Chapter I.

Introduelion — The Crusidea — Wrong Ideas resppcling fheir
Origin — Trae Causes of them — Pilgriraaga— Piigrimii(;e of
ind— Of the Count of Anjou— Sfrikin^ DLffetunre
.between the Christianity of the Euat uad that of the Witst
—Causes of their different Charactera — Feudalism — ThH
id Foica of this Principle.
Amono the many estraordinary phenomena which Ihe middle ages present, none is more deserving of attention, or more characteristic of the times and the Etate of society and opinion, than the institution of ihe religio- military orders of the Hospitallers, the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights. Of these orders, all of which owed their origin to the Crusades, and commenced in the I2th century, the last, after the final loss of the Holy Land, transferring the scene of their activity to the north of Germany, and directing' their arms against the heathens who still occupied the south coast of the Baltic, became the founders, in a great measure, of the Prussian power; while the first, planting their standard on the Isle of Rhodes, long gallantly withstood the forces of the Ottoman Turks, and, when at length obliged to resign that island, (ook their station on the rock of Malta, where they bravely repelled the troops of the greatest of the Ottoman sultans, and maintuined at lea>it a nominal independence till the close of the ISth ecu-
170 SECRET SOCIETIES.
tury. A less glorious fate attended the Knights of the Temple. They became the victims of the un- principled rapacity of a merciless prince ; their pro- perty was seized and confiscated ; their noblest mem- bers perished in the flames; their memory was traduced £gid maligned ; the foulest crimes were laid to their charge ; and a secret doctrine, subversive of social tranquillity and national independence, was asserted to have animated their councils. Though many able defenders of these injured knights have arisen, the charges against them have been reiterated even in the present day ; and a distinguished Orientalist (Von Hammer) has recently even attempted to bring forward additional and novel proofs of their secret guilt.* To add one more to the number of their defenders, to trace the origin, develope the internal constitution of their society, narrate their actions, examine the his- tory of their condemnation and suppression, and show how absurd and frivolous were the charges against them, are the objects of the present writer, who, though he is persuaded, and hopes to prove, that they held no secret doctrine, yet places them among the secret societies of the middle ages, because it is by many confidently maintained that they were such.
As the society of the Templars was indebted for its origin to the Crusades, we will, before entering on our narrative, endeavour to correct some erroneous notions respecting the causes and nature of these celebrated expeditions.
The opinion of the Crusades having been an ema-
* The principal works on the subject of the Templars are Raynouard Monumens historiques reiatifs & la Gondamnation des Templiers ; Dupuy Histoire de la Gondamnation des Tem- pliers ; MUnter Statutenbuch des Ordens der Tempelherren ; and Wilike Gescbichte des Tempelherrenordens. There is scarctly anything on the subject iu fnglish.
THE 'templars. 171
nation of the spirit of chivalry is one of the most erroneous that can be conceived, yet it is one most widely spread. Romancers, and those who write history as if it were romance, exert all their power to keep up the illusion, and the very sound of the word Crusade conjures up in most minds the ideas of waving plumes, gaudy surcoats, emblazoned shields, with lady's love, knightly honour, and courteous feats of arms. A vast deal of this perversion of truth is no doubt to be ascribed to the illustrious writer of the splendid epic whose subject is the first Crusade. Tasso, who, living at the time when the last faint gleam of expiring chivalry was fitfully glowing through the moral and political gloom which was overspreading the former abodes of freedom and industry in Italy, may be excused if, young and unversed in the philo- sophy of history, he mistook the character of Euro- pean society six centuries before his time, or deemed himself at liberty to minister to the taste of a court which loved the fancied image of former times, and stimulate it to a generous emulation by representing the heroes of the first Crusade as animated with the spirit and the virtues of the ideal chivahy. But the same excuse is not to be made for those who, writing at the present day, confound chivalry and the Cru- sades, give an epitome of the history of the latter under the title of that of the former, and venture to assert that the valiant Tancred was the beau ideal of chivalry, and that the " Talisman" contains a faithfiil picture of the spirit and character of the Crusades.*
* On the subject of chivalry see Ste. Palaye M^moires sur la Chevalerie, Sir W. Scott's Essay on the same subject, and Mills's and James's histories of chivalry. We do not recollect that any of these writers has fairly proved that the chivalry which they describe ever existed as an institution, and we must demur to the principle which they all assume of romances like Perceforest being good authority for the manners of the age in which they were compoied*
SBCRET SOCIETISS.
We venture to assert that the Cnisades did 7iot originate in chivalry, snd that the first Crusade, the most important of them, and that which grave the tone and character to all the succeeding ones, does not presetit a single vestige of what is usually under- stood by the term chivalry, not a trace of what the imagination rather than the knowledge of Burke described us embodying " the generous loyalty to rank and Bex, the proud submission, the digniRed obedience, and that subordination of the heart which kept ulive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom — that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice ilaeif lost halfits evil by losing all its grossnesa," Litde surely does he know of the llth century and its spirit who can suppose any part of the foregoing description to apply to those who marched in arms to Asia to free the sepulchre of Christ ; slightly must he have perused the Gesta Tancredi of RadulphuB Cadomens, who can conceive that gallant warrior, aa he uudoubledly was, to have been the mirror of chivalry.
Chivalry and the Crusades commenced in the same century, and drew their origin from the same source. One was not the cause of the other, but hoth were eftecls of the same cause, and that cause was feudaiiam. This inculcated "the proud sub- mission, the dignified obedience," &c., &c., which were gradually idealised into chivalry; it impressed on the mind of the vassal those principles of re- gard to the rights and property of his lord which seemed to justify and sanction the Holy War. Pre- viously, however, to explaining the manner in which this motive acted, we must stop to notice OHOlher concurring cause of the Crusades, with-
THE TEMPLARS,
out which it would perhaps never have begun lo operate.
Man has at all periods been led by a strong im- pulse of his nature to visit those spots which have been distinguished as the scenes ol great and cele- brated actions, or the abode of distinguished person- ages. The operation of this natural feeling u. still stronger when it is combined with rehgion, and there arises a conviction that the object of his worship is gmtified by this act of attention, aud his favour thereby secured to the votary. Hence we find pilgrimage, or the practiceof taking distant journeys to celebrated temples, and other places of devotion, to have pre- vailed in all ages of the world. In the most remote periods of the mythic history of Greece, where historic truth is not to be sought, and only manners and modes of thinking are to be discerned, we constanliy meet the Iheoria, or pilgrimage to Delphi, mentioned in the history of the heroes, whence we may with certainty collect that it formed at all times a portion of the manners of the Greeks. India, at the present day, witnesses annually the pilgrimage of myriads to the temple of Ju^emaut, and Jerusalem has been for thousands of years the resort of pious Israelites.
The country which had witnessed the life and death of their Lord naturally acquired importance in the eyes of the early Chrbtians, many of whom, more' over, were Jews by birth, and had always viewed Jerusalem with feelings of veneration. All, too, con- founded — as has unfortunately been too much the case in later times— the old and the new law, and saw not that the former was but " beggarly elements" in comparison with tlie latter, and deemed that the political and economical precepts designed for a single nation, inhabiting one small region, were obligatory on the church of Christ, which was intended to com- prise the whole human race. Many of the practices
iH
SOOIETIEP.
