have an interview witli the pope. Ho was there detained with JAMIS MK various conferences and negotiations relative to a pretended ex-A. „. 1307. pedition for the recovery of the Holy Laud. Among other things, the pope proposed an union between the Templars and Hospitallers, and the Grand Master handed in his objections to the proposition. He says, that after the fall of Acre, the people of Italy and of other christian nations clamoured loudly against Pope Nicholas, for having afforded no succour to the besieged, and that he, by way of screening himself, had laid all the blame of the loss of the place on pretended dissensions between the Templars and Hospitallers, and projected an union between them. The Grand Master declares that there had been no dissensions between the orders prejudicial to the christian cause ; that there was nothing more than a spirit of rivalry and emulation, the destruction of which would be highly injurious to the Christians, and advantageous to the Saracens ; for if the Hospitallers at any time performed a brilliant feat of arras against the infidels, the Templars would never rest quiet until they had done the same or better, and e converso. So also if the Templars made a great shipment of brethren, horses, and other beasts across sea to Palestine, the Hospitallers would always do the like or more. He at the same time positively declares, that a member of one order had never been known to raise his hand against a member of the other.* The Grand Master complains that the reverence and respect of the christian nations for both orders had undeservedly diminished, that everything was changed, and that most persons were then more ready to lake from them than to give to them, and that many powerful men, both clergy and laity, brought continual mischiefs upon the fraternities. In the mean time, the secret agents of the French king industriously circulated various dark rumours and odious reports con • Dal. Pap. Aven, torn. ii. p. 176.