He sighed and the familiar well of self-pity sprang up inside him. Indeed these had been hard things to face. So many enemies! I am a man who must walk barefoot through a field of thorns. He shifted uneasily under the weight of his regalia.
He did have one advantage – the astrologer Iterius. He was a counterfeit, of course, but even so, what he had told him concerning the secrets of the Order – which he had intimated to be various and dangerous – had confirmed his suspicions. What would Philip not do to have such a power over him? It was impossible for him to interrogate Jacques de Molay himself, since Philip had refused to bring the man to Poitiers, and Clement could not go to Paris for he feared that the moment he placed a pontifical foot upon French soil, Philip would find a way of slipping a halter around his neck. Even if Philip agreed to bring Jacques de Molay to him, Clement would not be able now to question him alone as he was ever watched by his cardinals and their spies. No, he had to content himself with having sent the little Egyptian heretic to be a fly on Philip’s walls. At worst the man could warn him should Philip discover anything of importance. At best he might make good his promise of uncovering what the Templars held so dear and delivering the secret into his waiting ears.
Clement squirmed in his seat and burped. The royal lawyer Guillaume de Plaisians was ascending the platform. That hateful man was Nogaret’s shadow; how else could Nogaret, Boniface’s murderer and an excommunicate, have his words heard without coming before a hostile and unforgiving curia? Clement eyed the thin, well-proportioned de Plaisians, who had at that moment begun his speech.
The man started by invoking Christ, calling Philip Christ’s minister on earth, a saviour king no less! Clement eyed his curia. The cardinals were listening but occasionally he felt a glance in his direction. He knew they were speculating as to how he would deal with the young fox.
‘. . . Even Jesus did not win against the enemies of his Church,’ the lawyer said impudently, ‘a single victory as admirable, as great, quick, useful and necessary as King Philip has recently won in our own time, by means of his ministers and delegates, in uncovering the affair of the perfidious Templars and their heretical depravity . . .’
What blasphemy . . . what lies! Clement yawned. To compare Philip to Jesus! Pretending that it broke that Capetian’s heart to have to arrest a rich Order whose gold could solve all his economic woes and, further, fund his wars with Flanders and Gascony. If only Philip knew that the Order’s fortune was pale in comparison to what other treasures they had hidden. Jacques de Molay should have listened to him that night at Poitiers . . . pride had got the better of him, stubborn ill-begotten pride. How quickly pride gave way under torture applied in the right way. The Grand Master had not heard his plain speech in the drawing room that night, and now the danger was clear: today, tomorrow or the next day could see Jacques de Molay confessing everything into the waiting ears of inquisitors whose souls belonged to the King of France!
What a legacy he had inherited from Boniface!
Indeed these days the man plagued him. He came to him in dreams with his peasant face torn and bloody, beaten in, threatening to haunt Clement until his death if he did not renounce the evil king and avenge his name.
He felt a spasm and clenched his buttocks, hoping that dysentery would not compel him to leave his seat in haste, thereby occasioning an odious circulation of rumours. He watched the lawyer, so eloquent on his dais.
‘All men can see that the King acts with a pure heart, and is not moved by greed as some evil men would say, as he has enough property already . . . more than any European prince. Therefore, he does not need the Templar property and has from the very beginning committed the goods to faithful persons and not his own officials. He wishes only to see justice served . . . Justice to God, and justice to His people. All that remains is for your Holiness to condemn the Order. On this matter the King urges you not to delay, but to act with the speed such an affair requires. It is our hope then that your Holiness will deem it suitable to begin by relaxing the suspension on the inquisitors so that they might proceed against individuals.
‘If the Lord Pope continues to delay matters, the King will be forced, because of his piety and his love for his people, to act, since he will not be able to restrain good Christians whose desire for justice may urge them to rise up against the Temple before a judgement can be made.’ He paused momentarily and raised his voice slightly in a crescendo. ‘Both Louis and Philip III died in the service of the Church, my lord, many French barons and countless citizens. Therefore, when the Kingdom asks for a quick expedition of this affair, Holy Father, it should please you to do as they bid at once! Otherwise it shall be necessary to speak another language to you!’