The Secret Doctrine Of The Templars.

terity to unravel ; " and , with Napoleon L , we are inclined to doubt whether it ever will be " possible , after five hundred years , to pronounce distinctl y on the actual innocence or guilt of the Templars . " All we can do is to offer a reasonable , but partial , explanation , at the best , of what must , we fancy , ever remain a mystery , like the " Man in the Iron Mask , " to tantalize us with its dark doubtsancl with its impenetrable obscurit .

, y The question of the guilt or innocence of the Templars has been made , as L'Oiseleur shoAvs , like many other questions in the world , a mere question of party . Voltaire ancl Raynouard , to attack both the monarch y ancl papacy , have pronounced the Templars positively innocent , all the allegations against them false , all the witnesses bribed , and their own self-accusations obtained by torture and tyranny . At the same time we say this , we agree with one

remark of Voltaire ' s , that it is " wrongly to understand mankind if Ave think that there are societies AA'hich can support themselves b y immoral habits , and lay down a law of immodest iniquity . " The very accusations against the Templars seem to suggest , on the other hand , doubt and improbability . Nicolai , Grouville , Wilcke , Von Hammer , and many others , have believed that they have discovered traces , not only of a secret , but of an "heretical " association , which had grafted the worship of Gnosticism , etc ., on the most fearful vices of the East .

There is a third view , which , up to the present , has never been carefull y elaborated , which would contend that all these statements , grossly exaggerated and ignorantly amplified , only point to physical trials , the actual corporeal "tentamina" of the mysteries of old reproduced in a Templar Chapter , and thus linked on to Freemasonry . No doubt the argument is very potent ancl pressing , which , at first sight , may be drawn from admissions which seem both clear ancl consistent . As L'Oiseleur pnt it well" the mystery which

sur-, rounded their receptions , the initiation slow and progressive of those received , the silence which was imposed upon them , " and many other points noted b y him , seem to show that the suspicion alike of a dreadful heresy as of a horrible depravity had lead Clement V . to suppress the Order , which , considering its otherwise brilliant services , had but a short existence , as , founded in 1118 , it expired in 1312 . Certain it isM . L'Oiseleur shows us that Clementin his two

, , Bulls— "Vox in Excelso " and " Considerantes Dndnm , " for the first time , we believe , given without suppression , according to the French of the Abbe Belet , founded on Hefele , in this work accuses distinctly , Molai , his principal officers ancl knights , not only of fearful moral crimes , but of distinct ancl most dangerous heresy . We are aware that too much stress must not be laid on this

isolated fact , as the accusation of " heretical pravity " is an old habit of Rome and the Inquisition , and has been brought before now against many innocent victims . But still , the fact is unquestionable , ancl is a fact , moreover , which has hardly been clone justice to in some disquisitions we have seen on the subject . Indeed , in the first Bull occurs this remarkable passage , overlooked b y most writers : — " Some of them have also confessed other crimes , both horrible ancl dishonouring , which , for the presentwe keep silence on . " Another fact

, also comes out from recent inquiries . In 1867 Pere Theiner , the able librarian of the Vatican , tells M . L'Oiseleur that there is no trace of an original process against the Templars , " either in the library or the secret papers of the Vatican . There is , indeed , the inquiry at Florence , " he says , "twentysix folios . Private inquiries made b y Clement V . against the Templars in the Island of Cyprusin Greecein the patrimony of St . Peterin the Duch

, , , y Urbino , in several ecclesiastical provinces of France and Italy , which are very important , very voluminous , ancl more or less favourable to the Order . Some of these inquiries are on parchment , ancl contain one hundred and one hundred and fifty folios . " But there are also in the Vatican extracts from the English proceedings against the Templars to which Pere Theiner does not allude , curiously enough . It may , however , fairl y be doubted , we apprehend , whether