.TJMES BX maintained the innocence of their order, and appealed to all their i. u. 1310. gallant actions, in ancient and modern times, in refutation of the calumnies of their enemies. The enraged Philip caused these Templars to be brought before an ecclesiastical tribunal convoked at Paris, and sentence of death was passed upon them by the archbishop of Sens, in the following terms :— " You have avowed," said be, " that the brethren who are received into the order of the Temple are compelled to renounce Christ and spit upon the cross, and that you yourselves have participated in that crime : you have thus acknowledged that you have fallen into the sin of heresy. By your confession and repentance you had merited absolution, and had once more become reconciled to the church. As you have revoked your confession, the church no longer regards you as reconciled, but as having fallen back to your first errors. You are, therefore, relapsed heretics (!) and as such, we condemn you to the fire." * The following morning, (Tuesday, May 12,) in pursuance of this absurd and atrocious sentence, fifty-four Templars were handed over to the secular arm, and were led out to execution by the king's officers. They were conducted into the open country, in the environs of the Porte St. Antoine des Champs at Paris, and were burnt to death in a most cruel manner before a slow fire. All historians speak with admiration of the heroism and intrepidity with which they met their fate.f Many hundred other Templars were dragged from the dungeons of Paris before the archbishop of Sens and his council. Those whom neither the agony of the tortore nor the fear of * Joan. nan. Sand. Tint. Contili, do KangAt ad arm. 1310. Ex secunda vita Clem. V. p. 37. f Chron. Cornei. Zcrn9tef,apud Marlene, tran. v. col. 159. Hehat. de cai. VÎT, ìlloatr, lib. 9. chap. xxi. iìaynouardj Monumena hiatoriquee. [Dupuy, Condemnation dea Templiera.