THE TRIAL OF THE TEMPLARS IN ENGLAND 281
stances too closely. The examination had been meant to
serve one purpose and one purpose only—to enable the Pope
to say that a number of Templars had admitted their crimes
before him in person. Six weeks afterwards (August I2th)
he issued the Bull Faciens misericordiam to the bishops in
every country of Christendom. He cannot, says Clement,
doubt the guilt of the Templars, and as the protector of the
faith he would be lacking sadly in his duty if he did not
instruct a stringent examination to be carried out. He had
himself seen seventy-two of the brethren, and his cardinals
had received confessions from the chiefs of the Order.
These guilty avowals and other evidence had convinced him
that he was wrong to regard the Templars as unjustly
accused. " Our beloved son in Christ, Philip ", had been
most helpful in producing facts which could not be contra-
verted, and, Clement emphasised, the king had throughout
acted solely out of love for the Church and not with any
desire to possess himself of the property of the Temple.
Philip had " entirely surrendered that property to the
Church ", said Clement, but he made no reference to the
secret agreement whereby the immovable possessions of
the Order remained in the king's hands for the present.
Almost a year passed before the examination of the
Templars was resumed in France, and it was not until
September, 1309, more than eighteen months since their
arrest, that arrangements were made to submit the Templars
in England to investigation. On September I4th, the
brethren in England were taken from their prisons and con-
centrated in the Tower of London, York Castle, and Lincoln
Castle. A week later, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued
the indictment against the Templars. It repeated the
charges which had been made in France: the denial of
Christ, spitting and trampling on the cross, idolatry and
homosexual practices. The prisoners were also to be
questioned on the practice of confessing only to the priests