314 



THE POPULAB EDUCATOR. 



obtained both from kings and from the pope, were calculated to 

 arouse the jealousy of the people. Riches, too, in the hands of 

 the " Poor Fellow-soldiers of Jesus Christ," the men who had 

 taken vows of poverty, did not cause their possessors to prosper ; 

 the military monks grew less and less chary of going to fight in 

 the Holy Land ; and when, in 1187, Saladin re-conquered Jeru- 

 salem, and put all the Templars there, together with the other 

 defenders of the place, to the sword, the rest of the fraternity 

 were still less inclined to make an effort to rescue the city, and to 

 re-fonnd the Latin Kingdom in the East. They remained, there- 

 fore, at home, living upon their property, jealously preserving 

 the rights granted to them under widely different circumstances, 

 and making themselves obnoxious by their pride and worldli- 

 /ioss. The annual income of the order was estimated at 

 6,000,000. 



A society so rich and so powerful could not but have enemies. 

 It began to be whispered that not only did they visibly neglect 

 the obligations of their vows, but secretly they conducted them- 

 selves in the most abominable manner ; that they worshipped the 

 devil, and dealt in magic, and that ono part of the ceremonial on 

 admission to the order was the act of spitting on an image of 

 the Saviour. These and other grave charges were brought against 

 them, but their pride would not allow of their making any reply, 

 till colour having been given to them by the irregularities of 

 some of the brethren, Philip the Fair, of France, who had an eye 

 to confiscations, resolved, in 1296, to proceed against them. As 

 they had no friends, he thought ho might safely kick them. 

 After a splendid defence of each one of their posts in Syria, 

 which they lost in succession, overwhelmed by great numbers, 

 after the death in battle of their last notable Grand Master, and 

 after their final expulsion from tho Holy Land, their influence 

 diminished with the disgrace that had come upon them. 



Philip gave ear to tho scandal bruited concerning tho Knights. 

 James do Molay, of a noble Burgundian family, was Grand 

 Master. He was an illustrious warrior, who had fought in all 

 the latest battles in Palestine, and had, in conjunction with the 

 Persian King, to whom he at one time allied himself, re-conquered 

 for a while tho lost ground in Syria. Ho had held King Philip 

 at the baptismal font. He was approved an honest man as 

 well as a noblo soldier in the sight of all men, and the voice 

 of calumny was not able to speak against him. Yet Philip, 

 having invited him from Cyprus, his stronghold, flung him into 

 prison, and kept him there five years and a half. Meantime in- 

 formation, much of it of an absurd and ridiculous character, 

 was gladly received from any quarter by the King. Pope 

 Clement V., who was wholly under French influence (the Papal 

 Court was then at Avignon), issued bulls ordering inquisition 

 to be made into the conduct of tho monks. In Franco this 

 inquiry was made under torture, and more than a hundred 

 Knights died under the tormentors' hands. Some confessed, 

 under the smart of pain, to foul and unnatural crimes, which 

 they denied afterwards to the death ; and upon evidence of this 

 kind, and other evidence quite as unsatisfactory, several hun- 

 dreds of Templars were burned at slow fires more than a hun- 

 dred and ten in Paris on one occasion. Franco was tho only 

 country in which this excessive barbarity was practised, but 

 ,is in all countries the wealth of tho order was a great crime, 

 ,he fate of the order itself was decided simultaneously every- 

 where. Their possessions were confiscated throughout Europe, 

 jind given, part to the rival order of tho Knights of St. John of 

 Jerusalem, part to the princes who had seen them to their end ; 

 and the Pope, in 1327, issued a decree abolishing the whole 

 order. 



James de Molay, the Grand Master, having endured five 

 years and a half of rigorous confinement, and Laving probably 

 suffered tcrture therein, was led out in company with three of 

 his chief officers, on the 18th of March, 1313, to recite in the 

 hearing of the people of Paris the charges he had confessed 

 while under torture. The Bishop of Alba read the confes- 

 sions, and then called on the prisoners to affirm them. Two 

 of the unhappy Knights, worn out by torture and suffering, 

 assented, but the Grand Master, loaded with chains, called out 

 with a loud voice that for him to affirm an untruth was a crime 

 of which he would not be guilty ; and he added, " I do confess 

 my guilt, which consists in having, to my shame and dishonour, 

 suffered myself, through the pain of torture and the fear of 

 death, to give utterance to falsehoods imputing scandalous sins 

 and iniquities to an illustrious order, which hath nobly served the 



cause of Christianity. I disdain to purchase such a wretched and 

 disgraceful existence by engrafting another lie upon tho original 

 falsehood." Guy, the Grand Preceptor, having said something 

 to tho same effect, Philip became enraged, and that same even- 

 ing, at dusk, the two unfortunate Knights, tho last Grand 

 Master, and tho last Grand Preceptor, were taken to a spot 

 outside Paris, and slowly roasted to death. 



