heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

386 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
plundered his palace. In two days the people rose in his defence, rescued
of Rome
him, and led him back to his desolate home, while the people
sent 400 horsemen to conduct him to the Vatican ;
but fear and mortificasion
had crushed his bodily and mental strength, and he died about a
month after, October nth, 1303.
Philip now exerted himself to secure a successor who would be
entirely subject to him ;
and having selected Bertrand de Goth, Bishop of
Bordeaux, pledged him with six stipulations, five of which were specified,
and the following year (1305) he was raised to the papal chair as Clement V.
Queen Jane did not live to witness the fulfilment of the last mysterious
pledge, for she died that same year at the Chateau de Vincennes, leaving,
besides her daughter, then Queen of England, three sons, who were
successively kings of France and kings of Navarre Louis X., Philip V.,
and Charles IV. However, the time soon arrived when the last pledge
was declared ; and, soon after his accession, Clement summoned the grand
masters of the military orders before him. The head of the Hospitallers
refused, being already strongly posted in Rhodes. Jacques du Molay, the
Grandmaster of the Templars, obeyed.
The sequel is well known to all readers of history. No doubt, now
that the Crusades were over, the Templars had done their work. No
doubt, that the sarcasm of Richard Cceur de Lion on his death- bed was
true :
" I leave my avarice to the monks of Citeaux, my luxury
to the
" Grey monks, my pride to the Templars." But pride, avarice, luxury, and
immorality, would have had little weight with Philip. They had refused
him admittance to their Order, lent him money which he could not
pay, they were rich, and an easy prey. Every foul accusation which
could be conceived was invented against them ; every devilish device
which could betray and convict them was practised. Du Molay, for the
time, pleaded guilty, and was spared ; the remainder, to some hundreds,
were burnt or beheaded, and the Order dissolved. Then the conscience of
the Grandmaster was touched, and protesting the innocence of his
brethren, he bewailed and condemned his own cowardice and treachery.
Without a day's delay, on March 2oth, 1314, he was burnt to death on a
little island in the Seine, in the very presence of Philip. The wood was
wet, but from out the stifling smoke and sputtering flame came a voice,
which said
"
: I call on thee, Clement, Pope of Rome, I call on thee,
" Philip, King of France and Navarre, to appear, the one within forty days,
"the other in less than a year, before the judgment-seat of God to answer
" for the crimes done to me and my brethren."
On the 2oth of April the Pope expired; on the 4th
of November
Philip was killed by a fall from his horse when hunting in the forest of
Fontainebleau.