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Title: Sketch of the History of the Knights Templars - Second Edition
Author: Burnes, James
Language: English
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SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS,
by
JAMES BURNES LL.D. F.R.S.
Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order
Second Edition.
Illustrated with Plates.
Wm. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh;
Payne & Foss, London;
John Cumming, Dublin.
Edinburgh, MDCCCXL.
[Illustration]
TO
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
Prince Augustus Frederick.
DUKE OF SUSSEX, EARL OF INVERNESS, K.G. D.C.L.
&c. &c. &c. &c.
Grand Prior of England,
THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE DEDICATED
With every sentiment of Respect,
BY
His faithful and obedient Servant and Brother,
JAMES BURNES.
NOTICE.
The very limited number of copies comprising the First Edition of this
Work were exhausted by presentations amongst the most Illustrious
Individuals,--leaving only a few copies for the Author's numerous
circle of friends and associates. To remove a disappointment very
generally expressed by many intimate friends of the Author in this
Country, he has been induced to print a Second Edition of the
Work, which is now offered to the Public, with many Additions and
Illustrations,--for one of which, in particular,--the plate of Sir
Sidney Smith,--the Publishers are indebted to the kindness of MR.
BENTLEY.
EDINBURGH, AUGUST 1840.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
1. The Hospitallers, 1
2. The Templars, 9
3. The Persecution of the Templars, 25
4. The Continuation of the Order, 39
5. The Knights Templars of Scotland, 55
APPENDIX.
1. Bull of Pope Clement V, i
2. Charter of Transmission, iii
3. Vow of the Knights of St. John, x
4. Vow of the Templars, xi
5. Le Trésor, xiii
6. Manifesto by the late Regent on his Succession, xvii
7. Discours De L'Amiral Sir Sidney Smith au Convent General, xxi
8. Investiture as a Knight Commander of the Bath, xxiii
9. Death and Funeral of Sir Sidney Smith, xxx
10. Funeral Oration by M. Jullien, xxxiii
11. Do. by M. Caille, xxxvii
12. Sketch of the History, &c. of the Order in Ireland, xlii
13. Extract of Charter by King James IV. of Scotland, xlvii
14. Proclamation by the Freemasons of Europe,--dated at
Cologne on the Rhine 1535, li
15. List of Chevaliers whose Arms are Emblazoned
on Frontispiece.
[Illustration:
P. D. E. P.
A. M. D. C.
INSIG: ARMOR:
FRATRVM: SORORVMQVE:
ORDIN: ILLVSTR: TEMPLI:
MAGNO: INDIÆ:
SCOTIÆQVE: PRIORATV:
ANNO: ORD:
721.]
List of Chevaliers,
Whose Armorial Bearings are emblazoned upon the _Gothic Gateway_ at
the beginning of this Work, and to whom the Plate is affectionately
dedicated by their Friend and Brother,
JAMES BURNES.
SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY SMITH, G.C.B.
&c. &c. &c. &c.
Late Regent and Prince Magistral of the
Order of the Temple.
Outram. Hair. Gibson. Erskine. Burnes. Le Geyt.
Le Messurier. Kennedy. Bogle. Holmes.
Chalmers. Campbell. Campbell. Lushington.
Macan. Shaw. ARMS Fitzgerald. Bortoleme.
OF
THE ORDER.
Dunlop. Le Geyt. Pearson. Simson.
Laurie. Winchester. Ramsay. Pringle.
JAMES BURNES,
Knight of Aquitaine, and of the Royal Guelphic Order,
Grand Prior of India.
Bailiff of Berne. Harris.
INTRODUCTION.
Having learned from some of those kind and esteemed Friends who lately
presented to me a magnificent piece of Plate, in the name of the Free
Masons of Scotland, on the occasion of my approaching departure for
India, that I could not more suitably evince my sense of gratitude,
than by leaving amongst them, as a token of remembrance, some Memoir of
the Order of the Temple, with which they seem to consider me in some
measure identified, I have, in compliance with their wish, devoted the
very few hours of leisure I have had during the last month, to the
preparation of the following Sketch;--and feel confident, that from an
individual almost constantly engaged in arrangements for quitting his
Native Country, and labouring under the most painful feelings, at the
prospect of parting from his family, and those with whom he has lived
in cordial terms of friendship during the last three years, nothing
very finished or original will be expected; and I offer no apology,
therefore, when I state, that a considerable portion of the following
pages consists merely of an abridgement or reprint of an admirable, but
not sufficiently known article, written by Mr. Keightly, on the History
of the Templars, down to the period of the Persecution, in the Foreign
Quarterly Review for 1828, followed by some Extracts from Laurie's
Free-Masonry, and Mill's History of Chivalry.
The account of the present state of the Order has been taken from the
official "Manuel des Chevaliers de l'Ordre du Temple," published both
at Paris and Liverpool; as well as from information gathered either in
foreign books, such as the "Acta Latamorum," in which all the Statutes,
&c. were given to the Public in 1815, or from conversations with which
I have been honoured by His Royal Highness the DUKE of SUSSEX, Admiral
SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY SMITH, General WRIGHT, and other distinguished
Templars, at home and abroad. For much of the information recorded in
the Chapter on the Scottish Templars, I am under great obligations to
ADAM PATERSON, and WILLIAM PRINGLE, Esquires, both of whom furnished
me with valuable Manuscripts. The latter of these gentlemen is the
author of various papers on the Templars, in that valuable periodical,
the Free-Masons' Review, nor was it until I had failed to induce him
to give, in a continuous form, the result of his own researches on the
subject, that I myself ventured to enter upon the present Work.
In conclusion, I have to express my warmest acknowledgments to my
friend, W. A. LAURIE, Esquire, Secretary to the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, for many valuable notes and additions,--to whose taste and
exertions this little Volume owes its appearance before the Public, and
to whom personally I am indebted for many favours, which he would not
wish me to particularise.
UNITED SERVICE CLUB,
_Edinburgh, 28th May 1837_.
[Illustration: THE HOSPITALLERS.]
[Illustration: A HOSPITALLER.]
[Illustration]
CHAP. I.
The Hospitallers.
The natural desire to visit places which have been the scene of
memorable actions, or the abode of distinguished personages, had from
a very early period drawn pious pilgrims from the east and the west to
view those spots which had been hallowed by the presence of the Son
of God. The toils and the dangers of the journey were unheeded, when
set in comparison with the bliss of pouring forth prayer on Calvary,
and bathing in the waves of Jordan, whose waters had consecrated the
Saviour to his holy office. And, accordingly, we find that, so early
as the ninth century, there was in the valley of Jehoshaphat, near the
church of the Holy Virgin, an Hospital composed of twelve dwellings,
for pilgrims from the west, which possessed corn lands, vineyards,
and gardens, and an excellent library, established by the bounty of
Charlemagne.
In the eleventh century, when the apprehension of the approaching end
of the world, and appearance of Christ to judge mankind, had once
more fanned the flame of pious pilgrimage which had been previously
dying away, and men were hastening to the land where they expected
to meet their Lord and Judge, there was built within the walls of
Jerusalem an Hospital for the reception of Catholic pilgrims. This
hospital stood within a very short distance of the church of the
Holy Sepulchre, and, by the favour of the Egyptian Khalif, a church,
dedicated to the Virgin, and afterwards called St. Maria de Latina, was
erected close by it; there an abbot and several monks, who followed
the rule of St. Benedict, received and entertained the pilgrims who
arrived each year from the west, and furnished such of them as were
poor or had been plundered by the roving Bedouins, with the means of
paying the tax exacted by the unbelievers. Decorum not permitting the
reception of female pilgrims, the brethren established without their
walls a convent, dedicated to Mary Magdalene, where a pious sisterhood
entertained the pilgrims of their own sex. The number of the pilgrims
still continuing to increase, the abbot and his monks erected a new
_Hospitium_ near their church, which they placed under the patronage
of St. John, the Patriarch of Alexandria, named Eleemon, or the
Compassionate. This last Hospital had no independent revenues, but
derived its income from the bounty of the abbot of the monastery of the
Holy Virgin, and the alms of the pious.[1]
When, in 1099, Jerusalem was invested by the Crusaders, the Hospital
of St. John was presided over by Gerhard, a native of Provence, a man
of exemplary piety, and of a spirit of mild and universal benevolence,
rarely to be found in that age; for while the city was pressed by the
arms of the faithful, who sought for future glory by the extermination
of those whom they deemed the enemies of God on earth, not merely the
orthodox Catholic, but the schismatic Greek, and even the unbelieving
Moslem, shared without distinction the alms of the good director of the
Hospital of St. John. When the city was taken, the sick and wounded of
the Crusaders received all due care and attention from Gerhard and his
monks. The general favour they enjoyed with Godfrey de Bouillon and
the other pilgrims now emboldened them to separate themselves from the
monastery of St. Mary de Latina; and to pursue their labour of love
alone and independent, they drew up a rule for themselves, to which
they bound themselves to obedience in the presence of the patriarch,
and assumed as their distinguishing dress, a black mantle, with a
white cross of eight points on the left breast.[2] They still remained
obedient to the abbot of St. Maria de Latina, and according to the law
of the church, they paid tythes to the patriarch.
This continued while the brotherhood was poor; but riches soon began
to flow in upon them. Godfrey, whose very name suggests the ideas
of virtue and piety, pure, if not always well-directed, struck with
their simple and unassuming charity, bestowed on them his domain of
Monboire, in Brabant, with all its appurtenances. His brother and
successor, Baldwin, gave them a portion of the booty gained from the
infidels; several pious princes and nobles followed these examples, and
the Hospital of St. John soon saw itself in possession of extensive
estates, both in Europe[3] and Asia, which were managed by members
of the society named Preceptors. Pope Pascall II, in 1113, relieved
the Hospitallers from the burden of paying tythes to the patriarch of
Jerusalem--confirmed by his Bull all donations made and to be made to
them--and gave them authority to appoint a successor on the death of
Gerhard, without the interference of any other secular or spiritual
authority. The society now counted among its members many gallant
knights who had come to the Holy Land to fight in the cause of their
Saviour; and there, actuated by a spirit more accordant to his, had
flung aside their swords, and devoted themselves to the attendance
on the sick and poor among the brethren of St. John. One of the most
distinguished of these was Raymond Dupuy, a knight of Dauphiné, who,
on the death of the worthy Gerhard, was chosen to succeed him in his
office.
It was Raymond who organized the order of the Hospitallers, and
established the discipline of the order. His regulations afford a
specimen of the manners and modes of thinking of his time; and some
of them require to be noticed here, on account of their similarity
with those of the Templars, shortly to be mentioned. The usual monkish
duties of chastity and obedience were strictly enjoined; the brethren,
both lay and spiritual, were directed to wear at least a linen or
woollen shirt, but no expensive dress of any kind; above all, no furs;
when they went to collect alms, they were, for fear of temptation,
never to go alone, but always in parties of two or three; they were
not, however, to select their companions, but to take such as the
director should appoint them; wherever there was a house belonging to
their order, they were to turn in thither, and nowhere else, and to
take whatever was given them, and ask for nothing more; they were also
to carry their lights with them, and wherever they passed the night,
to set these burning before them, lest the enemy should bring on them
some deadly danger. When the brethren were in the church, or in a
private house, in the company of women, they were to take good heed to
themselves and avoid temptation; for the same reason, they were never
to suffer women to wash their head or feet, or to make their bed. If
a brother had fallen into carnal sin, and his offence was secret, a
silent penance was deemed sufficient; but if it had been public, and
he was fully convicted of it, he was on Sunday, after mass, when the
people were gone out of church, to be stript of his clothes, and there,
by the director himself, or such of the brethren as he appointed,
severely beaten with thongs or rods, and then expelled the order. Any
brother possessed of money or valuables, who concealed them from the
master, was severely punished, the money which he had secreted was hung
about the offender's neck, and he was scourged by one of the brethren,
in the presence of all those belonging to the house; he had then to do
penance for forty days, during which time, on Wednesdays and Fridays,
he had nothing but bread and water to support him. These regulations
were made by Raymond, in the year 1118; a circumstance to be attended
to, as some similar rules have been since made a ground of accusation
against the Templars.
It is uncertain whether Raymond had any ulterior design of making
the order of the Hospitallers a military one, but if such was his
intention, he was anticipated. The kingdom of Jerusalem, over which
Baldwin II. now ruled, had been in a very extraordinary state from the
date of its conquest. It lay between two enemies, the Egyptians on
the south, and the Turks on the north; and these Moslems, though of
opposite and hostile sects, agreed in hatred of the Christians, and a
desire to take Jerusalem--which was to them also the Holy City--out of
the hands of the western infidels; the independent Arabs of the desert
were also inimical to the Christians, and as fond of plunder as they
have been at all periods of their history. Hence, the Holy Land was
continually infested by predatory bands, who robbed and plundered all
who fell in their way; the pious pilgrim who disembarked at Joppa or
Acre, was fortunate if he reached the ultimate object of his journey
in safety; and when he had visited all the consecrated places within
the sacred walls, new perils awaited him on his way to bathe in the
purifying waters of the Jordan, or to pluck in the gardens of Jericho
the palm branch which he was to suspend in the church on his return.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE TEMPLARS.]
[Illustration]
"And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore,
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living, ever him ador'd;
Upon his shield the like was also scor'd,
For soveraine hope, which in his helpe he had.
Right, faithfull, true he was in deede and word:
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad."
[Illustration: JACQUES DE MOLAY. GRANDE MAITRE DE L'ORDRE DU TEMPLE.]
[Illustration]
CHAP. II.
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS.
It was in the year 1119, the twentieth of the Christian dominion in
Syria, that nine pious and valiant Knights, the greater part of whom
had been the companions of Godfrey de Bouillon, formed themselves into
an association, the object of which was to protect and defend Pilgrims
on their visits to the holy places. These Knights, of whom the two
chief were Hugo de Payens and Godfrey de St. Omer, vowed, in honour
of the _sweet Mother of God_, to unite Monkhood and Knighthood;[4]
their pious design met with the warm approbation of the King and the
Patriarch, and in the hands of the latter they made the three ordinary
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; and a fourth, of combating
without ceasing against the heathen, in defence of Pilgrims and of
the Holy Land; and bound themselves to live according to the rule of
the canons of St. Augustine, at Jerusalem. The King assigned them
for their abode a part of his palace, which stood close by where had
stood the Temple of the Lord. He and his barons contributed to their
support, and the abbot and canons of the Temple assigned them for the
keeping of their arms and magazines the street between it and the royal
palace, and hence they took the name of the soldiery of the Temple,
or Templars. When Fulk, Count of Anjou, in the year following the
formation of the society, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Order
was even then in such repute that he joined it as a married brother,
and on his return home remitted them annually thirty pounds of silver
to aid them in their pious labours, and his example was followed by
several other Christian princes.
For the first nine years after their institution, the Templars lived
in poverty and humility, and no new members joined their society,
which was eclipsed by that of St. John. Their clothing consisted of
such garments as were bestowed on them by the charity of the faithful,
and so rigorously were the gifts of pious princes applied by them to
their destination--the benefit of pilgrims and of the Holy Land in
general--that in consequence of their poverty, Hugo de Payens and
Godfrey de St. Omer had but one war-horse between them. When the Order
had arrived at wealth and splendour, its seal, representing two Knights
mounted on one charger, commemorated this original poverty of its pious
founders.
During the reign of Baldwin II. the kingdom was hard pressed by the
Turks of Damascus, Mossul, and the neighbouring states, and the king
had been a captive in their hands. On his liberation he sought every
means of strengthening his kingdom, and as the Templars had displayed
such eminent valour and devotion wherever they had been engaged, he
resolved to gain them all the influence and consideration in his power.
Accordingly he dispatched two of their members as his envoys to the
Holy See, to lay before the Pope the state of the Holy Land, and also
furnished them with a strong letter of recommendation to the celebrated
Bernard of Clairvaux, the nephew of one of the envoys. Bernard approved
highly of the object and institution of the Order. Hugo de Payens and
five other brethren soon arrived in the west, and appeared before the
fathers, who were assembled in council at Troyes, to whom Hugo detailed
the maxims and the deeds of the Templars. The fathers expressed their
approbation of all he said, the Order was pronounced good and useful,
and same additions, taken from that of the Benedictines, were made to
their rule. By the direction of Pope Honorius, the council appointed
them a white mantle as their peculiar dress, to which Pope Eugenius
some years afterwards added a red cross on the breast--the symbol of
martyrdom. Their banner was of the black and white stripe, called, in
old French, _Bauseant_ (which word became their war-cry,) and bore the
pious inscription, _Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tua da
gloriam_.[5] St. Bernard, if he did not himself draw up the rule of
Order, had at least a considerable participation in it; throughout his
life he cherished the Templars; he rarely wrote a letter to the Holy
Land, in which he did not praise them, and recommend them to the favour
and protection of the great.
Owing to the influence of Bernard, and the sincere piety and noble
qualities of its founders, the Order rapidly increased in wealth and
consequence. Many Knights assumed its habit, and with Hugo de Payens
travelled through France and England, to excite the Christians
to the sacred war. With Henry I. of England they met the highest
consideration. Fulk, of Anjou, re-united himself to Hugo de Payens, and
on the invitation of King Baldwin, prepared, though advanced in years,
to set out for Palestine, to espouse the daughter of the king, and
succeed him on his throne. Gifts in abundance flowed in on the Order,
large possessions were bestowed on it in all countries of the west, and
Hugo de Payens, now its Grand Master, returned to the Holy Land in the
year 1129, at the head of three hundred Knights Templars of the noblest
families in Europe, ready to take the field against the Infidels.
The Templars soon became, in fact, the most distinguished of the
Christian warriors. By a rule of their Order, no brother could be
redeemed for a higher ransom than a girdle or a knife, or some such
trifle;[6] captivity was therefore equivalent to death, and they
always fought with Spartan desperation. The Bauseant was always in the
thick of the battle; the revenue they enjoyed enabled them to draw to
their standard valiant secular knights and stout and hardy footmen.
The chivalry of St. John vied with them, it is true, in prowess and
valour, but they do not occupy the same space in the History of the
Crusades. The Templars having been from the outset solely devoted to
arms,--the warm interest which St. Bernard, whose influence was so
great, took in their welfare,--and the circumstance that the fourth
King of Jerusalem was a member of their body,--all combined to throw
a splendour about them which the Knights of St. John could not claim,
but which also gave occasion to their more speedy corruption, and
augmented the number of their enemies. Most writers, however, of the
twelfth century speak respectfully of the Knights of the Temple, and
those unsparing satirists, the Troubadours, never mention them but with
honour. The history of the Order, as far as we can recollect, records
only one instance of a Templar abjuring his faith, and that was an
English Knight, Robert of Saint Albans, who deserted to Saladin, who
gave him his sister in marriage on his becoming a Moslem; and in 1185,
the ex-red-cross Knight led a Saracen army to the neighbourhood of
Jerusalem, wasting and destroying the country with fire and sword.[7]
By the Bull, _Omne datum optimum_, granted by Pope Alexander III.
in 1162, the Order of the Templars acquired great importance, and
from this time forth, it may be regarded as totally independent,
acknowledging no authority but that--before which the haughtiest
monarchs bowed--of the supreme pontiff, who protected and favoured
them as his champions against all who might dispute his will. It is
therefore of importance to look at its constitution, and what were its
revenues and possessions.
The Order of the Templars consisted of three distinct _classes_,
not _degrees_--knights, chaplains, and service-brethren, to which
may be added those who were attached to the Order under the name of
_affiliated_, _donates_, and _oblates_.[8] The strength and flower of
the Order were the Knights; all its dignities and superior offices
belonged to them. The candidate for admission among the Knights of the
Temple was required to produce proof of his being the lawful issue
of a Knight, or of one qualified to receive that distinction; and he
must himself have already received the honour-conferring blow from a
Secular Knight, for the Order was Spiritual, and, as members, could
not deign to accept honour from a layman. The only exception was in
the case of a bishop, who might draw his sword among the brethren of
the Temple, without having been a secular Knight. The aspirant must
moreover be free from debt, and, on admission, pay a considerable sum
into the hands of the society.[9] The most unlimited obedience to the
commands of his superiors in the house and in the field of battle;
the total abnegation of all interests but those of the society, (for
the Templar could hold no property, could receive no private letter);
the most unflinching valour, (for so long as a Christian banner waved
in the field, the Templar, however severely wounded, must not abandon
it),--were the duties of the Knights of the Temple. If he fled,
disgrace and punishment awaited him; if he surrendered, he had to
end his life amid the torments inflicted by the enraged Moslems, or
to languish in perpetual captivity, for the Order never redeemed its
members. Hence, then, the Templar was valiant as the fabled heroes of
romance; hence prodigies of prowess, such as almost surpass belief, so
frequently illustrate the name of the soldiers of the Temple. Every
motive that could stimulate to deeds of renown combined to actuate the
soldier-monk A Knight, he obeyed the call of honour and emulation; a
Monk, (but the Templar was not, as some erroneously fancy, a Priest),
he was, according to the ideas of the times, engaged in the service
most acceptable to God.
The mode of reception into the Order corresponded with the dignity and
importance of the character of a Knight Templar. Though a noviciate was
enjoined by the original canons, in practice it was dispensed with;
the candidate was, after all due inquiry had been made, received in
a chapter assembled in the chapel of the Order. All strangers, even
the relatives of the aspirant, were excluded. The preceptor (usually
one of the priors) opened the business with an address to those
present, calling on them to declare if they knew of any just cause and
impediment to the aspirant, whom the majority had agreed to receive,
becoming a member of their body.[10] If all were silent, the candidate
was led into an adjacent chamber, whither two or three of the Knights
came to him, and setting before him the rigour and strictness of the
Order, inquired if he still persisted in his desire to enter it. If he
did persist, they inquired if he was married or betrothed; had made a
vow in any other Order; if he owed more than he could pay; if he was
of sound body, without any secret infirmity, and free? If his answers
proved satisfactory, they left him and returned to the chapter, and
the preceptor again asked if any one had anything to say against his
being received. If all were silent, he asked if they were willing to
admit him. On their assenting, the candidate was led in by the Knights
who had questioned him, and who now instructed him in the mode of
asking admission. He advanced, kneeling, with folded hands, before
the preceptor, and said, "Sir, I am come before God, and before you
and the brethren; and I pray and beseech you, for the sake of God and
our sweet lady, to receive me into your society and the good works
of the Order, as one who, all his life long, will be the servant and
slave of the Order." The preceptor then questioned him, if he had well
considered all the toils and difficulties which awaited him in the
Order, adjured him on the Holy Evangelists to speak the truth, then put
to him the questions already asked by the Knights, farther inquiring
if he was a Knight, the son of a Knight and a gentlewoman, and if he
was a priest. He then asked if he would promise to God and Mary, our
dear lady, obedience, as long as he lived, to the Master of the Temple,
and the prior who should be set over him; chastity of his body;[11]
compliance with the laudable manners and customs of the Order then in
force, and such as the Master and Knights might hereafter add; fight
for and defend, with all his might, the holy land of Jerusalem; never
quit the Order but with consent of the Master and the Chapter; never
see a Christian unjustly deprived of his inheritance, or be aiding in
such deed. The preceptor then said--"In the name, then, of God and of
Mary, our dear lady, and in the name of St. Peter of Rome, and of our
father the Pope, and in the name of all the brethren of the Temple,
we receive you to all the good works of the Order, which have been
performed from the beginning, and will be performed to the end, you,
your father, your mother, and all those of your family whom you let
participate therein. So you, in like manner, receive us to all the
good works which you have performed and will perform. We assure you of
bread and water, the poor clothing of the Order, and labour and toil
enow." The preceptor then took the white mantle, with its ruddy cross,
placed it about his neck, and bound it fast. The chaplain repeated the
one hundred and thirty-second Psalm, _Ecce quam bonum_, and the prayer
of the Holy Spirit, _Deus qui corda fidelium_, each brother said a
_Pater_, the preceptor kissed the new brother, the chaplain did the
same. The Templar then placed himself at the feet of the preceptor, and
was by him exhorted to peace and charity with his brother Christians;
to chastity, obedience, humility, and piety; and thus the ceremony
ended.