%
of Judaism were therefore observed by the Christians, and k> this principle ne are perhaps in a great iiiea* sure to ascribe the rapid progress of the practice, and the belief in the efficacy, of pilgrimage to the Holy City.
The abuses of pilgrimage were early discerned, and some of the more pious Fathers of the Church preached and wrote against the practice. But piety end eloquence were vain, and could little avail to stem the torrent when men believed that the waters of Jordan had efficacy to wash every sin, though unat- tended by sincere repentance. The Church, as she advanced in corruption, improved in worldly wisdom, and, taking pilgrimage under her protection, made it a part of her penal di^ciphne. The sinner was now ordered a journey to the Holy Land as a means of freeing his soul from the guilt of his perhaps manifold enormities. Each year saw the number of the pil- grims augment, while the growing veneration for relics, of which those which came from the Holy Land were esteemed the most efficacious, stimulated pilgrimage by adding the incentive of profit, as a small stock of money laid out in the purchase of the generally counterfeit relics always on sale at Jerusa- lem would produce perhaps a thousand per cent, on the return of the pilgrim to his native country. A pilgrim was also tteld in respect and veneration wherever he came, as an especial favourite of the Divinity, having been admitted by him to the higti privilege of visiting the sacred places, a portion of whose sanctity it wou!d be supposed might still adlicre to him.
The llth century was the great season of pilgrim- age. A strange misconception of the meaning of a portion of Scripture had led men to fancy that the
r 1000 was to be that of the advent of Christ, to
re the world. As the vallej of Jehoshaphat was
THE TEMPLARS.
believeil to be the spot oii wliicli this awFul rvent would take place, the snme feeliug which leads people at the present day to lay a flattering unction to their souls by Rupposing that deatli-bed repentance will prove equivalent in the sight of God to a life passed in obedience to his will and in the esercise of virtue, impelled numbers to journey to the Holy Land, in the belief that this ufBciousness, as it were, of hitherto negligent aervanls would be well taken by their Lord, and procure them an indulgent hearing before his judgment- sea L Pilgrimage, therefore, increased greatly; the failure of their expectations, the ap- pointed time having passed away without the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven,' gave it no check, but, on the contrary, rather an additional impulse; and during this century the caravans of pil- grims atlained to such magnitude and strength as to be deserving of the appellation of Thf armici of the Lord — precursive of the first and greiilest Crusade.
In truth the belief in the merit and even the obli- gation of B pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in the sight of God, was now as firmly impressed on the mind of every Christian, be his rank what it might, as that of the necessity and advantage of one to the Kaaba of Mecca is in the apprehension of the followers of Mo- hammed ; and in the degraded state of (he human intellect at that period a pilgrimage was deemed adequate lo the removal of nil sin. As a proof of this we shall narrate the pilgrimages of two distin- guished personages of those times. The first occurred in the 9th, the second in the llth century.
In the reign of Lothaire, son of Louis the Debon- naire, a nobleman of Brittany, named Frotmond, who hadmuideredhisuncle and hisyoungest brother, began lo feel remorse for his crimes. Arrayed in the habit of apenitent, he presented himself before tlie monarch and an assembly of his prelates, and inade confession
17fi SECRBT BOOIBTIRS.
of his guilty deeds. Tbe king and bishops had him straitly bound in chains of iron, and then commanded him, in expiation of his guilt, to set forth far the East, and visit all the holy places, clad in hair-cloth, and his forehead marked with ashes. Accompanied by his servants and tlie partners of his crime, the Breton lord directed liis course to Palestine, which he reached in safety. Having, in obedience lo tlie mandates of his sovereign and of the church, visited all the holy places, he crossed the Arabian desert, which had been the scene of the wanderings of Israel, and entered Egj-pt. He thence traversed a part of Africa, and went as far as Carthage, whence he sailed for Rome. Here the Pope, on being consulted, advised him to make a second pilgrimage, in order to complete bis penance, and obtain tbe perfect remission of bis sins. Frotraond accordingly set forth once more, and having performed tbe requisite duties al the Holy City, proceeded to tbe shore of the Red Sea, and there took up his abode for three years on Mount Sinai, afler which time he made a journey to Armenia, and visited themountain on which the ark of Noah had rested. His crimes being now, according to the ideas of those times, expiated, he returned to his native country, where he was received as a saint, and taking up his abode in the convent of Redou, passed there the remainder of his days, and died deeply re- gretted by bis brethren.*
Fnik de Nerra, Count of Anjou, had. spilt much innocent blood ; he bad bad bis first wife burnt alive, and forced bis second wife to seek retiige from his barbarity iu the Holy Land. The public odium pur- tsued him, and conscience asserting her rights pre- sented to his disturbed imi^nation the forms of those who had perished by him issuing from their tombs, and reproaching him with his crimes. Aosious to " Af icliBud, Histuiie das Cioisadf^j I., p. 59.
THE TEMPLARS. ^^J
escape from liis invisible lormenlors, the count put on him the habit of a pil^i^riiii, and set forth for Palestine. The tempests which he encountered in the Syrian seas seemed lo his p:»ilty soul the instru~ ments of divine vensieance, and augmented the fer- vour of his repentance. Having reached Jerusalem in safety, he set heartily about the work of penance. He traversed the streets of the Holy City with a cord about his neck, and beaten with rods by his ser- vants, while he repeated these word.". Lord, have mcTcy on a faithlesg and perjured ChrisUan, on a siTiTicr wandering far from his home. During ^'^ abode in Jerusalem he gave abundant alms, relieving the wants of the pilgrims, and leaving numerous monuments of bis piety and munificence.
Deep OS was the penitence of the Count of Anjou, it did not stand in the way of the exercise of a little pious fraud. By an ingenious device he deceived the impious malignity of the profane Saracens, who would have made him defile the holy sepulchre ; and the clironlclers tell us that as he lay prostrate before the sacred tomb he contrived to detacb from it a precious stone, which he carried back with him lo the West. On his return to his duchy he built, at the castle of Loches, a churcli after the model of that of the Resurrection at Jerusalem, and here he every day implored with tears the divine forgiveness. His mind, however, could not yet rest; he was still haunted by the same horrid images; and he once more visited the Holy Land, and edified the faithful by the austerity of his penance. Returning home by the way of Italy, he delivered the supreme pontiff from a formidable enemy who was ravaging his terri- tory, and the gratefial pope conferred on him in return the full absolution of al! his sins. Fulk brought with him to Anjou a great quantity of relics, with which he adorned the churches of Loches and Angers; and his
chief occupittinn tlieaceforward was the buildiag of towns and monasteries, whence be acquired the name of The Great Builder. His people, who blessed heaven for his conversion, honoured and loved him ; the gfuiltof hia sins had been removed b; the means ■which were then deemed of sovereign efficacy; yet still the monitor placed by God in the human breast, and which in a noble mind no power can reduce to perfect silence, did not rest ; and the Holy Land be- held, for the third time, the Count of Aiijou watering the sepulchre of Christ with his tears, and groaning; afresh over his transgressions. He quitted Jerusalem tor the last time, recommeiidinghis soul to the prayers of the pious brethren whose office it was to receive the pilgrim!!, and turned his face homewards. But Anjou he was never more to behold; death surprised him at Mctz. His body was transferred to Lochee, and buried in his church of the Holy Sepulchre.
