THE SUPPRESSION OF THE TEMPLE       337
against these infidels. A new Order, called the Order of
Our Lady of Montesa, was therefore established to fight the
Moors in Aragon and adopted the Templars' mantle. This
Order and other Orders in Spain and Portugal inherited
the goods of the Temple*
The fate of the Templars still in prison at the time of the
dissolution of the Order had been left to the provincial
ecclesiastical councils. Brethren who had made no admission
or who, after making a guilty confession, had retracted were
treated as obstinate or relapsed, and most of them were
condemned to perpetual imprisonment. Those who had
acknowledged their guilt and clung to their confessions were
set at liberty, and many of them granted pensions, which
were to be a charge on the possessions of the Order. All
vows sworn to the Temple were pronounced null and void,
and the released ex-Templars were able to return to civil
life. A number of the servants took up manual labour and
others eked out an existence on their pensions. The
Hospital, which appears to have been highly suspicious of
the whole process against the Temple, opened its ranks to
the brethren, knights and servants, and many of the
Templars assumed the mantle of the Hospitallers.
Clement had always insisted that the great dignitaries of
the Order should be reserved for his own judgment, the
one thing on which he had never wavered throughout the
whole persecution. The Pope, however, avoided any
meeting with the principals, although the Grand Master
frequently petitioned to be allowed to plead before the
pontiff. Clement was still resolved that de Molay and the
other leaders should not see him and on December 22,nd,
1313, he appointed three commissioners, Arnold de Farges,
Arnold Novelli, and Nicholas de Freville to examine the
chiefs of the Order in Paris and pronounce judgment upon
them* In addition to Jacques de Molay, the officers reserved
to the Pope were Geoffrey de Charnay, the Preceptor of