At the head of the Order stood the Grand Master, who, like the General
of the Jesuits in modern times, was independent of all authority but
that of the sovereign pontiff. The residence of the Grand Master was
the city of Jerusalem; when the city was lost, he fixed his seat at
Antioch, next at Acre, then at the castle of the Pilgrims,[12] between
Caiphas and Cæsarea, and finally in Cyprus, for his duty required
him to be always in the Holy Land. The Grand Master never resided in
Europe until the time of Jacques de Molay. The power of the Grand
Master was considerable, though he was very much controuled by the
chapter, without whose consent he could not dispose of any of the
higher offices, or undertake any thing of importance. He could not, for
instance, take money out of the treasury, without the consent of the
prior of Jerusalem; he could neither make war or truce, or alter laws,
but with the approbation of the chapter. But the Grand Master had the
right of bestowing the small commands, the governments of houses of
the Order, and of selecting the brethren who should form the chapter,
which power was again controuled by there being always assigned him two
brethren as assistants, who, with the Seneschal, were to form a part of
every chapter. The Order was aristocratic rather than monarchic; the
Grand Master was like a Doge of Venice, and his real power chiefly
depended on his personal qualities; he had, however, many distinctions;
the greater part of the executive power was in his hands--in war he
was the commander-in-chief; he had, as vicar-general of the Pope,
episcopal jurisdiction over the clergy of the Order; he ranked with
princes, and his establishment corresponded thereto; he had for his
service four horses, a chaplain, two secretaries, a squire of noble
birth, a farrier, a Turcopole and cook, with footmen, and a Turcoman
for a guide, who was usually fastened by a cord to prevent his escape.
When the Grand Master died, his funeral was celebrated with great
solemnity by the light of torches and wax tapers,--an honour bestowed
by the Order on no other of its Members. All the Knights and Prelates
were invited to assist. Each Brother who was present was to repeat two
hundred _Pater Nosters_ within the space of seven days, for the repose
of the soul of the deceased; and one hundred poor persons were fed at
home, at the expense of the Order, with the same design.[13]
Each province of the Order had a Grand Prior, who represented in it the
Grand Master; each house had its Prior at its head, who commanded its
Knights in war, and presided over its chapters in peace. In England,
the Grand Prior sat in Parliament as a Peer of the Realm. To complete
this sketch of the Order, we may remark, that except Scandinavia, (for
they had some possessions in Hungary,) there was not a country in
Europe in which the lavish piety of princes and nobles had not bestowed
on the Templars a considerable portion of the wealth of the state;
for in every province the Order had its churches and chapels--the
number of which was in the year 1240, as great as 1050--villages,
farm-houses, mills, corn-lands, pastures, woods, rights of venison,
and fisheries.[14] The revenues of the Templars in England in 1185, as
given by Dugdale, will afford some idea of their wealth. The entire
annual income of the Order has been estimated at not less than six
millions sterling.
It cannot be denied, that this enormous wealth, together with the
luxury and other evils which it engendered, provoked the hatred of
the secular clergy and laity, and paved the way to the spoliation of
the Order. In 1252, the pious pope-ridden Henry III. of England said,
that the prelates and clergy in general, but especially the Templars
and Hospitallers, had so many liberties and privileges, that their
excessive wealth made them mad with pride; he added, that what had
been bestowed imprudently, ought to be prudently resumed, and declared
his intention of revoking the inconsiderate grants of himself and his
predecessors. The Grand Prior of the Templars replied, "What sayest
thou, my Lord the King? Far be it that so discourteous and absurd a
word should be uttered by thy mouth. So long as thou observest justice,
thou mayest be a king, and as soon as thou infringest it, thou wilt
cease to be a king." A bold expression certainly, but the Prior knew
his man well, and he would hardly have spoken so to the son of Henry.
The anecdote of Richard I. bestowing his daughter Pride in marriage on
the Templars, is well known; and numerous traits of their haughtiness,
avarice, luxury, and other of the current vices, may be found in the
writers of the thirteenth century; but till the final attack was made,
no worse charge was brought against them, unless such is implied in a
bull of Pope Clement IV. in 1265, which is, however, easily capable
of a milder interpretation. Mr. Raynouard asserts, too, that the
proverbial expression _bibere Templariter_ is used by no writer of the
thirteenth century. In this he is preceded by Baluze and Roquefort, who
maintain, that, like _bibere Papaliter_, it only signified to live in
abundance and comfort.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: PERSECUTION OF THE TEMPLARS.]
[Illustration]
CHAP. III.
The Persecution of the Templars.
When Acre fell in 1292, the Templars, having lost all their possessions
and a great number of their members in the Holy Land, retired with
the other Christians to Cyprus. Having probably seen the folly of all
hope of recovering the Holy Land, they grew indifferent about it; few
members joined them from Europe, and it is more than probable that they
meditated a removal of the chief seat of the Order to France.[15] The
Hospitallers, on the other hand, with more prudence, as events showed,
resolved to continue the war against the infidels, and they attacked
and conquered Rhodes; while the Teutonic knights transferred the sphere
of their pious warfare to Prussia against its heathen inhabitants.
Thus, while the Templars were falling under the reproach of being
luxurious Knights, their rivals rose in consideration, and there was an
active and inveterate enemy ready to take advantage of their ill-repute.
Philip the Fair, a tyrannical and rapacious prince, was at that time
on the throne of France. His darling object was to set the power of
the monarchy above that of the church. In his celebrated controversy
with Pope Boniface, the Templars had been on the side of the Holy
See. Philip, whose animosity pursued Boniface even beyond the grave,
wished to be revenged on all who had taken his side; moreover, the
immense wealth of the Templars, which he reckoned on making his own if
he could destroy them, strongly attracted the king, who had already
tasted of the sweets of the spoliation of the Lombards and the Jews;
and he probably, also, feared the obstacle to the perfect establishment
of despotism which might be offered by a numerous, noble, and wealthy
society, such as the Templars formed. Boniface's successor, Clement
V. was the creature of Philip, to whom he owed his dignity, and at
his accession had bound himself to the performance of six articles
in favour of Philip, one of which was not expressed. It was probably
inserted without any definite object, and intended to serve the
interest of the French monarch on any occasion which might present
itself.
[Illustration: LA TOUR DU TEMPLE À PARIS]
It had been the object of Pope Boniface to form the three Military
Orders into one, and he had summoned them to Rome for that purpose, but
his death prevented it. Clement, on this, June 6, 1306, addressed the
Grand Masters of the Templars and the Hospitallers, inviting them to
come to consult with him about the best mode of supporting the Kings of
Armenia and Cyprus. He desired them to come as secretly as possible,
and with a very small train, as they would find abundance of their
Knights this side the sea; and he directed them to provide for the
defence of Limisso in Cyprus during their short absence. Fortunately
perhaps for himself and his Order, the Master of the Hospitallers was
then engaged in the conquest of Rhodes, but Jacques de Molay,[16] the
Master of the Templars, immediately prepared to obey the mandate of the
Pope, and he left Cyprus with a train of 60 Knights, and a treasure of
150,000 florins of gold, and a great quantity of silver money, the
whole requiring twelve horses to carry it.[17] He proceeded to Paris,
where he was received with the greatest honours by the King, and he
deposited his treasure in the Temple of that city. It is, as we have
said, not impossible that it was the intention of Molay to transfer
the chief seat of the Order thither, and that he had, therefore,
brought with him its treasure and the greater part of the members of
the chapter; and indeed it is difficult to say how early the project
of attacking the Templars entered into the minds of Philip and his
obsequious lawyers, or whether he originally aimed at more than
mulcting them under the pretext of reformation: and farther, whether
the first informers against them were suborned or not. The records
leave a considerable degree of obscurity on the whole matter. All we
can learn is, that a man named Squin de Flexian, who had been a Prior
of the Templars, and had been expelled the Order for heresy and various
vices, was lying in prison at Paris or Toulouse, it is uncertain which.
In the prison with him was a Florentine named Noffo Dei, "a man," says
Villani, "full of all iniquity." These two began to plan how they
might extricate themselves from the confinement to which they seemed
perpetually doomed. The example of the process against the memory of
Pope Boniface, shewed them that no lie was too gross or absurd not to
obtain ready credence, and they fixed on the Templars as the objects
of their charges. Squin told the governor of the prison that he had a
communication to make to the King, which would be of more value to him
than if he had gained a kingdom, but that he would only tell it to the
King in person. He was brought to Philip, who promised him his life,
and he made his confession, on which the King immediately arrested some
of the Templars, who are said to have confirmed the truth of Squin's
assertions. Shortly afterwards, it is said, similar discoveries were
made to the Pope by his chamberlain, Cardinal Cantilupo, who had been
in connexion with the Templars from his eleventh year.
Squin Flexian declared, 1. That every member on admission into the
Order swore on all occasions to defend its interests right or wrong;
2. That the heads of the Order were in secret confederacy with the
Saracens, had more of Mahommedan unbelief than of Christian faith, as
was proved by the mode of reception into the Order, when the novice was
made to spit and trample on the crucifix, and blaspheme the faith of
Christ; 3. That the superiors were sacrilegious, cruel, and heretical
murderers; for if any novice, disgusted with its profligacy, wished to
quit the Order, they secretly murdered him, and buried him by night;
so, also, when women were pregnant by them, they taught them how to
produce abortion, or secretly put the infants to death; 4. The Templars
were addicted to the error of the Fraticelli, and, like them, despised
the authority of the Pope and the Church; 5. That the superiors were
addicted to the practice of horrible crimes, and if any one opposed
them, they were condemned by the Master to perpetual imprisonment; 6.
That their houses were the abode of every vice and iniquity; 7. That
they endeavoured to put the Holy Land into the hands of the Saracens,
whom they favoured more than the Christians. Three other articles of
less importance completed this first body of charges. It is remarkable,
that we do not find among them those which made such a figure in the
subsequent examinations; namely, the devil appearing among them in
the shape of a cat; their idolatrous worship of an image with one or
three heads, or a skull covered with human skin, with carbuncles for
eyes, before which they burned the bodies of their dead brethren, and
then mingled the ashes with their drink, thereby thinking to gain more
courage; and, finally, their smearing this idol with human fat.[18]
It was unfortunate for the Templars that their chapters were held in
secret,[19] and by night, for an opportunity was thereby afforded
to their enemies of laying whatever secret enormities they pleased
to their charge, to refute which, by the production of indifferent
witnesses, was consequently out of their power. Philip having now all
things prepared, sent, like his descendant Charles IX. previous to
the St. Bartholomew massacre, secret orders to all his governors to
arm themselves on the 12th of October, and on the following night,
but not sooner, on pain of death, to open the king's letter, and act
according to it. On Friday the 13th of October, all the Templars
throughout France were simultaneously arrested at break of day. The
unhappy Knights were thrown into cold cheerless dungeons, (for they
were arrested, we should remember, at the commencement of winter), had
barely the necessaries of life, were deprived of the habit of their
Order, and of the rites and comforts of the church; were exposed to
every species of torture then in use, were shown a real or pretended
letter of the Grand Master, in which he confessed several of the
charges, and exhorted them to do the same; and finally, were promised
life and liberty, if they freely acknowledged the guilt of the Order.
Can we then be surprised that the spirit of many a Knight was broken,
that any hope of escape from misery was eagerly caught at, and that
falsehoods, the most improbable, were declared to be true? And it is
remarkable that the most improbable charges are those which were most
frequently acknowledged, so just is the observation, that men will
more readily in such circumstances acknowledge what is false than what
is true; for the false they know can be afterwards refuted by its own
absurdity, whereas truth is permanent.
Of the Templars in England 228 were examined;[20] the Dominican,
Carmelite, Minorite, and Augustinian friars brought abundance of
hearsay evidence against them, but nothing of any importance was
proved; in Castile and Leon it was the same; in Aragon the Knights
bravely endured the torture, and maintained their innocence; in
Germany all the lay witnesses testified in their favour; in Italy
their enemies were more successful, as the influence of the Pope was
there considerable, yet in Lombardy the Bishops acquitted the Knights.
Charles of Anjou, the cousin of Philip, and the foe of the Templars,
who had sided with Frederick against him, could not fail, it may be
supposed, in getting some evidences of their guilt in Sicily, Naples,
and Provence. It is not undeserving of attention, that one of these
witnesses, who had been received into the Order in Catalonia, (where
all who were examined had declared the innocence of the Order), said he
had been received there in the usual impious and indecent manner, and
mentioned the appearance and the worship of the cat in the chapter!!
Such is the value of rack-extorted testimony! In fine, in every country
out of the sphere of the immediate influence of Clement, Philip, and
Charles, the general innocence of the Order was acknowledged. In
Portugal they were preserved under the altered appellation of the
Knights of Christ,--a change which was effected by the friendly policy
of Prince Denys, who in 1218, secured for them the sanction of the
successor of Clement.[21]
Throughout the entire process against the Templars, from October 1307
to May 1312, the most determined design of the King and his ministers
to destroy the Order meets us at every step; Philip would have blood
to justify robbery; several Templars had already expired on the rack,
perished from the rigour of their imprisonment, or died by their own
hands; but on the 12th May 1310, fifty-four Templars who had confessed,
but afterwards retracted, were by his order committed to the flames,
in Paris, as relapsed heretics. They endured with heroic constancy the
most cruel tortures, asserting with their latest breath the innocence
of the Order, though offered life if they would confess, and implored
to do so by their friends and relatives. Similar executions took place
in other towns. The Pope soon went heart and hand with Philip. In vain
did the bishops assembled at Vienne propose to hear those members who
came forward as the defenders of the Order. A Bull of the Pope was
fulminated against the Order,[22] and transferred its possessions
to the Knights of St. John, who, however, had to pay such enormous
fines to the King and Pope before they could enter on them, as almost
ruined them; so that if Philip did not succeed to the utmost of his
anticipations, he had little reason to complain of his share.[23] The
members of the society of the Templars were permitted to enter that of
the Hospitallers,--a strange indulgence for those that had spitten on
the cross, and practised horrible vices.
But the atrocious scene was yet to come which was to complete the ruin
of the Templars, and satiate the vengeance of their enemies. Their
Grand Master, Molay, and three other dignitaries of the Order, still
survived: And, though they had made the most submissive acknowledgments
to their unrelenting persecutors, yet the influence which they had over
the minds of the vulgar, and their connection with many of the Princes
of Europe, rendered them formidable and dangerous to their oppressors.
By the exertion of that influence, they might restore union to their
dismembered party, and inspire them with courage to revenge the murder
of their companions;[24] or, by adopting a more cautious method, they
might repel, by uncontrovertible proofs, the charges for which they
suffered; and, by interesting all men in their behalf, they might
expose Philip to the attacks of his own subjects, and to the hatred and
contempt of Europe. Aware of the dangers to which his character and
person would be exposed by pardoning the surviving Templars, the French
Monarch commanded the Grand Master and his Brethren to be led out to
a scaffold, erected for the purpose, and there to confess before the
public, the enormities of which their Order had been guilty, and the
justice of the punishment which had been inflicted on their brethren.
If they adhered to their former confession, a full pardon was promised
to them; but if they should persist in maintaining their innocence,
they were threatened with destruction on a pile of wood, which the
executioners had erected in their view, to awe them into compliance.
While the multitude were standing around in awful expectation, ready,
from the words of the prisoners, to justify or condemn their King,
the venerable Molay, with a cheerful and undaunted countenance,
advanced, in chains, to the edge of the scaffold; and, with a firm and
impressive tone, thus addressed the spectators.--"It is but just, that
in this terrible day, and in the last moments of my life, I lay open
the iniquity of falsehood, and make truth to triumph. I declare then,
in the face of heaven and earth, and I confess, though to my eternal
shame and confusion, that I have committed the greatest of crimes; but
it has been only in acknowledging those that have been charged with
so much virulence upon an Order, which truth obliges me to pronounce
innocent. I made the first declaration they required of me, only to
suspend the excessive tortures of the rack, and mollify those that made
me endure them. I am sensible what torments they prepare for those
that have courage to revoke such a confession. But the horrible sight
which they present to my eyes, is not capable of making me confirm one
lie by another. On a condition so infamous as that, I freely renounce
life, which is already but too odious to me. For what would it avail
me to prolong a few miserable days, when I must owe them only to the
blackest of calumnies."[25] In consequence of this manly revocation,
the Grand Master and his companions were hurried into the flames, where
they retained that contempt for death which they had exhibited on
former occasions. This mournful scene extorted tears from the lowest
of the vulgar.[26] Four valiant Knights, whose charity and valour
had procured them the gratitude and applause of mankind, suffering,
without fear, the most cruel and ignominious death, was, indeed, a
spectacle well calculated to excite emotions of pity in the hardest
hearts. Humanity shudders at the recital of the horrid deed; and if the
voice of impartial posterity has not, with one accord, pronounced the
unqualified acquittal of the Templars, it has branded with the mark of
eternal infamy the conduct of their accusers and judges.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: CONTINUATION OF THE ORDER.]
[Illustration]
CHAP. IV.
The Continuation of the Order.
But the persecution of the Templars in the fourteenth century does
not close the history of the Order; for, though the Knights were
spoliated, the Order was not annihilated. In truth, the cavaliers were
not guilty,--the brother hood was not suppressed,--and, startling as
is the assertion, there has been a succession of Knights Templars from
the twelfth century down even to these days; the chain of transmission
is perfect in all its links. Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master at
the time of the persecution, anticipating his own martyrdom, appointed
as his successor, in power and dignity, Johannes Marcus Larmenius
of Jerusalem, and from that time to the present there has been a
regular and uninterrupted line of Grand Masters. The charter[27] by
which the supreme authority has been transmitted, is judicial and
conclusive evidence of the Order's continued existence. The charter of
transmission, with the signatures of the various chiefs of the Temple,
is still preserved at Paris, with the ancient statutes of the Order,
the rituals, the records, the seals, the standards, and other memorials
of the early Templars.
The brotherhood has been headed by the bravest cavaliers of France,
by men who, jealous of the dignities of Knighthood, would admit no
corruption, no base copies of the orders of chivalry, and who thought
that the shield of their nobility was enriched by the impress of the
Templars' red cross. Bertrand du Guesclin was the Grand Master from
1357 till his death in 1380, and he was the only French commander who
prevailed over the chivalry of our Edward III. From 1478 to 1497, we
may mark Robert Lenoncourt, a cavalier of one of the most ancient and
valiant families of Lorraine. Phillippe Chabot, a renowned captain in
the reign of Francis I., wielded the staff of power from 1516 to
1543. The illustrious family of Montmorency appear as Knights Templars,
and Henry, the first Duke, was the chief of the Order from the year
1574 to 1614. At the close of the seventeenth century, the Grand Master
was James Henry de Duras, a marshal of France, the nephew of Turenne,
and one of the most skilful soldiers of Louis XIV. The Grand Masters
from 1724 to 1776 were three princes of the royal Bourbon family. The
names and years of power of these royal personages who acknowledged
the dignity of the Order of the Temple, were Louis Augustus Bourbon,
Duke of Maine, 1724-1737,--Louis Henry Bourbon Conde, 1737-1741,--and
Louis Francis Bourbon Conty, 1741-1746. The successor of these princes
in the Grand Mastership of the Temple was Louis Hercules Timoleon,
Duke de Cosse Brissac, the descendant of an ancient family long
celebrated in French history for its loyalty and gallant bearing. He
accepted the office in 1776, and sustained it till he died in the
cause of royalty at the beginning of the French Revolution. The Order
has now at its head Sir William Sidney Smith, of chivalric renown,
who became Regent upon the death of the late Grand Master, Bernard
Raymond Fabré Palaprat. The high and heroic character of Sir Sidney
Smith,[28]--whose deeds of arms at St. Jean d'Acre, rivalling those of
the Royal Crusader, Richard I, obtained for him by Eastern Nations the
appellation of the modern "Cœur de Lion,"--specially pointed him out as
the most worthy of Christian Knights to fill this eminent station. He
who with such noble philanthropy founded and presided over the Society
of Knights Liberators of the White Slaves in Africa, cannot but shed
additional lustre on the Soldiery of the Temple, whose professed object
originally was, and yet is, the protection of defenceless pilgrims, and
the rescuing of Christians from Infidel bondage. Under such a Chief the
Order must prosper, and there are now Colleges or Establishments in
England and in many of the principal Cities of Europe.
[Illustration: BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN,
_From a Wood-cut in a rare gothic folio, printed at Lyons, 1490,
preserved in the Bibliothèque Royale, Paris; and called the "Chronique
de Bertrand du Guesclin."_]
[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH. _Engraved by W. Greatbatch
from a picture by F. Opie R.A._]
Thus the very ancient and sovereign Order of the Temple is in full
and chivalric existence, like those Orders of Knighthood which were
either formed in imitation of it, or had their origin in the same noble
principles of chivalry. It has mourned as well as flourished, but
there is in its nature and constitution a principle of vitality which
has carried it through all the storms of fate; its continuance, by
representatives as well as by title, is as indisputable a fact as the
existence of any other chivalric fraternity. The Templars of these days
claim no titular rank, yet their station is so far identified with that
of the other Orders of Knighthood, that they assert equal purity of
descent from the same bright source of chivalry; nor is it possible to
impugn the legitimate claims to honourable estimation, which the modern
brethren of the Temple derive from the antiquity and pristine lustre of
their Order, without at the same time shaking to its centre the whole
venerable fabric of knightly honour.