These instances may suffice to sliow what the opinion of the efficacy and merit of pilgrimage to the Holy Land was at the time of which we write. We here find convincing proof that in the minds of princes and prelates, the highest and most enlightened order of society, it was confidently believed to avail to remove the guilt of crimes of the deepest die. And let not any one say that the clergy took advautaii^e of the ignorance of the people, and made it the instru- ment of extending tbeir own power and influence; for such an assertion would evince ignorance both of human nature in g'eneral and of the temper and con- diici of the Romish hierarchy at that, and we might almost say at all periods of its existence. However profligate the lives of many of the clergy may have been, they never called in question the tnith of the dogmas of Llieir religion. Even the great and daring Gregory VII., in the midst of what appear to us his srrc^ant and almost impious assumptions, never for.^
THE TBMPtARB.
1»
moment doubted of the course which he was pursuing being the right one, and agreeable to heaven. The clergy, as well as the Iwty, were firmly persuaded of i tlie efhcacy of pilgrimage, and in both the persnasioQ was naturally stronger in proportion to the ignorance of the believer. We accordingly find that vast num- bers of all ranks, and both sexes, clergy as well as laily, annually repaired to the tomb of Christ.
It remains to be explained what the principle was which gftve origin to the idea of the right and justice of recovering the Holy Land, which was now in the hands of the fanatic Turks, instead of those of the 1 tolerant Saracens. This cause was, a.s we have above asserted, the feudal spirit, that is, the spirit of the age, and not that emanation of it termed chivalry.
Religion, whatever its original nature and charac- ter, will always lake a tinge from the manners and temper of those who adopt it. Nothing can be more ■ illustrative of the truth of this observation than the \ history of the Christian religion. Any one who \ opens the Gospel, and reads it without preconception | or prejudice, cannot fail at once to recognise the rational and fervent piety, the active benevolence, ] the pure morality, the noble freedom from the ttam- j mels of the worid, joined with the zealous discharge of all the social duties, which every page of it incul- cates. Yet we find this religion in the East degene- | rating into abject grovelling superstition and met^ physical quibbling, pursued with all the rancour of the odium iheologicvm, v\ii\e in the West it assumed a fiery fanatic character, and deemed the sword an instrument of conversion superior to reason and argu- ment. This diiference, apparently so strange, arose from the difference of the social state and political institutions of the people of the East and of the West at the time when they embraced Christianity.
The free spirit had long since fled from Greece
SECRET SOCIETIES.
when the first Christian missionaries preached the faith among its people. But the temper of the Greek was still lively, and his reasoning- powers acute. Moreover, he had still the same leaning towards a sensible and material religion which has at all times distinguished him, and the increasing despotism of the empire depressed and enfeebled more and more every day the martial spirit which he had displayed ill the days of his freedom. No tield remained for hie mental activity but that of philosophy and reli^on. The former, which had long been his delight be hail contrived, to subtilize into an almost unintelli- gible mysticism ; and in this form it speedily spread its infection through his new faith, which was besides further metamorphosed and changed in character by an infusion from the dualistic system of Persia. Meantime the ascetic spirit which had come from the East joined with the timidity engendered by the pressure of despotism to make him mistake the spirit nf the Gospel, and convert Christianity into a crouch- ing cowardly superstition. When the emperor Nice- phorus Phocas sought to infuse a martial and fanatic spirit into his subjects, and to rouse them to vigorous exertion against the Saracens, his bishops replied to his exhortations by citing a canon of St. Basil, which directed that he who tiad slain an enemy in battle should abstain during tlu^ee years from participation in the lioly sacraments. The priest of a little town in Cilicia was engaged one day in saying mass when a hand of Saracens burst in, and began to plunder the town. Without waiting lo take oil' his sacerdotal vestments, he seized the hammer, which in the churtlies of the East frequently serves the purpose of a bell, and, flying among the in6dels, pUed his weapon In such effect that he forced them to a precipitate flight, and saved the lowu. What was the reward of the gallant priest ? He was censured by his dio-
THE TEMPLARS.
ISl
ce.san, interdicted the exercise of his ghostly func- tions, and so ill-treated in. other respects, that he flimif off his robes and joined the Saracens, whoso more martial and enei^tic creed accorded better with his manly sentiments. When the pilgjims of the first Crusade begun to arrive in such terrific num- bers at Constantinople, the Greek emperor and his subjects could hardly persuade themiielves of the possibility of religion hein^ the actuating canse. of stich a portentous movement — so litlle did religion and deeds of arms accord in their minds !
But with the nations of the West the case was diR'erenL In these the ruling portion, that which gave tone to the whole, were of the Gothic and Ger- manic races, whose hardy bands had dashed to pieces the worn-out fabric of the Western empire. Wor- shippers in their native forests of Thor and Odin, and the other deities of Valhalla, who lulmitted nontt but the valiant dead to share in the celestial pork and niead which each day crowned the board in their lucid abode, their manners, their sentiments, their whole being was martial, and they infused this spirit into the religion which they adopted from their Roman subjects. In making this cimnge in its tone they derived aid from the Jewish portion of the sacred volume, which has been in all ages abused, by men ignorant of its churacter and original use, to purposes of fanaticism and persecution ; and the religion of Christian Europe, from the fifth century downwards, became of a martial and conquering character. By; the sword Charlemagne converted the pagan Saxons; his successors employed the sword against the heathes Vends; and by fire and sword 0!of Triggva-son spread' Chrisliaiiity throughout the North, In former times this mode of conversion had been in a g:reat degree foreign to the Western church ; and persuasion hud
■
I
181
SSCRKT BDOIETIKS.
been chiefly emptoyed in the dissemination {)f the faith amniig the heathen natiotiH.
The religion of the West we thus see was martial; but this spirit alone would not have stifh^^ed to produce the Crusade which was to interest and appear as a duty to ail orders of men. Here the feudal prineiple came into operation, and gave the requisite impulse.
In the 11th century the feudal system was com- pletely developed in EVance and Germany, and the modes of thinking, speaking, and acting derived from it pervaded all the relations of life. From the lop to the bottori of society the mutual obligations uf lords and vassals were recognised and acted upon, and each vassal deemed It a most sacred duty to de- fend by arms the honour and property of his superior lord. There was also a kind of supreme temporal chief of the Christian world acknowledged in the per- son of the Emperor of Germany, who was viewed as the successor of Charlemagne, and the representative of the Roman emperors. The feudal ideas extended even to the hierarchy, which now put forth such es- orbitant claims to supremacy over the temporal power. The head of the church was an acknowledged vice- gerent of Him who was styled in scripture Lord of all the kingdoms of the earth. .lesuK Christ was, therefore, the apex of the pyramid of feudal Bociety ; he was the great suzerain and lord paramount of all princes and peoples, and al! were equally under ob- ligHtion to defend his ri£;hts and honour. Such were evidently the sentiments of the age.
