THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
varying sentences of imprisonment The Temple was highly
popular in Scotland, and all but' two of the brethren found
refuge against the authorities, who indeed do not seem to
have been anxious to capture them. The two prisoners—
the Preceptor, William of Clifton, and William of Middle-
ton—were brought before the Archbishop of St. Andrews
and John de Solerio, clerk to the Pope. Forty-one witnesses
were produced against them, but the prisoners made no
admission, and the evidence of the witnesses was so feeble
that the court pronounced the Order innocent and released
the two accused.
In Paris the papal commission resumed its deliberations
on November 3rd, 1310. Only three commissioners were
present, and not a single witness. For the Archbishop of
Sens had proceeded with his work of handing Templars
over to Philip the Fair to be fed to the flames j the Arch-
bishop of Rheims, Robert de Courtenay, had summoned his
council at Senlis, sufficiently near to Paris to strike terror
into the hearts of the prisoners in the capital, and had
similarly remitted Templars to the temporal arm for punish-
ment. The provincial council of Rouen, held at Pent de
PArche under the Archbishop (Clement's tvvcnty-four-year-
old nephew, Bernard de Farges), had also proceeded against
the brethren and sent some to the stake and others to
perpetual imprisonment.
Hundreds of Templars had offered to defend the Order
in Paris in the spring of 1310; but the summary judgments
of the councils of Sens, Senlis, and Pont de PArche had
fulfilled their purpose. The king had planned to break the
defence by terrorising the defenders through the provincial
councils and he had triumphed. Those Templars who
remained staunch in defence of the Order had been put to
death as relapsed heretics or were now undergoing imprison-
ment for life* The others had admitted their guilt before
the ecclesiastical councils and been reconciled with the