The Knights Templars.

Pope , who had been struck with his unassuming devotedness . If he ever made such a statement , which we cannot believe , it must haue been wrung from him by the devilish cruelties of the Dominicans , who tortured till the patient confessed

or fainted , or , as happened in many instances with the Templars , was driven mad . He is not said to have made any other avowals . He expressly denied the existence of sodomy in the Order . He did not confess to having spat three times upon

the Cross , although this was au important part of the ceremony of renouncing Christ . Evidently Imbert could make little of the gallant De Molai , either by torture or cajolings , and sent him away without further examination , but horribly

mangled , to his prison at Corbeil . The deposition of Hugo de Peyraud , the Grand Prior of Prance , appears to have been an entire fabrication , or taken down when he was reduced to such an extremity of weakness that he was unconscious of what he said , for his torments were

of a most fearful description . Having failed in obtaining anything of moment from De Molai , who , being old and in infirm health , they feared might die under greater torture , Imbert and his Dominicans put forth the whole of their fiendish

efforts upon De Peyraud . His confession runs , that at his reception , he had three times renounced Christ , and as many times spat upon the Cross . He had seen the idol at Montpelier , which he had adored like the others , but with his

lips only , and not with his heart . Guy , the Prince Dauphin ' s , evidence is totally unworthy of being taken as his utterance . He deponed , that he was only twelve years of age when he entered the Order , and , consequently , was unaware

ofthe abuses in its interior . He was received at that early age , according to his deposition , when , in reality , he did not get his mantle for six years after . He renounced Christ and spat upon the Cross . De Peyraud and he afterwards denied having made such confessions , or that such crimes ever existed in the Order .

Before leaving this branch of our subject , let us learn a little of what others of the Templars confessed . John de Fouley declared that , at his reception , he had been conducted by the preceptor to a secret place there to make his renunciation . *

He refused to make it , but was constrained to it , as it formed a statute of the Order , whose servant he had become . He thereupon said " Nego , " applying it to the preceptor . Afterwards he had

The Knights Templars.

consulted Boniface Lombard , who counselled him to make a protestation before the officials in Paris , declaring that he was dissatisfied with the Order , but this he never did . William de Hautmenil confessed to most of the charges , and would have

left the Order , but dreaded the reproaches of his friends , who had made large sacrifices to get him admitted . He had confessed these crimes to the

Bishop of Poictiers ; but nothing is said about that prelate's advice , or his reason for permitting him to remain in so abandoned an Order . This is but a specimen of the utter worthlessness of the whole depositions . Had the Bishop of

Poictiers been told of such crimes , he would speedily have roused Christendom against the Order . Matthew d'Arras , on re-examination , deponed , that Hugo de Peyraud , conversing with him about the disorders which had crept into the

Order , complained of its being cried down on that account ; that the King and the Pope hated it ; and that they would require to quit the Order to save themselves , and bade him warn his friends to do so likewise .

John de Pont-1 'Eveque deponed to everything but the unmentionable crime , and declared that he had confessed to a monk , who ordered him , for penance , to fast every Friday for a year , and on that , day to wear no shirt . Simon Chretien

declared ; that for a long time he resisted his superior , aud would not renounce Christ . In the end , however , he gave in ; but his refusal on this point restrained them from asking him to commit the other crimes . Geoffrey de Goneville , the

Preceptor of Aquitaine and Poitou , who was fearfully tortured before he could be made to confess , deponed , that he had been received twenty-eight years before in the House of the Temple at London , by Robert de Torville , Grand Prior of

England . De Torville shewed him in a missal a picture of Jesus Christ on the Cross , and commanded him to deny Him who was crucified . Terribly alarmed , he exclaimed , " Alas ! my lord , why should I do this ? I will on no account do

it . " But the Grand Prior answered , "Do it boldly . I swear to thee that the act shall never harm either thy soul or thy conscience . " ( To be continued . )

TIIE first Christians woro visionaries , living in a circle of ideas which we should call dreams ; but , at tho same time , thoy wore tho heroes of tho social war which has ended in tho enfranchisement of tho conscionco and tho establishment of a religion whence tho pure worship , announced by tho founder , will at length come forth .