It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that Ihe religion of the period which we treat of was of u IgroGS and material character, and tliat the passions and infirmities of human nature were freely bestowed on the glorifieil Son of God. He was deemed to
' e a peculiar interest in the spot of land where he
THB TBMPLARS. 18^
had sojourned when on earth, and more especially in the tomb in which his body had been deposited, and with grief and indignation to see them in the hands of those who contemptuously derided his divinity, and treated with insult and cruelty those of his faithful vassals who underwent the toils and dangers of a distant journey to offer their homage at his tomb. Nothing could, therefore, be more grateful to his feelings than to behold the sacred soil of Palestine free from heathen pollution, and occupied and de- fended by his faithful vassals, and no true son of the church could hesitate a moment to believe that it was his bounden duty to arm himself in the cause of his lord, and help to reinstate him in his heritage. Here, then, without having recourse to the romantic prin- ciple of chivalry, we have an adequate solution of the phenomenon of the first Crusade. Here we have a motive calculated to operate on the minds of all orders, equally effectual with men of piety, virtue, and wealth, like Godfrey of Bouillon and Stephen of Chartres, who looked for no temporal advantages, as with the meanest and most superstitious of the vassals and serfs who might be supposed to have only sought a refuge from misery and oppression by assuming the cross. We would not by any means be supposed to deny that many other causes and motives were in operation at the same time ; but this we deem the grand one. This was the motive which gave dignity to and hallowed all others, and which affected the mind of everv Crusader, be his rank or station in so- ciety what it might.
Pilgrimage then was esteemed a duty, and a power- ful mean of removing guilt and appeasing the wrath of the Almighty ; the spirit of the age was martial, and its religion, tinged by the ancient system of the North of Europe, was of the same character; the feudal principle was in its vigour, and extended even
m2
184 SBCRET SOCIETIES.
to the relations of man with the deity ; the rude and barbarous Turks had usurped the heritage, the very crown-lands, as we may say, of Jesus Cluist, and in- sulted his servants, whose duty it plainly was to punish them, and free the tomb of their lord ; — the natural result of such a state of circumstances and opinion was the first Crusade.
TKB TBHPLARS.
CUAPTEB II.
Fiiat Hospital ii Jcruialem— Church of Santa Uuia da Latiua— Hospital of St. John— The II aflpilatlui— Origin o! the Templars— Their oripinal Poverty— Thej acquire Con. aiUeralion— St. Bernata— His Characlet of the Templars — The Oriler apprared of and CDofirmed by the Council of Troyea— Proofn of the Ksteem in which they were held.
In consequence of the resort of pil!;rinis anri traders from the West to Jerusalem it had been found neces- sary to build there, with the consent of (be Samcens, hospilia, or ploc-es of entertainment for them during their abode in the holy city. For they could nut, consistently with the religious animosity which pre- vailed between them and the Moslems, seek the hos- pitality of these last, and the Christiana of the Greek church who dwelt in the Holy City, besides that they liad no very friendly feeling towards their Catholic brethren, were loth to admit them into their houses, on account of the imprudent language and indecorous acts in which ttiey were ton frequently in the habit of indulging, and which were so likely to compromise their hosts with their Saracen lords. Accordingly the monk Bernard, who visited Jerusalem in the year 870, found there, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, near the church of the Holy Virgin, a hospital consisting of twelve munsions, for western pilgrims, which was in the possession of some gardens, vineyards, and coni'Relds. It had also a good collection of books, the gift of Charlemagne. There was a market held in front of it, which was much resorted to, and every
f86 SECRBT SOClEtlKS.
dealer paid two pieces of gold to the overseer for per- mission to have a stand there.
In the 11th century, when the ardour of pilgrimage was inflamed anew, there was a hospital within the walls of Jerusalem for the use of the Latin pilgrims,' which had been erected by Italian traders, chiefly of Amalfi. Near this hospital, and within a stone's cast of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, they erected, with the permission of the Egyptian khallf, a church dedicated to the Holy Virgin, which was usually called Sta. Maria de Latina. In this hospital abode an abbot and a good number of monks, who were of the Latin church, and followed the rule of St. Benedict. They devoted themselves to the reception and enter- tainment of pilgrims, and gave alms to those who were poor, or had been rifled by robbers, to enable them to pay the tax required by the Moslems for permission to visit the holy places. When the num- ber of the pilgrims became so great that the hospital was incapable of receiving them all, the monks raised another hospitium close by their church, with a chapel dedicated to a canonized patriarch of Alexandria, named St. John Eleemon, or the Compassionate. This new hospital had no income of its own ; the monks and the pilgrims whom they received derived their support from the bounty of the abbot of the convent of the Holy Virgin, or from the alms of pious Christians.
At the time when the army of the crusaders ap- peared before the walls of Jerusalem the Hospital of St. John was presided over by Gerard, a native of Provence, a man of great uprightness and of exem- plary piety. His benevolence was of a truly Christian character, and far transcended that of his age in general ; for during the period of the siege he re^ Jieved all who applied to him for succour, and not merely did. tti0] •ebiimal&c Gt«e\L «hAxe W& bounty,
. TUB TEMPLARS. 187
even the unbelieving Moslem was not repelled when he implored bis aid. Wben ttie eity was taken, numbera of the wounded pilgrims were received, and their wounds tended in the hospital of St. John, and the pious Duke Godfrey, on visiting them some days afterwards, heard nothing but the praises of the good Gerard and his monks.
Emboldened by the universal favour which they enjoyed, Gerard and his companions expressed their wish to separate themselves from ttie monastery of Sta. Maria de Latina, and pursue their works of charily alone and independently. Their desire met no opposition : they drew up a rule for themselves, lo which they made a vow of obedience in presence of the patriarch, and assumed as their dress a black mantle with a white cross on the breast. The humi- lity of these Hospitallers was extreme. They styled the poor and the sick their lords and themselves their servants ; to them they were liberal and compas- sionate, to themselves rigid and austere. The finest flour went to compose the food which they gave to the sick and poor; what remained after they were satisfied, mingled vnth clay, was the repast of the
As long OS the brotherhood were poor they con- tinued in obedience to the abbot of Sta. Maria de Latina, and also paid tithes to the patriarch. But a tide of wealth soon began' to flow in upon them. Duke Godfrey, enamoured of their virtue, bestowed on them his lordship of Montbnire, in Brabant, with all its appurtenances i and his brother and successor, Baldwin, gave them a share of all the booty taken from the infidels. These examples were followed by other Christian princes ; so that within the space of a very few years the Hospital of St, John was in possession of numerous manors both in the East and in Euru|>e, which were placed under the mau^e-
SBCRBT BOCIETIBS.
P
ment of members of tlieir sociely. The Hospitallers 1 total remission of all the burdens to which they were subject, and they found no difficulty iu obtaining all that they desired. Pope Paschal II., in the year 1113, confirmed their rule, ga\e them permission, on Ihe death of Gerard, to elect their own head, without the interference of any temporal or spiritual power whatever, freed them from the ob- ligation of paying tithes to the patriurch, and con- firmed all the do oat ions made or to be made to them. The brotherhood of (he Hospital was now greatly advanced in consideration, and reckoned among its members many gallant knights, who laid aside thdr arms, and devoted themselves to the humble office of minislering to the sick and needy.
