300 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
its blood more freely in Palestine to protect the Catholic
faith.
Court: All these things are highly meritorious, but
without faith they are nothing.
De Molay: The faith of the Order is pure and steadfast.
I declare that I believe in God, in the Trinity and in all
the other teaching of the Catholic Church. I believe in
one God, one faith, one baptism, one church. I believe
that when the soul is separated from the body in death,
there comes the judgment and then what is good and what
is evil will be revealed. These things I believe. That
is my faith—it is the faith of the Order of the Temple.
William de Nogaret (Chancellor of France and the chief
persecutor of the Temple): The corruption in the Order
is notorious. It is stated in the Chronicles of St. Denis
that the Grand Master Beaujcu and other Templars did
homage to the Sultan and that when the Templars were
defeated, the Sultan blamed their defeat on their vice
and sodomy and the betrayal of their faith.
De Molay: Never in my life have I heard such things
said. They are lies* An alliance between the Sultan and
the Temple was made when William dc Beaujeu was
Master, but nothing else could be done if the land was
to be saved, and it was not a guilty alliance. It is true
that some of the younger men of the Order objected, but
that was through ignorance.
After begging that he should be allowed to hear mass and
take part in the sacraments—a request which the commis-
sioners promised to try to have granted—de Molay was
again removed from court, and did not appear again until
the spring (March and). He was then asked for the third
time if he wished to defend the Order, De Molay repeated
that as he was reserved for the judgment of the Pope, the