THE TRIAL OF THE TEMPLARS 319
found by concentrating on the absolution given by the Grand
Master and other great officers at the end of the chapters.
Many Templars had agreed that words of absolution were
spoken, but they stressed that the absolution was only for
offences against discipline and not for sins, which were invari-
ably confessed to the chaplains. The tribunals of London
and York, however, seized on the fact that any kind of
absolution at all had been pronounced and claimed that the
brethren had erred in permitting such a practice.
If the prisoners would frankly admit the irregularity of
this absolution by their chiefs and publicly confess their
detestation of the heresies charged against the Order in the
papal Bulls, they would be reconciled with the Church.
Almost all the Templars accepted this compromise. They
appeared on the steps of St. Paul's and at other churches in
London and elsewhere to make the required declaration.
After doing so they were received into the bosom of the Church
and ordered to undergo penance in the monasteries, from
which most of them were before long discharged into civil
life. De la More maintained his refusal to confess that the
Order had erred in any way and died shortly afterwards in
the Tower, protesting his innocence to the last. The other
brethren who likewise insisted that it would be dishonourable
to admit anything derogatory to the good name of the
Temple were sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, but the
sentence does not seem to have been carried out generally.
The Templars had also been brought to trial in Scotland
and Ireland. Thirty Templars were arrested in Ireland in
1307 by the Chief Justice, John Wogan, and imprisoned at
Dublin Castle. Their trial took place at St. Patrick's Church
before the Dominicans, Richard Balby, Philip de Slane and
Hugh St. Leger, but with one exception the prisoners main-
tained their innocence and the evidence against them con-
sisted only of the usual crop of rumours. The Templars
were nevertheless convicted, but were set at liberty after