Islam. For many centuries after its introduction, the adherents of the Christian faith were but few in number, while on the other hand, the religion of Mahomet, holding in one hand promises of future reward, and in the other the sword of extermination, had spread with inconceivable rapidity, and embraced within its bounds the finest portions of the ancient world. The spot hallowed by the birth of the Saviour, by being the scene of his ministry while on earth, and of his last agony upon the cross, was numbered among them; and, although for many years no attempt was made to wrest from the infidels the place endeared by so many hallowed reminiscences, there oft flitted through the mind of the pious pilgrim who knelt in humble reverence in that gorgeous temple, whose lofty walls had once echoed to the words of burning eloquence as they fell from the lips of him who "spake as never man spake, fond thoughts that the land of the Saviour's adoption might once again become the inheritance of his humble followers, then scattered throughout the earth.

After their conquest of the city of Jerusalem, the fierce and warlike Turks soon deprived the Christians of many of the immunities which had been freely granted them by the milder Saracens. Free access to the Holy Temple was denied them; and it was only by the payment of money that this privilege could now be obtained: in most cases this was equivalent to an utter refusal, inasmuch as a large majority of those pious followers of the Cross had expended their meagre pittance in their journey to the Holy City. Many, therefore, who had set out from their homes with high hopes and sunny prospects, after having braved innumerable dangers-the severest hardships, and every species of indignity, were finally obliged to retrace, with heavy hearts, their weary steps to the land of their nativity. It needed but that the tale of their sufferings, and the contumely to which they had been subjected, should become known to rouse the slumbering energies of the chivalric warriors of Europe in their defence, and undertake the insulted cause of Christendom. It is needless that we should attempt a sketch of the Crusades, as the expeditions of the Christian knights against the infidels were called: so much has already been written about them, that to do so here were useless labor. The subject we shall more particularly dwell upon here, is one of the institutions to which the Crusades gave birth, and which, because of its historical interest, and the romantic associations by which it is surrounded, is well deserving of our attention.

In the year 1119, Hugh de Payens, in conjunction with eight other knights then in Palestine, founded the order of the TEMPLARS. Unlike the Hospitallers, they combined monastic vows

*

*There existed at the same time with the Templars two other military orders of a somewhat similar character. The most famous of these, and the one claiming

with their military services, and pledged themselves solemnly to the strict observance of chastity, obedience to the Church, poverty, and the defence of the Temple and the Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and of all pilgrims that should visit them. For some years the Templars lived in extreme poverty, depending almost entirely upon the charity of their less austere brethren for their maintenance. The seal of the order was emblematical of this, and represented two armed knights mounted upon one charger. Their conduct appears to have met with universal approval, and soon raised up influential friends in their behalf, the first of whom was the Count of Anjou, who bestowed upon them an annual grant of thirty pounds of silver. The fact of the appearance of their first grand-master before the Council of Troys, in 1128, for the purpose of obtaining the approbation of the church, and the grant of more extended religious privileges, is the best evidence of their being, even at that early day, as much of a religious as a military order: and further, the fact that their requests were complied with, makes it plainly evident that their course met with the approval of the clergy. After this the order rapidly acquired strength and wealth, and numbered among its members some of the bravest and noblest of the pilgrim heroes. Besides receiving large grants of money and lands from the Count of Champagne and Godfrey de St. Omer, Alphonso, king of Arragon and Navarre, at his decease in 1134, left them, together with the Hospitallers, heirs to his kingdom, over which, however, they were not permitted to extend their jurisdiction, as the two orders were not yet sufficiently powerful to enforce the observance of the deceased monarch's will. For the assistance they rendered Alexander III. in his contest for the papal crown with Victor III. in 1161, they received a large accession to the already extensive privileges they enjoyed.

