After the examination of the above two Templars, forty-one witnesses, chiefly abbots, priors, monks, priests, and serving men, and retainers of the order in Scotland, were examined upon various interrogatories, but nothing of a criminatory nature was elicited. The monks observed that the receptions of other orders were public, and were celebrated as great religious solemnities, and the friends, parents, and neighbours of the party about to take the vows were invited to attend; that the Templars, on the other hand, shrouded their proceedings in mystery and secrecy, and therefore they _suspected_ the worst. The priests thought them guilty, because they were always _against the church_! Others condemned them because (as they say) the Templars closed their doors against the poor and the humble, and extended hospitality only to the rich and the powerful. The abbot of the monastery of the Holy Cross at Edinburgh declared that they appropriated to themselves the property of their neighbours, right or wrong. The abbot of Dumferlyn knew nothing of his own knowledge against them, but had _heard_ much, and _suspected_ more. The serving men and the tillers of the lands of the order stated that the chapters were held sometimes by night and sometimes by day, with extraordinary secrecy; and some of the witnesses had heard old men say that the Templars would _never have lost the Holy Land, if they had been good Christians_![369] [Sidenote: A. D. 1310.] On the 9th of January, A. D. 1310, the examination of witnesses was resumed at London, in the parish church of St. Dunstan's West, near the Temple. The rector of the church of St. Mary de la Strode declared that he had strong _suspicions_ of the guilt of the Templars; he had, however, often been at the Temple church, and had observed that the priests performed divine service there just the same as elsewhere. William de Cumbrook, of St. Clement's church, near the Temple, the vicar of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and many other priests and clergymen of different churches in London, all declared that they had nothing to allege against the order.[370]