The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-09-09
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR.
Their Origin and Riso and Development
in the United States.

Their Origin and Rise and Development
in the United States.
The ever-recurring fear that "the end
ofthe world" and the day of judgment was
at hand, was, in all probability, the ori.
gin of Free Masonry. 1t happened that
in the year of our Lord 1000 the wild
lawlessness, rapine and bloodshed of the
day was suddenly checked with the mil.
lennial panic. The world was to come
to an end that year. The doughty baron
laid aside his brand and took to his pray
ers others did penance by fasting; others
made long and dangerous pilgrimages to
Palestine, rs expiation for their crimes.
BY these and similar extraordinary efforts
it was believed that the wrath of God was
temporarily ayertcd. There followed this
panic three or four centuries of religious
fever, in which church building progress
cd, aud religious orders were Instituted.
Of purely religious form were the Angus.
tinian monks, founded A. D. 1861 the
Gilbertines, for men and women, in 11S0 F.;
the Cistercians and Benedictines, and
others which aourished, held vast posses
sions in real estate, builtgreat monasteries
abbeys and ministers, and were power
in the land up TO the days of Harry the
eighth, the much. married defender Of
the FAITH" Ofsemi.monastic fraternities
of Military organization there were two
orders, viz: knights of St. John, or
Hospitalers-so styled because they built
a hospital at Jerusalem for the benefit
of pilgrims-and the knights Templar,
who derived that title from having an
asylum first given them by King Baldwin
near the supposed site Of the Jewish tenn
Pile, in his own palace erected there.
This was about the year Ills, and from
it modern Templars date this year "a. D.
1880) being the A. O. 1852 of the Knights.
From being crusaders, that is, soldiers
devoted to tho redemption of the Sara
Gems, the Knights Templar came back 10
Western Europe, whence they marched,
having ATTAINED naught else but glory.
The doughty Saladin and his brave sue
cesssors were equal to the Crusader kings,
and the crescent drove out the cross and
remain in possession to this day. In Eng.
land, where they had settled, the Templars
had two centuries of great prosperity.
They grew so wealthy and powerful that
their Grand Master sat in Parliament, the
peer of the highest Baron in the realm.
The Temple in London, on the banks of
the Thames, was wonder OF architectural
beauty, and was the headquarters for
England. Here they .a a monu-
ment, enduring to our own times, in the
shape of the Temple Church, in which
some of their tombs may yet be seen.
Their wealth and power at last became
the cause of their downfall. The Church
had long regarded them with greedy
eye, and in 1912 Edward II of England
received bull from Pope Clement V for
their suppression. From 1907, when
Grand Master Jacques de Molai was ar.
rested in Paris, until 1913, wheE be
perished at the stake outside the walls of
that city, the Order in France passed
through a terrible ordeal, and with the
smoke from the Grand Masters funeral
pyre the actual medieval Templarism
closed forever.
Coeval with the institution Of military
knighthood was that of Free Masonry.
1t was an age Of religious fraternities.
Men banded together for mutual protec-
tion against the aggressiveness of the
feudal lords or the rapacity of the princes
of the church. Necessary as they were
to the nobility, the Masons, being trained
and skilled in architecture, they soon
felt their power and importance, and to
MAINTAIN it effected organizations rs
secret fraternity having three degrees.
Into this brotherhood were admitted on.
ly those who had devoted themselves to
the science of architecture, more espc.
cially church building. The three degrees
of Entered Apprentice" Fellow
Craft" and "Master Mason" were not
attained without due and fitting prepara.
tion. Each step was proven, and in days
when diplomas were almost unknown,
when few could read, and fewer could
write, the catechisms of Masonry, the
passwords and signs of reconition, were
absolutely necessary to distinguish
the free and accepted Mason from the
slave or hiring laborer. Near each ca
thedral in course of erection the brethren
erected for themselves q home, where
they lodged, where they met after the
labors of the day, and which was the Or
igin of the speculative Free Masonry of
modern times.
As the Masons increased in numbers
and influence they cut themselves loose
from the leading strings of the church,
though they still were loyal, and from
that time the Bishops and abbots of Cen.
trail Europe, as we'll as the princes, look.
ed with disfayor con the brethreu," and
prosecuted them. The 'blessed" Refor-
nation was not much of blessing to
them, as church building ceased, and
mems minds became imbued with incon-
oclastic spirit which prompted them to
destroy rather than to build. Still the
Masons preserved their organization, and
in April, A. D., 1859, held their first con-
clave at Ratisbon, at which the arch.
itect of the magnificent Cathedral of
Strasburg was made Grand Master, and
his lodge the Grand Lodge of the world.
From the Continent Masonicism was
taken to ngland and Scotland, where.
finding congenial soil, it grew and for
ished for one hundred years, when it
ceased to be practical, by the admission
of persons not practical builders, and
thus became the speculative Free Mason
ry of to-day. !
Oft rapid rise aud development in the
United States little need be said here. 1t
has grown up with the country, receiving
q severe set back in 1892, indeed, in the
Morgan anti-Masouic war;, but speedily
recuperated, and now number its mem-
bership by thousands.
knights Templary originated with the
Masons of Scottish Rite.
In the language of an eminent writer,
"it was introduced in the Masonic body
after the establishment of the present
symbolic system, the object being to
complete and cement the moral code of
Free Masonry with the pure teachings of
Christianity, exemplifed by the doctrines
of the early Knightly fraternity of the
Templars." The first conclave was held
in New York City in 1916. Dewitt