Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Notes On The " United Orders Of The Temple And Hospital."
battle of j Hastings . This baron , after committing all kinds of excesses during thc troubled reign of Stephen , died excommunicated b y the church and abandoned by all but thc Templars ,
who , finding him repentant , put their habit on him , and enrolled him among their Order . On his death , as they dared not bury him in lhe consecrated ground , they hung him up in a leaden
coffin on a tree iu the garden here , where he remained till absolution was obtained some years afterwards , when they buried him in the portico before the , western door . Next to him is the
effigy of the famous Protector , the Earl of Pembroke , to whom Henn- 111 was indebted for the safety of his throne during his minority , and the people of England for healing , as far as they
could be healed , the dissensions between the barons , and for driving the French from thc country . He was buried here on Ascension da ) - , 12 io . The expressive and beautiful effigy whicli
forms the . third in the group represents the youthful looking Lord de Ros , one of the foremost of the memorable men who forced the Charter from lohn . None of the other figures
in this and the following range can be distinguished with any certainty . It is known that two of the sons of the Protector Pembroke ,. William and Gilbert Marshal were here buried ,
ami the two effigies to the right , whicli have evidently a kind of correspondence ( such for instance as the turn of the bodies in opposite directions , ) are supposed to be theirs . William
Marshal , another of the patriots of Runnvmede , married king John ' s daughter and was therefore brother-in-law to Henry 111 , who was so grieved at his death that on attending his funeral
he could not conceal his emotion . Of course all the cross-legged figures represent crusaders . Among other persons of eminence whose remains may vet lie beneath the lloor are William
l'le . ntage-Aet , fifth son of the king just mentioned , : ind the Bishop of Carlisle , who was killed in 12 , 5 6 by a fall lrom his horse , and to whose memory it is supposed the recumbent figure ol
a bishop in the recess in the south wall was erected . In the tomb beneath , which was opened iu 1800 , was found al the feet of ihe
skeleton of the bishop , the skeleton of a very young infant , lt may be noted , however , that the tomb had evidently been opened before . Here Seidell and Plowden . the eminent lawyer .
were bolii interred . In the church-yard 01 the Temple many stone coffins have been found , once filled , no doubt , by persons of distinction in their day , but whose very name : ; are now lost in oblivion .
'I'he extraordinary feature .--, which Iron ) tile iirst , characterised the Knig ht- ; Templar , both in themselves and in their history , and made them so widely and popularly known , ami which stiff invest liieir name with a thousand
romantic associations , were to be eotia'ly visible in their fall and extinction , 'there is little doubt , Knight says , that the bod ) grew more lax in their observance of many of the virtues for
which ihey had at one time been . so distinguished , but still it is only simple justice to say that , on the whole , thev' never lost sight of the object for
which they had first banded themselves together , on the contrary , as the lorliin-.-s of tlie Christians u the I _ ., ! y i . diid grew linker and darkei . their
Notes On The " United Orders Of The Temple And Hospital."
spirits , throwing off much of thc grosser corruptions , which their immense wealth and irresponsible power has generated , shone out thc more clearly through the gloom . They showed by
their heroic disregard of danger , sufferings , and death , that they were still the " fellow soldiers of Jesus Christ , " if no longer the " poor . " Their last great act , the defence of Acre in 1291 , was
a worthy close to their brilliant career . And if anything could add to our surprise as well as horror at the ultimate fate of the Order , it is the consideration that the period when the
circumstances , to which we are about to allude , took place was not twenty years removed from this event , in which the great body of the Knights Templars perished , the last defenders of the last
( with one exception ) Christian stronghold . The throne of France , at the beginning of the fourteenth century , was occupied by Phillip the Fair , a man already distinguished for his avarice ,
and the unscrupulous means he was accustomed to use for its gratification . But all the evil deeds he had ever committed in this way , we might almost say that any powerful tyrant had ever
committed from such motives , were thrown into the shade by the proceeding , which now took place . The Templars were known lo be wealthy ; they had houses in every portion of Christian
Europe ; their manors and lordsiups were reckoned at not less than nine thousand ; the popular opinion estimated their annual revenue at six millions sterlin" —an exaggeration most
probably , but there was quite truth enough in it for Phillip the Fair . He was not covetous ; if it should turn out a million or so less , why he would lie content . Such 110 doubt , was one of the directions his thou . dits look . Then what an
opportunity was afforded by circumstances That long and expensive day-dream of the Crusades was evidently over : what could the
Order want with ' as wealth : What could the world want wilh the Order : No doubt the monarch ' s ' answers to himself were perfectly satisfactory . Then the example oi' his brethren
of England was before him , both Edward I , and Edward II , had been nibbling at the possessions of the English Templars , influenced most probably by similar considerations . 'fhe first
monarch , on his victorious return from Wales , being short of money , was seized with a sudden desire lo see his mother ' s jewels , deposited in the Temple . Filial piety found its own reward . I'einir admitted lie was enabled to carry
awayttn thousand pounds to Windsor Castle lhe Templars declared , by breaking open theii coffers . Philip ' s policy , Knight says , took :
subtler—more sweeping course . The Pope , Benedict XJ ., fortunately died just at that moment . Philip obtained the induction of a tool of his own , ready for any work , into the vacant chair of St . l ' vlcr . Tins was ( "Ieiii _ . nl V .
