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Article THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. ← Page 3 of 8 →
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The Knights Templar.
examined , and only had been permitted to make their defence through the medium of the seventy-five who appeared in behalf of the Order , and who spoke in the name of that immense majority in the presence of the apostolic commissaries . The despositions made at this examination before the commissaries ,
cannot then be considered as forming- a proof against the Templars . Reason , law , and equity must reject such suspicious and interested despositions . One may conceive Avhy the same persons who made confessions at the examination at the Temple have been selected to apj ^ ear at the
Pontiff , and have afterwards deposed against the Order before the apostolic commissaries . Besides , to what purpose all these depositions ? They only tended , as it is attested by the commissaries themselves , to explain the mode of reception when a member was entering the Order . This was the same confession that was required everywhere , and it Avas not hard to be obtained .
The commissaries came to a decision to close the examinations . "Considering , " say they , " that by the attestation of two hundred and thirty-one witnesses , of whom some attest to receptions held beyond sea ; by that of other witnesses held in other parts of the world , both against the Order and in its favour : moreover , by the confessions
of the seventy-two Templars Avho have appeared before the Pontiff and the Cardinals , we deem ourselves sufficiently informed , & c . " * Here you behold then , what the enemies of the Templars have offered for a proof irrefragable of their crimes , and of their disorderly manners .
No one doubts that , Avith respect to the ceremonies of receptions , to which strangers Avere not admitted , the depositions of witnesses Avho were not Templars ought to have no influence , since all that they could attest was from hear-say . Nobody Avill doubt , but that the ajiostates from the Order could
not afford any valid testimony against it . They were evidently suspicuous ; the baseness of their conduct , the personal and urgent interest that they had in declaring the Order criminal , ought to have made their testimony be rejected before every tribunal of justice , and with equally good reason before that of the historian and posterity .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Knights Templar.
examined , and only had been permitted to make their defence through the medium of the seventy-five who appeared in behalf of the Order , and who spoke in the name of that immense majority in the presence of the apostolic commissaries . The despositions made at this examination before the commissaries ,
cannot then be considered as forming- a proof against the Templars . Reason , law , and equity must reject such suspicious and interested despositions . One may conceive Avhy the same persons who made confessions at the examination at the Temple have been selected to apj ^ ear at the
Pontiff , and have afterwards deposed against the Order before the apostolic commissaries . Besides , to what purpose all these depositions ? They only tended , as it is attested by the commissaries themselves , to explain the mode of reception when a member was entering the Order . This was the same confession that was required everywhere , and it Avas not hard to be obtained .
The commissaries came to a decision to close the examinations . "Considering , " say they , " that by the attestation of two hundred and thirty-one witnesses , of whom some attest to receptions held beyond sea ; by that of other witnesses held in other parts of the world , both against the Order and in its favour : moreover , by the confessions
of the seventy-two Templars Avho have appeared before the Pontiff and the Cardinals , we deem ourselves sufficiently informed , & c . " * Here you behold then , what the enemies of the Templars have offered for a proof irrefragable of their crimes , and of their disorderly manners .
No one doubts that , Avith respect to the ceremonies of receptions , to which strangers Avere not admitted , the depositions of witnesses Avho were not Templars ought to have no influence , since all that they could attest was from hear-say . Nobody Avill doubt , but that the ajiostates from the Order could
not afford any valid testimony against it . They were evidently suspicuous ; the baseness of their conduct , the personal and urgent interest that they had in declaring the Order criminal , ought to have made their testimony be rejected before every tribunal of justice , and with equally good reason before that of the historian and posterity .