Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chivalet,
establish ev ^ n a suspicion of the crimes imputed to them . How can it , in fact , be believed , that a warlike and religious Order , which but twenty years before had seen three hundred of its Knights sacrifice themselves upon the ruins of Saphet , rather than embrace the
Mussulman faith— -that this Order , almost entirely buried under the ruins of Acre , could possibly have contracted an alliance with infidels , outraged the Christian religion with horrid blasphemies , and given up to the Saracens that Holy Land won by the blood and treasure of so many hundreds of gallant soldiers , whose exploits had made the whole civilized world to ring with their military glory .
The character of the charges preferred against the Templars in every country shows that their enemies had no real ground for the imputation of serious crimes against the Order ; for their very virtues were , indeed , turned to their discredit . Thus , it is said that ¦
to conceal the iniquity of their lives , they jnade much of almsgiving , constantly frequented church , comforted themselves with edifications , frequently piartook of the holy sacrament , and manifested alway much modesty and gentleness of deportment in their houses as well as in public . '
The great error of the Templars was in leaving the Holy Land , as by quitting the east they renounced the spirit of the institution . Their real guilt in the eyes of the pope , the sovereigns , and the ecclesiastics of Europe , consisted in their pride and the perseverance with which they maintained the privileges that had been granted to the Order by the highest authorities ecclesiastical and regal . It
was , beyond a dottbt , their wealth that excited the cupidity of the King of Prance . This Order , richer than the most powerful monarchs , and whose Knights formed a regular army , thoroughly disciplined and always ready for the field , became , when it left Palestine , naturally dreaded by the princes in whose land it had established its
chief seats . The example of the Teutonic Knights , who after quitting the east founded a power in the north of Europe which was dreaded by the neighbouring states , was not likely to reassure those sovereigns who mistrusted the ^ warlike spirit and the active and enterprising genius of the Knights of the Temple .
The morals of the Templars were no better , perhaps , than those of other cenobites , and during intervals of peace , their ample means gave them power to indulge their passions and vices ; but to similar charges the monastic orders in our own land were often liable , as is manifest from a bull issued by Pope Innocent VII . in 1404 , nearly
sixty years after the destruction of the Templars—and in the answer to which , Archbishop Morton accuses the abbot of St . Albans of having filled two neighbouring nunneries with women of infamous character , after turning out their proper inmates , and with not only ( like his monks ) keeping concubines , but with openly and scandalously visiting these establishments .
In our own day accusations of a different character have been produced . Upon these M . Haynouard remarks : " Since the proscription of the Knights of the Temple and the abolition of their
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chivalet,
establish ev ^ n a suspicion of the crimes imputed to them . How can it , in fact , be believed , that a warlike and religious Order , which but twenty years before had seen three hundred of its Knights sacrifice themselves upon the ruins of Saphet , rather than embrace the
Mussulman faith— -that this Order , almost entirely buried under the ruins of Acre , could possibly have contracted an alliance with infidels , outraged the Christian religion with horrid blasphemies , and given up to the Saracens that Holy Land won by the blood and treasure of so many hundreds of gallant soldiers , whose exploits had made the whole civilized world to ring with their military glory .
The character of the charges preferred against the Templars in every country shows that their enemies had no real ground for the imputation of serious crimes against the Order ; for their very virtues were , indeed , turned to their discredit . Thus , it is said that ¦
to conceal the iniquity of their lives , they jnade much of almsgiving , constantly frequented church , comforted themselves with edifications , frequently piartook of the holy sacrament , and manifested alway much modesty and gentleness of deportment in their houses as well as in public . '
The great error of the Templars was in leaving the Holy Land , as by quitting the east they renounced the spirit of the institution . Their real guilt in the eyes of the pope , the sovereigns , and the ecclesiastics of Europe , consisted in their pride and the perseverance with which they maintained the privileges that had been granted to the Order by the highest authorities ecclesiastical and regal . It
was , beyond a dottbt , their wealth that excited the cupidity of the King of Prance . This Order , richer than the most powerful monarchs , and whose Knights formed a regular army , thoroughly disciplined and always ready for the field , became , when it left Palestine , naturally dreaded by the princes in whose land it had established its
chief seats . The example of the Teutonic Knights , who after quitting the east founded a power in the north of Europe which was dreaded by the neighbouring states , was not likely to reassure those sovereigns who mistrusted the ^ warlike spirit and the active and enterprising genius of the Knights of the Temple .
The morals of the Templars were no better , perhaps , than those of other cenobites , and during intervals of peace , their ample means gave them power to indulge their passions and vices ; but to similar charges the monastic orders in our own land were often liable , as is manifest from a bull issued by Pope Innocent VII . in 1404 , nearly
sixty years after the destruction of the Templars—and in the answer to which , Archbishop Morton accuses the abbot of St . Albans of having filled two neighbouring nunneries with women of infamous character , after turning out their proper inmates , and with not only ( like his monks ) keeping concubines , but with openly and scandalously visiting these establishments .
In our own day accusations of a different character have been produced . Upon these M . Haynouard remarks : " Since the proscription of the Knights of the Temple and the abolition of their