The Follies of the King - Plaidy Jean (электронная книга TXT) 📗

about the Templars. He knew that over the centuries they had amassed great wealth but he remembered his father’s saying how magnificent they had been during his crusade and how their presence there had been such a help to the soldiers.

He sent for Walter Reynolds who had been a great comfort to him since the

departure of Gaveston.

Walter was thoughtful when he heard of the Pope’s instruction. ‘You can

depend upon it, this does not come so much from His Holiness as from the King of France,’ was his comment.

‘Philip has started to suppress the Templars. Walter, I fear it will bring me ill luck. I fear if I do this, something awful will happen. I might never see Perrot again.’

‘The King of France has amassed great wealth through the suppression of

the Order, my lord.’

‘I know it well.’

‘And a king never needed money more than you do.’

‘It seems the wrong way to get it.’

‘If it is true that they practise these obscene acts?’ Walter licked his lips and Edward knew that Walter was thinking how he would like to witness some of them.

‘Do you believe it, Walter?’

Walter shrugged his shoulders. ‘It would be a way of replenishing the royal coffers,’ was his comment.

Edward shuddered. ‘I will not do it.’ he said. ‘Frankly, Walter, I do not

believe it. My father-in-law is a ruthless man. He needs money, so he looks round to see who has some. He has alighted on the Templars. I think this will bring him ill luck. The Templars are? or were? men of God.’

‘You will doubtless put it before the council.’

‘This I must do, but somehow, Walter, I fancy they will not wish to do it

either. The Templars have lived peaceably here for many years. I had rather they continued to do so.’

‘The King of France is the most powerful man in Europe, my lord. It is a

blessing that you married his daughter.’ Walter smirked. ‘The lady seems a little more pleased with life of late. I doubt not this state of affairs has reached the French King’s ears.’

‘If he thinks to rule me,’ said Edward somewhat petulantly, ‘I shall defy

him.’

‘Who is the King of France to govern the King of England! He is

determined though that the Templars be suppressed and not only in his own country. It may be that he wishes to ease his conscience by letting others share his guilt? if guilt it is.’

‘If these men are innocent, Walter?’

‘I doubt they are that. It is not the nature of men to be innocent and when an Order amasses great wealth it can become obsessed by that wealth and eager to see it multiply. They say there was much indulgence among these men. They

lived in luxury, they belied their holy laws. Oh yes, that seems very likely, my lord.’

‘But does this deserve torture and death?’

‘The King of France thinks so.’

‘Do you think he has lived such a virtuous life?’

‘That is beside the point if I may say so, lord. Philip is a king; these men proclaim to be holy knights. They have been foolish. They should not have

become so wealthy for where there is wealth there will always be those who covet it and scheme to take possession of it. There is no doubt that Philip is determined on their destruction. He sent for the master, Jacques de Molai, on pretext of wishing to talk to him. Molai came to Paris from Cyprus and was treated well at first to allay his suspicions. Then suddenly Philip swooped on Molai and sixty of his knights of high order. They were taken to noisome

dungeons and there daily these Knights Templars are submitted to hideous

torture.’

Edward covered his face with his hands. ‘I hate to hear of it, Walter. I will not allow it here.’

‘Under this torture many of the knights have confessed to obscene

practices.’

‘What they say under torture does not count.’

‘Indeed it does. The purpose of the torture in to reduce them to such agony that they will do anything to stop it.’

‘I do not want it here, Walter. I do not want it. Why cannot people be merry and gay and laugh and sing together? Why does there have to be this vileness?’

‘Ah, my lord, you are gentle and kind. All kings are not so. Least of all your father-in-law. He acts with demonical fury against the Templars. He wants their money and he wants an excuse for taking it. Doubtless they would be willing to give it to him but that will not suit him. He must ease his conscience. Therefore he must prove to the world and himself that these men deserve to be

dispossessed.. This he does through torture when they confess to the sins he and his friends like Philip de Martigny, Archbishop of Sens, and his minister, Guillaume de Nogaret, have thought up for them.’

‘Perhaps they will refuse to confess,’ said Edward. ‘What then?’

‘Then there will be further torture and that such that such as few can

withstand. I have heard that many have lost the use of their feet after being submitted to a certain form of treatment which the soles of the feet are greased and set in a screen which is placed before a fire. I have heard that the slow burning is one of the most agonizing tortures devised by men. There are many others?’

‘I do not wish to hear of them,’ cried Edward. ‘Walter, I do not wish that the Templars in England shall be arrested. Perhaps they could be warned. Perhaps they could give up some of their wealth? but I do not wish them to be tortured or burned at the stake, I am sure Perrot would agree with me if he were here.’

‘Ah, Perrot!’ sighed Walter. ‘But what good news of him in Ireland!’

Edward brightened. ‘I am so proud of him. Even Mad Dog Warwick had to

admit that the news was good. The way in which he dealt with the rebellion in Munster was magnificent.’

Walter nodded. ‘If he goes on like this, my lord, you might suggest he

comes back.’

‘Do you think they would listen?’

‘Who knows? They might be ready to. Let him go on for a while as he has

begun and even his worst enemies won’t be able to deny that he has made a

good job of Ireland.’

Edward forgot the distress he felt at the treatment of the Templars in

contemplation of that glorious possibility.

But when he sat with his council and expressed his views regarding the

Templars, he was pleased to find that the majority of his ministers agreed with him.

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Each day there was news of the terrible fate that was befalling the Templars in France and of how many were arrested and taken before the council set up by the Archbishop of Sens. Some would not confess to their alleged sins even

under the most violent torture and were taken to the stakes which were set up all over Paris and burned to death.

Nothing was too revolting to be laid at their door, and their enemies were hard put to it to think up new crimes committed. Many of them were escaping from France and that did not suit Philip.

He wanted the entire Order wiped out. He demanded that other countries

follow his lead; he was most displeased at the attitude of his son-in-law. His greatest advantage came from his puppet the Pope. The Templars must be

destroyed, thundered Clement. Excommunication could well be the wages of

those who ignored the command.

The threat of excommunication could always arouse alarm. Edward was

persuaded by his ministers that although he might defy his father-in-law , he could not defy the Pope. That the Pope was acting on the instructions of the King of France was true, but behind the Pope was the image of the Holy See and the people feared it.

There was a half-hearted attempt in England to suppress the Templars but

this could not be allowed to proceed and in a short time the Pope had sent his inquisitors to deal with the matter. It was the first time that the Inquisition had been set up in England; many determined at that time that it should never come to their shores again and by great good fortune, it never did. It brought with it a change in the attitude of people. Fear had come into the land. There had been persecution before of course; there was cruelty; but the sinister inquisitors shrouded in religious fervour with their instruments of torture and their secret administrations had brought something to the country which had never been