The Knights Templaes.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAES .

LONDON , SATURDAY , FEBRUARY I , 1868 .

By ANTHONY ONEAL HAYE . BOOK II . —CHAPTER I . THE BULL " OITJTE DATUM OPTIMUM . " Analysis ofthe Bull . Abuse of ' privileges 61 / Templars and

Hospitallers- The Council Third of the Lateran held . The Orders reprimanded . LET US pause here in our history of the Templars , and consider them apart from their deeds in the battle field . Let us view them in the privacy of

their Preceptories . , and examine their conduct in private life . No more suitable time could be taken , than when the Holy City was for ever lost to the Crusaders , the Holy Land slipping inch by inch from the Christian grasp , and the Templars already

scheming the formation of a formidable power in the West , which should hold monarchs in check , and command the world . There is but little doubt that such was the secret purpose of the Order , and this purpose the far seeing Philip detected , and immediately put in execution those schemes , which resulted in its destruction . With this

however we do not deal . We only indicate the purpose of the Order for the better understanding the significance of what has to follow . Historians , without exception , are partisans . The calm judicial mind , which deduces from deeds

certain truths , is wanting . The present judges the past by a standard of its own , the blots of its predecessor by an affected purism of its own , not that it is a tittle less free from these blots itself . The present in turn shall be judged by the future ,

by its standard of excellence , not that it in turn will be a bit better or purer . Thus while the present styles the past the Dark Ages , so will the future call the present the Dark Ages . To err is human , but what a consolation it is to know that

the Pinal Judge , will not be Man , but God . We must therefore not judge the past by the standard of the present to arrive at tho truth , but we must compare it man by his contemporary man ; deed by its contemporaneous deed . The Templars must be judged by the other Eeligious Orders , to learn their guilt or innocence .

The Templars by their valour , their piety , and the wonderful privileges bestowed upon them by successive Popes , had rivetted the attention of Christendom upon them . Their possessions were

immense , and in every country their power overshadowed that of the Crown . They even set monarchs at defiance , were an iniperium in imperio , owning no head but the Pope , no law but the voice of their chiefs . They acknowledged no bishop ,

as having spiritual precedence of them , for their Master was also their Bishop . Among the many Bulls to be noticed particularly , is the Ball " Omne datum optimum , " the Magna Charfca of the Order , and the ready key to all their power ancl privileges . Ib was granted in 1162 , * and addressed to the then Grand Master de Blanchefort . It was

renewed ten years after , during the Mastership of Odo de Saint Amando . We subjoin an outline of it . The Bull commences thus— "Alexander , Bishop , Servant of the Servants of God , to his beloved

Sons , Odo , Master of the Eeligious Chivalry of the Temple , situated at Jerusalem , to his successors , and to all the brethren regularly professed . '" I then proceeds— " Every good gift and every perfect reward , f cometh from above , descending from

the Father of Light , with whom there is no change , nor shadow of turning . Therefore , 0 beloved children in the Lord , we praise the Almighty God , for the gift of your holy fraternity , for your religious and venerated institution , now celebrated

over the entire world . Por while by nature ye are the servants of wrath , and slaves to the pleasures of this life , yet by favouring grace you , have not remained deaf hearers of the gospel

but throwing aside all the pomp and enjoyments of earth , and passing from the broad road vvhich goethto destruction , you have in humbleness of spirit chosen the difficult way to everlasting life . Constantly carrying upon your breasts the symbol

of the life giving Cross , you fulfil faithfully the character of the soldiery of the Lord . Moreover like true sons of Israel , and the ripest combatants of the divine battle , inflamed with true charity , you fulfil by your deeds the words of the Gospel

which say ' Greater love hath no man than this , that a man will sacrifice his life for his friends •' so that , in obedience to the voice of the Great Shepherd , you in nowise fear to lay down your lives for your brethren , and to protect them from

the ravages of the heathen . Well may you be termed Holy Warriors , since you have been placed by the Lord to defend the Church Catholic , and to combat the enemies of Christ . " The Pope then calls upon the Templars to

maintain their glorious name in the future , to-