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markets, multure from ■windmills and watermills, advowsons of 

 churches, services from tenants of so many days' ploughing, harrow- 

 ing, haymaking, sheepshearing and sheep washing. Even tributes of 

 fowls and eggs are not overlooked. The order possessed also many 

 valuable immunities ; they were exempt from tythes ; service might 

 be performed in their churches when the rest of the parish was under 

 an interdict ; no Templar could be required to take an oath. They 

 had courts of separate jurisdiction, and endeavoured to compel those 

 with whom they or their tenants had disputes, to bring their causes 

 before these courts, instead of the established tribunals. They were 

 an important element in the state. The Master of the Temple was 

 summoned to parliament with bishops and priors, and Amaric de 

 St. Maur joined the great barons in urging on King John the signa- 

 ture of Magna Charta. In the thirteenth century they had attained 

 the maximum of their prosperity and power ; yet towards its close, 

 causes were in operation which in the beginning of the fourteenth 

 brought about their suppression. The circumstances attending this 

 event in Yorkshire, the author reserved for another communication. 



January 5. — The Rev. John Kenrick read the conclusion of 

 his paper, begun at the preceding monthly meeting. Among the 

 causes which led to the suppression of the Order of the Templars he 

 mentioned, the failure of the Crusades, which showed the hopelessness 

 of the recovery of Palestine ; the jealousy of their power entertained 

 both by Church and State, and their own wealth, pride and luxury. 

 The charges of immorality and impiety which were made the ground 

 of the cruel measures taken against them, were not supported by 

 satisfactory evidence, and though individuals might be guilty, were 

 no sufficient ground for the destruction of the order. Edward II., 

 when solicited by Philip the Fair of France, to co-operate with him 

 in his measures against them, at first declined, not believing the 

 crimes imputed to them, but a letter from the Pope seems to have 

 altered his views, and as he was at the time a suitor for the hand of 

 the French Princess, Isabella of Valois, a desire to gain the favour 

 of Philip may also have influenced him. He accordingly ordered an 

 investigation to be made. Archbishop Grenefeld, who then filled 

 the see of York, commenced the trial of twenty-four Templars who 

 had been seized and committed to the Castle, on the 19th of May, 

 1310. He was attended by his suffragans, the Bishops of Durham, 

 and Whithern in Galloway, and by a numerous assemblage of 

 ecclesiastics, from the diflerent deaneries and archdeaconries, and the 



