RELIGIOUS HOUSES indulgences being perhaps anterior to the founda- tion in Fleet Street,^^ but after 1240 several prelates, among whom were the bishops of Ely, Waterford, and Ossory,*' tried in this way to attract the alms of the faithful, particularly for the maintenance of lights. It is uncertain whether the papal indult of forty days was granted by Innocent III or Innocent IV.** The tombs of some of those buried there, among them the Earls Marshal*^ and Hugh Bigod,*** and the relics in which the church was very rich,*' may have thus ** proved a source of in- come. The size and situation of the Temple, and the power of its occupants, recommended it as a place of residence to other persons besides John. As early as 1 1 92 the archbishop of York had stayed there *' on the memorable occasion when he set the rights of Canterbury at defiance by having his cross held erect at Westminster, and the Temple church was suspended by the bishop of London from celebrating divine service in consequence. The association of the Temple with the collection of papal grants'" in this country may have been an additional induce- ment to Master Martin, the notorious papal agent, to take up his abode there, 1244-5. The ambassadors of the king of Castille were also lodged there in 1255,'^ when the apartments of Sanchez, the bishop-elect of Toledo,'^ must have presented a curious contrast to those of the brethren. The Templars under Edward I hardly appear to have maintained the dominating position they had held during the last two reigns in the affairs of the crown. Guy de Foresta, the master of the Temple, is certainly represented as going to Scotland on the king's business in 1273 ;'* the New Temple is mentioned as a royal treasury in 1274 and 1276, and the Temple treasurer as the receiver of the tallage of London in " T., archbishop of Canterbury, may, be Theobald, 1 139— 6 2, and Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, may be Thomas i Becket, 1162—70. Ibid. fol. 24. "Ibid. fol. 25. " Ibid. fol. 24. " Matt. Paris, Chnn. Maj. iii, 43, 201 ; iv, 136. '* Cott. MS. Nero, E. vi, fol. 25^. " These included the knife with which St. Thomas of Canterbury was killed ; two crosses containing wood of the True Cross, and some of the Holy Blood ; and there were six pyxes and coffers containing relics not named. L.T.R. Enr. Accts. 18, rot. 7. This inventory is given in full in Baylis, The Temple Church, 141-5. "^ Cott. MS. Nero, E. vi, fol. 24^, 2^b. Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 187. ™ Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 557; Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 1 70. " Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 379, 420. Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), i, 325. " Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 509. " Cal. of Close, 1272-9, p. 57. '^ Cal. of Pat. 1272-81, pp 52, 140. 487 1274 ; '* Hugh, the visitor-general of the order, was moreover appointed by the king in 1299 " to repay the Friscobaldi for a loan. But in- stances of this sort were now rare, where before they were frequent, the Italian merchants taking their place in the royal finance, and the mendi- cant orders in diplomacy and other business. Yet the king's robbery of part of the treasure there in 1283 shows that as a place of deposit for valuables its popularity was still unrivalled or it would not have been singled out for this distinction, though a severe shock must then have been given to the credit it had hitherto deservedly " enjoyed. The decline of interest in crusades, the fall of Acre, and loss of the Holy Land in 1291, and the rise of new religious orders, would all tend to decrease the gifts made to the Templars, but these were numerous*" enough during the last years of Edward I to prove that the knights were still regarded with favour by many. There were absolutely no signs of the storm which was so soon to overwhelm them. On 1 3 October, 1307, the Templars in France were all arrested by King Philip.*' Edward II, far from crediting the accusations made against them, at first expressed himself strongly in their favour.'^ But on the receipt of a letter from Pope Clement V in November,*^ he abandoned their cause, and on 8 January, the Templars in England were by his order suddenly seized and imprisoned.*^ The process before the papal in- quisitors, Deodatus, abbot of Lagny, and Sicard de Vaur, canon of Narbonne, did not begin until 20 October, 1309.*' The charges may be summed up as blasphemy, apostasy, idolatry, and heresy : they were said to deny Christ at their reception into the order, to trample the cross under foot and spit on the crucifix, to adore the image of a cat, to believe that the grand master and the preceptors, many of whom were laymen, " Cal. of Close, z-ji-i:), p. 63. " Cal. of Pat. 1 292-1 301, p. 419. " Stow, Sftrz*. of Lend, iii, 271. The treasures of the Poitevins had been seized there in 1258 for the use of the kingdom (Matt. Paris, C-^/on. Maj. (Rlls Ser.), V, 704), but in a period of upheaval necessity overrides all other considerations. " The Templars had steadfastly refused in 1232 to surrender to the king the treasure Hubert de Burgh had entrusted to them until ordered to do so by the owner. Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 232.
- " In 1298 Ralph de Algate granted them 4 marks
annual quit-rent in Walbrook. Cott. MS. Nero, E. vi, fol. 27. Edmund, earl of Cornwall, the king's cousin, gave them common pasture in all his hundred oflsleworth. Ibid. fol. 78. See also for alienations to them, Cal. of Pat. 1292-1301, pp. 26, 542; ibid. I 301-7, pp. 134, 301, 322.
- ' Addison, op. cit. 202. '^ Ibid. 205, 207.
^ Addison, op. cit. 207. A translation of the papal bull is printed by Baylis, op. cit. 123-6. »^ Ibid. 210. "^ WAVm%, Concilia, 329.
