XI. ApULtA AND Sicily. — The possessions of the

Templars in Sicily were very considerable. They had houses and lands at Syracuse, Palermo, Trapnni, Biitera, Lentini, &c. ; all of which were dependent on the principal house, which was in Messina. The great-prior resided either at Messina or at [icncvento in Apidia. Possibly the seat waa removed to this last
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SBCRBT SOCIKTIKS,
place, after tbe Emperor Frederic 11. bad seized so much of the property of the order in Sicily.
Id Denmark, Norway, aixl Sweden, the order had no possessions whuttiver. Though the people of these cumitrie^i Mok some share in the crusades, and were, therefore, not deficient in reliy;iaus zeal, their poor and little-knnwn lanils ofiered no strong' inducements to the avarice or ambition of the knights of the Temple, and they never sought a settlement in them.
We tiuiB see thai, with the exception of the northern kingdoms, there was no part of Europe in vvhich the order of the Temple was not established. Everywhere they had churches, chapels, tithes, farms, villages, mills, rights of pasturage, of fishing, of venery, and of wood. They had also, in many places, the right of holding annual fairs, whii;li were managed, and the tolls received, either by some of the brethren of the nearest houses or by their donates and servants. The number of their precepluries is, by the most moderate computation, raled at 9,000; and the annual income of the order at about six millions sterlings — an enor- mous sum for those times ! Masters of such a revenue, descended from the noblest houses of Chris- tendom, uniting in their persons the most esteemed secular and religious characters, regarded as the chosen champions of Christ, and the flower of Chris- tian knights, it was not possible for the Templars, in such lax times as tbe twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to escape falling into the vices of extravagant luxury and overvreening pride. Nor are we to wonder at their becoming objects of jealousy and aversion to both the clergy and the laity, and exciting the fears and the cupidity of an avaricious and faithless prince.
THE TEMPLARS. 253