for the sake of God, and our' sweet lady, to receive me into your society and the good works of the order, as one who, all his life long, will be the servant and slave of the order." The Preceptor then inquired of him if he had well considered all the trials and difficulties which awaited him in the order, adjured him on the Holy Evangelists to speak the truth, and then put to him the questions which had already been asked of him in the preparation room, further inquiring if he was a knight, and the son of a knight and gentlewoman, and if he was a priest. He then asked him the following questions: "Do you promise to God and Mary, and our dear lady, obedience, as long as you live, to the Master of the Temple, and the Prior who shall be set over you; do you promise chastity of the body; do you further promise a strict compliance with the laudable customs and usages of the order now in force, and such as the Master and knights may hereafter add; will you fight for and defend, with all your might, the holy land of Jerusalem, and never quit the order but with the consent of the Master and Chapter; and lastly, do you agree that you never will see a Christian unjustly deprived of his inheritance, nor be aiding in such a deed?" The answers to all these questions being in the affirmative, the Preceptor then said: "In the name of God, and of Mary, our dear lady, and in the name of St. Peter of Rome, and of our Father the Pope, and in the name of all the brethren of the Temple, we receive you to all the good works of the order, which have been performed from the beginning, and will be performed to the end, you, your father, your mother, and all those of your family whom you let participate therein. So you, in like manner, receive us to all the good works which you have performed and will perform. We assure you of bread and water, the poor clothing of the order, and labor and toil enow." The Preceptor then took the white mantle, with its ruddy cross, placed it about his neck and bound it fast. The Chaplain repeated the 133d Psalm: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity;" and the prayer of the Holy Spirit, "Deus qui corda

fidelium; each brother said a Pater, and the Preceptor and Chaplain kissed the candidate. He then placed himself at the feet of the Preceptor, who exhorted him to peace and charity, to chastity, obedience, humility, and piety, and so the ceremony. was ended.*

But to resume the history of the order. From the time of Hugh de Payens, to that of Jacques de Molay, the Templars continued to be governed by a succession of the noblest and bravest knights of which the chivalry of Christendom could boast. They continued to increase in power, in fame and in wealth, and, what is unfortunately too often the concomitants of these qualities, in luxury and pride. In the beginning of the 14th century, the throne of France was filled by Philip the Fair, an ambitious, a vindictive, and an avaricious prince. In his celebrated controversy with Pope Boniface, the Templars had, as was usual with them, sided with the Pontiff and opposed the King; this act excited his hatred: the order was enormously wealthy; this aroused his avarice: their power interfered with his designs of political aggrandizement; and this alarmed his ambition. He, therefore, secretly concerted with Pope Clement V. a plan for their destruction, and the appropriation of their revenues. Clement, by his direction, wrote in June, 1306, to De Molay, the Grand Master, who was then at Cyprus, inviting him to come and consult with him on some matters of great importance to the order. De Molay obeyed the summons, and arrived in the beginning of 1307 at Paris, with sixty knights and a large amount of treasure. He was immediately imprisoned, and, on the 13th of October following, every knight in France was, in consequence of the secret orders of the King, arrested on the pretended charge of idolatry, and other enormous crimes, of which a renegade and expelled Prior of the order was said to have confessed that the knights were guilty in their secret chapters. On the 12th of May, 1310, fifty-four of the knights were, after a mock trial, publicly burnt, and on the 18th of March,

*N. Am. Quart. Mag. ut supra.

1314, De Molay, the Grand Master, and the three principal dignitaries of the order, suffered the same fate. They died faithfully asserting their innocence of all the crimes imputed to them. The order was now, by the energy of the King of France, assisted by the spiritual authority of the Pope, suppressed throughout Europe. But it was not annihilated. De Molay, in anticipation of his fate, had appointed John Mark Larmienus as his successor in office, and from that time to the present there has been a regular and uninterrupted succession of Grand Masters. Of the names of these Grand Masters, and the date of their election, I annex a list for the gratification of the curious.*

It may be as well to observe that this is the list given by the order of the Temple at Paris, who claim to be the lineal descendants of the ancient order. Other Templars, who do not admit the legality of the Grand Mastership of Larmenius, give different catalogues of Grand Masters.

1187.

1191.

1196.

1201.

1217.

1218.

1229.

1237.

1244.

50 Bernard R. F. Palaprat, 51. Sir Sidney Smith, Notwithstanding, therefore, the efforts of the King and the Pope, the order of Templars was not entirely extinguished. In France it still exists, and ranks among its members some of the most

1804.

1838.

influential noblemen of the kingdom. In Portugal, the name of the order has been changed to that of the "Knights of Christ," and its Cross is frequently conferred by the government as the reward of distinguished merit. In England, the Encampment of Baldwin, which was established at Bristol by the Templars who returned with Richard I. from Palestine, still continues to hold its regular meetings, and is believed to have preserved the ancient costume and ceremonies of the order. This encampment, with another at Bath, and a third at York, constituted the three original encampments of England. From these have emanated the existing encampments in the British Islands and in the United States, so that the order, as it now exists in Britain and America, is a lineal descendant of the ancient order.

The connection between the Knights Templar and the Freemasons has been repeatedly asserted by the enemies of both institutions, and as often admitted by their friends. Lawrie, on this subject, holds the following language: "We know that the Knight Templars not only possessed the mysteries, but performed the ceremonies, and inculcated the duties of Freemasons ;"* and he attributes the dissolution of the order to the discovery of their being Freemasons, and their assembling in secret to practise the rites of the order. He further endeavours to explain the manner in which they became the depository of the masonic mysteries by tracing their initiation to the Druses, a Syriac fraternity, which, at the time of the Crusades, and long after, existed on Mount Libanus.†

Costume.-At the conclusion of this article, a few remarks on the costume of the order may be acceptable. The present black dress of the Templars is derived from the Knights of Malta, to whom, with the Teutonic Knights, their estates were assigned by Pope Clement on the dissolution of the order, and with whom many of the knights united themselves. But originally, as we

Hist. of Freemasonry, p. 58. † Hist. of Freemasonry, p. 88.