The worthy Gerard died in the same year with King Baldwin I. (1118), and Raymond Dupuy, a knight of Dauphint*, who had become a brother of the order, was unanimously elected to succeed him in liis office. Raymood, who was a man of great vigour and capacity, drew up a series of rules for the direc- tion of the society, adapted to its present state of con- Bequence and extent. From these rules it appears that the order of St. John admitted both the clergy and the laity among its members, and that both were alike bound to yield Ihe most implicit obedience to the commands of their superior. Whether Raymond had any ulterior views is uncertain, but in tiie regula- tions which he made we cannot discern any traces of the spirit which afterwards animated the order of St. John.
Jii.st, however, as Raymond had completed his rejtulations there sprang up a new society, with dif- ferent maxims, whose example that of St. John found itself afterwards obliged to adopt and follow. The Holy Land was at that time in a very disturbed and uiKjuiet slate ; the Egyptian power pressed it on the
TBE TBMPLARS. 1S9
SDUtfa, the Turkisli on the north and east; the Arab tribes indtilged in their usual predatory habits, and infested it with hostile incursions ; the Mussulman in> habitants were still numerous ; the Syrian Christians were ill afl'ected towards the Latins, from whom they frequently esperienced the grossest ili -treat menl; the Latins were few and scattered. Hence the pil- grim was exposed to numerous dangere ; peril beset him on his way from the port at which he landed to the Holy City, and new perils awaited him when he visited the banks cif the Jordan, or went to pluck his branch of cunsec rated palmin the gardens of Jericho. Many a pilgrim had lost his life on these occasions.
Viewing these evils, nine valiant and pious knights resolved to form themselves into an association which should unite the characters of the monk and the knight, by devoting themselves to a life of chastity and piety at the tomb of the Saviour, and by employ- ing their swords in the protection of the pilgrims on their visits to the holy places. They selected as their patroness the suxet Mother of God (La doce Mere de Dieu), and their resolution, according so perfectly with the spirit of the Crusades, which combined piety and valour, gained at once the warm approbation of the king and the patriarch. In the presence of the latter they took the three ordinary vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and a fourth of fighting in cessanlly in the cause of pilgrims and the Holy Land against the heathen. They bound themselves to live according to the rule of the canons of St. Augustine, and elected as their first master Hug'h de Payens. The king, Baldwin II., assigned them a portion of his palace for their abode, and he and his barons contributed to their support. As the palace stood close by the church and convent of the Temple, the abbot and canons gave them a street leading from it to the palace, for keeping their magazines and equip- u 5
190 SBCRST SOCIBTIBS.
merits in, and hence they styled themselves th« Soldiery of the Temple (Militia Templi\ and Tern* plars. They attracted such immediate consideration, owing in great part, no doubt, to the novelty of their plan, that the very year atiter their establishment (1120), Fulk, Count of Anjou, who was come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, joined their society as a married brother, and on his return home annually remitted them thirty pounds of silver in furtherance of their pious objects, and the example of the Count of Anjou was followed by several other princes and nobles of the West.
The English historian, Brompton, who wrote in the 12th century, asserts that the founders of the order of the Temple had originally been members of that of St. John. We know not what degree of credit this may be entitled to *, but it is certain that there had been as yet nothing of a military character in this last, and that its assumption of such a cha« racter was an imitation of the society of the Temple ; for, urged by the praise which they saw lavished on the Templars for their meritorious conduct, the Hos- pitallers resolved to add the task of protecting to that of tending and relieving pilgrims, and such of their members as were knights resumed their arms, joyful to employ them once more in the cause of Grod. The amplitude of their revenues enabled them to take a number of knights and footmen into their pay — ^a prac- tice in which they had probably been preceded by the Templars, who thus employed the money which was remitted to them from Europe. But during the life- time of Raymond Dupuy the order of the Hospital did not become completely a military one ; he always
^ * The other writers of that century agree in the account given above. Brompton's authority has been preferred by ■ome modern writers, who probably wished to pay their court /p ttte order of Malta,
bore the simple title of direcior (procumlnr) of the HospLtal, and it was not till some time al'terwards that the head of the society ivas, like that of tbe Templars, styled master, and led its troops to battle. At all times the tendenee of the poor and the sick formed a part of the duties of the brethren of the Hospital, and this was always a murked distinction between them and the rival order of tbe Temple, whose only task was that of lighting; against the infidels.
During tbe hrsl nine years which elapsed a^er tbe institution of their order tbe knights of the Temple lived in poverty, religiously devoting all the money which was sent to them from Europe to the advantage of the Holy Land, and tlie service of pilgrims. They bad no peculiar habit, their raiment was such as tbe
BBCBET SOCIETIBS.
charity of the fuithAil bestowed upon them ; and though kuights, and engaged in conslant warfare against the infidels, their poverty and moderation were such that Hugh des Payens and his companion, Godfrey, of St. Omer, hail but one war-borse between them — a circumstame whicli they afterwards, in their brilliant period, commemorated by their seal, which represented two knights mounted on the one boise, a device chosen with a view to inculcating humility on the brelliren, now beginning lo wax haughty and insolent.
A chief cause of the estracrdinary success of the first Crusaders had been Ihe want of union among their enemies. The Saracens and Turks mutually hated each other, and would not combine lor a com- mon object, and the Turks were, moreover, at enmity among themselves, and one prince frequently allied himself with the Christians against another. But they were now beginning to perceive the necessity of union, and were becoming every day more formidable to their Chrisiiftu neighbours. King BaUlwin II., who had been a prisoner in their hands, made every eflbrt v\'hea he hud obtained his freedom lo strengthen his kiugdoui, and, among other means for this pur- pose, he resolveil to gain for the Templars, whose valour, humility, and single -mi ndedness were the theme of general applause, additional consideration, by obtaining from the Holy Father the confirmation of their order. With this view he despatched, in the year 1 1 27, two of [heir members,nanieU Andreas and Gundemar,(o Rome, with this request to the Pope, to whom they were also to make a strong representa- tion of the periliius state of the Holy J^and. The king, moreover, fiimished them with a letter of re- commendation lo St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaus, whose influence was then all-powerful in the Christian WorJd, and who was nephew of the envoy Andreas.
THE TEMPLARS. )93
Shortly afterwards Hugh de Payenn liimself arri\ed in Europe with five others of the brethren.
Nothing; could he more advantageous to the uew order than the favour and countenance of the illus- trious A hbot of Clairvau^i, who had been for snine time past an admirer of its objects and deeds. Three years before this time he had writtea a letter to the Count of Champagne, who had entered the order of the Templars, praising the act as one of eminent merit in the sight of God. He now, on occasion of the visit of the Master", wrote, at his request, an eloquent work, exhorting the brethren of the new order to persevere in their toilaome but highly laud" able task of fighting against the tyranny of the heathens, and commending their piety to the atten~ lion ofall the faithful, setting in strong opposition to the luxury of the knights of his time the modesty and simplicity of these holy warriors. He extolled the unlimited obedience of the Templars to their Master, botli at home and in the field. " They go and come," says he, " at a siyn fiom their Master ; they wear tlie clot>iinir which he gives them, and ask neither food nor clothing from any one else : they live cheerfully and temperately together, without wives and chil- dren, and, tliat nothinj; may he wanting for evan- gelical perfection, without property, in one house, endeavouring to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, so that one heart and one soul would appear to dwell in them all. They never sit idle, or go about gaping after news. When they are resting from ,WBrrare against the infidels, a thing which rarely occurs, not to eat the bread of idleness, they employ themselves in repairing their clothes and anns, or do something which (he command of the Master or the common need enjoins. There is with
• Wiilteii r. S8, glvts 1 135 as llio jeer ill which this pi^cn wwittta.
