346 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
acknowledging their offences, rarer still when the accused
have previously made guilty admissions. The argument is
advanced that> even if the hundred and twenty brethren who
died in Paris were ignorant of the apostasy, it does not prove
that other Templars were equally blameless. But such an
argument destroys itself. Most of the executed Templars
had confessed to the offences at one time. If they are accepted
as innocent, their earlier depositions must be utterly false.
And if this is acknowledged, then every single one of the early
depositions must likewise be dismissed. Some brethren said
that they had told priests, not attached to the Order, how they
had denied Christ on their reception. It is hard to believe
that so abominable a crime would not have been reported to
the Church had even a few priests learned of it. According
to the evidence, the form of initiation was used at many
houses, at which hundreds of Templars were received every
year. The Temple attracted men from the noblest families,
often the recruits were deeply pious, and so degrading a
ceremony would have been bound to cause horror among the
majority of those who came to the Temple. The indictment
tried to get over the difficulty by alleging that those who
refused to deny were killed or imprisoned, but scores of
Templars must therefore have disappeared every month. To
accept such a conclusion is impossible.
It is a reasonable presumption that at some of the houses
the brethren were guilty of grossness, though of nothing more,
Not the slightest piece of trustworthy testimony was tendered
that the Order as a whole was tainted* The general council
of the Church rejected the papal plea for a condemnation, and
the Pope, recognising the weakness of the case, dared not
permit an impartial examination by the council Those who
in the Middle Ages were convinced of the guilt of the Order
by the screeching of Philip's propagandists and the thunders
of the papacy sought no explanation other than the inherent
,* wickedness of mankind and looked no further than the con-