JANES UE the major, aldermen, and commonalty of his faithful city of A. D. 1310. London, that out of reverence to the pope he had authorised the inquisitors, sent over by his holiness, to question the Templars by TORTURE ; he puts them in possession of the orders he had sent to the constable of the Tower, and to the sheriffs ; and he commands them, in case it should be notified to them by the inquisitors that the prisons provided by the sheriffs were insufficient for their purposes, to procure without fail fit and convenient houses in the city, or near thereto, for carrying into effect the contemplated measures ; and he graciously informs them that he will reimburse them all the expenses that may be incurred by them or their officers in fulfilling his commands.* Shortly afterwards the king again wrote to the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of London, acquainting them that the sheriffs had made a return to his writ, to the effect that the four gates (prisons) of the city were not under their charge, and that they eould not therefore obtain them for the purposes reqnired ; and he commands the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty, to place those four gates at the disposal of the sheriffs.-f- On the 12th of December, all the Templars in custody at Lincoln were, by command of the king, brought up to London, and placed in solitary confinement in different prisons and private houses provided by the mayor and sheriffs. Shortly afterwards orders were given for all the Templars in custody in London to be loaded with chains and fetters ; the myrmidons of the inquisitors were to be allowed to make periodical visits to see that the imprisonment was properly carried into effect, and were to be allowed to TORTURE the bodies of the Templars in any way that they might think ut. \ On the 30th of March, A.D . 1311, after some months' trial of • Acta/iysteri, torn. iii. p. 231. t Ibid. p. 231,232. t Ibid. tom. iii, p. 232—235.