I
I
SSCRKT SOCIETIES.
fliem no respect of persons ; the best, not the noblest, are the most highly regarded; Ihey endeavour ti ticipate one another in respcet and to lighten each other's burdens. No unKeemiy word or \xghi mock- ing, no murmur or immoderate laughter, is let to pass un reproved, if any one should allow himself to ia- dul:;e in such. They avoid games ol' cliess and tables; they are adverse to the chase, and equally so to iiawking', in which others so much delight. They hate all jugglers and mountebanks, all wantou songs and plays, us vanities and follies of this world. They Lilt their hair in obedience to these words of the apostle, ' it is not seemly in a man to have long hair;* no one ever sees them dressed out; they are seldom ever washed ; they are mostly to be seen with disordered hair, and covered with dust, brown from their corslets and the heat of the sun. When they go forth to war they arm themselves within with faith, without with iron, but never adnrn themselves with gold, wishing to excite fear in the enemy, and not the desire of booty. They delight in horses which are strong and Bwifi, not in such as are handsomely marked and richly caparisoned, wishing to inspire terror rather than admiration. They go not impetuously and head- long in to battle, but with care and foresight, peacefully, as the true children of Israel. But as soon as the fight has b^un, then they rush without delay on the foes, esteeming them but as sheep ; and know no fear, even though they should he few, relying on the aid of the Lord of Sabaoth. Hence one of them has often put a thousand, and two ol' ihem ten thousand, to flight. Thus they ure, in union strange, at the same time gentler than lambs and grimmer than lions, so that one may doubt whether to call them monks or knights. But both names suit them, for theirs is the mildness of the monk and the valour of the knight. What remains to be said but tttat (his is the Lord's doing,
THB TEM7I.AR8.
1^
19S I
and it ia wniiderful iu our eyes ? Such are they whom God has chosen out of the bravest in Israel, that, watchjiil aad true, they may ^uard the holy sepul- chre, armed with swunis, and well skilled in war.''
Though in these espiessions of St. Bernard there may be perceived some marks of rhetorical exag^ra- tion, they prove incontestibly the high character and sincere virtue of the founders of the society of tbe Templars, and that it was organized and regulated with none but worthy objects in view. They also offer, if such were required, an additional proof tliat the crusade was no emanation of chivalry ; for those to whom St. Bernard throughout sets the Templars in opposition were the chivalry of the age.
This epistle of the Abbot of ClairvauK had been circulated, and every other just and lionest mean employed to conciliate the public favour for the Tem- plars, when, on the 31st January, 1128, the Master, Hugh rie Payens, appeared before the council of Troyes, consistins; of the Archbishops of Rhcims and Sens, (en bishops, and a number of abbots, among whom was St. Bernard himself, and presided over by the Cardinal of Albano, the papal legate. The Master having given an account of the principles and ex- pToilsof the Templars, the assembled fathers Bjrproved of the new order, and gave them a new rule, contain- ing their own previous reguiationa, with several additions drawn from that of the Benedictines, and chiefly relating to spiritual matters. The validity of this rule was made to depend on the approbation of it by the Holy Father and by the Patriarch of Jeru- salem, neither of whom hesiialed to confirm it. By the direction of the Pope Honorius, the synod ap- pointed a white mantle to be the distill fishing dress of the brethren of the Temple, that of those of the , llospital being black. This mantle was plain, with- ^put any cross, and &uch it remained till the ponLih-
SKCJtST SOCIETIBS,
cale of Pope EugeniusITI., nho, in 1146, appoJDted the Tempiurs to wear a red cross on Ihe breast, as tt Hyinbol of the martyrdom to wliich they stood con- stantly exposeil t the croi^s worn ou their black man' ties, by the knigbtsofSt. John, was, as we have seen*, tchite. The order now assumed, or were assigned, a peculiar banner, tbrmcd of clnth, striped bl&ck and white, called in old French, Baiiseanlf, which word became the battle-cry of the knights of the 'J'emple, and often siruck terror inlothe liearls of the infidels. It bore on it ihe ruddy cross of the order, and the pioas and humble inscription, A'on nobii, Domine, non nobis, sed tiomwi tvo, da gloriani, (Not to us, O Lord, not lo us, but to thy name give ilie glory !)
Several knights now assumed the habit of the order, and in a progress which Mugh de Fayens, accompanied by some of the brelhren, made through France and England, he acquired lor it universal favour. Ue did not neglect the chart:;^, committed to him by tlie king of Jerusalem, of invoking^ aid for the Holy Liand. now so hard bested, and his es~ hortations were not without eifect. Fulk, Count of
• S»p.lg7. SirW. Scott desciibeK hisTEmpIar in Ivsahoe, u wuariii|f a wbitd mojilltj wilh a b/acA craaft of eij^ht paint*. The origiiiul cross of tlia Hospitallers, we may olwi-rve, had not eight poiiits. Thnt of the order of Maltn vas of Ihia fiiim,
t bauwant, Di BauianI, was, b olil French, a. pivbald bone, or a hone maiked white and block. Ducinge. Roc[uefort. Tha vord is still preserved wiib its Driginal meeDlng in the Scotch dialect, ill thu form BawsenI:
'• His huuest, sunsie, baws'nt face Aye gat him ftienda in ilka place," sityii Burns, deacribia); Ihr " ploughman's collie," in bis tale of ihe " Twa l)o){B ;" and in the Gloii8iry,Dr. Currie explain* Batei'nt as roeaniog " having a white fclnpe down Ihe face."
appeanore seems to tie invulved in thu epithet, Bauttant, oi trnvnanl, may possibly be merely an oUltr foim of the present JVtuch word, Bienseant.
THE TEUFLARS, 197
Anjou, BOW rejoined his Master and brethren ; but as he had gotten an invilatjon to repair to Jerusalem, and espouse the only daughter of the King, he set out before them to the East.
Hugh de Payens would admit no knisjht into the order who did not terminate ail his feuds and enmi- ties, and amend his hfe. Thus, when a knight, named Hugh d'Amboise, who had oppressed tlie people of Marnioutier, and had refused obedience to the judi- cial sentence of the Count of Anjou. was desirous to enter the order, he refused to admit him to take the vows (ill he had given perfect satisfaction to those whom he had injured.
