my life , I lay open the iniquity of falsehood and make the truth to triumph . I declare then , in the presence of heaven and earth , and I own , though to my eternal shame and confusion , that I have committed the greatest
of crimes . That crime alone of having acknowledged as culpable an Order Avkich truth obliges me now to declare innocent . I made the first declaration they required of me only to suspend the excruciating tortures of the rack , and to mollify my tormentors . I am very sen-