Renouard, membre de l'institut imperial de France; et de la legion d'honneur. 8vo. Paris, 1813." This work makes it highly probable, not only, that some laxity of morals prevailed in the order, but that there were also some associations in it, among which the disbelief of christianity was avowed, and was expressed by grotesque and obscene rites. It however shows equally, that neither this infidelity, nor these infidel practices, were general; and, that the credit of the charges brought against the order is fundamentally shaken, by the very means, which were used to prove its guilt.

On the 13th of October, 1307, the grand master, and every Knight Templar, in France, were arrested, imprisoned, and put in irons. A bare sustenance was allowed them. They were refused counsel; the visit of their friends was interdicted. Life, liberty, and reward were offered to those, whose confessions would charge the order with guilt; and, as an inducement to such confessions, a forged one, by the grand master, of its general guilt, was produced.

The individuals, who denied the charge, were delivered to the most horrid tortures. The most common of these was the torture of the pulley. The hands of the sufferer were tied behind him; enormous weights fixed to his feet; and the cord, which tied his hands, was brought over a pulley. On a signal, he was suddenly drawn up, then, suddenly let fall, to a distance of some feet from the ground. His whole frame was dislocated by the sudden shock; and, in this state, he long re

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mained suspended. The fire, was a still more severe infliction. The sufferer was made to lie upon his back, with his body fastened to the ground. Then, the soles of his feet were anointed with an unctuous matter; and exposed to the fire. The feet of others were inserted in an iron shoe; which was gradually compressed, until every bone was broken. The legs of others were screwed into iron boots filled with quick lime. That such proceedings should produce several confessions, cannot excite surprise.

In other kingdoms, proceedings were instituted against the order: but they were conducted with much greater form, and with more humanity. The consequence was, that, in those kingdoms, the knights were either honourably acquitted; or only partially condemned. This circumstance detracts also from the authority of the proceedings of the French tribunals.

At the earnest instance of the French monarch, pope Clement V. caused a general council to be assembled at Vienne, in Dauphiné; the knights were solemnly cited to it to defend the order. Nine of them appeared; and were immediately ordered to be imprisoned, and put in irons. At this unjustifiable proceeding, the fathers of the council expressed great indignation.

It is generally supposed, that the order was abolished by the council; but this is a mistake. The pope assembled the cardinals, and several prelates, in a secret consistory; and there, abolished the order by his own authority. At the second sessions

of the council he published the decree of abolition. The members present heard it, (it cannot be said they accepted it), in solemn silence. Four days afterwards, the pope, in his bull, Considerantes dudum, announced, that the charges against the order were sufficiently proved, to render them strongly suspected; but, not sufficiently proved, to authorize a judicial sentence. For this reason,

he professed to have abstained from a definitive sentence; and only passed a provisional condemnation. It is observable, that Clement XIV. in his bull for suppressing the order of the Jesuits, adverts to the above circumstance; and expressly says, that "the general council of Vienne, to whose examina"tion the pope had committed the business, advised "him to adopt this provisional mode of proceeding."

Combining all these circumstances, it seems impossible not to acquit the Templars from the general guilt imputed to their body. If some members were chargeable with irreligion, their number was not great; if some irreligious associations were formed, these must have been exceedingly few. They seem to have been merely meetings of sensuality. It is evident, at least, that nothing of the metaphysical speculations of atheism entered into them.

The last act of the tragedy was the burning of the grand master, Jacques de Molay. He was of an illustrious house in Burgundy; and, at the time, when the storm burst on the order, was carrying on with great valour, a war, in the island of Cyprus, against the Turks. By the command of the pope,

he quitted it, and, attended by sixty of his knights, all of noble birth, repaired to Paris. Immediately on their arrival, they were cast into prison. The grand master was cruelly tortured. Subdued by the violence of the torments, he confessed the general guilt of the order. He was then remanded to prison, and continued in it during six years. On the 18th March, 1313, he was summoned, with three chief dignitaries of the order, before the three commissaries of the cause; and required to acknowledge his guilt. Turning his face to the assembled multitude, "It is most just," he said aloud, “that, "on this horrible day, and, in these last moments " of of my life, I should proclaim the iniquity of falsehood; and make virtue triumph. I therefore

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acknowledge, before heaven and earth, that I "have been guilty of the greatest crime. But, it "was, when I confessed the truth of the charges "made against the order. I now attest its inno"cence. The love of truth obliges me to declare "it. I asserted the contrary, merely to suspend "the excessive tortures inflicted on me; and to "soften the hearts of those, who inflicted them.

am aware of the torments, which have been "inflicted on those who have had the courage to "retract their confessions: but, this dreadful spec"tacle is not sufficient to make me confirm à first "lie by a second. Rather than comply with so "infamous a condition, I renounce life."

A knight, who attended him, made a similar declaration. A council of state was immediately assembled by order of the king; who condemned both

to perish by a slow fire. They were, accordingly, fastened to an iron stake; and a small fire was lighted under them. In this horrible situation they long continued,-protesting their innocence to the last.

Some readers may, perhaps, acquit the Templars wholly of the charges imputed to them. This, perhaps, is going too far: yet it should not be forgotten, that the evidence against them arises, altogether, from the depositions taken before commissioners appointed by their enemies, and extorted from the witnesses by hopes, intimidation, and torture; while every method was used to mislead the judgment; to inflame the imagination, and to rouse the passions of the public against them. If, from such materials, and under such circumstances, arguments, so powerfully vindicating their innocence, have been collected, how would the case have stood, had they been allowed to make their own statements; to urge their own defence; and to expose, in their own manner, the artifices and cruelty, of their adversaries?

X. 2.

The suppression of the Alien Priories.

THE Alien Priories may be considered as filiations from the foreign abbeys. Some of them depended entirely upon their foreign parents,receiving from them their priors; and remitting to them, all that remained of their income, after supplying the necessary wants of the community. The dependence of the others was almost nominal.