After this short account of the continuation of the Order, which
we have extracted from Mill's Chivalry, it may be interesting to
describe the present nature and objects of the Institution; and we
shall accordingly make a brief abstract of the statutes established
by the Convent-General held at Versailles in 1705, under the Grand
Mastership of the Regent Duke of Orleans, and by succeeding General
Convocations, so far as they relate to these subjects. The Order of the
Fellow Soldiers of the Temple consists of two distinct classes, termed
a Superior and Inferior Militia; the former comprising all Knights
consecrated according to rites, rules, and usages, with their Esquires;
and the latter, the humbler brethren or persons admitted _propter
artem_, and the candidates, or as they are designated, the _postulants_
for the honours of Chivalry. Except as a serving brother,[29] no one
is eligible even to the lower grade, who is not of distinguished
rank in society, which in Great Britain is understood to imply that
station in life which would entitle a gentleman to attend the Court
of his Sovereign. The Candidate must moreover be strongly recommended
by Sponsors as a Christian of liberal education, eminent for virtue,
morals, and good breeding, and in no case is a scrutiny into these
qualifications dispensed with, unless the aspirant be a Knight of
Christ, a Teutonic Knight, or the descendant of a Knight Templar.
Should he be ambitious of the rank of Novice Esquire, which usually
precedes Knighthood, he is farther called on to produce proofs of
nobility in the fourth generation; and a deficiency in this requisite
can only be supplied by a formal decree of the Grand Master, conferring
on him the nobility necessary for his reception. Considerable fees
are paid by all entrants; and members, on being promoted to the
equestrian honours of the Order, are expected to make an oblation to
the Treasury, the amount of which cannot be less than four drams of
gold,[30] but generally very far exceeds that sum. Before receiving the
vow of profession, which is still administered to all Chevaliers,[31]
the Candidate makes a solemn declaration either that he does not
belong to the Order of Malta,[32] or that he abjures the spirit of
rival hostility which actuated the Knights of St. John in former days
against the Templars. These preliminaries being arranged, his petition
is finally decided on, either in a Conventual house, or by the special
legate of the Grand Master, in whose name only his reception can be
proclaimed, and once armed a Knight, and consecrated a Chevalier of the
Temple, he cannot on any pretence whatever renounce the Order.[33]
At the head of the Hierarchy of the Order, ranks the Convent-General,
or assembly of the Knights, but the executive power is vested in the
Grand Master, whose authority is almost unbounded. He is elected
for life from among the Knights, and it is declared impious to
substitute a successor to him unless he be deceased, or shall have
voluntarily abdicated; he may even nominate his successor by testament
or otherwise to the Convent-General. He can create new houses and
dignities on the Order, cancelling those already constituted, remit
penalties, and confer all benefices and offices, the collation to
which is not specially provided for in the statutes. He confirms all
Diplomas of profession and patents of appointment, and may send legates
possessing powers delegated by himself to different countries. His
interpretation of the laws is valid, even against a statute of the
Convent-General, and he alone has the power of proposing alterations in
the rules to that assembly.
Next in honour to the Grand Master, unless he has publicly appointed a
delegate or successor, are his four Deputes, or _Vicarii Magistrales_,
who are nominated by himself, and removable at his pleasure. After
these follow the Members of the Grand Council, which consists of the
Supreme Preceptor, and eight Grand Preceptors, the Primate of the
Order, and his four Coadjutors General, with all the Grand Priors,
Ministers, and other principal dignitaries that may be present at the
Magisterial City. Each nation of the Order is presided over by its
Grand Prior, appointed for life, whose language comprises the various
subordinate divisions of Bailiwicks or Provinces; Commanderies;
Convents of Knights and Noviciate Esquires; Abbeys of Ladies and
Canonesses; Chapters of Postulants, and Conclaves of Initiation. Except
in special cases, no Chevalier is eligible for a Commandery before
the expiration of two years from his having obtained the honours of
knighthood, and in like manner no Commander can be appointed a Bailli,
nor any Bailli a Grand Prior, before the same period has intervened.
In order that the objects of the Institution may be distinctly
understood, we shall now proceed to translate a decree by the present
Grand Master, bearing date the 4th September 1826, in explanation of
the Vow of Profession which has been already referred to, observing, at
the same time, that the Order of the Temple, being exclusively devoted
to the Christian religion, cannot be considered in the slightest degree
connected with Free Masonry, which, it is well known, welcomes equally
to its bosom the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahommedan,
requiring from each only a belief in a Divine Being, with a just sense
of moral rectitude and conscientious obligation.
The decree alluded to states, that as the Vow contains many
_dispositions_ which, misconstructed, might appear incompatible with
the advance of knowledge and manners of the age, it is declared that
Candidates sign it under the following interpretation:--
_1st_, That by the Vow of Poverty, the Order does not mean to submit
the Chevaliers to an absolute poverty, but to remind them that they
ought always to be ready to share their fortune with the unfortunate,
and to sacrifice it for the wants of the Order.
_2d_, That the vow of chastity, and of abhorring lewdness, is the
solemn engagement of fulfilling the obligation that society imposes on
all men to labour to overcome their vicious propensities, in order not
to outrage either decency or morality.
_3d_, That the obedience due to the Grand Master, and to the
dignitaries of the Order, does not exclude the duty imposed on every
chevalier of conforming himself, as a man, to natural right, and of
obeying, as a citizen, the government of his country.
_4th_, Lastly, That the Templars are not actuated by the desire of
material conquests,--that their principal aim is not to recover the
dominions of which the Order was despoiled, or the earth which received
the body of Jesus the Christ, but to reconquer to the doctrine for
which was precipitated into the tomb that divine preceptor of men,--the
empire which it always had over the people when it was revealed to them
in all its purity,--in a word, that the Templars are not ambitious of
subduing the physical universe to their domination, but the nations
that cover it to Christian morality.
It has frequently been asserted, that the Templars have always
professed a religion peculiar to themselves, and much at variance with
almost every religious creed at present in existence, but on this
subject it is only necessary to say here, that although they possess
many religious documents of an extraordinary nature, and, amongst
others, a very ancient Greek manuscript of _Evangile_ and the Epistle
of St. John, differing from the version contained in the vulgate, yet
no chevalier is obliged to subscribe to them unless he be a candidate
for certain offices in the Order. This subject is fully explained in
a work lately published at Paris, "Recherches Historiques sur les
Templiers et sur leurs Croyances Religieuses par J. Plivard, officier
superieur d'Artillerie;" and, for the present, we are unwilling to
enter upon it, not having as yet received the _proces verbal_ of the
Convent-General of the Order, lately assembled at Paris, to which
the following question, under the authority of the Grand Master, was
submitted:--"L'ordre etant Cosmopolite, et d'après le veu de profession
dans la Chevalerie, est il convenable de laisser subsister dans les
statuts des dispositions par lesquelles certains officiers de l'Ordre
ne pouvent être choisis que parmis les Chevaliers professant la
religion Johannite?"
The habit of the Order[34] consists, as formerly, of the white tunic
and mantle, with the red cross on the left breast; a white cap with
a red feather; a white silk sash fringed with red; white pantaloons,
buff-boots, gold spurs and an equestrian sword with a silver hilt. The
dress differs somewhat according to the rank of the individual, but
every Chevalier is bound to wear the gold ring of profession, with the
Cross of the Order, and the letters, P. D. E. P.[35] together with
his own name, and the date of his reception engraven thereon. Each
Knight also is decorated with the conventual cross or jewel of the
Order, which consists of a gold cross of eight points enamelled white,
surmounted by the Grand Master's crown, and bearing on its centre a
cross pattee enamelled gules.
In concluding these observations, we regret to say that the Order
of the Temple, notwithstanding its undeniable claims to honourable
distinction, has never enjoyed much consideration amongst our
countrymen. Its exclusive character, together with the great expense
and difficulty which attend admission into its ranks, no Englishman
being legitimately eligible, unless formally recommended by the
illustrious Grand Prior of England, has raised against it a host of
enemies. Hence, calumnies have been propagated against it, and an
institution perfectly unconnected with politics, and actuated by the
purest principles of Christian Philanthropy,[36] has been represented
as engendering false notions of Government and wild infidelity. But
the registers of the Temple contain the respected names of Massillon
and Fenelon; Frederick the Great, and Napoleon[37] sanctioned its
ceremonies, and honoured its officers; and even in these days, princes
of the blood, and some of the most illustrious nobles, of our own
and other countries, have not disdained to display the humble ring
of profession, along with the gorgeous decorations of the Garter
and the Golden Fleece. Scattered over the mighty empire of Great
Britain, there are not more than forty subjects of Her Majesty who are
Knights Templars; and the whole Members of the Order do not probably
at this moment exceed three hundred; but we assert, without fear of
contradiction, that no institution equally limited can boast of a
greater number of distinguished and honourable associates.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: TEMPLARS OF SCOTLAND.]
[Illustration]
CHAP. V.
The Knights Templars of Scotland.
The Knights of the Temple were introduced into Scotland before 1153
by King David the First, who established them at Temple on the
Southesk,[38] and who was so attached to the brotherhood, that we are
told by an old historian "Sanctus David de prœclara Militia Templi
optimos fratres secum retinens, eos diebus et noctibus morum suorum
fecit esse custodes."[39] Malcolm, the grandson of David, conferred
on the brethren "in liberam et puram Elymosynam unum plenarium Toftum
in quolibet Burgo totius terræ," which foundation was enlarged by his
successors, William the Lion and Alexander the Second. The charter of
the latter is still in the possession of Lord Torphichen, whereby he
grants and confirms "Deo et fratribus Templi Salomonis de Jerusalem
omnes illas rectitudines, libertatis et consuetudines quas Rex DAVID
et Rex Malcolm et decessus pater meus Rex Willielmus eis dederunt et
concesserunt, sicut scripta eorum authentica attestant." This curious
document, after enumerating certain of these rights and liberties,
scilicet,--the king's sure peace; the privilege of buying, selling, and
trading with all his subjects; freedom from all tribute and toll, &c.
proceeds "Et nullus eis injuriam faciat, vel fieri consentiat super
meam defensionem, Et ubicunque in tota terra mea ad judiorum (_q.
judicium_) venerint, causa eorum primum tractata, et prius rectum suum
habeant, et postea faciant. Et nullus ponat hominem predictorum fratrum
nostrorum ad foram judicii si noluerint, &c. Et omnes libertates et
consuetudines quas ipsi per alias regiones habent in terra mea ubique
habeant."
These general privileges, throughout Europe, were very extensive.
The Templars were freed from all tythes to the church, and their
priests were entitled to celebrate mass, and to absolve from sins to
the same extent as bishops, a privilege which was strongly objected
to by the latter. Their houses possessed the right of sanctuary or
asylum for criminals. They could be witnesses in their own cause,
and were exempted from giving testimony in the cause of others. They
were relieved by the papal bulls from all taxes, and from subjection
and obedience to any secular power. By these great immunities, the
Order was rendered in a manner independent, but it would appear,
nevertheless, that both the Templars and Hospitallers considered
themselves subjects of the countries to which they belonged, and took
part in the national wars, for we find by the Ragman Roll, "Freere
Johan de Sautre, Mestre de la Chevalier del Temple en Ecoce," and
another Brother, swearing fealty to Edward I. in 1296; and the author
of the Annals of Scotland, taking notice of the Battle of Falkirk,
12th July 1298, informs us, that the only persons of note who fell
were Brian le Jay, Master of the English Templars, and the Prior
of Torphichen in Scotland, a Knight of another Order of religious
soldiery. The former of these Chevaliers met his death by the hand
of the redoubted Sir William Wallace, who advanced alone from the
midst of his little band, and slew him with a single blow, although
the historian adds, that Sir Brian le Jay was a Knight Templar of
high military renown, who had shewn himself most active against the
Scots.[40]
Little is known of the farther History of the Knights Templars in
Scotland from the time of Alexander II. down to the beginning of the
14th century, excepting that their privileges were continued to them by
succeeding Kings, whose bounty and piety were in those ages continually
directed towards the religious Orders. By their endowments, and the
bequests of the nobles, the possessions of the Order came to be so
extensive, that their lands were scattered "per totum regnum Scotiæ,
a limitibus versus Angliam, et sic discendo per totum regnum usque
ad Orchades." Besides the House of the Temple in Mid-Lothian, the
following Establishments or Priories of the Order may be enumerated,
viz. St. Germains, in East Lothian; Inchynan, in Renfrewshire;
Maryculter, in Kincardineshire; Aggerstone, in Stirlingshire; Aboyne,
in Aberdeenshire; Derville or Derval, in Ayrshire; Dinwoodie, in
Dumfriesshire; Red-abbey-stedd, in Roxburghshire, and Temple Liston, in
West-Lothian.
The date of the spoliation of the Templars of Scotland, corresponds of
course with that of the persecution of the Order in other countries,
and it is to the credit of our forefathers that we can obtain no
account of any Member of the Brotherhood having been subjected to
personal torture or suffering amongst them; their estates, however,
appear to have been duly transferred to the possession of their rivals,
the Knights Hospitallers; into which Order it is not improbable that,
like their Brethren in England, a number of the Templars entered.
In November 1309, John de Soleure, the Papal Legate, and William,
Bishop of St. Andrews, held an Inquisitorial Court at the Abbey of
Holyrood to investigate the charges against the Templars, but Walter
de Clifton, Grand Preceptor of the Order in North Britain,[41] and
William de Middleton, were the only two Knights who appeared before
the Tribunal, the proceedings of which, as recorded at length in
Wilkins' Consilia, make no allusion to any punishment being inflicted,
so that we may fairly conclude they were soon set at liberty. The
Preceptor, in his examination, readily confessed that the rest of
the Brethren had fled, and dispersed themselves _propter scandalium
exortum contra ordinem_, and we are told by a learned French writer,
that having deserted the Temple, they had ranged themselves under the
banners of Robert Bruce, by whom they were formed into a new Order,
the observances of which were based on those of the Templars, and
became, according to him, the source of Scottish Free Masonry.[42]
This statement corresponds with the celebrated Charter of Larmenius
already referred to, in which the Scottish Templars are excommunicated
as _Templi desertores, anathemate percussos_; and along with the
Knights of St. John, _dominiorum Militiæ spoliatores_, placed for
ever beyond the pale of the Temple, _extra gyrum Templi nunc, et in
futurum_; and it is likewise supported in some measure by the authority
of the accurate historian of Free Masonry, M. Thory, who, in his "Acta
Latomorum," states that Robert Bruce founded the Masonic Order of
Heredom de Kilwinning, after the Battle of Bannockburn, reserving to
himself and his successors on the Throne of Scotland, the office and
title of Grand Master. Scottish tradition has, moreover, always been
in favour of this origin of the Ancient Mother Kilwinning Lodge, which
certainly at one time possessed other degrees of Masonry besides those
of St. John; and it is well known to our Masonic readers, that there
are even in our own days at Edinburgh, a few individuals claiming to
be the representatives of the Royal Order established by Bruce, which,
though now nearly extinct in this country,[43] still flourishes in
France, where it was established by Charter from Scotland, and even
by the Pretender himself, in the course of last century, and is now
conferred as the highest and most distinguished grade of Masonry,
sanctioned by the Grand Orient, under the title of the _Rose Croix
de Heredom de Kilwinning_. It may be interesting to add, that the
introduction on the Continent of this ancient branch of our national
Masonry, has been commemorated by a splendid medal struck at Paris,
bearing, amongst other devices, the Royal Arms and Motto of Scotland;
and that the Brethren of the Lodge of Constancy at Arras, still
preserve with reverence an original charter of the Order, granted to
their Chapter in 1747, by Charles Edward Stuart, and signed by that
unfortunate Prince himself as the representative of the Scottish
Kings.[44] Nor can any thing indicate more strongly the high estimation
in which the chivalry of the Rosy Cross of Kilwinning is held in
France, than the fact that the Prince Cambaceres, Arch-chancellor of
the Empire, presided over it as Provincial Grand Master, (the office of
supreme head being inherent in the Crown of Scotland,) for many years;
and that he was succeeded in his dignity, if we mistake not, by the
head of the illustrious family of Choiseul.
But whether the Scottish Templars really joined the victorious
standard of Robert Bruce, and with him, as our countrymen would fain
hope, fought and conquered at Bannockburn, or whether the majority of
them transferred themselves along with the possessions of the Order,
to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, certain it is, that from the
time of the persecution, the Order of the Temple, together with all its
wealth, became merged in that of the Hospitallers, though certainly
not to such a degree as to obliterate all distinct traces of the Red
Cross Knights. On the contrary, we find by a public document recorded
entire in the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, and dated _two
centuries_ after the incorporation of the Orders, that King James the
Fourth confirmed all former grants _sancto Hospitali de Jerusalem, et
fratribus ejusdem militiæ Templi Salomonis_,--a satisfactory proof
that the Order, although proscribed by the Pope, was still retained
conjointly with that of the Hospital, in law papers at least.[45]
The Knights of St. John had also been introduced into Scotland by
King David the First, and had a charter granted to them by Alexander
the Second, two years after that to the Templars. The Preceptory
of Torphichen, in West Lothian, was their first, and continued to
be their chief residence, and by the accession of the Temple lands
and other additions, their property at the time of the Reformation
came to be immense. When that event took place, the chief dignitary
or Grand Preceptor of the Order in Scotland, with a seat as a Peer
in Parliament, was Sir James Sandilands, a cadet of the family of
Calder, whose head, as is well known to readers of Scottish History,
was the private friend of John Knox, and one of the first persons of
distinction to embrace the reformed religion. We might suspect, that
even before the promulgation of the statute 1560, prohibiting all
allegiance within the realm to the See of Rome, the former personage
had become indifferent to the charge confided to him by the Order; for
a rescript from the Grand Master and Chapter at Malta, dated so early
as the 1st of October 1557, and addressed to him, is still on record,
wherein they complain "that many of the possessions, jurisdictions,
&c. were conveyed or taken away from them contrary to the statutes
and oaths, and to the damnation of the souls, as well of those who
possessed them, as of those who, without sufficient authority, yielded
them up; producing thereby great detriment to religion and the said
Commandery;" but be this as it may, we are certain that the conversion
of Sir James Sandilands, or as he was termed, the Lord of St. John of
Jerusalem in Scotland, was followed by his surrender to the Crown of
the whole possessions of the combined Templars and Hospitallers, which
having been declared forfeited to the State on the ground that "the
principal cause of the foundation of the Preceptory of Torphichen,
_Fratribus Hospitalis Hierosolimitani, Militibus Templi Salomonis_, was
the service enjoined to the Preceptor on oath to defend and advance the
Roman Catholic Religion," were by a process of transformation well
understood by the Scottish Parliament of those days, converted into a
Temporal Lordship, which the unfortunate Queen Mary, then only twenty
years of age, and newly established amongst her Scottish subjects, in
consideration of a payment of ten thousand crowns of the Sun, and of
his _fidele, nobile, et gratuitum, servitium, nobis nostrisque patri
et matri bonæ memoriæ_, conferred on, or rather retransferred to the
Ex Grand Preceptor himself and his heirs with the title of Torphichen,
which, although the estate is much dilapidated, still remains in his
family.[46] All this was transacted acted on the petition of Sir
James Sandilands himself, with the formal approbation of the National
Legislature; and after renouncing the profession of a soldier-monk, we
find that the last of Scottish Preceptors of St. John became married
and lived to a good old age, having died so late as 1596 without issue,
when the title of Torphichen passed to his grand nephew, the lineal
descendant of his elder brother, Sir John Sandilands of Calder.
We shall not pause to consider whether a body of Masonic Templars
unconnected with the Hospitallers, and representing the Royal Order
which Bruce is said to have instituted from the relict of the
Ancient Knights, has been perpetuated in Scotland since the days of
Bannockburn, having no means of illustrating so obscure a subject; but,
with all due respect to the learned French writer, whose authority we
have already quoted, we may observe, that the Masonic Tradition of
the country does not connect the Templars with Bruce's Order in any
way whatever, but, on the contrary, invariably conjoins those Knights
with the Hospitallers, and consequently points to the period of the
renunciation of Popery, as the time when they first sought refuge, and
a continuance of their Chivalry among the "Brethren of the Mystic Tie."
The Chevaliers also of the Rosy Cross of Kilwinning in France, own no
alliance with Masonic Templary, which they consider a comparatively
modern invention; nor do there exist, so far as we know, any authentic
records anterior to the Reformation, to prove a connection between the
Knights Templars and Freemasons in any part of the world, though we
must not omit to mention, that a formal document in the Latin language
is said to be deposited in a Lodge at Namur on the Meuse, purporting
to be a proclamation by the Freemasons of Europe, "of the Venerable
Society sacred to John," assembled by representatives from London,
Edinburgh, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Venice, Brussels, and
almost every other Capital City, at Cologne on the Rhine in 1535;
and signed, amongst others, by the famous Melancthon, in which,
after declaring that "to be more effectually vilified and devoted to
public execration, they had been accused of reviving the Order of the
Templars," they solemnly affirm, that "the Freemasons of St. John
derive not their origin from the Templars, nor from any other Order of
Knights; neither have they any, or the least communication with them
directly, or through any manner of intermediate tie, being far more
ancient," &c.--all of which would imply, that some sort of connection
was understood in those days to exist between certain of the Masonic
Fraternities and the Knights Templars. A Copy of this document was
sent to Edinburgh in 1826, by M. de Marchot, an Advocate at Nivelles,
and a translation of it has been inserted under the attestation of a
Notary Public in the Records of the Ancient Lodge of Edinburgh, (Mary's
Chapel); but we have little faith in German documents on Free Masonry,
unless supported by other testimony; and as no Historian of the Craft
makes the slightest allusion to the great Convocation of the Brethren
at Cologne, in the sixteenth century, rather than ask the reader to
believe that it ever took place, we shall presume that M. de Marchot
may have been deceived.[47]
From the era of the Reformation, the combined Order appears in Scotland
only as a Masonic body; but there are some records to indicate that,
so early as 1590, a few of the brethren had become mingled with the
Architectural Fraternities, and that a Lodge at Stirling, patronised by
King James, had a Chapter of Templars attached to it, who were termed
cross-legged Masons; and whose initiatory ceremonies were performed
not in a room, but in the Old Abbey, the ruins of which are still to
be seen in the neighbourhood. The next authentic notice we can find
on this subject, is in M. Thory's excellent Chronology of Masonry,
wherein it is recorded, that about 1728, Sir John Mitchell Ramsay,
the well-known author of Cyrus, appeared in London, with a system of
Scottish Masonry, up to that date, perfectly unknown in the metropolis,
tracing its origin from the Crusades, and consisting of three degrees,
the _Ecossais_, the _Novice_, and the _Knight Templar_. The English
Grand Lodge rejected the system of Ramsay, who, as is well known,
along with the other adherents of the Stuart Family, transferred it to
the Continent, where it became the corner-stone of the _hauts grades_,
and the foundation of those innumerable ramifications into which an
excellent and naturally simple institution has been very uselessly
extended in France, Germany, and other countries abroad.[48]
In pursuing the very curious subject of the _hauts grades_, we may
observe, however, that they never obtained much consideration during
the lifetime of Ramsay, although they are invariably traced to him
and to Scotland, the fairy land of Foreign Masonry,[49] but gathered
their chief impulse from the disgraceful dissentions in the Masonic
Lodges at Paris, about the middle of last century, which induced the
Chevalier de Bonneville, and other distinguished persons at the Court
of France, to form themselves into a separate institution, named the
Chapitre de Clermont, in honour of one of the Princes of the Blood,
Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Clermont, then presiding over the Masonic
Fraternities. In this Chapter they established, amongst other degrees,
Ramsay's system of the Masonic Templars, which, along with other high
grades, was soon conveyed into the Northern Kingdoms of Europe, by the
Officers of the French Army, but especially, by the Marquis de Bernez,
and the Baron de Hund, the latter of whom made it the ground-work
of his Templar _Regime de la Stricte Observance_, which occupied,
for several years, so prominent a place in the Secret Societies of
Germany. This adventurer appeared in that country with a patent,
under the sign-manual of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, appointing him
Grand Master of the seventh province; but although he had invented a
plausible tale in support of his title and authority,--both of which
he affirmed had been made over to him by the Earl Marischal on his
death-bed,--and of the antiquity of his order, which he derived,
of course, from Scotland, where the chief seat of the Templars was
Aberdeen,[50]--the imposture was soon detected, and it was even
discovered that he had himself enticed and initiated the ill-fated
Pretender into his fabulous order of Chivalry. The delusions on this
subject, however, had taken such a hold in Germany, that they were
not altogether dispelled, until a deputation had actually visited
Aberdeen, and found amongst the worthy and astonished brethren there,
no trace either of very ancient Templars or Freemasonry.[51] From some
of the Continental States, it is conjectured that Masonic Templary
was transplanted into England and Ireland, in both of which countries
it has continued to draw a languid existence, unconnected with any
remnant of the Knights of St. John, whose incorporation in the Scottish
Order, is one of the most remarkable features of that Institution. We
are happy to add, nevertheless, that the most fraternal feelings and
intercourse subsist between the Scottish brethren and the Templars of
the sister kingdoms, and we can ourselves testify to the cordiality
with which the former are received in the encampments of London.
