death; but the mischief was, he could not get the honey unless he burnt the bees."

It may be wondered why the Hospitallers escaped when the Templars fell. There was much similarity between the two Orders; both were wealthy, both had been founded to defend Palestine, and when that was lost, if one Order was unnecessary, why should the other be preserved, and even be made the inheritor, at least nominally, of the property of the other when it was suppressed?

There are probably several reasons for this seeming contradiction. One is that as the downfall of the Templars was really due to Philip of France, who commenced the outcry against them, there were local causes that gave him a handle against the Templars which were not available against the Hospitallers. Another, and a stronger reason, is that the Hospitallers were still, and for three hundred years afterwards, actively engaged in war with the Mahometans; and so they were useful as standing upon the distant threshold of Christendom, and in keeping back the dreaded enemy from advancing too rapidly upon the fair countries of Europe.

It has been maintained by some that there was probably some ground for the accusation that at his initiation the Templar was required to spit or trample upon the cross.

In those days of symbolism and mystic rites, when attempts were made to realize everything in sacred history, especially when a sharp line was drawn, not only between the Church and the heathen,

S

but between the monastic life and the life even of professing Christians in the world, so that the title Religious and the phrase entering religion were given to those who became monks or nuns, there may very probably have been peculiar ceremonies used at the admission of a Templar into his Order, as there were, we know, when a monk or a nun made profession. In the latter case, the novice, in some Orders, is treated as a dead person, and lies upon the floor of the church covered with a pall, and is as it were raised to life by admission into the privileged position of a member of the Order.

So it is said the Templar came as a renegade from Christ, having in theory, if not in fact, denied Him by a bad life, and now desired repentance and restoration and to make a new beginning. His former state was indicated by his spitting or trampling upon the cross, and then he began a new and higher life of penitence and self-sacrifice as a member of this Order.

It is said also that the Templars had some advanced theories respecting man's access to God, in direct opposition to the spirit of the age; that they denied the necessity of the Pope and of Church rites, and approached God as the universal Father; in fact, that they were Protestants before the time— Protestants of the most pronounced views, such as the Quakers or the Unitarians now advocate.

But all this rests upon slight and uncertain grounds, and upon data that may have vastly different meanings.

There is no doubt that their intercourse with the East brought them into contact with many religious opinions and speculations which at that time were unknown in Europe, but which the loss of Constantinople and the immigration of so many Eastern refugees afterwards introduced to the thinking minds of the West. The revival of learning, the study of Greek, the rise of free thought, are by many dated from this event, which led to the importation of Oriental learning and Oriental mysticism into Europe. It does not seem impossible that the Templars may have anticipated something of this in their own Order by long sojourn in Palestine, and by their wider knowledge and more liberal opinions may have alarmed and scandalized the narrower minds of the clergy of the West.

Curious, and in some cases objectionable symbols are found carved in their churches; and antiquarians identify these with signs used by ancient Gnostic sects, and so go on to suppose that the Templars shared the opinions and followed the practices of those sects.

Hallam reviews the controversy, and confesses himself unable to come to a satisfactory conclusion, or to give a final opinion as to the truth or falsehood of all this; and others equally capable of forming a calm judgment hesitate to pronounce one in the case of the Templars.

Probably the matter will never be quite cleared up, but will remain like many other insoluble problems of history, about which men will form and

hold their own views, while the generous and charitable will give the accused the benefit of the uncertainty, and count those innocent who have not been proved guilty.

"With the Templars," says Heckethorn, "perished a world; chivalry, the crusades ended with them; even the Papacy received a tremendous shock. Symbolism was deeply affected by it. A greedy and arid trading spirit rose up. Mysticism, that had sent such a glow through past generations, found the souls of men cold and incredulous.'

The following is a list of the Preceptories of the Templars in England:

Cambridgeshire: Wilbraham.
Essex: Temple Cressing.
Hampshire South Badesley.
Hertfordshire: Temple Dynnesly.
Kent: Swingfield.

Leicestershire: Temple Rothley.

Lincolnshire: Aslackby, Temple Brewer, Eagle, Maltby, Mere

Wilketon, Witham.

Norfolk: Haddiscoe.

Shropshire Halston.

Suffolk: Gislingham, Dunwich.

Sussex Saddlescombe.

Warwickshire: Balsall, Warwick.

:

Yorkshire North Ferriby, Temple Hurst, Temple Newsome, Pafflete, Flaxflete, Ribston.

The Order also possessed many manors and estates where they had no Preceptories.

PART III.

THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS.

"A knight ther was, and that a worthy man,
That fro the time that he firste began
To riden out, he loved chevalrie,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and curtesie.
Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,
And therto hadde he ridden, no man ferre,
As wel in Cristendom as in Hethenesse,
And ever honoured for his worthinesse.
At Alisandre he was whan it was wonne.
Ful often time he had the bord begonne
Aboven alle nations in Pruce.

In Lettowe had he reysed, and in Ruce."

CHAUCER.