The Secret Doctrine Of The Templars.

himself , no fear of torture would prevent the members of the Chapter from killing him immediately . " Gervais de Beauvais also said to him several times , " that he possessed a little book Avhich he would willingly shew him , ancl which contained the statutes of his Order , but that he possessed another and a mo re secret one which , for nothing in the world , would he consent to show him ! " We must take these statements for what they are worth .

Curiously enough , however , it is stated in the Bull of suppression : — " When they received brethren into the order , these were obliged , in the very act of their reception , to swear that they would reveal to no one the manner of their reception , and swear that they would remain faithful to this vow . " We may come , we think , then , to this conclusion safely , that there was a " Secreta Receptio , " but what that was , and to what it tended , we must still

we think , speak with great hesitation , and certainly not with any certaintyabove all , dogmatically . We must always remember that the admissions of the Templars must be divided into two classes : those obtained by torture ; those obtained through spiritual influence without torture , and which still remain transcribed ancl , no doubtcoloured b y the prevailing animus of the Church of Rome on the

sub-, ject . Torture was used in France unsparingly , and to some extent in the Tower of London , but not at York , or Florence , Sicily , Brindisi , Ravenna , Pisa . In Germany , Spain and Portugal , practically , the Templars were acquitted ! Now all this has to be borne in mind when we come to the Roman Catholic charge of heresy . Von Hammer ' s " Baphomet and Gnosticism" seem to reduce themselves

into " Mahomet and Islamism , " and these again seem to be explained by the eager credulity , or the preconceived views of examining Inquisitors ancl Prelates and Clerks . If the statements of the Florence inquiry are to be accepted , the Templars worshipped a demon ( Lucifer ) , ancl were "Luciferi Luciferians ;" their Chaplains omitted the principal words of the mass , and absolution w as given only in the name of the Great Creatorand they had a " Head " which

, they openly worshipped as an idol . The Saviour was saicl to bea "false prophet , " and was represented by the " good thief . " Ancl , altogether , these defenders of Christendom Avere unbelieving heretics , worshippers of an idol and a demoneven the Evil Spirit ; their habits were deliberatel y foul , and their morals horribly and disgustingly degraded !

We recommend our readers , who might be startled by these words of ours , to read carefully from page 33 to page 55 , under the heading , " Idee Generate de la Doctrine Secrete des Templiers , " in M . L'Oiseleur ' s work . We confess that we do not believe in any such statements , for the reasons , above mentioned , that they are practically the representations of preconceived opinions and the Roman Catholic fear of heresy . We say nothing now of their inherent absurditancl incredibility . IndeedM . L'Oiseleur goes on to show thatin

y , , many of their views , if truly represented , the Templars must have impinged on the doctrines of the Gnosticism of the early ages , the Panlini or Panlicians of the ninth century , the Cathairi of the eleventh , and to have worshipped a spirit of good and evil \ They were also infected , L'Oiseleur points out , according to the statements of the Inquisitors , with the peculiar and hateful views of the Euchetse or

Enthusiasts , as well as with those of the Bogomiles and the Albigenses . But , as we said before , we think all this is a manifest exaggeration of which no proof exists . The Gnosticism of Von Hammer and the Gnostic chests have been given up , and may not these allegations be given up too ? One witness says that all these trials were a " trufa "—in Italian , that is a jest or practical joke—and we fancy that we see in all these allegations nothing but the corporeal trials , perhaps the burlesques , of " earth , fire , and water , " of personal courage and religious devotion , which , in an order like the Templars , exposed to death for the faith , if mistaken , was excusable , and if sensational ,