The Knights Templars.

nities , we do enact , that if they shall not entirely j ' oin the brethren aforesaid , but shall think proper to reside upon their own properties , still they are in no wise , on thafc account , to be exempt ironi the sentence of the bishops , who are to

exercise their authority over them just like the other persons in their dioceses , where they require correction for their excesses . What has been said above as to the aforesaid brethren , we do also © ommancl to be observed as to other persons in

religious orders , who , in fneir jDresumpfcion , intrude apon the path , ancl presume to enter on a course contrary to their own cei-emonial professions ancl ihe tenor of our own privileges . If , however , they shall presume to contravene this enactment , both

the churches in which they shall presume so to do shall be laid under interdict , and what they lave done shall be deemed null and void . "

ihe Templars m England had given great offence to the Churchmen by their conduct towards ihe body of Geoffrey de Magnaville , Earl of Essex , of which Addison , in his sketch of the Temple Church , gives the following account : —

iC Sir Geoffrey de Magnaville was one of the most violent of those "barons hold ' who desolated England during the stormy reign of King Stephen . He was fche son of that famous soldier , Geoffrey d . e Magnaville , who fought at the battle of Hastings

and was endowed by the Conqueror with one " hundred and eighteen lordships in England . On ihe accession of King Stephen to the throne , Sir Ueoffi-ey was made constable of the Tower , and sreated Earl of Essex , but he soon quarrelled with

jbis royal master aud benefactor , and collecting together his vassals and adherents , he raised the I standard of rebellion . He was joined by crowds of freebooters and needy adventurers , and speedily found himself at the head of a powerful army . He

laid waste the royal domains , pillaged the king ' s servants , and subsisted his followers upon plunder . He took ancl sacked the form of Cambrid ge , laid waste the surrounding country , and stormed severa l zoysl castles . He was afterwards compelled to retreat for a brief period into the fens , before a superior force led against him by King Stephen

person . " The most frightful excesses are said to have foeoii committed by this potent earl . He sent spies , we are told , to beg from door to door , and discover where rich mon dwelt , that he might seize Shem at night in their beds , throw tliem into dungeons , and compel the payment of a heavy \

ransom for their liberty . He got by water to Ramsey , and entering- the Abbey of St . Benedict at morning ' s dawn , surprised the monks asleep in their beds after the fatigue of nocturnal offices ; he turned them out of their cells , filled the abbey

with his soldiers , and made a fort of the church ; he took away all the gold and silver vessels of the altar , the copes and vestments of the priests and singers ornamented with precious stones , and all the decorations of the church , and sold them for money to reward his soldiers . The monkish

historians of the period speak with horror of these sacriligious excesses . " ' He dared , ' says William , the monk of Newburgh , who lived in the reign of King Stephen , ' to make that celebrated ancl holy place a robber ' s

cave , and to turn the sanctuary of fche Lord into an abode of the devil . He infested all the neighbouring provinces with frequent incursions , and at length , emboldened by constant success , he alarmed and harassed King Stephen himself by

his daring attacks . He thus , indeed , raged madly , and ifc seemed as if the Lord slept and cared no longer for human affairs , or rather his own , thafc is to say , ecclesiastical affairs , so that the pious

| labourers in Christ ' s vineyard , exclaimed , " Arise , 0 God , maintain thine own cause . . . how long shall the adversary do this dishonour , how long shall fche enemy blaspheme thy name ? " But God , willing to make his power known , as fche

apostle saith , enduring with much " lonff-sufferinafche vessels of wrath fitted to destruction , " and at last smote his enemies in their hinder parts . It was discovered , indeed , a short time before fche destruction of this impious man , as we have learned

from this true relation of many witnesses , thafc the walls of the church sweated pure blood—a terrible manifestation , as it afterwards appeared , of the enormity of the crime , and of the speedy judgment of God upon the sinners . '

"For this sacrilege and impiety , Sir Geoffrey was excommunicated ; but , deriding- the spiritual thunders , he went ancl laid siege to the royal castle at Bunveil . After a successful attack which

brought him to the foot of the rampart , he took off his helmet , it being summer-time and the weather hot , that he might breathe more freely when a foot soldier belonging to the gai-rison shot an arrow from a loophole in fche castle wall , and

gave him a slight wound on the head : ' which slight wound , ' says our worthy monk of Newburgh , ' although at first treated with derision , after a few