The order had reached its culminating point of wealth and power at the close of the twelfth century. Nine thousand manors belonged to them in Palestine alone, while rich preceptories throughout Por

precedence of them all in point of origin, was the order known as the "Hospitallers," "Knights of St. John," and Knights of Malta"--their names changing with the possessions which they at different times held. The Hospitallers were instituted in the year 1048; the first Grand Master was Raymond du Puys. It long withstood the assaults of the Turks, but was finally driven from Palestine in 1191. For many centuries afterwards it continued the bulwark of Christendom against the assaults of the infidels, and the bloody and sanguinary struggle that ensued ere the island of Malta, their last stronghold, was wrested from them, showed that the lapse of six centuries had not impair d their former bravery, and that they were the worthy successors of those who first planted the banner of the cross upon the settlements of Jerusalem.

The Teutonic Order" was founded in the Holy Land by Frederick, Duke of Suabia, and was, as its name indica es, composed of Germans of high rank. The seat of the Order was at first in Jerusalem, but after their expulsion from that city it was removed to Germany, where it for a time flourished with its former vigor. Various causes contributed to its overthrow, and it is now, we believe, entirely extinct.

tugal, Arragon, Castile, Normandy, Provence, Britain, Germany, Italy and Sicily, were under their control. In short, they were as powerful and influential as the mightiest potentates in Europe. They absolved themselves from all allegiances and acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope alone, and sometimes even disregarded his decrees when they chanced to conflict with the established regulations of the order.

To relate all the heroic achievments of the Templars in defence of the cross were to give a history of the crusades themselves. At the storming of every city and upon every battle-field, the blood of the Templars watered the parched plains of Palestine. Their conduct at the siege of Acre, deserves however, particularly to be mentioned. The victorious arms of the illustrious Saladin, had long threatened that city with destruction, but before his plans were sufficiently matured to insure success, the hand of death removed from the contest the brightest star that ever glittered in the Moslem world. The sultan, Kahlil, did not long delay the great enterprise meditated by his renowned predecessor, and soon two hundred thousand followers of the Prophet were gathered around the walls of the devoted city. Owing to quarrels and dissensions among the common soldiery, the entire defence of the city devolved upon the Templars and Hospitallers. William de Beaujeu, grand-master of the Templars, whose experience and bravery were beyond all question, was unanimously chosen to assume the supreme command. For six weeks the efforts of the besiegers were unceasing; at the end of that time, by means of the destructive war engines of those days, a portion of the walls had been thrown down, and on the 16th day of May, 1291, despite all the efforts of the Christians, the Moslem warriors burst into the city.

Side by side, with heroic and praiseworthy rivalry, did the grandmasters of the Temple and Hospital, strive to stem the fierce torrent of barbarous foemen, who sought to overcome them. Piled around them were their dead and dying comrades, who, with unwavering fidelity, had sacrificed their lives in defence of this last stronghold of the Latins. At length the grand-master of the Hospitallers was struck down, and scarce had the sad tidings been communicated to his followers ere their brethren in arms, the Templars, were obliged to mourn the loss of William de Beaujeu, their lionhearted leader. The scanty number of knights who escaped the dreadful slaughter that ensued, took refuge in a fortified convent belonging to the order, where they, for a time, continued gallantly to defend themselves: honorable terms of surrender were offered them, which they finally accepted, but no sooner did Kahlil get them in his power than a barbarous and indiscriminate massacre at once commenced. Part effected their escape to the sea-shore, where they shipped on board a galley and sailed for the island of Cyprus.

Thus was crushed the power of the Templars in the Holy Land. After their expulsion from Palestine their downfall was rapidly drawing nigh. Their immense wealth attracted the cupidity of the European sovereigns whose coffers had been emptied by their frantic efforts in the east, and who were only deterred by fear from siezing their possessions at once. What open violence could not accomplish, was at length brought about by stratagem. To Philip the Fair of France, will forever belong the ignominy of having originated the false accusations against the Templars which resulted in their overthrow, and which have assigned him a place among the most detestable of mankind. Cunning, ambitious and treacherous from his youth, each succeeding year of his reign served to develop still further the falsity of his nature, and this master-stroke of villany towards the Templars was a fit act to crown a life of barbarity and duplicity.

