338 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS ;
Normandy, Geoffrey de Payraud, the Visitor of the Order
in France, and Geoffrey de Gonaville, the Preceptor of,
Poitou and Aquitaine. The three commissioners, who were
assisted by Philip de Marigny, Archbishop of Sens, and other
French prelates, summoned de Molay and his fellow-leaders
before them at Paris. All four chiefs of the Order had
previously admitted themselves guilty of one or more of the
charges, though they had retracted later* Now they begged
to be pardoned for recanting and confirmed the truth of their
original guilty confessions.
Doubtless acting on the instructions of Clement, the papal
commissioners decided to sentence the four prisoners to per-
petual imprisonment. On March i8th, 1314, a platform
was erected before Notre Dame. The accused were brought
in chains before the commissioners and their confessions read
in the presence of a great crowd of spectators. It was
announced that, as the prisoners had acknowledged their;
guilt and shown sincere penitence for their grave sins, the:
commissioners wished to act leniently. They therefore!
sentenced de Molay and his brethren to pass the rest of their |
lives in captivity! De Payraud and de Gonaville accepted i
the sentence without question, but de Molay and de Charnay j
broke out in protest.
The accused Templars had been in prison for six years!
and felt hopeless of fighting the enemies who had destroyed !
the power of the Order. They had agreed to confess to a!
number of the charges and had been promised lenient treat- !
ment. But in the opinion of the Church leniency to heretics \
was perpetual imprisonment, whereas the Templars had j
thought that they would be released immediately or at most i
suffer only a short period of confinement. De Payraud and |
de Gonaville were probably as disappointed as the other ]
chiefs on learning the harsh judgment of the commissioners, \
They preferred, however, to make no complaint against the :
sentence since they realised that the alternative might be |