Humour :. ' ., traceable to no particular source , no . v began to spread abroad through lite woihl tie : the Templars were uot what they seemed , tics the Holy Land woultl not have been lost , but foi
their want of Christianity , and even blacker insinuations were heard , 'i'he way thus prepared , the next ihinsr was to secure some base wretch
to give these rumours scape l .-y direct acce . ation . On the . i . j . th of September , 1 . 507 , lhe necessary informations hav ing been obtained from
Notes On The " United Orders Of The Temple And Hospital."
a condemned criminal , said by some writers to be an apostate . Templar , Philip struck the first and most important blow . Throughout France the proper offices of the different provinces received
at the same time a communication commencing in the following portentous language : " A deplorable and most lamentable matter , full of bitterness and grief , a monstrous business , " & c ,
had reached the king ' s ears ; and then followed direct charges ' against the Templars , of the vulgarest as well as the most abominable kind of blasphemy against the Saviour , and of the
committal of the worst crimes among themselves ; and lastly , an order to seize the Templars suddenly , and place them under the power of an inquisition empowered to try them , and employ
torture , if necessary , during the examination . Human nature recoils at the very mention of the sufferings inflicted upon these brave , and we may sav , on the whole , innocent , but most
unfortunate men . Of the one hundred and forty who were first put to the torture , no less than thirtysix actually perished in the hands of their tormentors . One of the Templars , who confessed
what was desired , when subsequently brought before the commissary of police to be examined , revoked his confession , saying , "They held mc so long before a fierce fire , that the flesh was
burnt oil my heels ; two pieces of bone came away , whicli I present to you . " These revocations occurred so often , in spite of thc remembrance of what had been svitVeved , and what
might m consequence be yet expected , that Philip , like a wild beast who has tasted of blood , became half freny . ied apparently at any apposition , and determined to take wholesale vengeance . In
one decree fffty-four Templars , who had thus given the most decisive proofs of their innocence ( for be il observed , a continued acknowledgment of guilt would have saved them ) , were sentenced
to be burnt ; and this atrocious act was performed at Paris , in the most barbarous manner . And by a continuance of the processes of the torture and scaffold in different parts of the
country on one hunt ; , and every kind of deceit , persuasion , and threat on the other , Philip , having ultimately succeeded in clearing the hotly of all lhe most high-principled and bravest
members , managed to make the remainder somewhat more tractable , among which , for the present , may be included the Grand Master , whom he had inveigled into France , though of him 1 shall
have again lo : peak . Edward II . was then king of Engl and ; and this monarch at first turned a deaf ear to Phili p ' s letters and examples , and even wrote to some of the European princes , urging
them to take care that due justice was done lo the Templars in their dominions . But a papal bull scon ended the threatened opposition from this quarter ; and Edward was convinced , or
proiessed fo be : •<__ , by the Pontiff ' s proofs , which consisted essentiall y of the confessions obtained iu ihe m . tnncr already shown , by the most dreadiitl toi lures , alternated wilh offers of free pardon
to all wlio confessed . On the 8 th January , 1 . 508 , the English Templars , who had been probabl y lulled into a sense of security by the king ' s
earlier conduct in the matter , were suddenly arr . sled in all parts of England , and their property ser / . etl . Two hundred and twenty-nine o [ their number in all were thrown into the different
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Notes On The " United Orders Of The Temple And Hospital."
