The Knights Templars.

the Christians . The sight of the tomb of Jesus was ineffectual to inspire holy thought , and even the excommunicating Patriarch Heraclius lavished the treasures of the pilgrim and the poor upon the most abandoned characters ; and , to the scandal

of the Christians , the notorious Paque de Eivery displayed , even iu the sanctuaiy , ornaments purchased Avith the alms of the faithful . The people used to shout in the streets , as Heraclius and his concubine drove through them , " There go the

bishop and bishopess . " This Heraclius possessed an eminently handsome person , and to the mundane and profane qualification of beauty he OAved his rise in the Church j for the mother ofthe King of Jerusalem ,

attracted by his appearance , fell desperately in love withhini , and by her interest he was appointed Archbishop of Cresarea . He was soon after elevated to the rank of Pariarch , and is shrewdly suspected of having got rid of the Archbishop

of Tyre by poison . The effect of such an example soon told upon the morals , not only of the clergy and laity of the Holy Land , but likewise of the Templars ; for , surrounded by such companions , and despite Avhat Ave might have expected from their determined courage in the cause of Christ , and their gallant behaviour Avhen in the

battlefield , iu their houses they conducted themselves with a laxity at total variance with , the rules and the deportment of the founders of the Order . In this , liOAvever , they were kept in countenance both by the Hospitallers of St . John aud the Teutonic

Kni ghts j for , according to Wilken , these Orders had become as corrupt as the Templars . He writes of the religious Knights , that liOAvever valiantly they fought against the heathen , and however valuable their assistance might have been

to the p ilgrims , if they Avere not the active promoters , they Avere , by their greed and love of gain , at least participators in the troubles Avhich disturbed the Holy Land ; and another author Avrites , with reference to the Templars , that hoAvever

-willing they Avere to die for Christ , they did not display an equal Avillingness to live for him . They , however , in all their excesses , never forgot AA'hat ¦ was cl . ie to the Church and its ministers—a courtesy which did not characterise their rivals of

the Hospital . About this time a deadly feud broke out between the Hospitallers and the Patriarch of Jerusalem . The Hospitallers , under the peculiar favours granted them by the Pope , refused to pay tythe to the Church , and conducted

themselves in an insolent and unbecoming manner to the Patriarch . Every kind of annoyance Avas brought to bear upon him . He Avas scoffed at in the streets , or passed by Avithout that reverence being paid to him which his rank demanded ; and

while he addressed the people iu church , the bells of the Hospital were violently rung to drown his voice—conduct as contemptible as it Avas childish . They built edifices in front of the Church of the Resurrection to darken the AVIUCIOAVS , and often

droAvned tho voices of the priest by their shouts , while celebrating the praises of God at the foot of the altar . All these insults the Patriarch bore for a long while with patience , which had no other effect than to exasperate the Hospitallers in a

greater degree against him , and they proceeded to more violent measures ; for one day , during high mass , they shot arroAVS into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre , wounding and slaying many of the worshippers . These arroAvs Avere aftenvards gathered together in bundles , and hung up on Calvary , a

monument of the disgraceful excesses and sacrilege of the Hospitallers . The Patriarch ' s patience Avas completely exhausted by this last outrage , and he demanded satisfaction from Rome ; but the influence of the Hospitallers Avas all-powerful there ,

and their gold freely circulated , so that the complaint of the Patriarch was dismissed , and no censure passed upon the dastard Hopitallers . These quarrels , which Avere reneAved every day , and ahvays decided in favour of the Hospitallers ,

inflamed the minds of the disputants the more , the one proud at the success of their audacity , the other enraged at sacrileges of so grave a nature being alloAved to pass unpunished . Instead of attempting to soothe the troubles and cement the

friendship of the Christians in the East , the Court of Eome only gave in its decision fresh cause for discord ; and it is little to be Avondered at that the religious Knights became haughty and overbearing , seeing IIOAV little attention was paid by the Pope to complaints urged against them .

William , Archbishop of Tyre , accuses De Blanchefort and the Templars of an act of treachery , which has since his time ever formed a grave charge against tho Order . But it must be kept in mind that William bore the Templars the

bitterest hatred on account of their great poAvers , and had himself failed in a frivolous complaint Avhich he preferred against them to Rome , which Avas decided in the Knights favour by a General Council of the Church . Jacques de Yitry , the