Honour and respect awaited the Templars wlier- ever they appeared, and persons of all ranks were eager to do what might he grateful to them. When the Templar who came with the seal of Godfrey of St. Omer, as his credential to the governor of that place, to demand hiag^oods which Godfrey had given the order, he met with a most favourable reception, not only from the governor, but from the bishop ; and on their applying, as was necessary in this case, to the Count of [''landers and Al^atia, that prince was so fur from Ihrowing any inipedimenls in the way, that, in a very short space of lime, the buildings which had belonged to Godfrey were converted into a church and a temple- house. Many Flemish gentlemen fol- lowed the example of Godfrey, and bestowed a part of their property on the Templars. King Henry I. of England, who met and conversed vtilh Huglide Payens in Normandy, was an pleased wiih his account of the new order, that he presented him with many rich gills, and gave him strong recommendations to the principal of the English barons. The Emperor Lothaire bestowed in 1130 on the order a large part of his patrimony of Supplinbiirg. The old Count Raymond Berenger, of Barcelona and Provence, weary ol' the worU and of the l^iU ut ^«\««v\bs.-&V,
became r Templar, and took up his abode in the temple -house at Barcduoa ; and, us he could not go personally to combat the infidels in the Holy Land, he continually sent rich gifts to the brethren at Jera-r Halem, and he complied rigorously with all the other duties of the order. In 1133 Alfonso, king of Arragon and Navarre, a valiant and warlike monarch, who had been victor in nine and tweaty battles agcuDst the Moors, finding liimself old and without children, made a will, by which he appointed the knights of the Temple and of the Hospital, together with the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, to be hts Joint-heirs, deeming, perhajis, that the most gallant defenders of the Holy Land would best prosecute his favourite object of breaking the power of the infidels. The aged nioaurch fell the following year in the battle of Fragft, against the Moors; and, negligent of his disposiiion of the realm, the nobles of Arragvn and Navarre met and chose aovereigns outof hia family. The orders were not strong enough to assert their rights ; and this instance, therefore, only serves to show the high degree of consideration to which they had Eu eariy attained.
THB TBMPLARS. I Oft
Chapter HI.
Return of the Templars io the East — Exoneration and Refu- tation of the Charge of a Connection with the Ismailites— » Actions of the Templars — Crusade of Louis VII.— Siege of Ascalon — Sale of Nassir-ed-deen — Corruption of the Hos- pitallers — ^ThebuU, Qmne Datum Optimum — Refusal of the Templars to march against Egypt — Murder of the Ismailite Envoy.
In the year 1129 Hugh de Payens, accompanied by 300 knights of the noblest families in Europe, who had become members of the order, and followed by a large train of pilgrims, returned to the Holy Land. Shortly after his arrival, the unlucky exper dition to Damascus above narrated^, was undertaken, and the Templars formed a portion of the troops which marched, as they fancied, to take possession of that city. As has been observed, this is the first occasion on which we find the Christians in alli- ance and connection with the Ismailites; and as Hammer, the historian of the last, makes the grave charge against Hugh de Payens, of having modelled his new society on the plan of that deadly associa- tion, and of having been the chief planner and insti- gator of the treacherous attempt on Damascus, we will suspend the course of our narration, to discuss the probability of that opinion, though in so doing we must anticipate a little respecting the organisation of the Order of the Temple.
Hammer argues an identity between the two
* See p. 88.
I
SECRET SOCIETIES.
orders, as he styles tliem, or Ihc IsmailiteE and the Templars, from the siinilarity of their dress, their in- ternal organisatioD, and their secret doctriue ; and as the two societies existed in the same country, and that of the IsmaTliles was first instituted, he infers that this was the original, and that of the Templars the copy.
First, with respect to the outward habiliment, the i of the order. Nothing, as apjiears to us, can be weaker than lo lay any stress on so casual a cir- cumslance as similarity of forms or colours, more especially when a true and distinct cause for the assumption of them on either side can be assigned. The colour of the khalifs of the house of Ommiyah ■was uhite; hence the house of Abbas, in their contest with them, adopted black, as their distinguishing' hue ; and hence, when the Abbasides were in possession of the supreme power, all those who, under pretence of supporting the rights of the family of AU, or on any other pretext, raised the standard of revolt against them, naturally selected white, as the sign of their opposition. Hassan Sabah,iherefore,onlyrelained the use of the colour which he found already established. When he ibrmed the institution of the Fedavee, or the Denoted to Death, what more suitable mark of distinction could he assi^pi them than a red girdle or cap, which indicated their readiness to spill their own blood or that of others? With respect to the Tem- plars, the society of the Hospitallers was already existing when Hugh de Payeiis and his companions resolved to form themselves into a new association. The mantle worn by the members of the Hospital was black: what colour then was so natural for them to adopt as its opposite, JcAife? and when, nearly thirty jears after their instituiion, the pope appointed fhern or gave them permission lo wear u cross on their iiiaiiile, like the rual ovdev, uo colour could
TSR TBHPtAKS.
present itself so well suiled to those who daily and hourly exposed themselves to niartyrdom, ita that of blood, in which there was so much of wiiat was symbolical.
With respect to internal organisation, it will, we apprehend, be always found that this is, for the most part, the growth of time and the product of circum- stances, and is always nearly the same where these last are siniilar. The dominion of tlie Assassins ex- tended over large tracks of country; hence arose the necessity of appointing' lieutenants. In like manner, when the Templars got large possessions in the West and tile East, they could not avoid, after the example of the Hospitallers, appointing persons to manage the affairs of the society in dilierent countries. Hence, then, aa the Ismailites had their Sheikii-al' Jebal, with his Uais-al-Kebir of Kuhistan and Syria, so the Templars had their Masler and their Priors of different provinces. The reseinblauce is so far exact, but, as we see, easily accounted for. That which Hammer goes on to draw between the component parts of each society is altogether fanciful. To the Kefeek, Fedavee and Lazik of the Isma'ilites, he sets as counterparts the knights, esquires, and serving- brethren of the Templars. It is needless to point out the arbitrariness of this comparison. The chap- lains of the Templars, we may see, are omitted, and it wa«, perhaps, tliey who bore the greatest resem- blance to the Refeeks, while neither knights nor esquires had the smallest similarity to the Fedavee.
As to a secret doctrine, we shall herealler discuss the question whether the Templars had one or not. Here we shall ouly observe, that the proof of it, and of the ultimate object of the Templars being the same with that of the Ismailites, namely, the acquisition of indejiendent power, adduced by Hamincr, is by no means satisfactory, He says
$09 8S0ABT 80G1BTIBS.
that it was the object of both societies to make themselves masters of the surrounding country, by the possession of fortresses and castles, and thus be- come formidable rivals to princes ; and he sees, in the preceptories or houses of the Templars, the copies of the hill-forts of the Ismailites. That such was the design of this last society is quite apparent from the preceding part of our work ; but what resemblance is .there between such formidable places of defence as Alamoot and Lamseer, and the simple structures in which a few knights and their attendants dwelt in the different parts of Europe, and which were hardly, if at all, stronger than the ordinary baronial residences ? and what resistance could the Temple of London or that of Paris offer to the royal strength, if put forth ? Hammer has here again fallen into his usual error of arguing too hastily from accidental resem- blances. The preceptories of the Templars were, as we shall show, the necessary consequence of the acquisition of property by the order, and had nothing hostile to society in their nature.
When we reflect on the character of the first cru- saders, and particularly on that of the first Templars, and call to mind their piety, ignorance, and simplicity, nothing can appear more absurd than to ascribe to them secret philosophical doctrines of impiety, im- bibed from those whose language they did not even understand, and whose religion and manners they held in abhorrence, and to suppose that the first poor knights of the Temple could have h^d visions of the future power of their order, and have looked forward to its dominion over the Christian world, '' But this is a common mistake with ingenious men, who are for ever ascribing to the founders of empires, religions, and societies, that attribute of divinity which sees from the beginning the ultimate end, and forms all its plans and projects with a view to it. It is thus that some
THI! TEMPtARB.
