The Suppression Of The Templars In England.

and William de Lafford , ye shall do by the authority of the Council that ivhich justice requires to be done . Bat for the conducting of the aforesaid brethren to the monasteries , our lord the king has promised the help of the sheriffs of the places through which they shall be conducted , and has directed briefs to the sheriffs on this matter ; and to the monasteries he has promised , by the hands of the custodians of the goods of the Order of the Temple , Avhich are in his possession , to pay for each brother four-pence per day for providing them Avith necessaries . N OAV , if the religious of the aforesaid monasteries shall despise your commands in this matter , lect to themAvhether t ornot

or neg obey , against , exemp exempt , ye shall without delay fulminate ecclesiastical censures , and proceed against them i \ 'ith all ecclesiastical severity as justice shall require . And Avhafc ye shall do in the premises ye shall Avithout delay intimate tons Toy your letters patent . "

The Bishop , in forwarding this letter to each of the monasteries concerned , merely added that such ancl such a Templar was assigned to the monastery addressed , ancl that he was to be treated in every way as the Archbishop ' s letter directed . The gradations of penance to the three classes mentioned in the letter are so curious that it is worth while to draw them out for comparison . The first , or most guilty class , were never to go outside the septa of the monastery , but might spend four hours per week in its gardens . They were

to eat meat only on Sundays ancl Thursdays , ancl on other clays only one kind of fish . On Fridays they were to fast all day on bread and water . They were to say a psalter and litany every clay , or Lord ' s Prayer and Ave two hundred times . The second class might go outside the septa to gardens adjacent , as they got leave . They might eat meat every day except Mondays and Fridays ; on Fridays bread and water till mass ; to say two psalters and a litany-xoeekor

per ,, the Lord ' s Prayer and Ave one hundred ancl fift y times . The third class might go outside the septa to gardens adjacent , without special leave ; might eat meat every day except Mondays and Fridays , and o ? t Sundays two sorts . On Fridays they were to fast on bread and ale , and in addition to their meat they were allowed two sorts of fish . They had no special religious exercises prescribed . All alike mi ght feast without stint on high festivals .

It will be admitted that these punishments were not specially severe , except , perhaps , that of the first class , the confinement of which must have been irksome . As to the third class of punishment , it simply provided the Templar with a comfortable home , and left him free to do very mnah as he liked . Thus

the treatment of the Templars in England contrasts very favourably with their horrible maltreatment in France . But , at the same time , one is inclined to ask why , if these men were not guilty , were they thus dealt with?—and why was the property of their Order confiscated ? That they were not guilty , in the estimation of their judges , the very lightness of their punishment seems to show . But , though the punishment may be considered li ght , ancl altogether

disproportioued to the atrocity of the charges made against the Templars , supposing them to be established , even in part , nevertheless , the annoyance experienced by such men as the Knights of the Temple at being shut up in obscure monasteries with no other companions save ignorant ancl childish monks must have been very great . These Templars were men who had seen the world , and knew something of its pomps ancl pleasures , ancl doubtless also

of its sins . They were familiar with courts and camps . They had been trained to take the highest deli ght in the use of arms , and had brought all the exercises of knighthood to the highest perfection . Skilful above others in the tourney and the melee , accustomed to spend many hours of each day in the saddle practicing every feat of knightly warfare , what a sad ancl melancholy change was it for them to be doomed to the still life of the convent , with its varyiuoroutine

of petty duties and ill-mumbled services ; its useless waste of life ; its little cabals and secret whisperings ; its absence of all manliness , vigour , and realit y ! _ Despite the liberty allowed them of visiting " adjacent gardens for purer air , " the Knight , bronzed in the sun of the East , with limbs and sinews braced and knitted by the hard toils of war , must have soon withered away in this uncongenial atmosphere , and not for long have encumbered the monastery