THE ΚΝΙβΠΤβ TEMPLARS. deputed to Hint end, and to make an inquisition concerning the execrable excesses which the members of the order are said to have committed." * To this letler of the supreme pontiff, king Edward sent the following short and pithy reply : " As to the goods of the Templars, we have done nothing with them up tò the present time, nor do we intend to do with them aught but what we have a right to do, and what we know will be acceptable to the Most High." τ On the 13th of September, A.D . 1300, the king granted letters of safe conduct " to those discreet men, the abbot of Lagny, in the diocese of Paris, and Master Sicard de Vaur, canon of Nar bonne," the inquisitors appointed by the Pope to examine the Grand Preceptor and brethren of the Temple in England $ and the saine day be wrote to the archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishops of London and Lincoln, enjoining them to be personally present with the papal inquisitors, at their respective sees, as often as such inquisitors, or any one of them, should proceed with their inquiries against the Templars.§ On the 14th of September writs Avere sent, in pursuance of an order in council, to the sheriffs of Kent and seventeen other counties, commanding them to bring all their prisoners of the order of the Temple to London, and deliver them to the constable of the Tower ; also to the sheriffs of Northumberland and eight other counties, enjoining them to convey their prisoners to York Castle; and to the sheriffs of Warwick and seven other counties, requiring them, in like manner, to conduct their prisoners to the Castle of Lincoln. ]| Writs were also sent to John de Cumberland, constable of the Tower, and to the constables of * Acta Rymiri, torn. iiL p. 110,1]]. Vita paperum Avenion, toni. ii.p. 107. f Ibid., torn. iii. p. 121,122. ΐ Ibid. p. 16B. § Iliid. p. 16», 109. I Ibid.P . 174.