203
would fain persuatle us thai Mahommed, iu his soli- tary cave at Mecca, saw clearly and distinctly the I'ulure triumphs of Islam, and its banners floating' at the Pyrenees and the Oxus ; that Cromwell, when
an obscure individual, already in fancy grasped the sceplre of England ; and that Loyola beheld the members of his order governing the conacienees of king'!', and niUng an empire in Paraguay- All such results are in fact the slow and gradual growth ol' time ; one step leads to another, till Ihe individual or the society looks back with amazement to (he feeble
The Templars and the Ismailites are mentioned together by history in only one more relation, that is, on occasion of the tribute paid to the tbrmer by the Syrian branch of the latter, and the murder of the Isma'ilite ambaiisador above related*. As this act was very probably committed by onler of the Master of the Temple, who, it might be, doubted the ability or the future inclination of the kinj to pay the 3000 bynanta a j'ear, it testifies but little for any very friendly feeling between the Templars and thelamail- iles. Yet Hammer opines that the 3000 byzanta were paid, not as the tribute of the weaker to the stronger, but by way of pension for the secret services which tlie Templars were in the habit of rendering their cause; such, for example, us refusing on one occasion to join in the expedition against the khalif of Egypt, the great head of the society of the Assassins.
To narrate the various exploits of the knights of the Temple, would be to write the history of the Cru- sades; for, from the time that the order acquired strength and consistency, no action with the Infidels ever was tbught iu which the chivalry of the Temple
' Pt^fi lie.
3M
BSCRET 80CIBT1E5.
did not bear a distin^'uisheiJ part. Their war-cry was ever heard in the thickest of the fray, a.ndrj.rely wcls Bauseanl seen to waver or give back ia the conflk't. Ttie knights of St. Juhit fougiil with emulative va- lour; the example of the rival orders stimulated all parts of the Christian army ; and to this inHuence may be, in great measure, ascribed many of the most wonderful triumphs of the Cross during the twelfth century,
lit the year 1147, when Pope Eugenius HI. came to Paris to arrange the proposed crusade with Louis VII., both the po|ie and the king honoured with their presence a general chupter of the order of the Tem- ple, which was holden at tliat place. It was probably on this occasion that the supreme pontitT conferred on the order the important privilege of having mass said once a year in places lying under interdict. The newiy-elected Master of the Temple. Eberhard de Bar, and 130 knights, accompanied the kin^ on his march for the Holy Land ; and tlieir valour and their skill greatly contributed towards the preservation of the crusading army in their unfortunate march through Lesser Asia. The siege of Damascus, which was undertaken after the arrival of the French and Ger- man kin^ In the Holy Land, miscarried, as is well known, through treachery. The traitors were doubt- less the PiUlaiiit as the Liitins of Syria were called, who were al this time capable of every thing that is bad. Some writers most unjustly charge the Tem- plars with this guilt; but those who are the best informed on the subject make no accusation against tliem. The charge, however, while it shows the power and consideration of the Templars at that time, ma '
(lege for o
their
lal ■ e been made.
cuuld n n army laid siege in 1153 to the town
TRB TBUPLASS.
of Ascalon, whicli the Saracens still held, and would have taken it, but for the cupidity of the Templars. A larg% heap of wood had been piled by the besiegers against a part of the wall, and set tire to. The wind blew strong towards the town during an entire night, carrying the smoke and heat into the town, so that the garrison was forced to retire from that quarter. The Christians ted the flames with pitch, oil, and other inf]un:)mable substances, and the wall next the pile, cracked by the heal, fell down, leaving a consid- erable breach. The army was preparing to enter at this opening when Bernard de Tremelai, the Master of the Temple, taking his station at it with his knights, refused all ingress. It was the law of war in those days, among the crusaders, that whatever house or spoil any one took when a town was stormed, became his property. The Templars, therefore, were eager to have the first choice ; and having kept off all others, Tremelai, with forty of his knights, boldly entered a Rtrongly-garrisoned town. But they paid the penalty of their rashness and cupidity; for the garrison sur- rounded and slew them all, and then closed up the breach.
One of the most disgraceful acts which stain the ' atmals of the Templars occurred in the year 1155, when Bertranddc Blancford, whom William of Tyre calls a " pious and God-fearing man," was Master of the order. In a contest for the sujireme power in Egypt, which the viziers, bearing the proud title of Sultan, exercised under the jihantom-klialifs, Sultan Abbas, who had put to death the khulif his master, found himself obliged to fly fi'om before the vengeance of the incensed people. With his harem, and his own and a great part of the royal treasures, he took his way through the Desert. A body of Christians, chiefly Templars, lay in wiiit for the fugitives near Ascalon ; the resistauce ollJjred by the
tW SECRET 80CI8T1ES.
Moslems was alight and iiielTectual ; Abbaa himself was either slaui ur fled, imd liit^ sou Nu!:isir-e{l-deen and the treasures became the prize of the victors. The far Iarg;er part of the booty of course fell to the Templars; but this did uot satisfy their avarice; and Ihiiugh Nassir-ed-deen hiid professed his desire to become a ChriaUaii, and had hegim, by way of pre- paration for that chan ^la^, they sold hira to his lather's enemies for 60,000 pieces of gold, and stood by to see him bound band and foot, aiid placed in a sort of cage or irou-Jatticed sedan, on a. camel, to be conducted to Rgypt, where a. death by protracted torture awaited hira,
Tiie rioBpitallera were at this time become as cor- rupt 0!! the Templars; and in this same year, when tlie jiatriarch demanded from tliem the tithes which they were bound to pay him, they treated the demand with scorn; raised, to ahow their superior wealth, stately and lofty building, before tlie humble church of the Hilly Sepulchre ; and whenever the patriarch entered it to exhort the people, or pronounce the abso- lution of sins,tliey rang, by order of their Master, the bells of the Hospital so loud, tliat, with the utmost efforts, he could not succeed iu making himself heard. One day, when the congregation was assem- bled in the church, the HospilaLlers rushed into it in arms, and shot arrows among them as if they were robbers or infidels. These arruwa were collected and hung up on Mount Calvary, where Christ had been crucified, to the scandal of these recreant knights. On applying to the Pope Adrian IV. for redress, the Syrian clergy found him and his cardinals so prepos- sessed in favour of their enemies, — bribed by them, as was said, — that they had no chance of relief, Tlie insolence of the Hospitallers became in consequence greater thstn ever.
■'tHE TEMPLARS.
In feet, as &n extremely Judicious writer* observes, valiantly as the knights of the spiritunl orders fought against the heathens, and great as was their un- doubfed merit in the defence of the helpless pilgrims, it cannot be denied thai these knighia were, if not the original promoters, at least active participators in ail the mischiefs whicb prevailed in the Holy Land, and that they were often led to a shameful dereliction of their duties, by avarice and thirst alter booty.
The year 1163 is conspicuous in the annals of the Templars, as the date of the bull Omne Datum Op- timum, the Magna Charta of the order, and the great key-stoue of their power. On the death of Adrian IV. two rival popes were elected, — Alexander