During the whole of the eighteenth century the combined Order of the
Temple and Hospital in Scotland can be but faintly traced, though I
have the assurance of well-informed Masons that thirty or forty years
ago they knew old men who had been members of it for sixty years, and
it had sunk so low at the time of the French Revolution, that the
sentence which the Grand Lodge of Scotland fulminated in 1792 against
all degrees of Masonry except those of St. John, was expected to put
a period to its existence. Soon after this, however, some active
individuals revived it, and with the view of obtaining documentary
authority for their chapters, as well as of avoiding any infringement
of the statutes then recently enacted against secret societies, adopted
the precaution of accepting charters of constitution from a body of
Masonic Templars, named the Early Grand Encampment, in Dublin, of
whose origin we can find no account, and whose legitimacy, to say
the least, was quite as questionable as their own. Several charters
of this description were granted to different Lodges of Templars in
Scotland about the beginning of the present century, but these bodies
maintained little concert or intercourse with each other, and were
certainly not much esteemed in the country. Affairs were in this state
when, about 1808, Mr. Alexander Deuchar was elected Commander, or Chief
of the Edinburgh Encampment of Templars, and his brother, Major David
Deuchar, along with other Officers of the Royal Regiment, was initiated
into the Order. This infusion of persons of higher station and better
information gave an immediate impulse to the Institution, and a General
Convocation of all the Templars of Scotland, by representatives, having
taken place at the Capital, they unanimously resolved to discard the
Irish Charters, and to rest their claims, as the representatives of
the Knights of old, on the general belief of the country in their
favour, and the well-accredited traditions handed down from their
forefathers. They further determined to entreat the Duke of Kent,
who was a Chevalier du Temple, as well as the chief of the Masonic
Templars in England, to become the Patron Protector of the Order in
North Britain, offering to submit themselves to His Royal Highness in
that capacity, and to accept from him a formal Charter of Constitution,
erecting them into a regular Conclave of Knights Templars, and Knights
of St. John of Jerusalem. The Duke of Kent lost no time in complying
with their request, and his Charter bears date 19th of June 1811. By a
provision in it, Mr. Deuchar, who had been nominated by the Brethren,
was appointed Grand Master for life.
These wise and vigorous measures rescued the Order from obscurity;
and in its improved condition, we find that it continued rapidly to
flourish, numbering, in the course of a few years, no less than forty
encampments or lodges in different parts of the British dominions
holding of its Conclave. In 1828, the Order seemed to have received
a fresh impulse, and assumed a novel and interesting aspect by the
judicious introduction of the ancient chivalric costume and forms.
Dissentions, however, unfortunately occurred, from 1830 to 1835,
tending to impede the further progress of the Order; and for a while it
may be said to have again almost fallen into abeyance. In the end of
the latter year, a committee of ten gentlemen was appointed to settle
all differences, as well as to frame proper regulations for the future
government of the Order. Under their arrangement and arbitration,
the present statutes were established, and a reconciliation effected
between the contending parties. In January 1836, Admiral Sir David
Milne, K. C. B. was unanimously elected Grand Master, and at a general
election in the same month, Lord Ramsay (now Earl of Dalhousie) was
appointed his Depute, the various other offices in the Order being
filled by gentlemen, generally well known, and of a respectable station
in society. In the course of three months after the re-union, not
fewer than a hundred persons, chiefly men of fortune, officers, and
members of the learned professions, had been received into the Order in
the Edinburgh Canongate Kilwinning Priory or Encampment alone. Since
then, other Priories have been established in the country, and the
Institution has assumed an importance and dignity worthy of the highest
class of gentlemen connected with the Masonic Institutions of Scotland.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: APPENDIX.]
[Illustration]
Bull of Pope Clement V.
Ordinis statum habitum atque nomen, Non Sine Cordis Amaritudine et
Dolore sacro approbante concilio, Non Per Modum Definitivæ Sententiæ,
cum eam super hoc secundum inquisitiones et processus super his
habitos, Non possumus Ferre, de Jure, Sed Per viam Provisionis, seu
ordinationis apostolicæ, irrefragabili et Perpetuo Valitura sustulimus
sanctione, ipsum prohibitione Perpetuæ supponentes, distinctius
inhibendo ne quis dictum Ordinem de cœtero intrare, vel ejus habitum
suscipere aut portare, vel pro Templario gerere se præsumeret; quod
si quis contra faceret, excommunicationis incurreret sententiam, ipso
facto. Datum Viennæ, vi. non. Maii, pont. nostrianno vii. (ii. Maii
MCCCIII.)
[Illustration: CLEMENTUS PP. V]
Charter of Transmission.
[Illustration: V.D. S.A.]
Ego Frater Johannes-Marcus Larmenius, Hierosolymitanus, Dei gratia et
Secretissimo Venerandi sanctissimique Martyris, Supremi Templi Militiæ
Magistri (cui honos et gloria) decreto, communi Fratrum Consilio
confirmato, super universum Templi Ordinem Summo et Supremo Magisterio
insignitus, singulis has decretales litteras visuris salutem, salutem,
salutem.
Notum sit omnibus tam præsentibus quam futuris, quod, deficientibus,
propter extremam ætatem, viribus, rerum angustia et gubernaculi
gravitate prepensis, ad majorem Dei gloriam, Ordinis, Fratrum et
Statutorum tutelam et salutem ego, supra dictus, humilis Magister
Militiæ Templi, inter validiores manus Supremum statuerim deponere
Magisterium.
Idcirco, Deo juvante, unoque Supremi Conventus Equitum
consensu, apud eminentem Commendatorem et carissimum Fratrem,
Franciscum-Thomam-Theobaldum Alexandrinum, Supremum Ordinis Templi
Magisterium, auctoritatem et privilegia contuli, et hoc præsenti
decreto pro vita confero, cum potestate, secundum temporis et rerum
leges, Fratri alteri, institutionis et ingenii nobilitate morumque
honestate præstantissimo, Summum et Supremum Ordinis Templi Magisterium
summamque auctoritatem conferendi. Quod sic, ad perpetuitatem
Magisterii, successorum non intersectam seriem et Statutorum
integritatem tuendas. Jubeo tamen ut non transmitti possit Magisterium,
sine commilitonum Templi Conventus Generalis consensu, quoties colligi
valuerit Supremus iste Conventus; et, rebus ita sese habentibus,
successor ad nutum Equitum eligatur.
Ne autem Languescant Supremi Officii munera, sint nunc et perenniter
quatuor Supremi Magistri Vicarii, supremam potestatem, eminentiam et
auctoritatem, super universum Ordinem, salvo jure Supremi Magistri,
habentes; qui Vicarii Magistri apud seniores secundum professionis
seriem, eligantur. Quod Statutum e commendato mihi et Fratribus voto
sacrosancti supra dicti Venerandi Beatissimique Magistri nostri,
Martyris (cui honos et gloria) Amen.
Ego denique, Fratrum Supremi Conventus decreto, e suprema mihi
commissa auctoritate, Scotos Templarios Ordinis desertores, anathemate
percussos, illosque et Fratres Sancti Johannis Hierosolymæ, dominiorum
Militiæ spoliatores (quibus apud Deum misericordia) extra girum Templi,
nunc et in futurum, volo, dico et jubeo.
Signa, ideo, pseudo-Fratribus ignota et ignoscenda constitui, ore
commilitonibus tradenda, et quo, in Supremo Conventu, jam tradere modo
placuit.
Quæ vero signa tantummodo pateant post debitam professionem et
equestrem consecrationem, secundum Templi commilitonum Statuta, ritus
et usus, supra dicto eminenti Commendatori a me transmissa, sicut a
Venerando et Sanctissimo Martyre Magistro (cui honos et gloria) in meas
manus habui tradita. Fiat sicut dixi. Fiat. Amen.
Ego Johannes-Marcus Larmenius dedi, die decima tertia februarii 1324.
Ego Franciscus-Thomas-Theobaldus Alexandrinus, Deo juvante, Supremum
Magisterium acceptum habeo, 1324.
Ego Arnulphus De Braque, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1340.
Ego Johannes Claromontanus, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1349.
Ego Bertrandus Duguesclin, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1357.
Ego Johannes Arminiacus, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1381.
Ego Bernardus Arminiacus, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1392.
Ego Johannes Arminiacus, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1419.
Ego Johannes Croyus, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum habeo,
1451.
Ego Robertus Lenoncurtius, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1478.
Ego Galeatius de Salazar, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1497.
Ego Philippus Chabotius, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum
habeo, 1516.
Ego Gaspardus De Salciaco, Tavannensis, Deo juvante, Supremum
Magisterium acceptum habeo, 1544.
Ego Henricus De Monte Morenciaco, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium
acceptum habeo, 1574.
Ego Carolus Valesius, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium acceptum habeo,
1615.
Ego Jacobus Ruxellius de Grancio, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium
acceptum habeo, 1651.
Ego Jacobus-Henricus De Duro Forti, dux de Duras, Deo juvante,
Supremum Magisterium acceptum habeo, 1681.
Ego Philippus, dux Aurelianensis, Deo juvante, Supremum Magisterium
acceptum habeo, 1705.
Ego Ludovicus-Augustus Borbonius, dux du Maine, Deo juvante, Supremum
Magisterium acceptum habeo, 1724.
Ego Ludovicus-Henricus Borbonius-Condœus, Deo juvante, Supremum
Magisterium acceptum habeo, 1737.
Ego Ludovicus-Franciscus Borbonius-Conty, Deo juvante, Supremum
Magisterium acceptum habeo, 1741.
Ego Ludovicus-Hercules-Timoleo de Cosse-Brissac, Deo juvante, Supremum
Magisterium acceptum habeo, 1776.
Ego Claudius-Mathæus Radix de Chevillon, Templi senior Vicarius
Magistri, adstantibus Fratribus Prospero-Maria-Petro-Michaele
Charpentier de Saintot, Bernardo-Raymundo Fabre-Palaprat, Templi
Vicariis Magistris, et Johnne-Baptista-Augusto de Courchant, Supremo
Præceptore, hasce litteras decretales a Ludovico-Hercule-Timoleone
de Cosse-Brissac, supremo Magistro, in temporibus infaustis mihi
depositas, Fratri Jacobo-Philippo Ledru, Templi seniori Vicario
Magistro tradidi, ut istæ litteræ, in tempore opportuno, ad perpetuam
Ordinis nostri memoriam, juxta ritum (voyez le Rituel levitique)
Orientalem, vigeant: Die decima junii 1804.
Ego Bernardus-Raymundus Fabre-Palaprat, Deo juvante, Supremum
Magisterium acceptum habeo: Die quarta novembris 1804.
[Illustration: SIGILLVM MILITVM XPISTI]
BOISGELIN, himself a Knight of Malta, gives the following authentic
copy of the Oath of Profession, from the original text, which every
Candidate took at his reception into the Order:--
Vow of the Knights of St. John.
"Io N. faccio voto e prometto a Dio Omnipotente, ed alla Beata Maria
sempre Vergine, Madre di Dio, ed a San Giovanni Battista d'osservare
perpetuamente, con l'ajuta di Dio, vera obedienza a qualunque superiore
che mi sera data da Dio e dalla nostra religione, e di più vivere senza
proprio e d'osservare castità."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Militia Templi.
Die} Lunae Anno Ordinis
} Mensis Anno D.N.J.C.
Votum,
In nomine Dei Patris + et Filii + et Spiritus Sancti.
Ego,
Ordinis Templi Militiae Sanctae memetipsum ad praesens et in oevum
devovens, libere solemniterque Obedientiae, Paupertatis, et Castitatis,
sicut et Fraternitatis, Hospitalitatis et Praeliationis Votum suscipere
profiteor;
Quo voto firmam et non quassabilem edico voluntatem, ad Religionis
Christianae, Ordinis Templi, Commilitonumque causam, tutelam et
honorem, maximamque illustrationem, et ad Templi Sepulchrique Domini
Nostri Jesu Christi Palestinae, Orientisque terrae et Patrum dominiorum
recuperationem, gladium, vires, vitamque et singula alia mea impendendi,
Regulae S. P. Bernardi, Chartae transmissionis, regulis, legibus,
decretis, singulisque aliis actis, secundum Ordinis Statuta emissis
me submittendi: nullos Equites creaturus, nullosve titulos aut gradus
ritusque et usus Ordinis proditurus, nisi patuerit ex Statutis
licentia: omni denique modo, sive in Ordinis domibus sive foras et in
quocumque vitae, statu Supremo Magistro, omnibusque et singulis in
Militia superioribus absolute obediturus.
Sic Fratres meos Equites Templi, Sororesque Equitissas in charitate
habendi, ut ipsos, Fratrumque Viduas et liberos, sicut et Sororum
liberos, gladio, concilio, copiis, opibus, auctoritate, singulisque
rebus meis adjuvem, illosque semper et ubique, nullo casu excepto,
cuivis Commilitonum Templi non consorti praeferam;
Pios peregrinos tuendi; captivorum propter crucem, infirmorumque et
pauperum subsidio simul et solatio inserviendi:
Infideles et incredulos, exemplo, virtute, bonis operibus, alloquiisque
suasoriis oppugnandi: in Infideles autem et incredulos gladio Crucem
aggredientes, propter Crucem gladio praeliandi:
Ab omni impudicitia abhorrendi, et ad nullam carnis operam, nisi
debitam, et tantum cum uxore legitima accedendi:
Tandem apud singulas quas adibo Gentes, ipsarum, salvo Religionis
Ordinisque jure, legibus et moribus obtemperandi: Gentibus vero
Hospitalitate et amicitia Ordinem colentibus, Cuis et Equitis
fidelissimi sacra officia praestandi.
Haec sic, coram Equitibus (huicce Conventui adstantibus) Voveo, alta
voce Dico, et Vovere Profiteor. Quod Votum Sanguine meo subsigno et
confirmo, atque in tabulas (conventuales) iterum scribo et subsigno,
subsignantibus supra dictis testibus.
Gloria Patri + et Filio + et Spritui Sancto, + Amen.
N.B.--The above Vow is always signed with the interpretation explained
in the text annexed to it.
[Illustration]
Le Trésor.
_Inventaire des Chartre, Statuts, Reliques et Insignes composant
le Trésor sacré de l'Ordre du Temple, extrait de la minute du
procès-verbal qui en a été dressé le 14e. jour de la lune de Tab.,
l'an de l'Ordre 692, du Magister le 6e._ (18 mai 1810.)
Ire. PIÈCE DU TRÉSOR.
La chartre de transmission (par J. M. _Larmenius_), écrite en deux
colonnes et demie sur une très-grande feuille de parchemin, ornée,
suivant le goût du temps, de dessins gothiques architecturaux, de
lettres fleuronnées, coloriées, dorées et argentées, dont la première
offre un chevalier appuyé sur un bouclier armorie de la croix de
l'Ordre.
Au haut, en tête, est peinte la croix conventuelle dans la forme
aulique.
Au bas est le sceau de la milice, suspendu par des lacs de parchemin.
Les acceptations par les Grands-Maîtres commencent vers le milieu de la
troisième colonne, se continuant à la troisième, et finissant aux deux
tiers inférieurs de la marge à droite.
IIe. PIÈCE.
L'archétype des Statuts de l'an de l'Ordre (587,) transcrits à la
main sur vingt-sept feuilles de papier, reliés en un volume petit
in-folio, couvert en velours cramoisi, doublé en satin _idem_, doré sur
tranche.--Cette pièce signée Philippus (_d'Orléans_.)
IIIe. PIÈCE.
Un petit reliquaire de cuivre, en forme d'église gothique, contenant,
dans un suaire de lin, quatre fragmens d'os brulés, extraits du bûcher
des martyrs de l'Ordre.
IVe. PIÈCE.
Une épée de fer (cruciforme) surmontée d'une boule, et présumée avoir
servi au G.-M. J. _Molay_.
Ve. PIÈCE.
Un casque de fer, à visière, armorié de dauphins et damastiqué en or,
présumé être celui de _Guy_, dauphin d'Auvergne.
VIe. PIÈCE.
Un ancien éperon de cuivre doré.
VIIe. PIÈCE.
Une patène de bronze, dans l'interieur de laquelle est gravée une main
étendue, dont le petit doigt et l'annulaire sont repliés dans la paume.
VIIIe. PIÈCE.
Une paix en bronze doré, représentant Saint-Jean sous une arcade
gothique.
IXe. PIÈCE.
Trois sceaux gothiques de bronze en forme ovale pointue, et de grandeur
différente, désignés dans les Statuts sous les noms de _sceau du G.-M.
Jean, sceau du chevalier croisé, et sceau de Saint-Jean_.
Xe. PIÈCE.
Un haut de crosse d'ivoire et trois mitres d'étoffe, l'une en or,
brodée en soie, et deux en argent, brodées en perles, ayant servi aux
cérémonies de l'Ordre.
XIe. PIÈCE.
Le baucéant en laine blanche, à la croix de l'Ordre.
XIIe. et dernière PIÈCE.
Le drapeau de guerre, en laine blanche, à quatre raies noires.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Ordre du Temple.
A la plus Grande Gloire de Dieu.
Guillaume-Sidney,
Par la Grace de Dieu, et la désignation Testamentaire du dernier
Grand-Maître.
Prince Magistral, Régent de l'Ordre du Temple;
A Tous Ceux qui ces Présentes, Verront:
Salut.
Vu, l'Article 38 des Statuts de l'Ordre du Temple, et le 3me paragraphe
de la Charte de transmission;
Vu, les Articles 13, 15, 16 et suivans desdits Status;
Considérant, que l'etat de haute civilisation des diverses Nations
Européennes et principalement de la France, ou se trouve le siège
Magistral, permet toute Réunion du Convent Général, sans qu'il puisse
en resulter le moindre danger pour les Chevaliers;
Considérant, que les tems sont venus de rendre au Convent général
tous les droits dont il a joui jusques au G. M. Jacques de Molay, (à
qui scient honneur et gloire), et de faire rentrer dans de sages et
constitutionnelles limites la puissance du Magistère;
Considérant, qu'une reforme prudente et réfléchie des Statuts, dans les
parties qui ne sont plus en harmonie avec la Charte de transmission,
les moeurs du siècle et la règle, est le moyen le plus efficace de
rendre possible l'accomplissement des hautes destinées auxquelles
l'Ordre du Temple est appellé;
Le conseil privé entendu;
Nous avons décrété et décrétons ce qui suit:
Article Premier.
Le Convent Général de l'Ordre du Temple est Convoqué pour le dix
Novembre, 1838.
Article II.
Immédiatemement après sa réunion, le Convent général devra se prononcer
sur la présentation du Prince Magistral Régent, désigné par Bernard
Raymond (à qui soient honneur et gloire) pour lui succéder en qualité
de Grand Maître de l'Ordre du Temple.
Article III.
En tête du Commentarium sera placé la revision du Chapitre IV et de
tous les Articles des Statuts qui ont des connexions avec ce Chapitre.
Article IV.
Il sera ouvert à la Sécretairerie Magistrale un Registre destiné à
l'inscription des propositions faites pour être présentées au Convent
général, et qui seront insérées au Commentarium, conformément aux
Statuts.
Soit, le présent décret, expédié, enregistré et scellé par qui et a
qui de droit; adressé spécialement au Grand Connétable, au Gouverneur
général et au Grand Maître des Dépêches, qui sont chargés de son
exécution;
Soit aussi, ledit Décret, envoyé par lettres communicatoires, 1º, au
Prieur de chaque Convent, pour être porté à la connaissance de tous les
Chevaliers de son obédience, 2º, et personnellement, aux Chevaliers qui
ne feraient partie d'aucune Maison de l'Ordre.
_Donné à Paris, en notre résidence Magistrale, le 1er du mois de Mai,
de l'an de N. S. J. C. 1838, 720e. de l'Ordre.
[Transcriber's note: The signature symbols following consisted of
crosses with 1, 2 and 3 bars. These have no text equivalents, so they
have been replaced with + signs corresponding to the number of bars.]
Signé +++ F. ++ Guillaume Sidney
De par S. A. le Prince Magistral, Régent de l'Ordre.
Le Grand Précepteur, Ministre Secrétaire Magistral,
Signé ++ F. + Réné Léon De Sud-Europe.
Enregistré en la grande Sénéchaussée, le 3 Mai 1838.
Le Ministre Grand Sénéchal,
Signé, ++ F. + Eugène De France.
Scellé en la grande Chancellerie, le même jour,
Le Grand-Précepteur, Ministre Grand Chancelier,
Signé, ++ F. + Felix De Nord-Afrique.
Vu par le Grand-Connétable; Signé ++ F. Sébastien Louis De Bauvais.
Vu par le Gouverneur Général; Signé F. ++ Fréchot.
Vu par le Grand Maître des Dépêches, Signé ++ F. E. Loubert +.
Pour copie conforme:
Le Grand Précepteur, Ministre Secrétaire Magistral.
++ F. + Réné Léon De Sud-Europe._
DISCOURS DE L'AMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH, AU CONVENT GENERAL LE 27 JANVIER
1837.
