compelling force to sacrifice everything, if only the material tomb of our Saviour could be rescued and preserved from Moslem hands. With varying success, waves of warrior pilgrims landed upon the sacred shores of Judæa, captured-but could not hold-the shrine, and were driven back by wastage, by disunion and by death. From the outbreak of Mohammedanism to the days of our own Black Prince and later, the Moslem, who endangered pilgrimages of devotion, was the first enemy of popes and emperors. The main current of European history turns upon this issue, and the Knights Templars-Pauperes Commilitones Christi et Templi Salomoni-shouldered the august task of defending from the common enemy pilgrims on their diverse routes to the Christian Mecca. The high unselfishness of their aim, which attracted followers of the purest spirit and blood— they were sworn to chastity, poverty and obedience-was commended by that all-powerful saint, Bernard of Clairvaulx, and the Order was speedily dowered with very special privileges by Pope Alexander III.

The Bull omne datum optimum, which placed the Order above all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical or secular, except that of the Holy Father himself, secured their wealth and earthly power. It also carried with it the seeds of that jealousy and hatred which made Templars of later ages the most envied and maligned of all the Orders. For the stroke of policy, which bound such a potent society to the interests of the Holy See, secured also that bishops and local ecclesiastics should loathe an Order which was above absolution from without and superior to normal discipline. It caused the Templars who, in spite of their vow of individual poverty, became subsequently the bankers of Europe, to be subject to the intriguing avarice and cupidity of future popes and kings. Noble among noble endeavours was the earlier aim and inspiration of the Temple. Ignoble, and a lasting disgrace to Church and Court alike, is the story of its dishonourable overthrow by a caitiff king and a poltroon pope. Yet, in its very overthrow, a Samson in the temple of Dagon, it secured the downfall of those hate-inspired" religious " and money-hunting monarchs who had done it to death. The history of the Templars might verily be written down" the Gospel of Nemesis "; an Aeschylean tragedy, with the inevitableness of punishment for sin as its leit motif. Upon this we must touch later.

Tracing shortly the steps of its growth in this island (for, of course, in days of papal supremacy the society had its houses over all Western Europe) our Henry I, after the Council of Troyes, received the Grand Master with much honour and many gifts, and allowed him to found its first house, in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, at the north end of what is now Chancery Lane. Here a church of Caen stone, round in form, after the pattern of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, was subsequently known as the Vetus Templum, and its ruins are mentioned by Stow in 1598.

It hath of late years belonged to the Earles of Southampton, and therefore called Southampton House. Master Roper hath of late builded much there; by means whereof part of the ruines of the old Temple were seen to remain, builded of Caen stone, round in forme as the New Temple by Temple barre and other Temples in England. ("Survey," edit. 1908, II, 87-88.)

An age which could produce and glorify Richard Cœur de Lion and Saladin would inevitably admire and love the Templars. A writer who was with them on their expedition to Egypt in 1219, James of Vitry, Bishop of Acre, thus describes their bearing and exploits :

When the call to arms is given, they ask not the number of the foe, but only where he may be found. Lions in war, they are docile as lambs in the cloister; stern soldiers in the field, in the Church they are as hermits and monks. To the enemies of Christ hard and fierce, but to Christians benign and gentle. The battle flag borne before them, which they call Beaucéant, is two-coloured, white and black, proclaiming that to the friends of Christ they are valiant and kindly, but to his enemies dark and terrible. . . . Their courage and their combats and their glorious victories over the foes of Christ, the whole Church of the Saints will recount. Soldiers from all the earth, not only those of lower degree, but Chiefs and Captains, inspired by their example to burst the fetters of the world, and renouncing all for Christ, flock to join them.

The real marvel would have been if such devotion and high emprise had failed to attract to itself whatsoever of wealth and honour there was in the world. It did not so fail, and in England, as in other lands, great earthly possessions and power speedily accrued to the Order. The Vetus Templum in Chancery Lane was replaced by the Novum Templum on the Strand, with its spacious gardens that linked Westminster to the City; with its

landing-pier on Thames-side, and Manor of Wideflete in Bermondsey, that their ferry might be a safe "bridge"; with two famous forges, standing east and west of St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street, where chain mail and hauberk could be fashioned; with, finally, their always incomparable round church, of which the first stone was dedicated by Patriarch Heraclius in 1185, in honour of Our Lady; with grants of land in Scotland and Ireland, as well as in England, by successive kings; and the very intimate confidence of monarchs and popes.

