The provincial council of Paris handed over the contumacious to the secular authorities; fifty-nine of the guilty knights were burnt in that city at the back of the abbey of St. Antoine. A second council, at Senlis, in a similar manner delivered nine Templars to the mercies of the secular judge, who sentenced them to be burnt at the stake. It is said that the culprits retracted their confession on the scaffold, and died protesting their innocence. As soon as the commissioners appointed by the pope were informed of these executions they suspended their sittings, declaring that the terror inspired by these capital penalties deprived the prisoners of the tranquillity of mind necessary to their defence. They further requested the council of Paris to act with more deliberation. When Pope Clement V. had obtained all the necessary information he convoked the council of Vienne (Fig. 150), and there, on the 22nd of March, 1312, pronounced his decision, which rather absolved than condemned the order, and placed their persons and their property at his disposal and at that of the Church. In Spain and in Portugal, this property was applied to the defence of the Christians against the constant attacks of the Saracens and the Moors (Fig. 151); but the greater portion of the possessions of the Templars, and particularly those they held in France, was transferred to the keeping of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, who continued to devote themselves to the cause of the holy places, and kept up the good works to perform which the Templars had received so many and such costly donations. The serious abuses and crimes which caused the suppression of the order had not fortunately vitiated the whole of its members: most of the Templars were set at liberty, many of them, preserving their former rank, enrolled themselves in the Order of St. John. In this wise, as is pointed out by Wilcke, Albert de Blacas, prior of Aix, obtained the commandership of Saint-Maurice, as prior of the Hospitallers; and Frederick, grand prior of Lower Germany, retained the title in the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. [Illustration: Fig. 151.--Our Lady of Grace sheltering under the folds of her mantle the first Grand Masters of the Military Order of Montessa. This order was established in Spain in 1317 by James II., King of Aragon, with the approval of John XXII., as a substitute for the Order of the Temple, with whose possessions it was endowed.--From a Painting on Wood of the Fifteenth Century, held in veneration in the Church of the Temple, at Valencia; and from the “Iconografia Española” of M. Carderera.]