_S. A. le Lieutenant-Général d'Asie_ demande la parole. Ce vénérable
frère s'exprime ainsi qu'il suit.
"Sérénisme Grand-Maître, et vous tous mes nobles frères:
"Justement et infiniment sensible à l'honneur qui m'a été conféré,
par suite de ma nomination, à la haute dignité de Lieutenant-Général
d'Asie, je dois vous en témoigner toute ma reconnaissance.
"A mon âge avancé, je puis prétendre à être considéré comme exempt
d'ambition: je vois par conséquent dans cet acte de la haute confiance
du Grand-Maître, une charge onéreuse et un lourd fardeau, plutôt qu'un
avantage: mais, je l'accepte avec respect. Mes soins et mes efforts
constans seront toujours employés pour prouver que je n'ai pas fait en
vain le serment de fidélité et de soumission à l'ordre et à son chef
suprême.
"Je vois dans cette nomination une preuve de la vraie libéralité du
Grand-Maître éclairé de cet ordre, essentiellement cosmopolite, où
toutes les nations chrétiennes se confondent et co-opèrent ensemble
pour le maintien de la paix du monde et de l'harmonie entre les sectes
religieuses, par la tolérance, la charité et la protection pour les
pélerins en Terre Sainte, contre les pirates et brigands; premier
but de sa fondation, qui précéda les autres ordres de la chevalerie
moderne, ordres qui _n'ont été_ et ne _sont_ que ses _imitateurs_: car
le notre ne demande que l'occasion de remplir son devoir sacré. Aussi
est-ce avec une vive satisfaction que je vois enfin un Grand-Maître
apprécier l'importance de l'ordre, _et pour la premiére fois, appeler
pour un de ses lieutenans, je ne dis pas un anglais, mais un templier
de la langue d'Angleterre_. _Honneur au Grand-Maître qui a fait un
tel acte, et qui montre ainsi à toutes les nations, que toutes ont
des droits égaux à remplir les diverses charges du Temple_: Honneur
à ce chef qui a si longtemps et si loyalement conservé le feu sacré,
et les traditions, malgré les orages et les persécutions, suite d'une
révolution dont l'origine remonte pour nous, a _Philippe-le-Bel_ et au
_Pape Clement V._ Mais espérons qu'enfin nous rentrerons dans tous nos
droits; et qu'au lieu de dresser la tente magistrale dans une langue
excentrique, un jour nous la dresserons au lieu de notre crèation,
dans la ville qui nous appartient, dans la _sainte Jérusalem_!
"_Honneur aux très nobles chevaliers qui se sont montrés penétrés
du sentiment de leurs devoirs, et ont donné constamment des preuves
qu'ils sont incapables d'oublier leur serment de fidélité et
d'obéissance!......_
"J'ai déjà communiqué verbalement à S. A. E., devant témoins, ce
que j'ai consigné dans mon testament, la disposition formelle, pour
la restitution au chef du Temple, d'une croix de l'ordre qui est
très ancienne, à en juger par sa forme et la monture des pierres,
laquelle croix a appartenu à un de ses Grand-Maîtres, et fut du temps
des croisades portée dans la guerre sainte par le roi d'Angleterre
_Richard_ Ier, dit _Cœur-de-Lion_. Ce roi l'a laissée en dépôt entre
les mains de l'archevêque de Chypre lors de son départ de cette ile,
dont il était Souverain par conquête. J'ai été personnellement décoré
de cette croix en 1799, par les mains du dixhuitième archevêque,
successeur du dépositaire, qui l'a plaçé sur ma poitrine, en
reconnaissance de la réussite de mes efforts, pour rétablir la paix
et la protection due à la population chrétienne de l'île, contre
l'insurrection des troupes Asiatiques qui avaient assassiné leur chef,
appelé le _Patrona Bey_, et commençaient déjà à se livrer au pillage et
au massacre des habitans: désastres que j'ai empêchés par ma présence
au milieu de ces furieux, sans armes, le firman du Sultan _Selim_ en
main, et par la nomination d'un successeur _a Patrona Bey_, en vertu de
l'autorité supréme qui m'avait été déléguée dans le temps par la Porte
Ottomane, sur les forces combinées de terre et de mer dans le Levant.
"L'autorité qui maintenant m'est déléguée par le sérénissime
grand-maitre sur le continent d'Asie, pourra en temps et lieu être
employée utilement pour protéger la population chrétienne de ces
contrées, et le maintien de la hiérarchie de l'ordre. Croyez, que pour
la plus grande gloire du Temple, je me ferai un devoir d'employer
l'influence que les antécédens m'ont donnée. _Les templiers fidèles
peuvent compter sur moi._"
Le grand-maitre exprime au lieutenant-général d'Asie, les sentimens
dont lui et ses frères sont animés pour un Chevalier qui a conquis
l'admiration du monde par ses hauts faits maritimes, et a mérité par
ses vertus sociales et templières, l'estime et l'affection de tous
ses frères. Le grand-maitre lui donne au nom de l'ordre l'accolade
fraternelle.
Le Convent Général ordonne que le discours de l'Amiral _Sir Sidney
Smith_ soit inséré textuellement au procès-verbal.
[Illustration]
The following account from the pen of the learned
Biographer of the gallant Admiral, of the
Investiture of Sir Sidney Smith, as a Knight
Commander of the Bath, by his contemporary and
brother in arms, the great and illustrious
Wellington, and the "very extraordinary" document
which follows, will, no doubt, be read with much
interest:
Towards the termination of this year, 1815, our officer was honoured,
in a most particular manner, by his Sovereign.
His Grace the Duke of Wellington having received the gracious commands
of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent of the United Kingdoms,
through his Royal Highness the Duke of York, Grand-master of the most
honourable order of the Bath, to invest Vice-Admiral Sir William
Sidney Smith, Knight-commander-grand-cross of the Royal Military
Order of the Sword, with the insignia of commander of the aforesaid,
his Grace fixed on the 29th of December for the performance of the
ceremony, which took place accordingly at the Palace Elisée-Bourbon,
the Knights-grand-crosses, Knights-commanders, and Companions
being present, as also his Grace the Duke of Richmond and the Right
Honourable the Earl of Hardwick, both Knights of the most noble Order
of the Garter.
At six o'clock the Commander elect arrived at the palace, and
being conducted and supported into the presence of the noble Duke
representing the Sovereign on the occasion, by the two junior
grand-crosses, Sir James Kempt and Sir Henry Colville, after the usual
reverences in advancing, (the Commander elect being already a Knight,
the usual ceremony of dubbing him as such was formally dispensed with,)
his Grace proceeded, according to the order of his Royal Highness the
Grand-Master, which he first read, and invested the Commander with
the insignia of the Order: after which his Grace embraced Sir Sidney
Smith twice most cordially, with every demonstration of the feelings
of esteem and regard, feelings which the Knights, Grand-crosses,
and Commanders, many of whom had served in Egypt as his juniors in
rank, also testified; and it certainly may be said to be a proud day
for England when such a scene took place in the evacuated palace of
Buonaparte, between these two British officers of the two services, one
of whom first checked, and the other of whom finally closed, the career
of that ambitious chieftain.
The banquet being announced, his Grace desired his Excellency the
British ambassador, Sir Charles Stuart, G.C.B., to conduct the new
Knight Commander to the hall of the same, where the members of the
Order, including some foreigners of distinction, amongst whom were Don
Michael Alava, General Muffling, and Count Demetrius Valsamachi, a
nobleman of the Ionian Islands, were entertained most sumptuously in
the usual style of the Duke's elegant hospitality.
After the health of the King and Prince Regent had been drunk, the Duke
gave the health of "Sir Sidney Smith:" the company hereupon rose, and
followed his Grace's example in greeting the new Commander with the
most cordial acclamations. When silence was restored, Sir Sidney Smith
rose, and addressed the company nearly as follows:--
"My Lords, noble Knights, Grand Crosses, Commanders, and Companions!--I
should not do justice to my feelings, were I not to endeavour to
express them in returning you my thanks for the honour you have done me
by this reception: at the same time, I feel I cannot do justice to them
by any mode of expression I can make use of.
"The language of _compliment_ must die on the lips of any man in the
presence of the Duke of Wellington; first, from the inadequacy of all
language to express what every man must feel when speaking of such a
highly distinguished chief; next, from the recollection of the noble
simplicity of his character which disdains it. It will, I trust, be
readily believed, that I must be most truly gratified to be invested
by a knight of such high renown and glorious achievements; and the
more so in this _particular place_, and in an assembly of so many
illustrious and highly distinguished Knights-Commanders and Companions.
A combination of circumstances, which could only happen in the present
times, and are mainly owing to the successful result of the battle
of Waterloo. Noble and illustrious Knights, I beg you to accept the
expression of my humble thanks for the honour you have done me."
The Duke of Wellington having acceded to Sir Sidney Smith's request to
be allowed to propose a toast to the company, he proceeded to say--"I
beg leave to call to remembrance that this day (the 29th of December)
is the anniversary of a re-union of illustrious knights of various
orders, which took place at Vienna, where many Sovereigns were present,
and when the toast I shall have the honour to propose to you was drunk
by them with a manifestation of their conviction, that the object of it
intimately concerned knighthood as such, in all nations. I beg leave to
propose the health and deliverance of the _white Slaves in the Barbary
States_."
The toast was received with the most marked approbation, and drunk
with the usual demonstrations thereof, by three times three regular
and hearty cheers, when the company adjourned to the ball-room,
preceded, on the indication of the Duke of Wellington, by the new
Knight-Commander, supported by his Britannic Majesty's ambassador, in
the same order as on entrance, where a brilliant assembly of ladies,
English, French, Spanish, Russian, &c. &c. continued to increase till
a late hour; his Royal Highness the Duke of Berry, the French, and
the foreign ministers, were also present, and all joined in cordial
congratulations of, and compliments to, the cosmopolite chieftain,
President of the Knights Liberators of the white slaves in Africa;
who, we observed, was decorated with the various orders of the
nations he has contributed by his endeavours to release from the yoke
of the former inhabitants of the palace where this extraordinary
assembly was held; then a prisoner on the top of a rock in the
Southern Atlantic. These circumstances reminded the Parisians of the
prophetic inscriptions left by Sidney Smith on the window shutter of
the Temple prison, when he escaped, of which many copies were taken
and are now again in circulation, and read with great interest since
the accomplishment has taken place: we have been favoured with a
translation, of which we give our readers a copy, the original having
been in French, and respected by various successive guardians of the
tower, till the Prince de Rohan, afterwards Duke de Rohan, subsequently
a prisoner in that tower, removed it for its preservation, and we are
assured he now possesses it.
"SIDNEY SMITH TO BUONAPARTE."
"Fortune's wheel makes strange revolutions, it must be confessed; but
for the term revolution to be applicable, the term should be a complete
one, for a half turn is not a revolution; (see the Dictionary of the
Academy;) you are at present as high as you can mount. Well! I don't
envy you your fortunate situation, for I am better off than you; I am
as low in the career of ambition as a man can descend; so that let
fortune turn her wheel ever so little, and as she is capricious, turn
it she will, I must necessarily mount, and you as necessarily must
descend. I do not make this remark to you to cause you any chagrin;
on the contrary, with the intent to bring you the same consolation I
have at present when you shall arrive at the same point where I am;
yes! the same point; you will inhabit this prison, why not as well as
I? I did not think of such a thing any more than you do at present,
before I found myself brought hither. In party wars 'tis a crime in the
eyes of opponents for a man to do his duty well; you do yours now, and
consequently you by so much irritate your enemies; you will answer me.
"'I fear not their combined hatred, the voice of the people is declared
for me, I serve them well:' that is all very good talking; sleep in
quiet, you'll very soon learn what one gains by serving such a master,
whose inconstancy will perhaps punish you _for all the good_ you do
him. 'Whoever,' (says an ancient author, Pausanias Atticus,) 'puts his
entire confidence in public favour, never passes his life without pain
and trouble, and seldom comes to a good end.'
"Finis coronat opus."
"In fact, I need not prove to you that you will come here and read
these lines, because here you must be to read them. You will certainly
have this chamber, because it is the best, and the keeper, who is a
very civil good sort of man, will, of course, treat you as well as he
does me."
N. B.--These lines having appeared in the Parisian papers in 1799, and
having been put into Buonaparte's hands at Cairo, on his return from
his unsuccessful Syrian expedition, where he was foiled and worsted by
the writer of them, he exclaimed, '_It is very extraordinary_;' and
on his return to Paris, fearing the accomplishment of the remainder
of the prediction, after having procured through Regnauld de St. Jean
d'Angely the sight of a copy in the hands of Baruel Beauvert, he
forthwith ordered the building to be levelled to the ground.
After this display of his country's gratitude to Sir Sidney Smith,
which became so much the more enhanced, as it may be said to have
taken place almost in the presence of so many Sovereigns, Sir Sidney
had little else to do but to enjoy his richly-merited rewards, the
universal admiration, and the approbation of his own mind, ever active
in doing good, not only for his country, but for the whole human race.
He prosecuted with ardour his plans for the abolition of white slavery,
even after the destruction of the pirates' nest in Algiers.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
DEATH AND FUNERAL OF ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY SMITH, G.C.B. &c. &c.
&c.
Sir William Sidney Smith died on Friday Morning, the 26th May 1840, at
his residence, No. 9, Rue d'Aguisseau, in the 76th year of his age.
Honoured by his Sovereign, and decorated with the Orders of almost
every State in Europe, he was, in private life, beloved and respected
by all who had the pleasure of his friendship or acquaintance.
His chivalrous and lofty bearing, his cheerful and animated
conversation, his unbounded fund of anecdote, suavity of temper, and
invariable benevolence, rendered him a most welcome and instructive
companion.--It has been truly written by his Biographer,
"Than Sir Sidney Smith, no one ever inscribed on the pages of History,
and even of Romance, more emphatically deserved the title of Hero."
The mortal remains of this Gallant and Illustrious Admiral were
interred, May 29, in the Cimetiére de l' Est, or Eastern Division
of the Great Cemetery of Pére la Chaise. The body was taken from
his late residence in the Rue d'Aguisseau to the English Episcopal
Church in the same street, followed by his relatives, William and
Herbert Smith, Esquires, Nephews, Captain Arabin, and ---- St. Clair,
Esquire, Sons-in-law of the deceased, with Vice Admiral Sir Charles
Rowley, Bart. Lieut.-General Lord Aylmer, General Count Excelmans,
Peer of France, and the French Admiral Bergeret, as supporters of the
Pall, besides many of the principal English residents in Paris, among
whom were several officers of high rank in the British Navy.--The
introductory part of the service was performed in the Church by the
Right Reverend Bishop Luscombe, and two assistants, and the body was
then borne to the Cemetery, attended by a long cortége of mourning and
private carriages. On the Coffin was placed the Hat, Sword, and Uniform
of the deceased, and on a cushion his epaulettes and numerous orders.
Over the foot of the coffin was spread the British Union Jack. At the
conclusion of the burial service, which was most impressively read by
Bishop Luscombe, three orations were delivered--the first by Monsieur
Jullien, of Paris, who gave a short but comprehensive recapitulation
of the services of Sir Sidney, from his first entering the British
Navy at the age of 13, and also expatiated largely on his amiable and
philanthrophic qualities. The next speaker, M. Caille, Advocate of the
Cour Royale of Paris, after pronouncing a general panegyric on the
character of the deceased as a warrior, proceeded to eulogise him for
his active and generous exertion in promoting the objects of several
philanthropic societies of which he was a member, and to which his
advice, his practical and scientific acquirements, and his inventions,
were so invaluable. Both speakers were loud in their praise of Sir
Sidney, for his having been almost the first to interfere for the
suppression of European slavery in Africa, and for his indefatigable
and strenuous exertions in that humane cause. The third gentleman, M.
Raoul, Advocat of the Court of Cassation, spoke in a similar strain of
eulogium of the character of Sir Sidney as a citizen of the world, ever
ready to aid the cause of humanity. No stronger testimony to his worth
could, however, have been shewn, than to hear his eulogium pronounced
solely by members of a Nation against which, in his career of arms, he
had so successfully and gloriously fought. Sir Sidney Smith was Prince
Magistral and Regent of the Order of the Temple, and a Member of the
Legion of Honour.
The following two Discourses pronounced upon the melancholy occasion,
were, in the kindest and most handsome manner, contributed by M.
Jullien, the learned author of many valuable works.--
DISCOURS PRONONCE AUX FUNERAILLES DE L'AMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH, PAR M.
JULLIEN, DE PARIS,
Son ancien ami et son Collègue, comme membre et
président honoraire de plusieurs Sociétés Savantes ou
Philantropiques, le 29 Mai 1840.
MESSIEURS,
L'homme respectable auquel nous venons adresser un dernier adieu, ne
fut pas seulement un marin et un guerrier célèbre; il fut surtout
un ami constant, dévoué et chevaleresque de l'humanité. Dans sa
longue et aventureuse carrière qu'il a parcourue avec tant d'éclat,
il s'est moins distingué encore par sa brillante valeur que par une
loyauté et une générosité qui lui ont conquis les coeurs, même de
ses ennemis. Né a Londres le 21 Juin 1764, entré au Service en 1777,
avant l'âge de 13 ans, comme simple novice (élève de marine,) a
bord d'une frégate stationnée sur les côtes de l'Amérique, pendant
la guerre de l'indépendance, il passa, en 1779, sur le Sandwich,
vaisseau de 90 canons, sur lequel l'Amiral Sir GEORGE BRIDGES RODNEY
arbora son pavillon de Commandement-en-Chef, et fit voile, le jour de
noël de cette même année, pour Gibraltar, et ensuite pour les Indes
Occidentales, SIDNEY SMITH fut successivement Lieutenant de vaisseau et
Capitaine de corvette. Il prit part à tous les combats qui eurent lieu
dans cet hémisphère jusqu'à la paix de 1783.
En 1788, Sidney Smith passa en Suède, alors en guerre avec la Russie,
ostensiblement comme volontaire auxiliaire, mais en réalité comme
Aide-de-Camp honoraire et intime du roi Gustave III. Après avoir rendu,
en cette qualité, les plus brillant et les plus utiles services à
la Suède, il reçut des mains mêmes de ce monarque chevaleresque, la
décoration de première classe de l'ordre de l'epée. A cette époque, ces
distinctions honorifiques n'étaient point prodiguées et prostituées,
comme elles l'ont été depuis, et elles avaient un véritable prix,
n'étant accordées qu'au mérite et aux services réels.
En 1793, le jeune Smith se rendit comme volontaire en Turquie, où il
conduisit avec lui plusieurs constructeurs de vaisseaux. Peu après,
il était chargé d'un commandement dans la Croisière Anglaise sur les
côtes de France. Le 18 Avril 1796, ayant abordé un vaisseau Français
à la hauteur du Ilaîre, obligé par le courant de remonter la Seine,
il fut fait prisonnier par des forces supérieures qui l'attaquérent;
puis amené à Paris, ou il resta deux ans dans le prisons de l'Abbaye
et du Temple. Echappé de sa prison par l'intervention d'amis dévoués,
il rejoignit la flotte Anglaise en 1798. La même année, appellé à
commander les forces auxiliaires que La Grande-Bretagne mettaìt à
la disposition de la Turquie, où son frère Sir SPENCER SMITH, était
Ministre Plénipotentiaire, auprès de là Porte Ottomane, il se trouve le
1 Mars 1799, jusqu'au 20 Mai suivant, au siège mémorable de Saint Jean
d'Acre, et co-opère puissamment à la défense de cette place.
Nous ne devons, en présence d'un cercueil, rappeler que des souvenirs
compatibles avec notre unanime sympathie pour notre illustre ami,
Bornons-nous à dire que Sidney Smith se montra grand et magnanime
envers les Français faits prisonniers; il sut les garantir, par
son énergique volonté, des violences et de la barbarie Turques; il
mérita leur estime et leur affection; et la loyautè Française aime
à reconnâitre que sa conduite, lors même qu'il était l'allié de nos
ennemis, fut noble et généreuse envers ceux que le sort des armes
mettait en sa puissance. Les généraux Kleber et Desaix, qui entrèrent
en négociation avec lui après le départ de Bonaparte, ont apprécié sa
droiture et son humanité, et lui ont rendu justice.
Sidney Smith, après avoir sauvé la vie de nos compatriotes, rendit
intactes aux savans de l'expédition les caisses contenant les papiers
et les cartes qui devaient servir à écrire l'histoire de la campagne
d'Egypte. Aussi, à la paix le gouvernement Français, sur la proposition
de la commission de l'institut Egyptien lui a offert un exemplaire
de ce magnifique ouvrage, comme un témoignage de la reconnaissance
publique.
Après les événemens d'Egypte es de Syrée, où Sidney Smith avait
contribué à ménager à l'armée Française des conditions honorables pour
revenir dans sa patrie, il quitta lui-même les parages de l'Orient,
et se rendit en Angleterre où il fut élu membre de la Chambre des
Communes, par la ville de Rochester, en 1802.
Nous le voyons reparaître, en 1803, avec un commandement sur les
côtes de la France et de la Hollande. En 1807, il commande la flotte
chargée de défendre la Sicile. En 1806, il est envoyé à Constantinople
où il force les Dardanelles, au mois d'Octobre 1807, il commande les
forces Anglaises mises à la disposition du Portugal; et le 29 Novembre
suivant, une partée de sa flotte accompagne au Bresil la famille
royale, qui va chercher au-delà des mers un asyle dans ses possessions
Americaines.
Dans ses relations avec les Rois et avec les princes souverains, comme
avec les peuples et dans tous les pays où le conduisit sa destinée
aventureuse, Sidney Smith contracta d'honorables et d'illustres
amitiés. Ce fut principalement en 1814, au Congrès de Vienne, qu'il
fixa l'attention de tous les grands personnages réunie alors pour
poster les vases de la Paix Européenne, et qu'il reçut de tous sans
exception les hommages, d'une estime respectueuse. Il conçut alors
la pensée philantroprique de fonder, avec le concours des Monarques
alliés, et de tous les hommes de bien qui partageaient ses vues,
une _institution anti-pirate_, en _association des chevaliers
libérateurs des esclaves blancs et noirs en Afrique_. Car, il avait
souvent déploré, dans ses commandement sur les différens points de
la Mediterranée, les actes cruels de la piraterie barbaresque, trop
longtems tolérée par les puissances Chrétiennes, et il s'était promis
d'y mettre un terme. Plus de cent noms illustres remplirent les listes
de souscription qu'il avait ouvertes. Il entretint, pendant plusieurs
années, une vaste et active correspondance, au moyen de laquelle il
contribua puissamment à faire cesser les malheurs d'un grand nombre
de victimes, des actes de piraterie qui jusqu'alors s'étaient commis
impunément et presque librement sous les yeux de l'Europe civilisée.
