CHAPTER XVI
THE TEMPLARS AND THE INQUISITORS
there was absolute bewilderment when the news of the
arrest of the Templars spread abroad, and an uproar broke
out in Paris. Many people had known of the vague charges
launched against the Order, but such charges had been made
against practically every religious institution, and the power
and wealth of the Temple and its special relation and its
services to the papacy seemed to raise it above all aggression.
Complaints against the Templars had been common enough.
The Order was criticised for its cupidity, arrogance, greed and
extravagance and there was a belief that its financial houses
had bought up corn on many occasions and sold it at high
prices in times of famine. The brethren were reputed to
be great swearers and great drinkers j boire comme un temylier
and jwer comma un tem$Uer are heard in France in our own
time.
But though people complained bitterly of the faults and
excesses of the fighting monks, they respected the members of
the Temple for the great services that the Order had rendered
in the Holy Land. The Templars might not have fought
Islam with the skill and energy that Christendom expected
of them, yet to the very last mighty deeds had been associated
with the name of the Order. The brethren had inherited a
high tradition, and it was difficult to believe in the total
unworthiness of the successors of those renowned warriors
who had protected Jerusalem against hordes of Moslems,
almost impossible to think that the whole Order was rotten
with iniquity and heresy, and that the other fantastic accusations
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