In their devotional life, strict and austere; in their internal management world-wide (as the world was then reckoned), they added the might of a secret society, which was above law, to that of a trained and potent machine, at the command of a single mind. To win and maintain such a position they had to fight not only against the ostensible Paynim foe, but against the far deadlier enemies of hate and envy, malice and jealousy, among "the household of faith." They did not rescue Jerusalem from the Turk; and they were worsted by spiritual foes. But they left behind them a fragrant memory of beautiful courteous power, than which the Middle Ages offer us few finer examples of its best spirit. For even the wealth and and far-flung organization, which made the Temple the exchequer of our kings, and the Templars pioneers in international finance, before ever a Fugger or a Rothschild were known, did not emasculate their character. Mainly concerned, as an Order, with the Orient, they were of such importance in this island, that their Master signed at Runnymede the Preamble to Magna Charta as one of the magnates on whose demand it was granted; he negotiated with Louis of France as envoy of the Plantagenets. Templars showed singular and large-souled patriotism in the great disputes of their day, in the maintenance of law against Becket, in the upholding of freedom against King John, in the support of that wise hero, Simon de Montfort, against misrule.

Well and truly they served their day and generation. But when the love of many had waxed cold, and the spirit of the Crusades had yielded to something much more mundane; when the Church began to dwell more upon the erection of cathedrals than upon the edification of human souls; when European monarchs coveted wealth, disdaining glory—then the rich Society of Knights Templars was marked out for spoliation. It was attacked because

by its internal privileges it could be plausibly accused of infringing the rights of the Church; and it was well worth attacking, by those who placed no value on honour, justice or evidence, in comparison with sordid gain. Matthew Paris had computed, a century earlier, that the Templars owned at least 9000 manors or distinct holdings in land, and the numbers of these must have largely increased. The fall of Acre in 1290 served to show that the Holy Land was definitely lost; and Bertrand de Got, who sat on the papal throne at Avignon, under the ignoble direction of Philip le Bel of France, was willing to prostitute spiritual righteousness to secular protection. Happily, therefore, the machinations which resulted in the destruction of the Order, and the transference of the Temple to other owners, took no beginning in our land. These were entirely French; and when the persecution spread by sympathy to England, the measure of injustice meted out was less rigorous and unspeakable here than across the Channel.

It must, however, be said that, among our ecclesiastics, Anthony Bek alone, Palatinate Bishop of Durham, stands out for his large-souled charity. Others were dominated by devils of envy, hatred and malice, or by the incarnate devil who claimed to be vicegerent of God on earth. Clement, as Pope, exhorted churchmen in England to transgress the law of the land, by using torture to enforce confession from accused Templars. "When the Vicar of Christ himself entered the witness box, scepticism was silenced," and Edward II, as a loyal son of the Church, after writing to defend the Templars, found himself overawed by the pope. The clergy had baser motives for their obedience, and they yielded to them. But in spite of all persuasion-and this is an interesting link with the reign of law which was to follow with the next owners of the Temple-the English sense of fairness, the English instinct as to the value of evidence, never yielded to foreign pressure. The Tower of London, the Keeps at Lincoln and York, were with equal honour unwilling to torture in order to secure missing proof. Frenchmen were less scrupulous, and succeeded by ways, which rightly make our flesh creep, in eliciting those admissions which, though they were afterwards retracted in cold blood, were considered sufficient to serve the ends of intriguing and unscrupulous robbers.

It is worth while to lay special stress upon this, because by

English common law, torture never was legal. It was only permissible ever in this land for special reasons of State, when the competent sovereign authority made an order which-as for the safety of the realm in the late war-over-rode all common usage. It was finally abolished at the trial of Buckingham's assassin, Felton, in Charles I's reign; for, on application to the law officers of the Crown, answer was made that English law forbade torture. And there is another matter of some interest. Many are they who confess no belief in the power, either of a blessing or a curse, as willed by one human being on another. There are those also, who believe that a good man's curse or blessing is potent for weal or woe. The history of the Temple provides noteworthy evidence on this head.

There remains still in the Temple-a remarkable illustration of the martial dress of the early thirteenth century-an effigy of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who owned domains also in Normandy and Ireland. He claimed, and refused to yield possession of, two manors in Ireland, which the Bishop of Ferns claimed as belonging to his See and, when his claim was disallowed, excommunicated the holder for retaining. The earl died; and the bishop appealed for redress to Henry III, who promised to use his influence and induce restitution, if the bishop would absolve the dead earl, and release him from the pains of purgatory. Instead of carrrying out his part of the contract-if he ever made it-the Bishop of Ferns, standing in the king's presence before the earl's tomb, thus addressed his dead opponent: "Oh, William, who are here entombed bound by the bonds of excommunication, if those possessions of which you have wrongfully despoiled my church are restored with adequate compensation by the king, or by your heir, or by any of your family, then I absolve you. But, if not, I confirm the sentence that, entangled in your sins, you may remain in hell for ever."

Explain it how you will. The young earl refused to make restitution in spite of the king's intervention; he was told by the bishop that the family should be excluded from the promised blessing, "Increase and multiply and replenish the earth." He still turned a deaf ear. All the five sons of the earl died childless and in the prime of life.

Again, when Philip the King and Pope Clement had finally beaten down all opposition, and had mangled, twisted and tortured