The extreme vagueness and absurdity of the charges urged against the Templars by Philip, for the furtherance of his designs, are almost beyond credibility. They were denounced as a secret society: many. of them, it was said, had forsaken the doctrines of Christianity and had embraced the faith of Islam; that some worshipped the devil and also an idol in the form of a man; that they burned the bodies of their deceased brethren, and administered the ashes, by means of food, to the younger portion of the order; that they denied Christ and trampled on the cross, besides innumerable other licentious and abominable acts; the very names of which cause a shudder of horror. Philip endeavored to persuade the neighboring sovereigns to aid him in his atrocious scheme of wickedness, and Pope Clement and Edward the II. of England, at once promised their co-operation. But in Spain and Germany, and the Isle of Cyprus, the people were determined in their refusal to sacrifice the lives of a body of men whose whole career gave the lie to the imputations of guilt which had been heaped upon them. In France and England, however, the persecution commenced.

On the night of the 13th day of October, 1307, all the Templars in France, together with their vast possessions, were seized and imprisoned. To give a coloring of truth to what had been said of them, and also to furnish an apology for the violence he had done them, Philip exerted himself to the utmost to induce them, by means of torture, to attest the truth of his accusations. Many of them suffered excruciating agonies upon the rack, while thousands were compelled to undergo the pangs of hunger and of thirst. Many expired under the severity of the tortures to which they were subjected, but without uttering a single word that could be construed into an acknowledgement of error; but others, who, upon the plains of Ascalom, at the storming of Lilion, and at the siege of Acre, had fearlessly encountered the glittering sabres of

a Moslem foe, under pain too great for human endurance, confessed what was required of them.

Even James de Molay, the grand-master, was imprisoned. This man, from the conspicuous part he acted during these stormy times, deserves particular mention. He was elected to the grandmastership, upon the arrival of the Templars at Cyprus, after the disastrous siege of Acre. He was a native of Burgundy, and, at the time of his elevation to the head of the order, was grand preceptor of England. In him appear to have been united all the virtues that have thrown such a lustre around the knightly name. Under him one more glorious but fruitless effort was made to rescue the Holy Sepulchre. Taking advantage of an incursion of some of the fierce Asiatic tribes on the Turkish dominions, he, at the head of a large force of the Templars, sailed from Cyprus, to plant for the last time the banner of the Cross upon the sands of Palestine. Success for a time accompanied his efforts. Aleppo fell an easy conquest, and at Hems, the Moslem hosts were defeated with immense loss. Damascus, too, soon acknowledged the power of the Christian arms. Had at this time his efforts been properly seconded by the European monarchs, a Christian kingdom might doubtless have again arisen in the heart of Syria; but left alone to sustain the conflict, he and his brave warriors experienced a terrible defeat at Tortosa. A few escaped, but a large number were either murdered or sent into hopeless captivity. Among the prisoners was the grand-master, who, however, was ultimately ransomed. Shortly after this event he was, as we have already seen, imprisoned by Philip of France. He was arraigned before a body of ecclesiastical judges in 1309, and in default of counsel, which was denied them, fearlessly upheld the integrity of the Templars, and clearly proved the malicious intentions of those who aimed at their overthrow. All his efforts were in vain, and from this period until the year 1313, he himself was the inmate of a dungeon. On the 18th day of March of that year, on an island in the Seine, the grand-master and Guy, the grand preceptor, were given to the flames, while with their latest breath they solemnly protested their entire innocence of the crimes with which they were charged. Thus died James de Molay, the last, best and greatest grandmaster of the Templars, and with him fell the noblest military order of which history bears a record.

Posterity has rendered the Templars justice by awarding them a unanimous acquittal, while the names of their oppressors have been loaded with eternal infamy. That they in many instances went beyond the bounds of prudence and propriety, and assumed far too proud and arrogant a tone towards those by whom they had been fostered, it were idle to deny; nor do we wish to offer an apology in extenuation of their faults: but they paid dearly for