Pendant les 25 années de paix générale qui ont précédé sa mort,
le grand homme de guerre que nous pleurons aujourd'hui se montra
constamment homme pacifique et bienfaisant, véritable cosmopolite,
ami sincère de l'humanité, en prenent ce mot dans sa plus complète
acception.
Par une singularité nouvelle de sa destinée, Sidney-Smith meurt en
France, où il reçoit les regrets et les hommages de ses compatriotes,
et de ses concitoyens d'adoption, au moment même où l'Angleterre,
sa patrie, restitue à la France les cendres de Napoléon. La nation
Anglaise paie un tribute d'admiration à ce même Empereur qu'elle n'a
cessé de combattre pendant sa vie. La terre Française reçoit les
dépouilles mortelles de l'Amiral Britannique qui employa longtems
contre elle ses talens et son courage, qui depuis a consacré 25 années
à servir, au milieu des Français et avec leur co-opération, la cause
sacrée de l'humanité et celle du malheur.
Au nombre des titre de gloire de l'Amiral, nous ne devons pas omettre
la louable persévérance avec laquelle il s'est occupé de perfectionner
les moyens de sauvetage et sa grande part à la fondation de la socièté
générale des naufrages, qui a donné un plus grand dèveloppement à ses
vues bienfaisantes. Ainsi les passions humaines s'éteignent en présence
d'un tombeau. Ainsi les nations abjurent de cruelles et injustes
antipathies qui les ont trop longtemps divisées. Ainsi tous les hommes
de bien, quelle que soit leur terre natale, se réunissent pour honorer
l'homme qui, par ses vertus et ses actions, a servi avec dévouement les
grands intérêts de la famille humaine.
[Illustration]
DISCOURS PRONONCÉ SUR LA TOMBE DE SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY SMITH, AMIRAL DE
LA FLOTTE ROUGE D'ANGLETERRE, Lors de ses obsèques, dans le cimetière
de l'Est, à Paris, le 29 Mai 1840, PAR M. CAILLE, Avocat à la Cour
Royale de Paris.
MESSIEURS,
Invité depuis quelques instans seulement, par la famille de l'Amiral
William Sidney Smith, á exprimer de justes regrets sur sa tombe, je
ne puis apporter qu'un bien faible tribut d'admiration à sa mémoire,
surtout après l'éloge que vient de prononcer au nom de l'Ordre du
Temple, dont cet illustre Anglais était le régent, l'un des dignitaires
de cet ordre, et lorsqu'une notice historique de sa vie vous a été
présentée par l'un des litterateurs les plus distingués de la France.
L'histoire transmettra à la postérité les exploits du célèbre marin,
de l'habile négociateur, du généreux philanthrope, dont nous déplorons
la perte. C'est exclusivement sous le rapport moral et philosophique
que j'essaierai de vous retracer quelques épisodes de sa carrière
entièrement consacrée au bonheur de ses semblables, et l'influence
politique qu'il exerça sur les états, avec lesquels il fut mis en
rapport par son gouvernement.
Sidney-Smith, comme vous le savez, comptait déjà dix-huit années de
services militaires distingués, lorsque, à l'âge de trente-quatre ans,
il fut chargé par le ministère Anglais, en qualité de commodore, de
la station maritime de l'Archipel du Levant, en 1798; c'est-à-dire
à l'époque de la conquête de l'Egypte, par l'armée de la république
Française, sous les ordres du général Bonaparte.
Je ne vous peindrai pas sa lutte héroïque avec le géant du siècle, à
Saint-Jean-d'Acre, dont il fit lever le siège après soixante jours
de tranchée: je me hâte de vous signaler un service qui devait être
incalculable dans ses conséquences politiques, et que Sidney-Smith
rendit à la sublime Porte, dont il releva le courage par ses succès:
il sut profiter du crédit obtenu par sa victoire de Saint-Jean-d'Acre,
auprès du sultan Selim III, et de Kléber, général de l'armée Française
en Egypte, depuis le retour de Bonaparte en France, pour négocier le
fameux traité d'El-Arich, du 24 janvier 1801, traité qu'il considérait
comme le préliminaire de la paix entre les puissances belligérantes.
Il y stipula que l'armée française évacuerait l'Egypte, avec armes et
bagages, et serait transportée en France.
Sidney-Smith signa ce traité avec les pleins pouvoirs du ministère
Britannique, dont il était revêtu: le grand-visir et le général Kléber
le signèrent, au nom de leurs gouvernemens respectifs.
Je ne puis trop insister, messieurs, sur cette époque où Sidney-Smith
arbora l'olive de la paix entre trois camps ennemis; il avait prévu
les nouvelles destinnées de la France, et sa haute sagesse avait
préféré de traiter avec elle, dans l'intérêt de la Sublime Porte, et
de gouvernement Britannique lui-même, et surtout dans l'intérêt de
l'humanité, plutôt que de courir la chance faillible des combats.
Mais le ministère Anglais, qui ne lui avait donné qu'à regret des
pouvoirs et des instructions pacifiques, informé que l'armée du grand
visir était forte de 80,000 hommes, tandis que celle de Kléber ne
l'était que de 8000, crut l'occasion favorable d'anéantir la puissance
Française en Egypte, il refusa de ratifier le traité d'El-Arich, et
osa donner l'ordre à l'amiral Keith d'exiger que l'armée Française mît
bas les armes et se rendît prisonnière de guerre. Sidney-Smith fut
profondément affligé de cette violation des lois de la guerre et du
droit des gens.
Dés-lors les hostilités recommencèrent. L'armée Française combattit
avec ce sentiment de l'indignation qui décuple le courage: elle défit
entièrement l'armée ottomane á Héliopolis. Le grand-visir, qui la
commandait, ne dut son salut qu'à la fuite, en laissant aux vainqueurs
ses bagages, et un immense butin.
Ce ne fut q'une année après cette victoire que l'Egypte fut rendue
aux Turcs, par le traité d'Amiens, de 1802; tandis qu'ils l'auraient
recouvrée, sans de nouvelles pertes, dès 1801, si le traité de
Sidney-Smith eût été ratifié, comme il aurait dû l'être, puisqu'il
n'avait fait que se conformer strictement aux instructions de son
gouvernement.
Vous connaissez, messieurs, la brillante réception qui fut faite à
Londres, à Sidney-Smith, lors de son retour dans sa patrie, en 1802;
il y fut accueilli avec le plus grand enthusiasme; le surnom de _Dieu
marin_ lui fut décerné par le peuple. La ville de Rochester s'empressa
de l'élire pour son représentant au Parlement, où il siéga dans les
rangs de l'opposition, entre Shéridan et Fox.
J'appellerai votre attention sur un autre genre de services
rendus à la nation Ottomane, par Sidney-Smith. Pendant son séjour
à Constantinople, il avait acquis une grande influence sur
Mahmoud-Kan II, qui, en 1808, succéda au sultan Mustapha IV, son
frère. Sidney-Smith, par ses conseils, a puissamment contribué aux
importantes révolutions politiques que Mahmoud-Kan II a introduites
dans ses états, et notamment à la charte constitutionnelle que sous
le titre de Hatti-Shériff de Gulaneh, cet immortel sultan a donnée
au peuple Ottoman, charte dont le vice-roi d'Egypte, Méhémet-Ali,
vient d'ordonner l'application, pour la révision de l'horrible
procès intenté, dans la ville de Damas, par le fanatisme de secte,
contre d'honorables Juifs, faussement accusés du meurtre d'un prêtre
catholique.
Il est un plus grand service encore rendu a l'humanité, et auquel
Sidney-Smith a eu la gloire de participer très-activement, c'est
l'abolition de l'esclavage, dans toutes les colonies de la
Grande-Bretagne. Grâce a l'ascendant irrésistible de l'opinion
publique, les gouvernemens de l'Europe seront forcés d'imiter ce
sublime exemple, et de proscrire irrévocablement cet abominable trafic
d'hommes, arrachés a leur patrie, pour être vendus, comme un vil bétail.
Je ne dois pas oublier que, dès l'année 1817, Sidney-Smith infatigable
dans son dévouement a l'humanité, avait établi, a Londres et a Paris,
une association anti-pirate, dont l'objet était de faire cesser
la traite des blancs, exercée impunément, en présence de l'Europe
civilisée, par les corsaires d'Alger, de Maroc et de Tunis.
Dans les dernières années d'une vie illustrée par tant d'actes
mémorables, Sidney-Smith s'occupa de la recherche des moyens de
sauvetage, pour les navires exposés aux tempêtes de la mer. Il a eu
l'honneur d'être dans cette découverte l'un des inventeurs qui out le
plus approché de la solution du problème de la garantie contre les
naufrages.
Telle a été, messieurs, la carrière de Sidney-Smith, promu
successivement à tous les grades de la marine, et jusqu' à celui
d'Amiral de la Flotte Rouge d'Angleterre, que lui conféra le roi
Guillaume IV; il a été de plus décoré de tous les ordres des souverains
de l'Europe, en reconnaissance des nombreux services qu'il leur a
rendus.
A la vue du triste cercueil, qui contient les restes de Sidney-Smith,
nous bornerons-nous au stérile récit de ses nobles actions? Non,
messieurs. Le vénérable évêque de l'église Anglicane, qui préside avec
tant de dignité, à ces funérailles, vient d'invoquer, dans sa prière,
le texte de l'Evangile, sur l'immortalité de l'âme, qu'il me soit
permis d'ajouter à cette révélation du Christianisme, que les progrès
de la science out démontré cette vérité, sans lui faire rien perdre du
charme de l'espérance.
En effet, dans ce cercueil, que la tombe n'a point encore dérobé à
nos regards, que reste-t-il? Des débris d'organes inanimés. Mais ces
nerfs, cette membrane qui les enveloppa, cette pulpe cérébrale qui les
pénétra, qu'étaient-ils? de la matière! Ah! de ces organes matériels,
à la Sensation, il y a un abîme! Et de la Sensation à la Pensée, un
nouvel abîme! Elle est donc immatérielle, cette Pensée, qui distingue
si éminemment notre espèce, des autres êtres organisés!
N'est-ce pas la Pensée qui créa les arts et les sciences, qui,
s'élevant jusqu'à la cause première, terme de ses conquêtes, y
découvrit la Divinité, dont elle établit le culte universel, comme le
plus puissant mobile de la civilisation?
Combien n'est-il pas consolant, au milieu des parens et des nombreux
amis qui entourent cette tombe, d'y professer, d'y confirmer le dogme
de l'immortalité de l'âme, et de pouvoir y proclamer que Sidney-Smith
n'est pas mort tout entier?
Oui, messieurs, le principe intellectuel qui nous anime, est
incontestablement un être, et cet être est immortel. Pourrait-il donc
s'anéantir, quand les organes matériels de nos corps sont eux-mêmes
éternels dans leurs élémens?
L'orateur qui vient de retracer avec tant de talent, la carrière de
l'illustre Amiral, vous a signalé la restitution des cendres de
l'empereur Napoleon a la France, par le gouvernement Britannique, comme
un gage de la parfaite harmonie, heureusement rétablie entre les deux
nations. Je partage ce favourable augure, et tel fut le vœu le plus
intime de Sidney-Smith, qui ne cessa de répéter que la civilisation
du monde tenait essentiellement à l'alliance de la France et de
l'Angleterre.
A l'aspect des restes de Napoléon, traversant l'Océan pour recouvrer un
tombeau dans sa patrie, j'aime à prévoir que les restes de Sidney-Smith
seront pareillement réclamés par son gouvernement, et qu'à leur tour,
ils traverseront la mer, pour être déposés à Westminster, dans le lieu
consacré à la sépulture des rois et des reines, ainsi qu'à celle des
grands hommes de l'Angleterre.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY AND POSSESSIONS OF THE ORDER IN IRELAND.
The Order of Knights Templars was introduced into Ireland about the
year 1174, by Richard, surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, or
Strigul. A Priory was founded by him in that year, under the invocation
of St. John the Baptist, at Kilmainham, in the County of Dublin, for
Knights Templars, (see Archdall's Monasticon Hibernicum, pages 222 et
seq.) and King Henry II. granted his confirmation. Hugh de Cloghall was
the first Prior, and enjoyed that office till about the year 1190. The
noble founder had enfeoffed the Prior in the whole lands of Kilmainham;
and dying in 1176, was interred in Christ Church. The two Orders
of Knights Templars and Hospitallers were confirmed the same year.
After this, Hugh Tirrel bestowed upon the Prior of this hospital the
lands of Chapel-Izod and Kilmehanock, "free from all secular services
and burthens, with all liberties and free customs, in wood and open
country, in meadows and pastures, in roads and paths," &c. &c.
Kilmainham continued to be the Grand Priory or Preceptory of the
Templars, till their suppression in 1312; and the Superior of the
Order, according to Sir James Ware, sat in the House of Peers as a
Baron, a privilege enjoyed, as regarded the military orders, only by
the Grand Priors of Kilmainham for the Templars, and of Wexford for
the Hospitallers. He is styled by Archdall, quoting different ancient
records, sometimes _Prior_, and sometimes _Master_, as in the case of
Maurice de Prendergast, 1205 and 1210; sometimes _Preceptor_, as "D.
Walens, Preceptor of the Templars, 1247;" sometimes _Grand Master_, as
"1266, Robert was Grand Master of the Templars in Ireland this year."
In 1288, we find "William Fitz-Roger was _Prior_ this year, and Thomas
de Thoulouse _Master_ of the Templars;" in 1296, "Walter le Bachelour
was _Master_, and William de Rosse was _Prior_, who the same year was
made Lord Deputy of Ireland." He continued in these offices till 1302,
when he was made Chief Justice; and appears in this year also to have
preferred his complaint against the sheriff of Dublin for an illegal
seizure, as "the _Master_ of the Templars." And in 1309, Gerald, son of
Maurice, Lord of Kerry, is spoken of as "the last _Grand Prior_ of the
Order."
The subordinate governors of the Order appear to have been styled
indiscriminately Preceptors or Commanders; and their castles or estates
Preceptories or Commanderies. These were (according to Ware and
Archdall) at Clontarf, in the county of Dublin, founded in Henry II.'s
reign, as it is supposed by the Nettervilles; St. Sepulchre, in the
city of Dublin or its suburbs, near the place where the Archbishop's
palace stands; Kilsaran, in the county of Louth, founded in the 12th
century by Maud de Lacie; Kilbarry and Killure, the one about a mile
and a half from Waterford, and the other two miles east of that city,
in the county of the same name, both founded in the 12th century, the
founders unknown; Crooke, in the harbour of Waterford, four miles east
of the city, founded in the 13th century, by the Baron of Curragmore;
Clonaul, in Tipperary, as also one at Thurles, in the same county,
where a castle now standing was, according to the tradition of the
country, for no record exists, the castle of the Knights Templars;
Teach-Temple, or Temple House, in the county of Sligo, founded in the
time of Henry III.; Mourne, in the county of Cork, founded in the reign
of King John, by Alexander de Sancta Helena; Killergy, or Killarge, in
the county of Carlow, "founded in the reign of King John, by Gilbert
de Borard, for Knights Templars, under the invocation of St. John the
Baptist; Kilclogan, in the county of Wexford, founded in the 13th
century by the family of O'More, which appears to have had a large
estate attached to it, from the report made in the thirty-second year
of King Henry VIII., quoted by Archdall, page 748; and Dundrum, in the
county of Down, where is a strong castle, now in ruins, said to have
been built by Sir John de Courcy."
All these Commanderies and Preceptories were, together with the Grand
Priory of Kilmainham, granted on the abolition of the Order, to the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in whose possession they continued
till the dissolution of monasteries in the reign of King Henry VIII.
It may not be uninteresting to add the account of Archdall regarding
the circumstances which attended the persecution and attempted
destruction of the Order _in Ireland_.
"In 1307, Walter de Ewias, or de Aqua, being Prior, the King (Edward
II.) transmitted to John Wogan, Justiciary of Ireland, the order
made for the suppression of the Knights Templars in England, on the
Wednesday after the feast of the Epiphany, enjoining him to have it
executed in Ireland without delay, and before the rumour of what was
done in England could reach this kingdom. The mandate was accordingly
obeyed, and on the morrow of the Purification the Templars were
everywhere seized."
"1309. The King, by writ, dated September the 29th, did further command
the said Justiciary to apprehend, without delay, all the Templars that
had not yet been seized, and them safely to keep in the Castle of
Dublin, together with those who had been before apprehended."
"1311. On the petition of Henry Danet, or De Tanet, the late Master
of the Templars, and the other members of that Order, the King, by
writ, dated December 4th, did grant for their support the manors of
Kilclogan, Crooke, and Kilbarry."
"1312. This year, on the morrow of St. Lucia the Virgin, the moon
appeared variously coloured, on which day it was finally determined
that the Order of Knights Templars should be totally abolished."
* * * * *
"The trial of the Templars was conducted with great solemnity in the
city of Dublin, before Friar Richard Balybyn, minister of the Order
of the Dominicans in Ireland, Friar Philip de Slane, lecturer of the
same, and Friar Hugh St. Leger. Amongst other witnesses against the
Knights, were Roger de Heton, Guardian of the Franciscan Friars;
Walter de Prendergast, their lecturer; Thomas, the Abbot; Simon, the
Prior of the Abbey of St. Thomas-the-Martyr, and Roger, Prior of the
Augustinian Friary in Dublin. The depositions against the Templars were
weakly supported, yet they were condemned; but more indeed through
blind compliance with the prevailing practice throughout other parts
of Europe, than any demerits being proved against their persons. Their
lands and possessions of every kind were bestowed upon the Knights of
St. John of Jerusalem by the Pope, which grant was confirmed by the
King, who at the same time entered a protest of his rights against the
assumed power of the Pope."
[Illustration]
EXTRACT OF CHARTER BY KING JAMES THE IV. OF SCOTLAND, CONFIRMING GRANTS
BY KINGS MALCOLM IV., ALEXANDER II., ALEXANDER III., JAMES II., AND
JAMES III., TO THE KNIGHTS OF THE HOSPITAL AND TEMPLE.
Jacobus Dei Gracia Rex Scotorum. OMNIBUS probis hominibus tocius
terre sue clericis et laicis salutem. SCIATIS nos quasdam cartas
et euidentias per quondam nostros illustrissimos predecessores
Scotorum reges factas et concessas Deo et SANCTO HOSPITALI DE
JERUSALEM ET FRATRIBUS EIUSDEM MILITIE TEMPLI SALOMONIS, videlicet,
CARTAM confirmacionis quondam serenissimi patris nostri cuius anime
propicietur. Deus factam super carta confirmacionis quondam aui nostri
Jacobi Secundi regis Scotorum in qua inseruntur quatuor carte quondam
predecessorum nostrorum Malcolmi et Alexandri Scotorum regum facte
dicto Hospitali de Jerusalem, nunc Torfiching nuncupat. ac ffratribus
eiusdem de nonnullis elemosinis terris toftis libertatibus tholoneis
consuetudinibus in empcionibus et vendicionibus qualitercunque
contingen. amerciamentis et priuilegiis ac super feodo et forisfactura
suorum libere tenencium ut in dictis quatuor cartis predecessorum
nostrorum in eisdem cartis confirmacionis in forma maiori insertis
plenius constat et continetur de mandato, nostro uisam lectam inspectam
diligenter examinatam, sanam integram non rasem non cancellatam nec in
aliqua sua parte suspectam ad plenum intellexisse sub hac forma:--(1.)
JACOBUS Dei gracia rex Scotorum, omnibus probis hominibus tocius
terre sue clericis et laicis salutem,--Sciatis nos quasdam cartas
et euidentias per nostras illustrissimos, predecessores factas et
concessas, Deo et sancto Hospitali de Jerusalem ffratribus eiusdem
militie Templi Salomonis, videlicet, Cartam confirmacionis quondam
nostri serenissimi progenitoris Jacobi Secundi Scotorum regis factam
super cartis quondam Malcolmi et Alexandri Scotorum regum dicto
Hospitali de Jerusalem, nunc Torfiching nuncupato ac ffratribus
eiusdem de nonnullis elemosinis terris toftis libertatibus tholoneis
consuetudinibus in empcionibus et vendicionibus et qualitercunque
contingen. amerciamentis et priuilegiis vt in quatuor cartis
predecessorum nostrorum in dicta carta confirmacionis in maiori
forma insertis continetur de mandato, nostro uisam lectam inspectam
et diligenter examinatam sanam integram non rasam non cancellatam
nec in aliqua sui parte suspectam, ad plenum intellexisse, sub
hac forma. (2.) JACOBUS Dei gracia rex Scotorum, Omnibus probis
hominibus tocius terre nostre clericis et laicis salutem, Sciatis
nos uidisse inspexisse et diligenter examinasse cartas et euidentias
illustrissimorum progenitorum et antecessorum nostrorum, viz. Malcolmi
Alexandri et Alexandri regum Scocie, quarum tenores de uerbo in verbum
sequuntur. [Here follow the respective grants of confirmation by the
above Sovereigns, three of which are addressed to the Hospitallers,
and one (by Alexander II.) to the Knights Templars. These we could
have wished to have quoted at large, but find it would exceed our
limits. The Charter then proceeds]--"QUASQUIDAM" cartas et euidencias
tam dictas cartas confirmacionum quondam patris et aui nostrorum
qua measdam quatuor cartas predictorum predecessorum ac donaciones
concessiones libertates priuilegia ceteraque omnia et singula in
eisdem contentis in omnibus suis punctis et articulis condicionibus
et modis ac circumstanciis suis quibuscunque forma pariter et effectu
in omnibus et per omnia ut premissum est approbamus ratificamus et
pro nobis et successoribus nostris pro perpetuo confirmamus. Ac
insuper, ubi in dictis cartis non clare constat in illo termino 'de
tholoneis' nos tamen ob singulares specialesque fauorem, amorem, et
delectionem, quos gerimus ergo dilectum familiarem militem, nostrumque
consiliarium delectum Wilelmum Knollis, modernum preceptorem eiusdem
Loci de Torfichin, nostrum thesaurarium, Volumus, Concessimus, et hac
presenti carta nostra Concedimus eidem Preceptori et suis successoribus
Preceptoribus de Torfiching ut sint liberi a solucione alicuius custume
de quibuscunque bonis et mercanciis suis destinandis per eosdem ad
partes extra-marinas pro solucione ipsius Preceptoris responsionis, que
vero responsio extendit ad ducentos ducatos, et quod annuatim in nostro
saccario videatur ad quantam summam custume dicta bona se extendunt
et tantum eidem Preceptori allocatur. In cuius rei testimonium, huic
presenti carte nostre confirmacionis magnum sigillum apponi precipimus.
