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THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book nr.

priory, in charity, at another’s expense. 1 Howlong Sir Fulk continued to vegetate, is scarce worthnotice; yet he remained in that forgotten state foryears, never stirring from a castle of his sister’s, towhich he had retired, near Montpellier, where hewas buried. 2 But his station was instantly con-1319 ^ crre< ^ ou Helion de Yillannova, 3 by afew knights summoned to elect him in thePapal palace itself; which, if an honour, was sucha one as induced the belief in many people, thathe was not merely favoured by the Pontiff, as he waspublicly, but that he altogether received the dignityfrom him, and not from the order. If so, he testifiedhis gratitude in kind, by selling one of the order’sestates to his Holiness, near his native Cahors,where, being sprung from a low family, he wasproud to enrich it. 4 The pecuniary embarrassmentsof the order were real in proportion to its flushedexpectations, when promised the exaggerated pro-perty of the Templars; but, in point of fact, onlyjust so great as a usurer might wish, or perhaps

1 Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Num. liv. and Iv. —Arch. Yatic. Seer.Appendix, exxiii.

2 Appendix, exxiv.

3 Bosio: par. ii., lib. ii, anno 1322.—Seb. Paoli: Serie, ii., 463.

4 Bosio : par. ii., lib. ii, anno 1325.—Yertot: v. 185,affirms thesaid Pope was son of a cobbler.—Grandson of a private soldier,according to an annotator on Tlatina, iii. 196, Note A.