Peter de Langtoft thus speaks of these evil doings of the earl of Essex, in his curious poetic chronicle. "The abbay of Rameseie bi nyght he robbed it The tresore bare aweie with hand thei myght on hit. Abbot, and prior, and monk, thei did outchace, Of holy kirke a toure to theft thei mad it place. Roberd the Marmion, the same wayes did he, He robbed thorgh treson the kirk of Couentre. Here now of their schame, what chance befelle, The story sais the same soth as the gospelle: Geffrey of Maundeuile to fele wrouh he wouh,[495] The deuelle gald him his while with an arrowe him slouh. The gode bishop of Chestre cursed this ilk Geffrey, The lif out of his estre in cursing went away. Arnulf his sonne was taken als thefe, and brouht in bond, Before the kyng forsaken, and exiled out of his lond."[496] The monks of Walden tell us, that as the earl lay wounded on his sick couch, and felt the hand of death pressing heavy upon him, he bitterly repented of his evil deeds, and sought, but in vain, for ecclesiastical assistance. At last some Knights Templars came to him, and finding him humble and contrite, praying earnestly to God, and making what satisfaction he could for his past offences, they put on him the habit of their religion marked with the red cross. After he had expired, they carried the dead body with them to the Old Temple at London; but as the earl had died excommunicated, they durst not give him christian burial in consecrated ground, and they accordingly soldered him up in lead, and hung him on a crooked tree in their orchard.[497] Some years afterwards, through the exertions and at the expense of William, whom the earl had made prior of Walden Abbey, his absolution was obtained from pope Alexander the Third, so that his body was permitted to be received amongst Christians, and the divine offices to be celebrated for him. The prior accordingly endeavoured to take down the corpse and carry it to Walden; but the Templars, being informed of his design, buried it in their own cemetery at the New Temple,[498] in the portico before the western door of the church.[499] Pope Alexander, from whom the absolution was obtained, was elected to the pontifical chair in September, 1159, and died in 1181. It was this pontiff who, who by the bull _omne datum optimum_, promulgated in the year 1162, conceded to the Templars the privilege of having their own cemeteries free from the interference of the regular clergy. The land whereon the convent of the New Temple was erected, was purchased soon after the publication of the above bull, and a cemetery was doubtless consecrated there for the brethren long before the completion of the church. To this cemetery the body of the earl was removed after the absolution had been obtained, and when the church was consecrated by the patriarch, (A. D. 1185,) it was finally buried in the portico before the west door.