THE TRIAL OF THE TEMPLARS 315
charges to the inquisitors, but he cried out that he had only
made this false confession after being tortured three times and
kept on bread and water for six months. Now he wished to
retract everything. " I declare that the Temple is absolutely
pure. ... I have seen fifty-four knights taken to the stake,
and I am told they have been burned. I fear I could not
show their courage if faced with the fire. I think I should
swear to anything that was asked of me if I were threatened
with the flames—I would even swear that I had killed God
Himself!" He prayed the commissioners to keep his
deposition secret, and was led from the court shrieking that
he would be put to the torture if his gaolers knew what he
had said.
Next day de Boulogne made another protest to the papal
commission. In a written statement he declared the execu-
tions of the Templars to be illegal, and demanded, for the
fourth time, that the brethren should be brought before the
Pope and given the use of their property to prepare a defence.
The commissioners received the statement, but hesitated to
risk another rebuff from the Archbishop of Sens by renewing
their complaint. Four days later, however, the provincial
council of Sens summoned de Pruino before it, and the com-
missioners could not overlook this flagrant breach of faith.
If even the representatives of the prisoners were to be judged
by the Sens council then the position of the commission
became quite hopeless. The commissioners pointed out to
the Archbishop that de Pruino, as a representative of the
defence, ought to be exempt from trial until the papal com-
mission had finished its enquiry. Philip de Marigny
returned a sharp rejoinder. He had been told to deal with
the Templars and he was doing no more than his duty.
Nothing had been said to him about waiting for the termina-
tion of the labours of the commission—which, he remarked
caustically, had been at work for two years—or about any
exemption for the representatives of the defenders. His