battle of j Hastings . This baron , after committing all kinds of excesses during thc troubled reign of Stephen , died excommunicated b y the church and abandoned by all but thc Templars ,
who , finding him repentant , put their habit on him , and enrolled him among their Order . On his death , as they dared not bury him in lhe consecrated ground , they hung him up in a leaden
coffin on a tree iu the garden here , where he remained till absolution was obtained some years afterwards , when they buried him in the portico before the , western door . Next to him is the
effigy of the famous Protector , the Earl of Pembroke , to whom Henn- 111 was indebted for the safety of his throne during his minority , and the people of England for healing , as far as they
could be healed , the dissensions between the barons , and for driving the French from thc country . He was buried here on Ascension da ) - , 12 io . The expressive and beautiful effigy whicli
forms the . third in the group represents the youthful looking Lord de Ros , one of the foremost of the memorable men who forced the Charter from lohn . None of the other figures
in this and the following range can be distinguished with any certainty . It is known that two of the sons of the Protector Pembroke ,. William and Gilbert Marshal were here buried ,
ami the two effigies to the right , whicli have evidently a kind of correspondence ( such for instance as the turn of the bodies in opposite directions , ) are supposed to be theirs . William
Marshal , another of the patriots of Runnvmede , married king John ' s daughter and was therefore brother-in-law to Henry 111 , who was so grieved at his death that on attending his funeral
he could not conceal his emotion . Of course all the cross-legged figures represent crusaders . Among other persons of eminence whose remains may vet lie beneath the lloor are William
l'le . ntage-Aet , fifth son of the king just mentioned , : ind the Bishop of Carlisle , who was killed in 12 , 5 6 by a fall lrom his horse , and to whose memory it is supposed the recumbent figure ol
a bishop in the recess in the south wall was erected . In the tomb beneath , which was opened iu 1800 , was found al the feet of ihe
skeleton of the bishop , the skeleton of a very young infant , lt may be noted , however , that the tomb had evidently been opened before . Here Seidell and Plowden . the eminent lawyer .
were bolii interred . In the church-yard 01 the Temple many stone coffins have been found , once filled , no doubt , by persons of distinction in their day , but whose very name : ; are now lost in oblivion .
'I'he extraordinary feature .--, which Iron ) tile iirst , characterised the Knig ht- ; Templar , both in themselves and in their history , and made them so widely and popularly known , ami which stiff invest liieir name with a thousand
romantic associations , were to be eotia'ly visible in their fall and extinction , 'there is little doubt , Knight says , that the bod ) grew more lax in their observance of many of the virtues for
which ihey had at one time been . so distinguished , but still it is only simple justice to say that , on the whole , thev' never lost sight of the object for
which they had first banded themselves together , on the contrary , as the lorliin-.-s of tlie Christians u the I _ ., ! y i . diid grew linker and darkei . their
Notes On The " United Orders Of The Temple And Hospital."
spirits , throwing off much of thc grosser corruptions , which their immense wealth and irresponsible power has generated , shone out thc more clearly through the gloom . They showed by
their heroic disregard of danger , sufferings , and death , that they were still the " fellow soldiers of Jesus Christ , " if no longer the " poor . " Their last great act , the defence of Acre in 1291 , was
a worthy close to their brilliant career . And if anything could add to our surprise as well as horror at the ultimate fate of the Order , it is the consideration that the period when the
circumstances , to which we are about to allude , took place was not twenty years removed from this event , in which the great body of the Knights Templars perished , the last defenders of the last
( with one exception ) Christian stronghold . The throne of France , at the beginning of the fourteenth century , was occupied by Phillip the Fair , a man already distinguished for his avarice ,
and the unscrupulous means he was accustomed to use for its gratification . But all the evil deeds he had ever committed in this way , we might almost say that any powerful tyrant had ever
committed from such motives , were thrown into the shade by the proceeding , which now took place . The Templars were known lo be wealthy ; they had houses in every portion of Christian
Europe ; their manors and lordsiups were reckoned at not less than nine thousand ; the popular opinion estimated their annual revenue at six millions sterlin" —an exaggeration most
probably , but there was quite truth enough in it for Phillip the Fair . He was not covetous ; if it should turn out a million or so less , why he would lie content . Such 110 doubt , was one of the directions his thou . dits look . Then what an
opportunity was afforded by circumstances That long and expensive day-dream of the Crusades was evidently over : what could the
Order want with ' as wealth : What could the world want wilh the Order : No doubt the monarch ' s ' answers to himself were perfectly satisfactory . Then the example oi' his brethren
of England was before him , both Edward I , and Edward II , had been nibbling at the possessions of the English Templars , influenced most probably by similar considerations . 'fhe first
monarch , on his victorious return from Wales , being short of money , was seized with a sudden desire lo see his mother ' s jewels , deposited in the Temple . Filial piety found its own reward . I'einir admitted lie was enabled to carry
awayttn thousand pounds to Windsor Castle lhe Templars declared , by breaking open theii coffers . Philip ' s policy , Knight says , took :
subtler—more sweeping course . The Pope , Benedict XJ ., fortunately died just at that moment . Philip obtained the induction of a tool of his own , ready for any work , into the vacant chair of St . l ' vlcr . Tins was ( "Ieiii _ . nl V .