Testibus, &c. Apud Edinburge decimo nono die mensis Octobris anno
domini millesimo quadringentesimo octuajesimo octauo et regni nostri
primo.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
S. M. G. D. O.
We, the Elect Masters of the Venerable Society sacred to John, or of
the Social Order of Freemasons, Rulers of the Lodges or Tabernacles,
constituted at London, Edinburgh, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, Lyons,
Frankfort, Hamburgh, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Madrid, Venice, Ghent,
Regiomonte, Brussels, Dantzic, Middleburgh, and in the City of Cologne,
in Chapter assembled in the said City of Cologne, in the year, month,
and days aftermentioned. Our Preses being the Master of the Lodge
established in this City,--a venerable Brother and most learned,
prudent, and judicious man, called to preside over these deliberations,
by our unanimous vote;--do, by these letters addressed to all the
above-mentioned Lodges,--to our Brethren present and future, declare,
that forasmuch as we have been considering the designs, which in these
calamitous times embroiled, by Civil dissensions and discord, have been
imputed to our foresaid Society, and to all the Brethren belonging to
this Order of Freemasons, or of John, opinions, machinations, secret,
as well as openly detected; all which are utterly foreign to us, and
to the Spirit, Design, and Precepts, of the Association. It moreover
appears that we, the Members of this Order, (chiefly because we are
bound by those inscrutable secrets of our connection and covenant
which are most sacredly kept by us all,) in order that we may be more
effectually vilified among the uninitiated and profane, and that we
may be devoted to public execration, are accused of the crime of
reviving the Order of the Templars, and commonly designated by that
appellation, as if we had combined and conspired for the purpose of
recovering, as Members of that Order, its property and possessions, and
avenging the death of the last Grand Master, who presided over that
Order, on the posterity of the Kings and Princes who were guilty of
the crime, and who were the authors of the extinction of said Order;
as if, with that view, we were exciting schisms in the Churches, and
disturbance and sedition in the Temporal Government and Dominions;
as if we were influenced by hatred and enmity against the Pope, the
Chief Pontiff, the Emperor, and all Kings; as if obeying no external
power, but only the superiors and elected of our own Association,
which is spread throughout the whole World,--we executed their
secret mandates and clandestine designs, by the private intercourse
of correspondence and emissaries; as if, in fine, we admitted none
into our Mysteries but those who, after being scrutinised and tried
by bodily tortures, became bound and devoted to our Conclaves.
THEREFORE, having all these considerations in view, it hath seemed
to us expedient, and even absolutely necessary, to expound the true
state and origin of our Order, and to what it tends, as an institute
of charity itself, according as these principles are recognised and
approved by those who are most versant in the Highest Craft, and by
masters enlightened in the genuine sciences of the Institution, and to
give forth to the Lodges or Conclaves of our society the principles
thus expounded, digested, and organised, as an examplar authenticated
by our signatures, whereby a perpetual record may remain of this our
renewed covenant, and the unshaken integrity of our purpose; and also
in case, through the daily increasing propensity of the people to
animosities, enmity, intolerance, and wars, this our society should
hereafter be more and more oppressed, inasmuch as to be unable to
maintain its standing and consolidation, and thus be dispersed to some
distant regions of the earth; and in case, through lapse of time, the
society itself should become less observant of its integrity, purity,
and incorruptibility, nevertheless, in better times and more convenient
circumstances, there may remain, if not the whole, yet perhaps one
or other of the duplicates of these presents, by which standard the
Order, if subverted, may be restored, and if corrupted or estranged
from its purpose and designs, may be reformed. For THESE CAUSES, by
these our universal letters, compiled according to the context of the
most ancient monuments which are extant, concerning the objects of the
institution,--the rites and customs of our most ancient and most secret
order,--We, Elect Masters, influenced by the love of the true light,
do, by the most solemn sanctions, adjure all fellow-labourers, to whom
these presents now or in time hereafter may come, that they withdraw
not themselves from the truth contained in this document. MOREOVER, to
the enlightened, as well as to the darker world, whose common safety
concerns and strongly interests us, we announce and proclaim,--
(A) That the Society of Free Masons, or Order of Brethren attached
to the solemnities of St. John, derive not their origin from the
Knights Templars, nor from any other order of knights, ecclesiastic or
secular, detached or connected with one or more, neither have any or
the least communication with them, directly, or through any manner of
intermediate tie; that they are more ancient than any order of knights
of this description, and existed in Palestine and Greece, as well as
in every part of the Roman Empire, long before the Holy Wars, and the
times of the expeditions of the above mentioned knights into Palestine.
That from various monuments of approved authenticity, the fact is to
us quite notorious, that this our Association took its origin from the
time when first on account of the various Sects of the Christian World,
a few adepts distinguished by their life, their moral doctrine, and
their sacred interpretation of the Arcanic Truths, withdrew themselves
from the multitude; for the learned and enlightened men, who lived in
those times, (the true Christians who were least infected with the
errors of Paganism,) when they considered, that through a corrupt
religion, schisms, and not peace, and neither toleration nor charity,
but atrocious wars, were promulgated, bound themselves by a most
solemn Oath, in order more effectually to preserve uncontaminated the
Moral Principles of this Religion, which are implanted in the mind of
man, that to these they would devote themselves; that the True Light,
arising gradually out of darkness, might proceed to the subduing of
superstitions, by the cultivation of every Human virtue, and to the
establishment of peace and comfort among men. That under these benign
auspices the Masters of this community are called Brethren dedicated
to John, following the example and invitation of John the Baptist,
Precursor of the Rising Light,--first among the Martyr Stars of the
Morning.
That these Doctors and Scribes who were also, according to the custom
of those times, called MASTERS, did, from the most experienced and
best of the Disciples, collect and choose fellow labourers, whence
arose the name of Socius. When others were elected, but not chosen,
they were designed, after the manner of the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman
Philosophers, by the appellation of Disciple.
(B) That our Association now, as formerly, consists of the Three
Degrees of Disciple, Fellow, and Master. The last, or Masters,
admitting of Elect Masters and Superior Elect Masters. But that all
Associations or Fraternities so called, who admit of more or other
denominations or subdivisions, and who ascribe to themselves another
origin, and, intermeddling with Political and Ecclesiastical affairs,
make promises and protestations under whatever titles they may assume,
of Freemasons and Brethren, attached to the solemnities of John, or
others which belong not to our Order, are to be expelled and ejected
from it as Schismatics.
(Γ) That among the Doctors, Masters of this Order, cultivating the
Sciences of Mathematics, Astronomy, and other Studies, a mutual
interchange of doctrine and light was maintained, which led to the
practice of electing out of those who were already Elect Masters,
one in particular, who, as excelling the rest, should be venerated
as Supreme Elect Master or Patriarch. Being known only to the Elect
Master, he was regarded both as the Visible and Invisible Head and
Chief of our whole Association; so that, according to this Ordnance,
the Supreme Master and Patriarch, though known to very few, yet still
exists. The premises being compiled from the mass of parchments and
charter of the Order itself, committed, by authority of our Patrons,
with the sacred documents, in future to the charge of our Preses
and his successors; and being herewith diligently compared by W. E.
Santona, by authority of the same illustrious Patriarch, ordain and
command as follows:
(Δ) The government of our society, the mode and rule according to which
the flaming light may be imparted and diffused among the illuminated
brethren, as well as the profane world, rest entirely with the highest
Elect Masters. To them belongs the charge of watching and taking care,
lest the members, of whatever rank or order, should attempt any thing
contrary to the true principles of our Society. Upon the same chiefs of
the Society are incumbent the defence of the Order, the preservation
and safeguard of its welfare, which, should occasion require, they
are to protect at the expense of their fortunes, and the risk of
their lives, against all who attack our Institution, whatsoever and
wheresoever this may be done.
(Ε) To us it is by no means clear, that this association of brethren,
prior to the year one thousand four hundred and forty, were known
by any other denomination than that of _Joannite Brethren_; but at
that time we are informed, the fraternity, especially in Valence in
Flanders, began to be called by the name of _Free Masons_, from which
period, in some parts of Hanover, Hospitals began to be built by the
aid and pecuniary assistance of the Brethren, for those who laboured
under the Sacred Fire, called St. Anthony's Evil.
(Ζ) Although in works of benevolence we pay no regard to religion
or country, we however consider it safe and necessary hitherto to
receive none into our Order but those who, in the society of the
profane and unenlightened, are professedly Christians. In conducting
the inquisition and trial of those who apply for the initiation of
the First Degree, which is that of Disciple, no bodily tortures are
employed, but only those trials which tend to develope the nature,
inclinations, and dispositions of the Candidates.
(Η) To those duties which are commanded and undertaken by a solemn
oath, are added those of fidelity and obedience to the secular rulers,
lawfully placed over us.
(Θ) The principle on which we act, and all these our efforts, to
whatever purpose and direction they may tend, are expressed in
these two precepts:--"Love and regard all men as Brethren and
Relations--render to God what is God's, and to Cæsar what is Cæsar's."
(Ι) The Secrets and Mysteries which veil our undertakings conduce
to this end,--that without ostentation we may do good, and without
disunion of action, prosecute our designs to the uttermost.
(Κ) We celebrate annually the Memory of St. John the Forerunner of
Christ, and Patron of our Community.
(Λ) These, and the rest of the corresponding ceremonies of the
Institution, though conducted in the meetings of the Brethren by signs,
or speech, or otherwise, do nevertheless differ totally from the rites
of the Churches.
(Μ) The above is considered a Brother of the Joannite Society, or
a Freemason, who, in a lawful manner, by the help, and under the
direction of some Elect Master, with the assistance of at least seven
Brethren, is initiated into our mysteries, and who is ready to prove
his adoption by the Signs and Tokens which are used by other Brethren;
but in which Signs and Words are included, those which are in use in
The Edinburgh Lodge or Tabernacle and its Affiliated Lodges; as also in
the Hamburgh, Rotterdam, and Middleburg Tabernacles, and in that which
is found erected at Venice, whose ministrations and labours, though
they be ordained after the manner of the Scots, differ not from those
which are used by us, in so far as they respect the origin, design, and
institution.
(Ν) This our Society, being superintended by one General Prince, while
the different governments of which it consists are ruled by various
Superior Masters, adapted to various regions and kingdoms, as need
requires. Nothing is more necessary than a certain conformity among
all those who are dispersed throughout the whole World, as members of
one aggregate body; and likewise an intercourse of missionaries and
correspondence harmonising with them, and with their doctrines in all
places.--Wherefore, these present letters, testifying the nature and
spirit of our Society, shall be sent to all and sundry Colleges of the
Order as yet existing. For these reasons above-mentioned, nineteen
uniform duplicates of letters, composed in this form, exactly of
the same tenor, confirmed and corroborated by our subscriptions and
signatures, are given at Cologne on the Rhine, in the year one thousand
five hundred and thirty-five, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of
June, according to the Era, designated Christian.
Harmanius + Carlton, Jo. Bruce, Fr. V. Upna, Cornelius Banning, De
Colligni, Virieux, Johani Schröder, Kofman, 1535, Jacobus Praepositus,
A. Nobel, Ignatius de la Terre, Dona Jacob Uttenhove, Falk Nacolus, Va
Noot, Phillippus Melanthon, Hugssen, Wormer Abel.
Certified in form to the printed examplar, deposited into
the Archives of the Gr. and Sublime Chap. of the
Temples Interior, Sitting in the East of Namur.
The GR. Chancellor of that Chief Chap.
++ DE MARCHOT.
[Illustration]
EDINBURGH: ALEX. LAWRIE & CO.
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "The Greek Convent adjoins the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. From
the terrace of this Convent, you see a spacious enclosure, in which
grow two or three olive trees, a palm tree, and a few cypresses. The
house of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem formerly occupied this
deserted spot."--CHATEAUBRIAND.
[2] At a subsequent period, the war-dress of the Knights Hospitallers
was a scarlet tunic, or sopra vest, on which was embroidered the sacred
emblem of the Order. In the Convent, they wore a black robe similarly
adorned, with a cap of dignity. The knights were authorised to wear
these dresses by a Bull of Pope Alexander IV, in 1259. The other
insignia were,--_First_, A star which was worn on the left breast, in
the form of a cross patée, having eight points, symbolical of the eight
beatitudes and the eight languages, which composed the Order; _Second_,
A badge formed of a white enamelled cross, having the angles charged
with the supporters, or principal device, of the respective kingdom to
which the language belonged. This, surmounted by an imperial Crown, was
worn originally suspended from the neck by a gold chain, latterly by
a black ribband; to these were added the sword, scarf, spurs, &c. As
an armorial distinction, the knights were privileged to augment their
family arms with a chief, _gules_, charged with a cross, _argent_; and
exteriorly adorned the shield with the mantle, cap of dignity, banners,
badge, and motto, _Pro Fide_. These insignia, however, were of more
modern adoption.--_Vide_ HOSPITALLARIA.
[3] The first introduction of the Knights Hospitallers into England
took place, according to Tanner, in 1101. Soon after this, the Grand
Priory of St. John, at Clerkenwell, London, was founded by the Lord
Jordan Briset. In 1185 it was formally dedicated by the Patriarch
Heraclius of Jerusalem. Matthew Paris mentions that, in 1237, there
went from the Priory of Clerkenwell three hundred knights to the wars
in the Holy Land. It was set on fire by the rebels under Wat Tyler
in 1381, and burnt for seven days; and it was not finally repaired
till one hundred and twenty-three years afterwards, when the Grand
Prior Docwra completed its reconstruction. This building is said to
have exhibited curious specimens of the Arts of Europe and Asia, and
contained collections of books and other rarities.--(CROMWELL'S HIST.
PARISH CLERKENWELL.)
The old gateway of St. John's, Clerkenwell, is nearly all that remains
of the once princely Priory, the revenues of which, at the time of the
Reformation, amounted to the sum of two thousand three hundred and
eighty-five pounds twelve shillings and eightpence sterling. Besides
the above, the Order possessed subordinate priories or establishments
in almost every county of England and Scotland; to which were attached
valuable lands, with rights of venison and fishing, and immunities of
various kinds.
[4] The other original associates of the Order were the Knights Roral,
Gundemar, Godfrey Bisol, Payens de Montidier, Archibald de St. Aman,
Andrew de Montbar, and the Count of Provence, according to the German
historian, WILCKE.
[5] _Bauseant_ or _Bausant_, was, in old French, a pie-bald horse.
The word is still preserved with its original meaning in the Scotch
dialect, in the form _Bawsent_:--
"His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face,
Aye gat him freends in ilka place,"
says Burns, describing the "Ploughman's Collie" in his Tale of the "Twa
Dogs;" and in the Glossary, Dr. Currie explains _Bawsent_ as meaning
"having a white stripe down the face." Some conceive that the word
_Beauseant_ may be merely an old variation of the modern French word
_Bienséant_, as referring to something handsome or attractive.
[6] Expediency afterwards prompted the infraction of this original
rule. Gerard de Ridefort, Grand Master of the Order, was liberated by
Saladin, along with several other captives, for no less a ransom than
the city of Ascalon. In 1244 also, the Templars endeavoured to redeem
their brethren from captivity in Egypt.
[7] Mathew Paris charges a certain Templar, named Ferrandus, with
having gone over to the Infidels, and betrayed the state of the
Christian garrison in Damietta, A. D. 1221. This deserter was reputed
to have been a knight "_in armis strenuus et consilio circumspectus_."
[8] The _affiliated_ were persons of various ranks, and of both sexes,
who, without any outward sign of connection, were acknowledged by the
Order as entitled to its protection, and admitted to a participation
in certain of its privileges,--such as exemption from the effects
of ecclesiastical interdicts, which secured to them at least the
occasional service of the mass, and Christian burial in consecrated
ground. These were advantages of the last importance, for which both
men and women, Knights and Burghers, were content to pay considerable
sums while alive, and leave to the Treasury of the Temple the residue
of their property after death.
The _donates_ and _oblates_ stood in a somewhat different relation
to the Order, being personally dedicated or offered, as their titles
denote, to the Society. These were either youths whom their parents
destined for the service of the Order, when they had attained a proper
age, or they were adults who bound themselves gratuitously to aid and
assist the Order so long as they lived, solely in admiration of its
sanctity and excellence, a portion of which they humbly hoped to share.
Among these latter, all classes were to be found,--princes and priests,
as well as other persons. (See Secret Societies of the Middle Ages.)
[9] No specific sum appears to have been exacted from entrants, but
each was expected to pay according to his means. Thus it is recorded of
the Prince Guy Dauphin, that he gave to the Order 1500 pieces (Livr.
Tourn.) for his own entry-money, and a contribution of 200 a-year in
name of his parents.
Wealthy Squires of the Order, of respectable though not noble
parentage, gave sometimes large sums at their reception. Of this class,
Bartholomew Bartholet gave property to the amount of 1,000 livres
Tournois to be admitted, and William of Liege gave 200 a-year of the
same circulation.
[10] Hugo de Payens, the founder of the Order, set a laudable example
of rigour in the selection of candidates. When a certain Knight, named
Hugo d'Amboise, was desirous of being received into the Order, the
Grand Master refused to let him take the vows, because he had oppressed
the people of Marmoutier, and disobeyed a judicial sentence of the
Count of Anjou; and until he had given satisfaction to all whom he had
injured, and otherwise amended his life, he was informed that he could
not be admitted into the Temple.
[11] The Rule of St. Bernard prohibited the Templars from even looking
at a woman. The translation of the statute, chap. lxxii, is as
follows:--
"We hold it to be dangerous to all religion to look too much on the
countenance of women, and, therefore, let no Brother presume to kiss
either widow or virgin, or mother or sister, or aunt, or any other
woman. Let the militia of Christ, therefore, shun feminine kisses, by
which men are often exposed to danger, that with a pure conscience and
secure life, they may walk continually in the sight of God."
[12] This stronghold of the Order was built about 1217, under the Grand
Master, William de Chartres, who employed a number of pilgrims of the
masonic class in its erection. Hence the appellation of Pilgrim Castle
which it received.
[13] The Knights in general seem to have been buried with their swords
placed beside the body. Several skeletons are said to have been
found in the Templar Cemetery at Mount Hooly, near Edinburgh, lying
cross-legged, with swords by their sides. See MAITLAND'S HISTORY OF
EDINBURGH.
[14] The first preceptory of the Templars in England was founded at
Holborn, then in the suburbs of London, whence they afterwards removed
to Fleet Street about 1185. The only remains of the latter place of
residence is the beautiful circular edifice still called the Temple
Church, supposed to have been built after the model of the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. This seems to have been a favourite
form with the Order. The Church of St. Sepulchre at Cambridge, built
by the Templars, is of a circular construction, having the appearance
of a fortified tower. In examining this building (says Mr. Britton)
we are struck with its ponderous and durable appearance, as if it was
intended for a castellated edifice. The masonry of the ancient walls,
and also of the pillars and arches, is such as to evince great skill in
the building, the stones being all squared and chisselled with the most
perfect accuracy to fit their respective places. At Northampton, the
same form seems to have been observed. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
(says Pennant, speaking of this place,) was supposed to have been built
by the Knights Templars on the model of that at Jerusalem. Others
of the chapels appertaining to the Order do not, however, present a
similar plan.
The principal Bailliwicks of the Order in England were the following,
viz. London, Kent, Warwick, Waesdone, Lincoln, Lindsey, Bolingbroke,
Widine, Agerstone, York. In these were seventeen preceptories. Most
places having the prefix of _Temple_ belonged to the Knights,--such
as Temple-Bruer in Lincolnshire, where, Camden says, that in his time
there were the ruins of a church or chapel, "not unlike that of the new
Temple at London." Probably it was of the circular form above noticed.
Some account of the Irish preceptories will be found in the Appendix.
[15] This seems somewhat countenanced by the great additions made
to the buildings of the Temple at Paris previous to the arrival of
the Grand Master. In 1306, was erected a large square tower, flanked
by four round towers, with an adjacent building on the north side,
surmounted by turrets. The principal tower contained four stories, in
each of which there was an apartment thirty feet square: three of the
inferior towers had also each a hall. The remaining tower contained
a fine staircase, which conducted to the different chambers and
battlements. The walls of the central keep were nine feet in thickness.
This _Tower of the Temple_ has been rendered memorable in modern
times by the captivity of the unfortunate Louis XVI. and his family.
It is also noted as the place of imprisonment, by Buonaparte, of the
celebrated Sir Sidney Smith, now the Head of the Order of the Temple.
[16] Jacques de Molay was elected Grand Master in the year 1297, and
was the second elevated to that dignity after the expulsion of the
Christians from the Holy Land. He was of an ancient family in Besançon,
Franche Compté, and entered the Order in the year 1265.
[17] It is probable that part of this treasure was formed from the
spoils of Greece, which the Templars had been invited from their
retirement to invade, at the instigation of the King of Sicily. After
overrunning great part of that country, they returned loaded with the
plunder of its cities, leaving their possession to some allies.--_Vide_
_Michaud_, _Histoire des Croisades_.
[18] A French writer gives the following opinion regarding the origin
of some of these charges:--"Les Chevaliers supportaient un grand nombre
d'épreuves religieuses et morales avant de parvenir aux divers degrés
d'initiation; ainsi, par exemple, le récipiendaire pouvait recevoir
l'injonction, sous peine de mort, de fouler aux pieds le crucifix, ou
d'adorer une idole; mais, s'il cédait à la terreur qu'on cherchait à
lui inspirer, il était déclaré indigne d'être admis aux grades élevés
de l'Ordre. On conçoit, d'après cela, comment des êtres, trop faibles
ou trop immoraux pour supporter les épreuves d'initiation, ont pu
accuser les Templiers de se livrer a des practiques et d'avoir des
croyances infâmes, superstitieuses."--(RECHERCHES HISTORIQUES SUR LES
TEMPLIERS. Paris, 1835.)
[19] "Quod clam consueverunt tenere capitula sua;" and "Quod similem
clandestinitatem observant et observare consueverunt ut plurimum in
recipiendo fratres," were principal counts in the indictment against
them. From this secrecy, some writers have inferred that the Templars
practised a species of Freemasonry, of which certainly no direct
evidence transpired during the inquest. Signor Rosetti, the celebrated
commentator of Dante, has, we understand, a work in the press, in
which he seeks to demonstrate that the Templars were a branch of that
great secret confederacy which was formed against the papacy, which
included the Troubadours and all the _literati_ of the time, and which
ultimately produced the Reformation. This information is derived from a
letter to Dr. Burnes by Mr. Keightly, the talented reviewer and friend
of Rosetti.
[20] In June 1310, Pope Clement wrote to the King of England blaming
his lenity, and calling upon him to employ the torture upon the
unfortunate Knights. The Council of London, after a long discussion,
ordered it to be employed, but so as not to mutilate the limbs, or
cause an incurable wound, or violent effusion of blood.
[21] The Knights of Christ have continued to exist as a recognized
Order of Knighthood down to the present day. The supremacy is vested
in the Sovereign of Portugal, and the greater part of the revenue
is understood to accrue to the royal coffers. The sums, however,
paid in pensions to Knights of the Order, about the beginning of the
present century, are said to have amounted to about £4000 per annum.
