Nuper In Concilio - 16 MAY 1312
To all the administrators and guardians of the property of the
former house and order of the Knights Templar, delegated by apostolic
and any other authority. Recently we held, as the Lord so disposed,
a general council at Vienne. There we gave long and careful consideration
to the disposal of the former house and order of the Knights Templar.
We thought it more acceptable to the most High, more honourable to those
who worship in the true faith, and more useful for the aid of the holy
Land, to grant this property to the order of the Hospital of saint John
of Jerusalem, rather than to give it or even attach it to a new order
to be created. There were some, however, who asserted that it would
be better to confer the property on an order to be newly created than
to attach it to the order of the Hospital, and so we were unable to
obtain the result we hoped for. At last, however, by God's favour, on
2 May of this present month, with the approval of the sacred council,
we judged that the property should be granted and attached and even
united to the said Hospital or order. We made an exception, for certain
reasons, of the Templars' property in the kingdoms and lands of our
beloved sons in Christ, the illustrious kings . . . of Castile, of Aragon,
of Portugal, and of Majorca', outside the kingdom of France. We reserved
this property for our disposition and that of the apostolic see, until
some other arrangement be made by us and the apostolic see for its use
to aid the Holy Land. |