History Of The Knights Templar.

Church the power that it once possessed over the minds and passions of men , were the Press a fettered slave , the liberty of thought a capital crime , then the rack would creak , the faggot blaze , aud the victim groan at the command of

the so-called shepherds of the Atoning Lamb . Perusing the pages of history , it would seem that , in former times , the pulpit aud the altar had the effect of crushing out of the hearts of the clergy the milk of human kindness , from their thoughts

the fact that they were but creatures of the dust , liable , like their brethren of humanity , to fall into error and sin ; and the Church of Rome even yet , with a whimpering voice , invokes judgments which she is poiverless to execute . Ancient paganism ivas tolerant . The Romans

were accustomed to take over , along with the goods and lands of a conquered people , their gods , and add them to their own list of deities . The Pantheon was built for their reception , and dedicated to all the gods , and thus a stranger , ivhether

Greek , Gaul , Briton , or Goth , had a temple wherein to pay his devotion to his deity . The Romish Church , ivith a nice appreciation of the manners aud customs of heathenism , turned out truly the ancient gods , but in their steads raised

the calendar of saints , an accommodation for the wants of the pious of all nations worthy of all praise . Paganism accepted all kinds of worship , so long as they did not infringe upon the civil power , existing worships , or outrage decency . If they did , then the magistrate stepped in and exercised his functions . A non-observance of

these laws led to the suppression of the Stoics , the worshippers of Bacchus , ancl the systematic persecution of the Christians . Paganism said "Truthis uncertain . Jupiter is my god . Christ is yours . You worship yours ; I , mine . Do not

let us interfere with each other , but remember that Cassar is supreme , ancl his commands must be obeyed . " The priests did not lay themselves out for converts . They were prepared to accept any man ' s god , so long as their oivn ivas

acknowledged . But , so soon as the daringly novel dogma for the priests was enunciated by the Christians , that Jupiter and the others ivere false gods , and that there was but one God , when the people not only listened to but accepted this creed , then

the priests raised the terrible cry oi' heresy , and the Christians ivere despatched to the lions . Between the Mahometans and tho Christians the grounds of quarrel ivere also more political

than religious . The Mahometans declared that there was but one God , and Mahomet was his prophet . The Christians maintained that there was in truth but one God , but that Mahomet was not his prophet ; there was but one God ,

composed of three persons , and Jesus Christ was the Son of God . As they both held Jerusalem to be a holy city , and Palestine a holy land , they came to bloivs for its possession , and this was really the cause of conflict . Each looked upon the other as

interloping , and each resolved to drive the other from the Holy Land . They did not come to convert each other . Desire of conquest led the Mahometans into Europe , aud not religious furor . Like the Jeivs , the Mahometans viewed ivith

disfavour all converts . The history of the Christian aud Mahometan conflict , so far as the Knights Templar were concerned , the following work is intended to

chronicle , as ivell as to describe the officers , the laivs , and the religions , military , and domestic manners and customs of the Order , and the terrible times of its persecution , with an inquiry into its presumed continuation to the present day .

There are several writers upon the Templars , in English , such as Addison , Barnes , Miluer , and others , but the works of none of them are so complete as could be desired ; in fact , Addison is the only one who has given anything like a

full history , and it is greatly to be regretted that he has not exhausted the theme , for no one could be better qualified . The same regret attaches to the Latin Christianity of the learned Dean of St . Paul ' s . In French , as is but natural , we find

abundance of works , and conspicuous amongst them those of Dupui and Raynouard . The Persecution seems , however , to have been the favourite study of all .

The present work has been the growth of time , and was commenced about eleven years ago . While studying Midland's "Histoire des Croisades" the author found the Templars and Hospitallers constantly mentioned , and he was

deeply interested in their eventful histories , especially that of the former Order . The magnificent treatise on the Knights of Malta , by the learned Abbe de Vertot , informed him fully of the one , but he found it difficult to get at works upon the

other . He ivas then barely eighteen , and in somewhat precarious health , so , having time , he employed himself in gathering together all the facts relating to the Templars he could lay his hands