Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/665

 TEMPLARS 635 terdicts; their properties and revenues were exempted from tithes and taxation ; and no person who had made profession as a templar could leave the order, unless he entered an- other of stricter observance. Many persons sought to be affiliated with the templars with- out being bound by vows, in order to share these manifold exemptions. There were also ob- lati, who in return for these privileges pledged themselves to maintain the rights of the order, and donati, or children given from infancy to be reared and incorporated therein. The warm interest taken by St. Bernard in the soldiers of the temple, his enthusiastic advocacy of their cause, the solemn approbation given to it by the council of Troyes and Honorius II., and the heroic services already rendered by its first members to the Christians of Palestine, made them at once favorites with the princes and peoples of Christendom. The little band of nine soon grew into as many thousands. St. Bernard, whom the templars always designated as their " father," addressed them in 1146, at the prayer of Hugues des Pai'ens, a series of exhortations, in which he defines their duties and the virtues peculiar to their profession. But while detailing their recent services and their extraordinary increase, he mentions a circumstance pointing to an early cause of de- generacy: "that the greater number of the nobles who have joined the soldiers of the tem- ple had been men stained by every species of crime, whose conversion, while ridding Europe of oppressors and scourges, gave defenders to Palestine." In the East, besides the province of Jerusalem, the order possessed those of Tri- poli and Antioch ; in the West were the prov- inces of France, Auvergne, Normandy, Aqui- taine, Poitou, Provence, England (including Ireland and Scotland), Germany, Upper and Central Italy, Apulia, Sicily, Portugal, Castile, Leon, and Aragon. The French provinces were by far the most important, and gave to the order the great majority of its mem- bers, as well as its wealthiest possessions. So rapidly had these accumulated throughout Christendom, that Matthew Paris affirms that in the middle of the 13th century they held 9,000 manors. They became more inter- ested in extending and guarding their pos- sessions than in affording protection to pil- grims ; and notwithstanding their unques- tioned prowess and daring, their frequent feuds with the rival order of the hospitallers, and their open licentiousness and lust of gain, often injured the cause to which they had devoted themselves. They aided or thwarted the plans of campaigns at their pleasure, and frequently stained their knightly name and fame by open treachery, as in the sixth crusade under the emperor Frederick II., the partial failure of which was attributed to the machinations of the templars. During the gradual decline of the Christian kingdom in Palestine they en- deavored by separate treaties with the Sara- cens to secure their own possessions in that country. After having their chief seat suc- cessively in Jerusalem (1118-'87), Antioch (1187-'91), Acre (1191-1217), and the Pilgrim's Castle near Cassarea (1217-'91), they were nev- ertheless compelled at the final extinction of the Latin power in Palestine in 1291 to remove to the island of Cyprus, which they had pur- chased from Kichard I. of England for 35,000 silver marks. Though driven out of the Holy Land, the organization evinced no signs of decay, and its extensive ramification through- out Europe drew upon it the suspicion and jealousy of princes, whose cupidity was also excited by its immense wealth. Under the influence of these motives, and irritated by his inability to tax the order, Philip the Fair of France determined upon its destruction, and induced Pope Clement V. to have a judicial inquiry instituted into the orthodoxy and mo- rality of the order. Accordingly, in 1306 Jacques de Molay, the grand master of the templars, was enticed to Paris, and on Oct. 13, 1307, all the members of the order in France, including De Molay himself, were taken into custody, and their houses and goods were every- where seized. The formal charges imputed to them grave heresies and idolatry connected with their secret rites of initiation and internal discipline, and graver violations of morality ; but there was no evidence of these beyond their own confessions, wrung from them by torture. The pope hesitated to promulgate the decree for the extinction of the order ; but Philip procured one of his creatures, the arch- bishop of Sens, whose jurisdiction extended over Paris, to convoke his provincial council in that city on May 10, 1310 ; and on the 13th of the month, by command of that body, 54 members of the order were burned at the stake in a field behind the abbey of St. Antoine. The example was imitated elsewhere, and on May 2, 1312, Clement on his own responsi- bility, the general council of Vienne then in session being averse to precipitate measures, issued a bull for the abolition of the templars. In it he expressly declares that he does not pronounce "a definitive judgment" on the guilt of the templars, the charges against them not being proven ; but that to prevent the further growth of a monstrous scandal, and for the greater good of Christendom, he sup- presses the order, reserving to the holy see a final judgment as well as the disposition of the persons and property of the members. Their movable property was for the most part appropriated by the sovereigns of the coun- tries in which it was deposited ; and although their landed possessions were nominally trans- ferred to the hospitallers, the crown as a gen- eral thing secured the disposition of them. The order ceased at once throughout Christen- dom except in Portugal, where it assumed the name of the knights of Christ, which order still subsists. Finally De Molay, Guy of Au- vergne, and other high dignitaries of the order were burned at the stake, March 18, 1314.