253 THE ΚΝ10ΊΙΤ8 TEMPLARS, A" D"0Te "Μ"** "* ^*' ^ '^e g™ ^ inquisitor of France. In this A. ». υπ . confession, (which had been afterwards revoked, but of which revocation no notice was taken by the inquisitors,) Sir Geoffrey de Gonville states that he was received into the order in England in the house of the Temple at London, by Brother Robert de Torvibe, knight, the Master of all England, about twentyeight years before that time ; that the master showed him ou a missal the image of Jesus Christ on the cross, and commanded him to deny him who was crucified ; that, terribly alarmed, he exclaimed, " Alas ! my lord, why should I do this î I will on no account do it." But the master said to him, D o it boldly ; I swear to thee that the act shall never harm either thy soul or thy conscience ;" and then proceeded to inform him that the custom had been introduced into the order by a certain bad Grand Master, who was imprisoned by a certain sultan, and could escape from prison only on condition that he would establish that form of reception in his order, and compel all who were received to deny Christ Jesus ! but the deponent remained inflexible; he refused to deny his Saviour, and asked where were his uncle and the other good people who had brought him there, and was told that they were all gone ; and at last a compromise took place between him and the Master, who made him take his oath that he would tell all his brethren that he had gone through the customary form, and never reveal that it had been dispensed with ! He states also that the ceremony was instituted in memory of St. Peter, who three times denied Christ ! * * This knight had been tortured in the Temple at Paris, by the brothers of St Dominic, in the presence of the grand inquisitor, and he made his confession when suffering on the rack ; he afterwards revoked it, and was then tortured into a withdrawal of his revocation, notwithstanding which the inquisitor made the unhappy wretch, in common with others, put his signature to the following interrogatory, " lnterrogatus utrurn vi vel metti earceris aut tormentorum immiscuit in sua depositione aliquam falsitaiem, dicit quod non Γ