The Knights Templars.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS .

LONDON , SATUBDAT , OCTOBER 17 , 1863 .

By ANTHONY ONEAL HAYE . ( Continued from page 288 ) . BOOK IV— CHAPTER V . —( contcl . ) The examination at Paris commenced

immediately after tiie 13 th of October , and lasted all November . This was the most important , both on account of the number and the rank of the Templars . Imbert went first to Melun . He was accompanied by the nobles whom the King had

named to assist , and be present at the interrogations . He read over to the assembled Templars the articles upon which they were accused , and on which they were to be examined . He then took their oaths to speak the truth , after which

they were examined separately . To this formality was added the unveiling of the instruments of torture , to be used against those who should maintain the innocence of the Order . What was understood as testimony or confession by Inquisitors

was an affirmative answer by the accused to such questions as might be asked . The guilt of the accused was assumed , and no witness for the defence heard . It was a useless task on the nart of

the accused to attempt to reason with the Inquitors . It only added to the crime with which they stood charged , and however absurd and unreasonable such charges might be , to impugn the sense and judgement of those who professed to

believe in them , was a crime little less than those for which they were then examined . In the case of the Templars , it might have been thought that they would not have been confronted with each other . This was not done .

The sight of the torture had no effect upon the Templars . When asked to confess , they denied with indignation the charges , and the work of blood and agony commenced . The whole hundred and forty Templars were tortured , but in such

a rude and violent manner that the members of many were dislocated , ancl the environs resounded with frightful cries . The strongest sustained these torments for a long time and confessed nothing , so that they were carried back to their

prisons , bleeding and mangled . Thirty-six died under the hands of the torturers , protesting their innocence and the holiness of the Order . Some , after suffering for a long time , gave in to pain ,

The Knights Templars.

and confessed to a part of the facts imputed to them . But others , unable to bear the touch of such tortures , confessed at once , in the hopes of obtaining release . We can hardly blame these confessions . The

sufferers were confined in solitary dungeons , none near to console and cheer them ; they felt abandoned by the world , even the consciousness of their innocence was of no avail , and their only hope was in the clemency of their judges . To add

to their distresses , winter had set in with fearful rigour , and a dungeon of the Middle Ages was horrible beyond description . They were scarcely allowed the necessaries of life ; they were stripped of the habit of the Order , and denied the

consolations of religion , being in the light of heretics . This was sufficient , however , to overcome the fidelity of many , and Imbert descended to commit a fraud , exactly in keeping- with his character .

He forged a letter , purporting to emanate from the Grand Master , in which De Molai confessed the crimes of the Order , and called upon his brethren to do the same . Enthusiasts in religion or politics , says Lardner , are supported by the

consciousness of rectitude , and bear up against privations or torture in firm reliance on the favour of the Divinity , or the praise and esteem of a grateful and admiring posterity . But many of the Templars , were far from being such

characters . They were illiterate Knights , who had long lived in a luxurious indolence , and perhaps indulged in arrogance to their inferiors . The crimes of which they were accused , sundered the people from their cause , and their power was broken . It

is , therefore , not to be wondered at , that many embraced the offers made to them , backed as these were by the forged letter of their Grand Master .

Such were the means employed to draw the truth from the accused . An Inquisitor of the Faith , a member of a holy order , forges a letter whereby men are led to commit a more deadl y sins than even those of which they were accused ;

for it fixed in the popular mind that such abominable practices had been performed , and thus established a falsehood on the throne of truth , to the discredit of humanity , and the disgrace of all religious orders , for abuses existing in ono

might easily exist in all . There is no parallel to this in history , nor can we put much faith in depositions , however akin to truth , where the examination commences with torture .