2)fâ: ΤΠΕ KNIOHTS TEMPLARS. JAMM si absolved, and reconciled to the church ! The torture still con A^o^lsiv. tinued to be applied, and out of thirty-three Templars confined in the chateau d'Alaix, four died in prison, and the remaining twenty confessed, amongst other things, the following absurdities :—that in the provincial chapter of the order held at Montpelier, the Templars set up a head and worshipped it ; that the devil often appeared there in the shape of a eat, and conversed with the assembled brethren, and promised them a good harvest, with the possession of riches, and all kinds of temporal property. Some asserted that the liead worshipped by the fraternity possessed a long beard ; others that it was a woman's head ; and one of the prisoners declared that as often as this wonderful head was adored, a great number of devils made their appearance in the shape of beautiful women ! ! * W e must now unfold the dark page in the history of the order in England. AH the Templars in custody in this country had been examined separately and apart, and had, notwithstanding, deposed in substance to the same effect, and given the same account of their reception into the order, and of the oaths that they took. Any reasonable and impartial mind would consequently have been satisfied of the truth of their statements ; but it was not the object of the inquisitors to obtain evidence of the I innocence, but proof of the guilt, of the order. At first, king Edward the Second, to his honour, forbade the infliction of torture upon the illustrious members of the Temple in his dominions —men who had fought and bled for Christendom, and of whose piety and morals he had a short time before given such ample testimony to the principal sovereigns of Europe. But the virtuous resolution of the weak king was speedily overcome by the all-powerful influence of the Roman pontiff, who wrote to him in the month of Jnne, upbraiding him for preventing the inqui * ïiavtwuerd, p. 155,