assembled brethren, and promised them a good harvest, with the possession of riches, and all kinds of temporal property. Some asserted that the head worshipped by the fraternity possessed a long beard; others that it was a woman's head; and one of the prisoners declared that as often as this wonderful head was adored, a great number of devils made their appearance in the shape of beautiful women...!![383] We must now unfold the dark page in the history of the order in England. All the Templars in custody in this country had been examined separately and apart, and had, notwithstanding, deposed in substance to the same effect, and given the same account of their reception into the order, and of the oaths that they took. Any reasonable and impartial mind would consequently have been satisfied of the truth of their statements; but it was not the object of the inquisitors to obtain evidence of the _innocence_, but proof of the _guilt_, of the order. At first, king Edward the Second, to his honour, forbade the infliction of torture upon the illustrious members of the Temple in his dominions--men who had fought and bled for Christendom, and of whose piety and morals he had a short time before given such ample testimony to the principal sovereigns of Europe. But the virtuous resolution of the weak king was speedily overcome by the all-powerful influence of the Roman pontiff, who wrote to him in the month of June, upbraiding him for preventing the inquisitors from submitting the Templars to the discipline of the rack.[384] Influenced by the admonitions of the pope, and the solicitations of the clergy, king Edward, on the 26th of August, sent orders to John de Crumbewell, constable of the Tower, to deliver up all the Templars in his custody, at the request of the inquisitors, to the sheriffs of London, in order that the inquisitors might be able to proceed more conveniently and effectually with their inquisition.[385] And on the same day he directed the sheriffs to receive the prisoners from the constable of the Tower, and cause them to be placed in the custody of gaolers appointed by the inquisitors, to be confined in prisons or such other convenient places in the city of London as the inquisitors and bishops should think expedient, and generally to permit them to do with the bodies of the Templars whatever should seem fitting, in accordance with ecclesiastical law. He directs, also, that from thenceforth the Templars should receive their sustenance at the hands of such newly-appointed gaolers.[386]