After closing the examinations at Lincoln, the abbot of Lagny and the canon of Narbonne returned to London, and immediately resumed the inquiry in that city. On the 8th and 9th days of June, Brother William de la More, the Master of the Temple, and thirty-eight of his knights, chaplains, and sergeants, were examined by the inquisitors in the presence of the bishops of London and Chichester, and the before-mentioned public notaries, in the priory of the Holy Trinity. They were interrogated for the most part concerning the penances imposed, and the absolution pronounced in the chapters. The Master of the Temple was required to state what were the precise words uttered by him, as the president of the chapter, when a penitent brother, having bared his back and acknowledged his fault, came into his presence and received the discipline of the leathern thongs. He states that he was in the habit of saying, "Brother, pray to God that he may forgive you;" and to the bystanders he said, "And do ye, brothers, beseech the Lord to forgive him his sins, and say a _pater-noster_;" and that he said nothing further, except to warn the offender against sinning again. He declares that he did not pronounce absolution in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost! and relates, that in a general chapter, and as often as he held a particular chapter, he was accustomed to say, after prayers had been offered up, that all those who did not acknowledge their sins, or who appropriated to their own use the alms of the house, could not be partakers in the spiritual blessings of the order; but that which through shamefacedness, or through fear of the justice of the order, they dared not confess, he, out of the power conceded to him by God and the pope, forgave him as far as he was able. Brother William de Sautre, however, declares that the president of the chapter, after he had finished the flagellation of a penitent brother, said, "I forgive you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," and then sent him to a priest of the order for absolution; and the other witnesses vary in their account of the exact words uttered, either because they were determined, in obedience to their oaths, not to reveal what actually did take place, or else (which is very probable) because the same form of proceeding was not always rigidly adhered to. When the examination was closed, the inquisitors drew up a memorandum, showing that, from the apostolical letters, and the depositions and attestations of the witnesses, it was to be collected that certain practices had crept into the order of the Temple, which were not consistent with the orthodox faith.[379] CHAPTER X.