Masonic Notes And Queries.

John de Goderal , a Minorite , had heard that Bobert de Eaxat , a Templar , had once gone about a meadow crying ' Wo , wo is me ! that ever I was horn . I have been forced to deny God , and give myself up to the devil . ' " A Templar had said to William de Berney , in the presence of several respectable peopleat the funeral

, of the parish-priest of Duxwortli , near Cambridge , that a man has no more a soul , after death , than a dog . " John de Eure , a secular knight , said that lie ouce invited the prior William de Fenne to dine with him . After dinner the prior took from his bosom a book

, and gave it to the knight's lady to read . She found on a paper which was fastened into the book the following Avords , ' Christ Avas not the son of Gotl , nor bom of a virgin , but conceived by Mary , the wife of Joseph , in the same way as all other men . Christ Avas not a- true bnt a false prophet , and was

crucified for his OAVU crimes and not for the redemption of mankind , & c . ' The lady shoAved this paper to her husband , who spoke to the prior , who only laughed at it ; but , being brought before a court of justice , he confessed the truth , excusing himself on the grounds of his being illiterate and ignorant of what the hook contained .

" liobert of Oteringham , a Minorite , said , : One evening my prior did not appear at table , as relies were come from Palestine which he wished to SIIOAV the brethren . About midnight I heard a confused noise in the chapel ; I got up , and , looking through the keyhole , saAV that it was lighted . In the morning I asked a brother who was the saint in whose honour

they had celebrated the festival during the night ? He turned pale with terror , thinking I had seen something , and said , " Ask me not ; and if you value your life say nothiug of it before the superiors . " ' " Another Avituess said that the son of a Templar had peeped through the slits of the door into the

chapter-room , and seen a new member put to death for hesitating to deny Christ . Long afterivards beiug asked by his father to become a Templar , he refused , telling what he had seen : his father instantly SICAV him . " John of Gertia , a Minorite , Avas told by a Avoman

named Agnes Loveeote , Avho said she had it from Exvalethus , prior in London , that when in one of the chapters a brother had refused to spit on the cross , they suspended him in a Avell and covered it up . This witness also deposed to some other enormities which he said he had heard of from the same Avoman . herself speaking from hearsay .

"In June , 1310 , the Pope Avrote to King Edward , blaming his lenity and calling on him to employ the torture in order to elicit the truth . The council of London , after a long discussion , ordered it to be employed , but so as not to mutilate tlie limbs or cause an incurable Avound or violent effusion of blood . The iniguts persisted in asserting their innocence .

" In Germany the different prelates examined the Templars in their respective dioceses . Nothing Avas elicited . At Mentz the Order was pronounced innocent . The Wildgraf Frederic , preceptor on the Shine , offered to undergo the ordeal of glowing iron . He had knoAvn the Master intimatel y in the East , and believed him to he as good a Christian as any man .

" The Templars in the Spanish peninsula were examined , and witnesses heard for and against them in Castile , Leon , Aragon , and Portugal , and nothing was proved against them . The council of Tarragona in Ai'agon , after applying the torture , pronounced the Order free from the stain of heresy . At the council of Medina del Campo in Leonone witness

, said that he had heard that , Avlien some Minorites visited the preceptor at Villalpando , they found him reading a little book , which he instantly locked up in three boxes , saying , ' This book might fall into hands where it may be very dangerous to the Order . ' " The influence of the Pope may be supposed to

have been stronger in Italy than in the countries above mentioned , and accordingly we find that declarations similar to those made in France were given there . Yet it was at Florence that the adoration of the idols , the cat . & c , was most fully acknowledged . In the patrimony of St . Peter some confessions to the

same effect were made ; hut at Bologna , Cesena , and Ancona , nothiug transpired . Nine Templars maintained the innocence of the Order before the council of Ravenna . It was debated whether the torture

should be employed . Two Dominican inquisitors were for it , the remainder of the council declared against it . It was decreed that the innocent should be absolved , the guilty punished according to laAV . Those who had revolted tlie confessions made under torture , or through fear of it , were lo le regarded as innocent—a very different rule from that acted on hy

King Philip . "Charles II . of Anjou , the relation of King Philip , and the enemy of the Templars , who Avere on the side of Frederick , King of Sicily , had the Templars seized and examined in Provence and Naples . Those examined in Provence AA ere all serving-brethren ,

and some of them testified to the impiety and idolatry of the Order . Two Templars were examined at Brindisi , in the kingdom of Naples , in June , 1310 ; one had denied the cross in Cyprus , he said , six years after he had entered the Order ; the other had trampled on the cross at the time of his reception .

He , as well as others , had bowed down and worshipped a grey cat in the chapters . " In Sicily six Templars , the only ones who were arrested , deposed against the Order . One of them said he had been received in the unlawful way in Catalonia , where , as we have just seen , the innocence

of the Order was full recognised . His evidence Avas full of absurdity . He said the cat hat not appeared for a long time in the chapters , but that the ancient statutes of Damietta said that it used to appear and be worshipped . "In Cyprus 110 witnesses were examined ; 75 belonged to the Order and maintained its innocence ; the testimony of the remainder was also in favour of

15 . "We thus find that , in every place beyond the sphere of the influence of the King of France and his creature the Pope , the innocence of the Order Avas Avas maintained aud acknowledged ; and undoubtedly the same would have been the case in France if the proceedings against it had been regulated by justice

and the love of truth . " The time appointed for the meeting of the general council was UOAV arrived . On the 1 st October , 1311 , the Pope came to Vienne , Avhich is a short distance