The Order Of The Temple.

c / f ' Distinguished group of JCnights < _ 7 emplar .

FRATKJt CAPT . RUSSELL . EARL OF KIXTORE . LORD SALTOUN . FRATKR 0 . F . MATIER . EARL OF EUSTON .. ( l'lioto . r . A . Trwly Slumel ; S . S . C . Kiihihiinj )

journeying as far as the wilds of Scotland . Tradition has it , although be it said there seems to be but slender support for the legend , that after their dispersion a goodly number of them became members of a Masonic lodge at Stirling , and thus , so far as the British Isles are concerned , began the

connection between the Craft and the Temple which has in these later years so considerably fructified . In Sweden it is asserted—though with what truth it is difficult , if not impossible , to ascertain—that a nephew of the murdered Grand Master , De Molay , brought the Order to that country ,

whence it spread its wings over Denmark and Germany . This nephew apparently rested his claims to propagate this Order on his membership of the new " Order of Christ , " which , under the aegis of the King of Portugal , had gathered together the straying units of the Order of the

Temple . Be that as it may , it is certain that the King of Portugal did extend a helping hand to the wandering Knights , and this in spite of the brutal edicts of Philip and Clement . The year 1590 is that assigned to the influx of the Knights to Scotland and their settlement in Stirling , referred to above , and though , as stated , the evidence is slender

indeed , yet in the fact that these newly-joined brethren went by the name of " Cross-legged Masons" and that their meetings were held in the Abbe } - , there may be—and for Poesy ' s sake let us hope there is—a scintilla of truth in the delightful old story . In 1717 we have fairly accurate knowledge that the

Degree was being worked in somewhat its modern form ; differences of ritual there were , of course , seeing that each preceptory , or , as it was called in those clays , " encampment , " worked pretty well on its own initiative and had separate existence , but when we arrive at the year 1750 we have

documentary evidence that the Order had taken a firm hold in the South of England , and was gradually making its way towards the North .

That the Order has never worked in this country except in connection with or as a recognised or unrecognised appendage to the Craft , may be fairly asserted , seeing that many of these old " encampments" worked under warrants granted by the Athol Grand Lodge of York , but the Degree merely crawled on its road until in the year 1 873 H . R . H . the

Prince of Wales first wielded the baton of Grand Master in the newly-constituted Convent General . A committee of this body was appointed to investigate and report upon—( a ) The connection of the Order with the Craft , and { b ) its descent from the Knights of old , and the declaration of

this body went to show that although there had ever been the demand that the candidate should have passed through the whole of the Craft Degrees , including the Royal Arch , previous to his admission to the Order , yet this was simply as a quali / ication , and not as implying necessarily a connection ,

and secondly , that the traditional descent of the Order from the militant Knights of the Crusades depended from so frail a thread of evidence as to be practically valueless . If these learned brethren were correct in their deduction , there goes at once and at " one fell swoop , " the whole superstructure of the traditions of the Knights Templar of to-day , but nevertheless the presence of the words " templique Salomonici " in the official

title of the Knights of old seems to point to , at any rate , a slight connection with the traditions and history of the Craft . Let us hope and believe that these estimable gentlemen were too strict in their inquiries , too hard and fast in their measurement of fact . In 1873 , then the Convent General came into being ,

and H . R . H . the Prince of Wales was installed as Grand Master of the Order ; sundry changes were made in the nomenclature of the various offices , Grand Masters became Great Priors , Grand Conclaves or Encampments , Great Priories , and the whole was placed under the rule of one

supreme governing body , the Convent General , under the Grand Mastership of His Royal Highness ; Eminent Commander and Encampment gave way to Preceptor and Preceptory , and Constable and Marshall took the place of 1 st and 2 nd Captains .

1 he title of the Order was changed and boomed forth into "The United Religious and Military Orders of the Temple , and of St . John of Jerusalem , Palestine Rhodes , and Malta . " Other alterations took place , " past rank " was abolished , and in its place were instituted " Grand Crosses " and " Commanders ; " " Equerries " or serving brothers were

to be styled " Prater " instead of Knight , and were ordered to be attired in "brown habit , " whilst the sartorial equipment of the Knights themselves was altered at various points which need not be here described . On October 27 th , 18 7 6 , an assembly of the Convent

General took place in Dublin , but according to published reports nothing appears to have been decided , and the time of the meeting was taken up with acrimonious discussion . Shortly afterwards the Grand Master issued a precept or command for the assembl y of a third Convent General , which in due course was held at Cannon Street Hotel in the City of London , under the presidency of Lord Shrewsbury and

Talbot ; here again acrid dispute seems to have substituted itself for friendly discussion , and little or nothing was clone in furtherance of the interests of the Order . One point however , was casually mentioned b y the Arch Treasurer which goes far to prove the close connection which existed at the close of the eighteenth century between the Craft and the Order .

In the course of a somewhat heated debate , he stated that it was distinctly recorded in the annals of the Minerva Craft Lodge , of Hull , that in the year 1795 that lodge made a Knight Templar and charged him 10 s . 6 cl . for doing it . Peace , however , Avas not permitted to wave the

olive-branch within the portals of Convent General . The various Great Priories which went to make up that bod y were , whether through jealousy or incompatibility of temper , unable to agree on almost any matter they were called upon to discuss , and thus it comes that in the year 18 94 Convent General itself asks for a commission to inquire into various matters and to make recommendations , and so it happens that