In 1793 they possessed twenty-one provincial towns and villages,
and counted four hundred and fifty-four commanderies, exclusive of
colonial acquisitions. The various recent changes, occasioned by war
and intestine commotions, probably have reduced their income and
possessions. In 1820 the Grand Prior of Portugal was Louis Antonio
de Fontado, of the House of Barbasena, and who died in 1832. We are
not informed as to his successor. The Cross of the Order of Christ is
sometimes bestowed upon foreigners as an honorary distinction. Dr.
Bowring, (who was employed on a mission to the Portuguese Government,)
and several other Englishmen, have of late years received its Cross;
generally, it is believed, that of the third class of Knights.
[22] The Pope (Clement V.) committed the glaring absurdity of making
a provisional decree to be executed in perpetuity. The Bull which is
issued at the Court at Vienne, without asking the judgment of the
assembled bishops and others, declares, that although he cannot of
right, consistently with the Inquisition and proceedings, pronounce a
definite sentence, yet by way of apostolical provision and regulation,
he perpetually prohibited people from entering into the Order, and
calling themselves Templars. The penalty of the greater excommunication
was held out as a punishment for offending.
MILLS' CHIVALRY, Vol. I. Chap. 7.
An extract from the Bull, in the original Latin, will be found in the
Appendix.
[23] Besides appropriating to himself all the moveable property of the
Order, three hundred thousand livres of France were retained by the
King, ostensibly to repay the expense of the prosecution. No doubt the
treasure brought by De Molay from Cyprus would be amongst the first
booty seized, as well as the rich gold and silver utensils and plate,
with which the chapel and palace of the Temple at Paris were furnished.
[24] On the 28th March 1310, no fewer than 546 Templars were assembled
under a strong guard, in the gardens of the Bishop of Paris, who had
been conveyed thither to make the defence of the Order, and hear read
the accusations against them. This shew of justice was, of course, a
mere pretence of their persecutors, to save appearances. The number of
the Templars in Paris afterwards encreased to nearly 900. Ferrati of
Vicenza has reckoned the entire members of the Order throughout Europe
at 15,000 persons.
[25] Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitaliers de Saint Jean de Jerusalem,
par l'Abbe Vertot, tom. ii. pp. 101, 102.
[26] So dreadful and impressive an event could not fail to be
the source of many strange stories with the vulgar. Among these,
chroniclers report, that the venerable martyr, ere life was extinct,
summoned Pope Clement to answer before the bar of the Almighty Judge,
within forty days, and King Philip before the same tribunal, within the
space of a year. Certain it is, that the Pope did suddenly die in the
night between the 19th and 20th of the following month; and the church
in which his body was placed taking fire, one-half of the corpse was
consumed,--a circumstance which naturally confirmed the people in the
belief that his death was a special judgment of Heaven for the burning
of the knights, and which probably also suggested the prediction. In
the month of July following, a tumult arose in the town where the
half consumed corpse was kept, during which the populace tried to get
forcible possession of the remains; but whether from some superstitious
motive, or with a view of avenging on the Pope's body the murder of
De Molay, is not known. Philip of France expired within the year, in
consequence of a fall from his horse, and others of the persecutors of
the Order met a violent death.
[27] A copy of this remarkable Charter, the original of which I had an
opportunity of examining through the kindness of the Grand Master and
Sir Sidney Smith, at Paris, will be found in the Appendix. The Charter
was submitted to the inspection of nearly 200 Knights of the Order, at
the Convent-General held at Paris in 1810.
[28] The following anecdote of Sir Sidney Smith may not be
inappropriate here, as relating to a Soldier of the Cross:--
After the signal defeat of Buonaparte at Acre, the tyrant Djezzar,
to avenge himself upon the Franks, inflicted severe punishment on
the Jewish and Christian inhabitants of Saphet, and, it is said, had
resolved to massacre all the believers in Moses and Jesus Christ, who
might be found within his dominions. But Sir Sidney Smith, on being
apprized of his intention, instantly caused the Turk to be informed,
that if a single Christian head should fall, he would bombard Acre,
and burn it about his ears. This decisive interposition of the gallant
Admiral is still remembered in the hearts of the inhabitants.
Such was the confidence placed by them in their deliverer, that
Burckhardt, alluding to Sir Sidney, says,--"His word, I have often
heard both Turks and Christians exclaim, was like God's word--it
never failed;" and Professor Loěwe, recently returned from Palestine,
affirmed, that the Firmaun of Sir Sidney at once procured for him, both
from the Sultan and the Pacha of Egypt, every assistance and facility
in pursuing his learned hieroglyphical and mythological researches.
In connection with our subject, it may be mentioned as a singular fact,
that Sir Sidney Smith was the first Christian ever permitted to enter
the Holy City of Jerusalem armed, since the days of the Crusaders,
which he was allowed to do as a special compliment, after the surrender
of the French army in Egypt. By his means, also, his followers were
granted the like privilege.
Several official documents, relating to Sir Sidney as a Knight Templar,
are inserted in the Appendix.
[29] The exact condition, or relative position, of the serving Brothers
in ancient times is not very perfectly known. That they sometimes
held a responsible, and even high command, is proved by the following
passage from Michaud's "Bibliographie des Croisades," referring to the
work of an old Latin annalist,--"A la page 540 se trouve une lettre
d'un _Chevalier Servant_ (Dapiferi) de la milice du Temple, addressée
au Grand Maître Eberard des Barres, qui était revenu en France avec le
roi Louis VII. Dans cette lettre sont peints les malheurs de la Terre
Sainte après la morte du prince d'Antioche. Le Chevalier Servant prie
le Grand Maître de revenir promptement porter du secours au Chrétiens,
reduit à l'extremité. Cette Lettre est de 1149 ou 1150." A serving
Brother here appears acting the part of chief officer in the East.
[30] Equal to about 50 Francs.
[31] For the Vow, vide Appendix.
[32] The Order of the Hospitallers of Malta, although in these days
almost unheard of, still exists through its members, scattered over
Europe. Few, if any, of the old Knights who belonged to the Order
in its palmy days are now alive. One of the last of these was the
Chevalier Grěche, who died at Malta in 1838, where he had continued
to linger amid the scenes of his Order's former greatness and glory.
He was of a French family, and, it is said, spoke French of the time
of Louis XIV. He was page to the last Grand Master at Malta, in which
capacity there is a full-length portrait of him in the palace of a
Portuguese Knight. He often used to look at this picture; pointing the
while to his wrinkles and white hair, and laughing at the change from
the fair face and flowing locks represented in the painting. Until he
became very infirm, he was fond of society, and was frequently to be
met with at the houses of the English, by whom he was much esteemed on
account of his interesting recollections and traditions. It is believed
that there now remains only one member of the Order as it existed
before the dispersion, and he belongs to the _Langue d'Italie_. The Vow
of the Knights of St John will be found in the Appendix.
[33] We give the following extracts from the statutes themselves:--Art.
308--Nullus ad novitiatum armigerorum accedit, nisi genere in quarto
gradu sit nobilis. Art. 310.--Si quis, virtute præstantissimus,
novitiatum armigerorum postulans, non sit nobili natus genere, audita
Conventus relatione petitoria, a Commendariæ, Ballivatus et Linguæ
congressibus, sicut et a Comitiis Statutariis Curiaque Præceptoriali,
sancita, illum ordini nobilium, in quarto gradu, adscribendi potestatem
solus habet in Militia Templi Supremus Magister. Art. 315.--Quacumque
de causa, ab Ordine deficere Equiti nefas est. Si autem honoribus
Equestribus vel Militia indignus, judicatus fuerit Eques, in proprii
Conventus albo, singulisque Conventuum, Abbatiarum, Postulantiarum
initiationisque Cœtuum albis, pro sententia, adnotatur: Vel ab
Equestribus Honoribus suspensus: vel, ab Equestri Militia interdictus:
vel Utraque Militia indignus. Art. 390.--Nullus ad initiationem
accedit, nisi Christianus, liberaliter institutus, civili ordine
insignis, virtute, moribus, fide et urbanitate præstantissimus. Art.
391.--In militia inferiori aggregari possunt minoris conditionis viri
qui, propter artem, Ordini perutiles esse possunt. Art. 392.--Ad
quemcumque Ordinis gradum quemlibet cooptare potest Supremum Magister.
Cooptatus autem frater vel in Conventu, vel in Capitulo, vel in
Cœtu, sicut et in Abbatiâ cooptata soror, juxta Magistrale Decretum,
recipitur, solemniumque rituum et usuum in receptione solitorum immunis
fieri, potest, Equestri Consecratione excepta, qua nullus donatur nisi
votis solemnibus susceptis. Art. 408.--Templi Commilitonum Posteri;
Equites Christi; Equites Teutonici; Patres a mercede; Patres a
redemptione captivorum, si jubeat Lingualis Congressus, in inferioribus
domibus admittuntur, sicut et ad Novitiatum armigerorem illico
provehuntur, tenenturque tantum fide dare jusjurandum
Statuta Commilitonum Ordinis Templi e regulis sancitis in
Conventibus Generalibus prosertim in Conventu Generali Versaliano,
Anno Ordinis 586, et in Conventibus Generalibus Lutetianis, A. O.
693, et 695, confecta et in unum codicem coacta.
[34] We shall be excused referring to this subject, considering that it
engaged so much of the attention of the pious St. Bernard. Respecting
the habit of the early Templars, he says, chap, xxii and xxv, "It is
granted unto none to wear white tunics or mantles, but to the Knights
of Christ.--If any brother wish to have the handsomest or best mantle,
either as of due or out of pride, for such presumption, he will,
without doubt, deserve the very worst."
[35] Pro Deo et Patria. This is one of the present mottoes of the
Order. The other, Ferro non auro se muniunt, is taken from the
following striking expressions of St. Bernard,--"Equites Christi intus
fide, foras ferro non auro se muniunt, non turbulenti aut impetuosi, et
quasi ex levitate præcipites, sed consulte atque cum omni cautela et
providentia se ipsos ordinentes, et disponentes in aciem, juxta quod
de patribus scriptum est. Ita denique vero, quodam ac singulare modo,
cernuntur et agnis mitiores et leonibus ferociores:"--Ex. Lib. Sanct.
Bernard, Abbat Milit. Templ. cap. 4, No. 8.
[36] La société des Templiers vient d'en offrir une preuve éclatante,
à l'occasion du mariage de S. M. l'Empereur et Roi avec Marie
Louise, d'Autriche. Le 16 Août 1810, elle a donné une fête, terminée
par une distribution de vêtemens, des vivres et d'argent à des
vieillards indigens choisis dans les douze municipalités des Paris.
On peut voir dans le proces verbal qu'ils en out fait imprimer les
témoignages flatteurs d'estime qu'ils ont reçu de M. M. les Maires
des arrondissemens de Paris et des membres de plusieurs bureaux de
bienfaisance.--THORY.
[37] En 1811, Napoleon, empereur, revenant a ses idées sur l'importance
de cet ordre, tant sous le rapport civil que sous le rapport religieux,
fit appeler le grand-maitre Bernard-Raymond, et après plusieurs
questions a sa maniere sur l'êtat actuel de l'ordre, sur ses statuts,
etc. il s'informa des époques de ses assemblées. Apprenant qu'il y en
aurait bientôt une pour la célébration de l'anniversaire du martyre de
Jacques de Molay, l'empereur s'empara de cette circonstance, et donna
des ordres pour que cette ceremonie se fit publiquement avec une grand
pompe religieuse et militaire. Une place d'honneur était réservée
pour le grand-maitre et ses lieutenans generaux. M. Clouet, chanoine
de Notre-Dame, coadjuteur-general du primat du Temple, et revêtu du
camail primatial, prononça l'oraison funèbre du grand-maitre martyr,
dont le catafalque était richement orné des insignes de la souveraineté
magistrale et patriarcale. On peut se souvenir de l'étonnement que
produisit cette grande ceremonie par sa publicité, ainsi que des
conjectures auxquelles elle donna lieu; tout porte à croire que
l'empereur se proposait de tirer bon parti de l'ordre du Temple et de
son culte s'il ne pouvait parvenir a maîtriser a cour de Rome.
L'empereur don Pedro, après avoir accepté le titre de premier chevalier
d'honneur du Temple, autorisa un de ses ministres a recevoir le brevet
de grand-prieur titulaire du Bresil; et l'on ne peut douter, d'après
la correspondance de ce ministre avec le grand-maitre Bernard-Raymond,
que don Pedro n'eut l'intention de faire refleurir l'ordre du Temple au
Bresil, comme aussi il avait êté sauvé de sa destruction en 1312 par le
roi Denis, qui créa l'ordre des chevaliers proscrits par le décret de
Clement V.--
BIOGRAPHIE DES HOMMES DU JOUR. _Paris, 1836._
[38] The original name of Temple on the Southesk, according to
Chalmers, was Balantrodach. In the Chartular of Aberdeen the Preceptory
is styled "domus Templi de Balantradock;" and in the Chartular of the
Abbey of Newbattle we find mentioned, "Magister et Fratres Templi de
Blentodoch," which is a contraction or corruption of the same term.
The place became known by the designation of Temple only after the
establishment of the Order there. This was the head-quarters of the
Grand Preceptors of Scotland, and became, at the suppression of the
Templars, attached to the Hospital of St. John. In the 15th century,
Sir William Knolls, Grand Preceptor of St. John's, obtained an Act
of Parliament, changing the old name into that of the barony of St.
John. But the people never conformed to the alteration. Part of the
foundations of the original convent were dug up about a century ago.
The ancient chapel of the Temple continued till lately to be used
as the parish kirk. It is now partly dilapidated, in consequence of
a new church being built. On the eastern gable there is an antique
inscription, formed with lead run into the letters, which appears to be
as follows:--
V Æ S A C
M T H M.
These letters, when extended, may signify, _Vitæ Sacrum Militiæ Templi
Hierosolymitani_; or, _Virgini Ædem Sacram Militiæ Templi Hierosolymæ
Majister_; supplying _condidit_ or _consecravit_. The Virgin Mary,
it is well known, was the patroness of the Order. What monstrous
mysteries would not the ingenious Von Hammer make these letters the
vehicle of revealing! In the second line the learned German could not
fail to discover the presence of the _Metis_ or _Tau_ of the Gnostics,
whose doctrines, he insists, the Templars held, as attested by their
monumental remains, and by coins or medals imagined to refer to them.
[39] Book of Cupar quoted in Father Hay's MS.
[40] This gallant Templar,--worthy to have fallen in a holier
cause,--is thus strangely vilified, after death, by some miscreant, at
the trial of the Templars:--"Brian le Jāy dixit quod Jesus Christus non
fuit verus Deus et vérus homo; quod minimus pilus barbæ unius Saraceni
fuit majoris valoris quam totum corpus istius qui loquitur. Pauperibus
quibusdam eleemosynam a Briane petentibus pro amore Dei et beatæ Mariæ
Virginis respondit, 'Que dame, allez vous pendre à votre dame;' et
projiciens impetuose unum quadrantem in luto, fecit pauperes musare in
eodem et hoc tempore frigidæ hyemis." Such is a sample of the evidence
against the Order.
[41] It appears by the following extract from Clifton's examination,
that the Preceptor of Scotland was a subordinate officer to the Master,
or Grand Prior in England. "Interrogatus; quis recepit eum ad dictum
ordinem et dedit ei habitum? dixit, quod Frater Willielmus de la More
oriundus de Comitatu Ebor. tunc et nunc Magister dicti Ordinis in
Anglia et Scotia."
[42] "Après la mort de Jacques de Molay, des Templiers Ecossais étant
devénus apostats, a l'instigation du roi Robert Bruce, se rangérent
sous les banniéres d'un nouvel Ordre institué par ce prince, et dans
lequel les réceptions furent basées sur celles de l'Ordre du Temple.
C'est là qu'il faut chercher l'origine de la Maçonnerie Ecossaise, et
même celle des autres Rites maçoniques.--Du schisme qui s'introduisit
en Ecosse naquit un grand nombre de sectes. Presque toutes ont la
prétention de dériver du Temple, et quelques unes celle de se dire
l'Ordre lui-meme."
MANUEL DES CHEVALIERS DE L'ORDRE DU TEMPLE. _Paris, 1825._
The historian, Raymouard, thus formally excuses himself from
speculating on the fate of the disbanded Scottish Knights:--"Que
devinrent-ils? Ce n'est pas à moi de soulever le voile mystérieux de
ces infortunés: l'histoire publique se tait, mon devoir est de me taire
comme elle."--MONUMENS HISTORIQUES.
[43] An attempt has been very recently made to revive this Order, by
the initiation of a number of new members, chiefly Brethren of the
Lodge of St. David, Edinburgh.
[44] The medal alluded to was struck at the expense of the Chapitre
du Choix at Paris, to celebrate the establishment in France of a
Provincial Grand Lodge of Heredom de Kilwinning, by a Charter, dated
Edinburgh the 1st of May 1786, constituting Mr. John Mattheus, a
distinguished merchant of Rouen, Provincial Chief, with very ample
powers, to disseminate the Order. The Chapitre du Choix was itself
erected by a charter from Edinburgh in the same year, addressed to
Nicholas Chabouille, avocat en parlement, and other brethren. Both
these documents bear the signatures of William Charles Little, Deputy
Grand Master, William Mason, and William Gibb. At a later date, a
Provincial Grand Master was also appointed for Spain, in the person of
Mr. James Gordon, a merchant at Xeres de la Frontera, whose commission
was signed by Deputy Grand Master Dr. Thomas Hay, and Messrs. Charles
Moor and John Brown, as heads of the Royal Order. In 1811, there were
no less than twenty-six Chapters of Heredom holding of the Provincial
Grand Lodge of the Order in France, including some in Belgium and
Italy.--HISTOIRE DE LA FONDATION DU GRAND ORIENT DE FRANCE. _Paris,
1812._
[45] An abstract of this interesting document will be found in the
Appendix.
[46] The reader will find the Preceptor's motives and proceedings
explained in an authentic family document printed from a manuscript
copy in the Advocates Library, in a little work named, "Templaria.
Edinburgh, 1828." We extract from it the following account of the
surrender of the Preceptory:--"He personally compeirit in presence
of the Queen's Majesty, the Lord Chancelour, the Earles of Murray,
Marischall, and diuers others of her Hiehnes Privy Council, and
there, as the only lawful undoubted Titular, and present possessor of
the Lordship and Preceptorie of Torphephen, which was never subject
to any Chapter or Conuent whatsomever, except only the Knights of
Jerusalem and Temple of Solomon, Genibus flexis et reverentia qua
decuit, resigned and ouergave in the hands of our Souerane Lady, his
undoubted Superior, ad perpetuam remanentiam, all Right, Property,
and Possession, which he had, or any way could pretend to the said
Preceptorie, or any part thereof, in all time Coming; to the effect the
same might remain perpetually, with her Hyeness and her Successours,
as a Part of Property and Patrimony of her Crown for ever. After this
resignation in the Queen's Majesty's hands, ad Remanentiam, of this
Benefice, be the lawful Titular thereof, her Hyeness, in remembrance of
the good service of the said Sir James Sandilands, gave and grantid and
dispon'd, in feu-farme, heritably, to the said Sir James, his heirs and
assignies, All and Haill, the said Preceptorie and Lordship."
That the payment of the above sum of ten thousand crowns of the
Sun subsequently involved Sandilands in serious difficulties and
embarrassments, we are instructed by the works referred to, in which
it is stated that--"albeit the charter bears present payment of ten
thousand crowns, that the money was paid at divers times, partly upon
Her Majesty's precepts to her servants, French Paris, Sir Robert
Melvin, Sir James Balfour, and Captain Anstruther; and the rest of the
sum to Mr. Robert Richardson, treasurer for the time, whereof there
is a receipt under the privy seal. That a great part of that money,
numbered in gold and silver, was borrowed from Timothy Corneoli, an
Italian gentleman of the Preceptor's acquaintance at Genoa, and a
banker of the house of------resident in Scotland for the time. That
this nobleman being burthened with great debts, for his exoneration and
relief, was forced to let in feu-farm his own roumes for a reasonable
composition," &c.; and he was afterwards obliged to part with some of
the larger baronies of the estate.
[47] To satisfy the curious, a copy of the translated document is
inserted in the Appendix.
[48] Il est certain que l'invention des hauts grades maçonniques a
fait le plus grand tort á l'institution, en dènaturant son objet,
et en l'affublant de titres pompeux et de cordons qui ne lui
appartiennent pas. On conviendra que jamais elle n'eût êté proscrite,
dans une partie d'Allemagne, si les dissentions occasioneés par la
Stricte-Observance, les pretentions de soidisant successeurs des Frères
de la Rose-Croix, et surtout l'invention de l'illuminatisme qu'on
introduisit dans quelques L. n'eussent rendu "l'association suspecté
aux gouvernemens."--Acta Latomorum.
[49] There have been at least a hundred grades of Continental Masonry
denominated "Ecossais."
[50] On this subject we shall let the Baron de Hund speak for
himself:--Les Frères de la Stricte-Observance se disent les successeurs
des Templiers, et leur doctrine consiste a perpétuer l'existence de
l'Ordre sous le voile de la Franche Maçonnerie. Voici l'Histoire
de l'Institution, selon le Baron de Hund; Dans l'année 1303, deux
Chevaliers, nommés Noffodoi et Florian, furent punis pour crimes.
Tous deux perdirent leurs commanderies et particulièrement, le
dernier, celle de Montfaucon. Ils en demandérent de nouvelles au
Gr.-Maître provincial de Mont-Carmel; et comme il les leur refusa,
ils l'assassinérent dans sa maison de campagne, prés de Milan, et
cachérent son corps dans le jardin, sous des arbrisseaux. Ils se
refugiérent ensuite á Paris, ou ils accusérent l'Ordre des crimes les
plus horribles, ce qui entraina sa perte, et par suite le supplice
de J. Molay. Après la catastrophe, le Grand-Maître provincial de
l'Auvergne, Pierre d'Aumont, s'enfuit avec deux Commandeurs et cinq
Chevaliers. Pour n'être point reconnus, ils se deguisérent en ouvriers
maçons, et se refugiérent dans une ile Ecossaise, ou ils trouvérent le
Grand-Commandeur Haupton-court, Georges de Hasris, et plusieurs autres
Frères avec lesquels ils resolurent de continuer l'Ordre. Ils tinrent,
le jour de St.-Jean 1313, un Chapitre dans lequel Aumont, premier du
nom, fut nommé Grand-Maitre. Pour'se soustraire aux persécutions,
ils empruntèrent des symboles pris dans l'art de la Maçonnerie, et
se denommérent Maçons libres.... En 1361, le Grand-Maitre du Temple
transporta son siege a Aberdeen, et par suite l'Ordre se repandit, sous
le voile de la Fr.-Maçonnerie, en Italie, en Allemagne, en France, en
Portugal, en Espagne et ailleurs. Der Signatsterne, etc., p. 178.
[51] It is stated in the Freemason's Review, that, according to
authentic documents, the Aberdeen Lodge has existed since 1541.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious misspellings and omissions were corrected.
The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.
Errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
unless otherwise noted.
Incorrect and omitted page numbering has been corrected.
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