North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1867-09-11
WHOLE No. 569.

WHOLE No. 569.
The KnisAts Tssplars. r
The famous order of the Knights of the
Temple had its origin in the beginning oi
the twelfth century. The object of this
chivalrous association was especially the
protection from Moslem violence of those
Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem who might
visit the Jordan, to bathe in it's sacred
waters. In going down Cor this purpose
from Jerusalem towards Jericho, they were
very liable, like the man in our Saviour's
parable, to fall among thieves, and to be
left much more than half dead.
The order originally consisted Of only
| nine French knights. But it increased rap
idly in numbers and influence; and had
become, before the beginning Of the four
teenth century, q wealthy and powerful
c6mmunity, scattered through almost all
the kingdoms of Europe,--a sort of re-
public, half military, half monastic, gov
erned by it's own laws, and independent
alike of the civil and the spiritual powers.
The three great mOnastic vows of implicit
obedience to their superiors, of chastity,
and of the remuneration of all personal
property, were the fundamental statutes OF
| the order. dta a
The nine brethren in arms with which
the community began in A. ID. Ills, had
increased before A. d. 1900 to fifteen
thousand of the brsvest, best trained, best
ACQUIRED and most experienced soldiers in
the world. Before the end of the twelfth
century they had ceased to be lay COM
munity; priests had been admitted to their
fellowship; they administered within
themselves all the rites of religion, and
were released from all subjeetion to epis-
copal control, owing allegiance to none
beyond their own fraternity, except to the
pope. Successive pontiffs had granted
them numerous privileges and exemptions,
and their yalor in the war Of the Crusades
had added greatly to their reputation and
influence. .ya.r Is. ~
The wealth of this formidable brother
hood excited the cupidity of Philip w.,
king of France, surnamed "the Fair"
Philip was one of the most rapacious and
unscrupulous monarchs that eyer sat upon
a throne. To the amazement of all
Christendom, he caused the most enormous
and revolving charges to be brought ag'st
the order. They were guilty of the most
deliberate inidelity and impiety, of the
most abominable and unnatural licentious-
ness, of the most degrading idolitry. At
the initiation of members they were re-
quired to deny Christ, to spit upon the
cross; they received full license to break
in every possible way their solemn public
vow of chastity they were taught to wor-
ship an idol, the heart of cat or some
other mutilated object. The charges were
too disgusting to be stated in detail.
Philips mode of proceeding against
them was arbitrary and summary, charac-
teristic of the times and the man. On the
18th of September, 1907, he sent sealed
instructions to the higher officers through
out all his kingdom, accompanied by an
order that each should summon powerful
force on the night of the 18th of October,
ensuing and then, and not before, on pain
of death, they were to open the sealed Or
der, and carry it Immediately into execu-
ton. At the dawn of day, October 18th,
these valiant knights found the house
belonging to their order surrounded by
the kings soldiers; they were all arrested
and committed to prison an inventory of
their whole property made out, and the
royal seal was set on every thing that be-
longed to them. 1 - i'4
The next day solemn convocation was
held of the chief clergy and the master of
the University of Paris, at which the
charges already referred to were publicly
brought against the whole order. On the
day following, which was Sunday, the
most popular preachers were employed to
denounce the horrible crimes of the Tenn
plars.
The king was determined to give no
time for any manifestation of public SYM
pathy in favor of the doomed fraternity.
A tribunal was at once organized to try
the offenders. Some were bribed into con-
fession I; more were tortured, in ways of
exquisite cruelty, till in their agony, they
confessed whatever was required of them.
Their feet, placed in the stocks, and an
nointed with oil, were exposed to fire, till
in some cases the bones dropped out from
them; splinters Of wood were driven un-
der their nails up to the jRl1t their teeth
were wrenched out +; and when these and
similar barbarities had been inflicted on
them, they were sent back to their narrow,
dark and filthy dungeons. From some
confession was thus extorted, only to be
retracted, when they recovered little
from their agony; from others no ingenu-
ity of torture, no refinement of cruelty
could extract even single word Of confess
sion.
Those who did not perish under the
cruelties of the kings officers were kept in
prison for nearly two years, when they
were again brought to trial, but this time
it was before the peoples court, and not
before civil tribunal. Most of them who
had not retracted the confessions that pain
and torture had forced from them, retract-
ed them now. The decision of this court
was, that those who retracted their confess
sions and adhered to the retractions, were
to be treated as relapsed heretics. Those
who had made no confession were ordered
to be detained in prison. On the 18th Of
May, 1910, ifty-four of those who had
retracted their confessions were brought
forth and publicly burned as incorrigible
heretics, outside Of one Of the public gates
of Paris. Others soon shared the same
fate. One hundred and thirteen thus died
in Paris alone; and not one of this
number would purchase life by apostasy
Not satisfied with prosecuting the Tenn
plars in his own dominions, Philip had
excited similar feelings against them in
the neighboring kingdoms. In England
they were seized and imprisoned with the
same dispatch as in France. But their
trials were conducted with at least some
semblance Of justice, and their sentence
was not SO severe. They were sentenced
to perpetual imprisonment in the monas-
teries. The sympathy and respect Of the
great majority of the people seemed to
have followed them. In Italy they were
readily acquitted wherever the French in
fluence suffered them to have fair trial.
In Spain they were completely and tri-
umphantly exonerated from the charges
brought against them. In Germany such
was their power and popularity that the
eclesiastics did not proceed to extremities