The Knights Templars.

the assistance of a counsel ; aud , if these are granted me , I shall do my best to exonerate the Order , and prove the falseness of the crimes with which it stands accused . This I will do , not only by the testimony of the

members of the Order , but also by the declarations of the kings and princes of other countries where the Order has possessions—witnesses the less suspicious , seeing that our Preceptors have often quarrelled with these potentates regarding their fiefs , and , consequently , they cannot be supposed to be biassed in our favour . Thus will the truth

be made apparent , not alone by us , but by the voice of every country in which we have possessions ; and I am ready to abide by the testimony of the kings , princes , prelates , dukes , counts , barons , and men of probity belonging to these

countries . " The Archbishop of Narboune . — " Reflect well upon your offer to defend the Order . Think wel of the avowals which yon have made regarding it and yourself . Nevertheless , we will permit you

to defend the Order if you persist in that design . Having only a lay brother with you , we cannot well refuse you some delay ; but my duty compels me to state , that , iu a matter of faith , you must speak alone , and we cannot grant yon counsel or

money . Furthermore , I warn you that , in a question of heresy , we proceed summarily , without formality , pleadings of advocates , or forms of law . You must therefore think well of it . " The Grand Master declared that no

consideration would make him abandon his design of de- fending the Order ; whereupon the Archbishop caused the Commission granted in favour of himself and lii ' s colleagues to be read . This docn- I ment contained all the infamous charges made j

against the Order . Thereafter they caused to be j read over to the Grand Master the deposition \ which , it was pretended , he had made at Paris , j and confirmed at Chiuon . He listened to the i narrative of the crimes imputed to the Order :

with astonishment ; but when he heard himself : accused of having made such a dreadful deposi- j tion he could scarcely contain his anger , and , by j making the sign of the Cross several times , aud ' by other more energetic symptoms , testified his f astonishment . After the readino- of these

documents , he answered , with a noble but indignant scorn , that those who had been placed in high authority by the Church , should have been more careful of following its precepts . Their garb

protected them from the wrath of man , but not from the justice of God . Had he owed less respect to the envoys of the Pope , or had he stood in any other position than as a prisoner , he would have given them a very different answer .

The preparation of this false deposition makes us doubt whether even the torture wrung from the other officers such odious confessions . It proves one thing clearly , that the whole charges were false . The Grand Master could ueither read

nor write—a common occurrence m that age , when such accomplishments were confined tochurchmen . The notaries who had written down the depositions had therefore composed them at the dictation of the Inquisitors , who ,

unscrupulous tools of the King , would not hesitate to affirm what the Knights denied . If it were not so , how could De Molai have had the presumption to deny what he had confessed on two occasions ? Or , if such odious crimes were so common in the Order

how could he have assumed , as the Commissioners themselves declared , such an appearance of outraged innocence . The answer of the Grand Master friahtened

the Commissioners , who do not appear to have been privy to the intrigues of the King . Indeed their conduct throughout the whole proceedings was characterised by humanity and justice . The Commissioners , imagining that the Grand Master

had defied them to mortal combat , answered , that they were not men capable of receiving such a challenge , nor were they there to hear such . To this the Grand Master bitterly replied , that they had mistaken the sense of his speech . He had

not intended challenging them ; but he added still more bitterly , that he wished to say with regard to those who were capable of such a crime as to fabricate so infamous a deposition , and

publish it as his , it would be well to establish among-Christians the custom of the Saracens and Tartars > who first cut in two the bodies of those whom they consider perverts , and then , when there was little fear of challenge , blackened the characters of their

victims . The Commissioners , applying- this answer to the punishment which the Knights had they been guilty , would have deserved , replied , that the Church , which abhored the shedding of blood , would leave that to tho secular powers when

they had convicted the Order of heresy . The Grand Master smiled contemptuously at this admission , but deigned to take no further notice of it . Returning to the question of the defence of