Templars lose a considerable share of those honours, and that celebrity which they had long enjoyed. But this relaxation of discipline, and attachment to luxurious indolence, were the only crimes of which the Templars were guilty; and to men of honour and spirit like them, the forfeiture of popularity which was the consequence of their apostacy, would be a sufficient punishment. This, however, was not the sentiment of Philip the Fair. That barbarous monarch, instigated by private revenge against some individuals of the order; encouraged by the prospect of sharing in their ample revenues; and spurred on by a spirit which seldom resides in a human breast, imprisoned in one day all the Templars in France, merely at the instance of two worthless members of the order, who had been disgraced and punished by their superiors, for the enormity of their crimes. It was pretended by these base accusers, that the Templars abjured our Saviour, that they spit upon his cross, that they burned their children, and committed other atrocious crimes, from which the human mind recoils with horror, and which could have been perpetrated only by men so completely abandoned as the informers themselves. Under the pretence of discovering what degree of credit might be attached to these accusations; the Templars were extended on the rack till they confessed the crimes with which they were charged. Several of the Knights, when stretched on this instrument of agony, made every acknowledge

ment

ment which their persecutors desired. But others, retaining on the rack that fortitude and contempt of death which they had exhibited on the field, persisted in denying the crimes laid to their charge, and maintained with their latest breath, the innocence of their or der. Many of those, even, who had tamely submitted to their persecutors, retracted those ignominious confessions which the rack had extorted; and maintained their integrity in the midst of those flames which the barbarous Philip had kindled for their destruction. Fifty-nine of these unhappy men were burnt alive at Paris, by a slow fire; and the same vindictive and inhuman spirit was exhibited in the other provinces of France, and in the other nations of Europe. The fortitude which, in every country, was displayed by these unfortunate sufferers, could have been inspired by innocence alone; and is a strong proof, that their minds were not so enervated by indolence, nor their bodies so enfeebled by luxury as has been generally believed. The only

murmurs which parted from their lips, were those which expressed their anguish and remorse, that they had betrayed, in the hour of pain, the interests of their order, and had confessed themselves guilty of crimes, unworthy of a Templar and a man.

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 other dignitaries of the

order

order still survived: And, though they had made the most submissive acknowledgements 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; 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 confessions, 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

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

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iniquity of falsehood, and make truth to tri"umph. 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 con❝fession. But the horrible sight which they

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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 miser"able days, when I must owe them only to the "blackest of calumnies*." In consequence of this manly revocation, the Grand Master and his

com

Histoire de Chevaliers Hospitaliers de Saint Jean de Jeru

salem, par Abbe Vertot, tom. ii. p p. 101. 102.

companions were hurried into the flames, where they retained that contempt of death which they had exhibited on former occasions. This mournful scene extorted tears from the lowest of the vulgar. 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; and, whatever opinion we may entertain concerning the character of that unhappy order, every mind of sensibility will compassionate the fate of the Templars, and curse the inhuman policy of Philip the Fair.

FROM this short and imperfect account of the origin and ruin of the Knights Templars, the reader will be enabled to understand the merits of the question, respecting the innocence of that order, which it will be necessary here to consider. The opinions of contemporary writers were too much influenced by party spirit, and religious zeal, to deserve any regard in this investigation. All those writers*, however, who are ge nerally deemed impartial historians, and who were in no respects interested, either in the condemnation

*

Among these we may reckon Hume, History of England, v. 2. p. 373. Henry, History of Britain, v. 8. p. 43. and Vertot, ut supra.

I