Fuller says, " Tho chief cause of the ruin of the Templars 

 was their extraordinary wealth. As Naboth's vineyard was tho 

 chiefest ground of his blasphemy, and as in England Sir John 

 Cornwall, Lord Fanhope, said merrily, not he, but his stately 

 house at Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, was guilty of high treason, 

 so certainly their wealth was the principal cause of their over- 

 throw." 



In England, while much of the property of the Knights was 

 seized by the King (Edward III.), a large portion, including the 

 Temple in London, was given to tho Knights of St. John of Jeru- 

 salem, who let it to the lawyers, and continued to do so down to 

 tho time of tho suppression of monasteries in 1539, when the 

 Knights of St. John, in common with all other conventual insti- 

 tutions in England, ceased to exist. Tho property of the Knights 

 was resumed by tho Crown, and various noblemen enjoyed the 

 grant of the Temple in London, until the reign of James I. 

 That monarch granted it to the executive members of the two 

 law societies which had flourished there since the downfall of 

 tho Templar Knights, and they still hold it by virtue of King 

 James's grant, on condition of paying a quit rent of ten pounds 

 a year. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE CRUSADES AND PRINCIPAL 

 EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OP THE ORDERS OF THE KNIGHTS 

 TEMPLARS AND KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 



Crusades suggested by Peter 

 tho Hermit, aiid sanctioned 

 by Pope Urban II. . . 109-1 



First Crusade under Godfrey 

 de Bouillon and others 

 (temp. William II.) . . 1096 



Jerusalem taken . July 15, 1099 



Latin Principalities of Jeru- 

 salem, Antioch, and Edessa 

 founded 1099 



Military Order of the Knights 

 of St. John of Jerusalem 

 founded 1099 



Order of Knights Templars 

 founded by Baldwin II. of 

 Jerusalem 1118 



Templars establish them- 

 selves in England . . . 1128 



Edessa conquered by the 

 Saracens 1144 



Fresh Crusade preached by 

 St. Bernard of Clairvaux 1146 



Second Crusade under Con- 

 rad II. of Germany and 

 Louis VII. of France (temp. 

 Stephen), unsuccessful . 1147 



Jerusalem taken by the Sara- 

 cens under Saladin . . . 1187 



Third Crusade commenced 

 by Frederick Barbarossa, 

 Emperor of Germany . . 1189 



Carried on by Richard I. of 

 England and Philip II. of 

 France 1190 



Fourth Crusade under Henry 

 V. of Germany (temp. 

 Eichnrd I.) 1195 



Fifth Crusade under Baldwin 

 of Flanders, who stopped 

 at Constantinople instead 

 of going to the Holy Land 

 (temp. John) 1204 



Jerusalem taken by tho Turks 1217 



Sixth Crusade under Frede- 

 rick II. of Germany (temp. 

 Henry III.) 1228 



Jerusalem again taken by the 

 Turks 1239 



The Temple Church built . 1240 



Seventh Crusade under Louis 

 IX. of France (temp. Henry 

 III.), unsuccessful . . . 1249 



Eighth and last Crusade com- 

 menced by Louis IX. of 

 France (temp. Henry III.) 1270 



Carried on by Prince Edward, 

 afterwards Edward I. of 

 England 1271 



Christian Troops finally with- 

 drawn from the Holy Land 1291 



Knights of St. John retire to 

 Cyprus 1291 



Ehodes occupied by Knights 

 of St. John 1310 



Order of Templars suppressed 

 in Franco 1312 



Grand Master, James de 

 Molay, burned in Paris . 1314 



Templars suppressed in Eng- 

 land .... about 1340 



Rhodes taken by Solyman II. 1522 



Knights of St. John retire to 

 Sicily 1522 



Malta given to the Knighta 

 of St. John by Charles V. 

 of Germany 1530 



Order of Knights of St. John 

 finally suppressed in Eng- 

 land 1539 



Malta taken by Bonaparte . 1798 



Malta taken by the British . 1800 



From this time the Knights 

 of St. John have ceased to 

 hold any territory. 



CHRISTIAN KINGS OF JERUSALEM. 



Godfrey de Bouil- 

 lon .... 1099 

 Baldwin I. (bro- 

 ther of God- 

 frey) . . . 1100 

 Baldwin II. . . 1118 

 Fulk of Anjou . 1131 

 Baldwin III. . 1144 



Amaury . . .1132 

 Baldwin IV. . 1173 

 Sibyl .... 1185 

 Baldwin V. . . 1185 

 Guy de Lusignan 1186 

 Henry de Cham- 

 pagne . . . 1192 



Amaury do Lu- 

 signan . . . 1197 



Jeanne deBrienne 1210 



Frederick II. of 

 Germany . . 1229 



This King was ex- 

 pelled by the 

 Turks . . . 1239 



