even going so far as to assert he was a false
prophet, a man who had been punished for his crimes; that they
had no hopes of salvation through him; that at the final
reception they always spat on the Cross, trampling it under foot;
that they worshipped the devil in the form of a cat, or some
other familiar animal; that they adored him in the figure of an
idol consecrated by anointing it with the fat of a new-born
infant, the illegitimate offspring of a brother; that a demon
appeared in the shape of a black or gray cat, &c. The idol is a
mysterious object. According to some it was a head with a beard,
or a head with three faces: by others it was said to be a skull,
a cat. One witness testified that in a chapter of the Order one
brother said to another, 'Worship this head; it is your God and
your Mahomet.' Of this kind was the general evidence of the
witnesses examined. Less incredible, perhaps, is the statement
that they sometimes saw demons in the appearance of women; and a
more credible allegation is that of a secret understanding with
the Turks.

Notoriously suspicious communication had been maintained with the
enemy; they even went so far as to adopt their style of dress and
living. Worse than all, by an amiable but unaccustomed tolerance,
the followers of Mohammed had been allowed a free exercise of
their religion, a sort of liberality little short of apostasy
from the faith. Without recounting all the horrors of the
persecution, it must be sufficient to repeat that fifty-four
of the wretched condemned, having been degraded by the Bishop
of Paris, were handed over to the flames. Four years afterwards
the scene was consummated by the burning of Jacques Molay.
Torture of the most dreadful sort had been applied to force
necessary confessions; and the complaint of one of the criminals
is significant--'I, single, as I am, cannot undertake to argue
with the Pope and the King of France.'[60] In attempting to
detect the mysterious facts of this dark transaction little
assistance is given by the contradictory statements of cotemporary
or later writers; some asserting the charges to be mere
fabrications throughout; others their positive reality; and recent
historians have attempted to substantiate or destroy them. Hallam
truly remarks that the rapacious and unprincipled conduct of
Philip, the submission of Clement V. to his will, the apparent
incredibility of the charges from their monstrousness, the just
prejudice agains