Humour :. ' ., traceable to no particular source , no . v began to spread abroad through lite woihl tie : the Templars were uot what they seemed , tics the Holy Land woultl not have been lost , but foi
their want of Christianity , and even blacker insinuations were heard , 'i'he way thus prepared , the next ihinsr was to secure some base wretch
to give these rumours scape l .-y direct acce . ation . On the . i . j . th of September , 1 . 507 , lhe necessary informations hav ing been obtained from
Notes On The " United Orders Of The Temple And Hospital."
a condemned criminal , said by some writers to be an apostate . Templar , Philip struck the first and most important blow . Throughout France the proper offices of the different provinces received
at the same time a communication commencing in the following portentous language : " A deplorable and most lamentable matter , full of bitterness and grief , a monstrous business , " & c ,
had reached the king ' s ears ; and then followed direct charges ' against the Templars , of the vulgarest as well as the most abominable kind of blasphemy against the Saviour , and of the
committal of the worst crimes among themselves ; and lastly , an order to seize the Templars suddenly , and place them under the power of an inquisition empowered to try them , and employ
torture , if necessary , during the examination . Human nature recoils at the very mention of the sufferings inflicted upon these brave , and we may sav , on the whole , innocent , but most
unfortunate men . Of the one hundred and forty who were first put to the torture , no less than thirtysix actually perished in the hands of their tormentors . One of the Templars , who confessed
what was desired , when subsequently brought before the commissary of police to be examined , revoked his confession , saying , "They held mc so long before a fierce fire , that the flesh was
burnt oil my heels ; two pieces of bone came away , whicli I present to you . " These revocations occurred so often , in spite of thc remembrance of what had been svitVeved , and what
might m consequence be yet expected , that Philip , like a wild beast who has tasted of blood , became half freny . ied apparently at any apposition , and determined to take wholesale vengeance . In
one decree fffty-four Templars , who had thus given the most decisive proofs of their innocence ( for be il observed , a continued acknowledgment of guilt would have saved them ) , were sentenced
to be burnt ; and this atrocious act was performed at Paris , in the most barbarous manner . And by a continuance of the processes of the torture and scaffold in different parts of the
country on one hunt ; , and every kind of deceit , persuasion , and threat on the other , Philip , having ultimately succeeded in clearing the hotly of all lhe most high-principled and bravest
members , managed to make the remainder somewhat more tractable , among which , for the present , may be included the Grand Master , whom he had inveigled into France , though of him 1 shall
have again lo : peak . Edward II . was then king of Engl and ; and this monarch at first turned a deaf ear to Phili p ' s letters and examples , and even wrote to some of the European princes , urging
them to take care that due justice was done lo the Templars in their dominions . But a papal bull scon ended the threatened opposition from this quarter ; and Edward was convinced , or
proiessed fo be : •<__ , by the Pontiff ' s proofs , which consisted essentiall y of the confessions obtained iu ihe m . tnncr already shown , by the most dreadiitl toi lures , alternated wilh offers of free pardon
to all wlio confessed . On the 8 th January , 1 . 508 , the English Templars , who had been probabl y lulled into a sense of security by the king ' s
earlier conduct in the matter , were suddenly arr . sled in all parts of England , and their property ser / . etl . Two hundred and twenty-nine o [ their number in all were thrown into the different