Parar instigated by the pope, are dated from the Temple, and the con Λ. η. 1213. vention between the king and the count of Holland, whereby the latter agreed to assist king John with a body of knights and men-at-arms, in case of the landing of the French, was published at the same place.* In all the conferences and negotiations between the meanspirited king and the imperious and overbearing Roman pontiff, the Knights Templars took an active and distinguished part. Two brethren of the order were sent by Pandulph, the papal legate, to king John, to arrange that famous conference between them which ended in the complete submission of the latter to all the demands of the holy see. By the advice and persuasion of the Templars, king John repaired to the preceptory of Temple Ewell, near Dover, where he was met by the legate Pandulph, who crossed over from France to confer with him, and the mean hearted king was there frightened into that celebrated resignation of the kingdoms of England and Ireland, " to God, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, to the holy Roman church his mother, and to his lord, Pope Innocent the Third, and bis catholic successors, for the remission of all his sins and the sins of all his people, as well the living as the dead."f The following year the commands of king John for the extirpation of the heretics in Gascony, addressed to the seneschal of that province, were issued from the Temple at London.f and about the same period the Templars were made the depositaries of various private and confidential matters pending between king John and his illustrious sister-in-law, " the royal, eloquent, and beauteous" Beren * Acta Rymeri, torn, i. p. 170, ad. ann. 1213. t Matt. Par. ad. ami. 1213, p. 234, 23G, 237. Matt. Watr. p. 271,2. Bib. Cation. Nero C. 2. Acta /fymeri, torn. i. p. 172, 173. King John redded at Temple Ewell from the 7th to the 28th of May. I Teste meipso apud Novum Templum London ... . Acta Hymeri, tom. i. n 1 "5. ad. ann. 1214, ed. 1704.