270 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
great leaders of the Order had themselves admitted horrible
heresies. He commanded Edward and the other princes to
adopt the same procedure as Philip of France and arrest all
the Templars within their jurisdiction on the same day and
seize their property. Both the persons and possessions of the
Temple were to be held by the temporal authorities until
instructions were received from the Church.
The opposition of Edward collapsed. Whether in the
interim he was convinced of the guilt of the Templars or
tempted by the chance to enrich himself with the goods of
the Order, whether he was simply afraid to disobey the Pope
is not clear, but the king who had previously been so eager to
defend the Temple now turned into a persecutor, though a
relatively mild one. On December 20th instructions were
issued to the sheriffs of England to arrest the Templars and
take charge of their property on January 8th, 1308, and
similar instructions were sent to the king's officers in Scotland,
Ireland and Wales. The sheriffs were told to carry out their
orders with great secrecy, but Edward was not so well served
as Philip the Fair and he lacked the highly developed police
organisation which had been built up in France. Hundreds
of Templars escaped arrest and found safety in the hills or in
the houses of sympathisers, and only 228 members wen
taken and lodged in royal prisons. England had no
propaganda machine to malign the prisoners, and publiq
opinion was not marshalled against them. The arrogance
and luxury and wealth of the Order had inevitably given rise
to envy and complaint, but England did not exhibit the,
hatred and detestation of the Templars which was so
prominent a feature of the process in France. Neither the'
king, the barons nor the people wished to punish thd
Templars, and the accused brethren were treated with great^
leniency while awaiting their trial and during the actual pro-
ceedings. William de la More, the Grand Preceptor of
England, and a number of other leading Templars were