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Article THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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The Knights Templars.
lurking about the hills and forests , slew the poor wayfarer . The nobility of the cause in which they fought , the simplicity and abnegation of their lives , and their matchless courage , Avon the applause of all pilgrims . Fulk , Count of Anjou ,
on the visit whicli he made to the Holy Land in 1120 , charmed with their bravery and humility , joined them as a married brother , and bestowed upon them annually thirty pounds of silver , to enable them to prosecute their schemes , an example
afterwards followed by other nobles . From this beginning—this Society of nine Knights bound together for the protection of the poor pilgrims to the Holy Land—sprang the noble and famous Order of the Knights Templars ,
Avhich for two hundred years ivas the bulwark of Christianity in the East , spreading its houses over every land in Europe , rivalling in wealth and influence the greatest kingdoms of the Middle Ages—the champion of the iveak and distressed ,
and the avenger of wrong . Let us for a little look at the Order of the Hospital , the great rival and final absorber of part of the riches , and the Knights of the Temple .
Pilgrims to the Holy Land often combined the pursuit of salvation and a heavenly crown with an earthly and material desire for profit , to be derived from commercial intercourse ivith the inhabitants
of Juctea . Tims , certain merchants belonging to Amalfi , trading to Jerusalem , applied to the Caliph of Egypt for permission to erect a small and convenient house for the entertainment of themselves and their brethren . This request the
Caliph granted , and a house—hospitimn or hospital , as such erections ivere called—was built by the applicants , close by the Holy Sepulchre . They afterwards , upon a renewed application to the Caliph , obtained permission to build a chapel in
connection with this hospitium , which they dedicated to Sancta Maria de Latina , in ivhich the services were conducted in the Latin tongue . Shortly after this chapel ivas built certain canons of St . Augustine joined them in their pious duties
, and built another chapel ; but the numbers to Jerusalem daily increasing , for their better entertainment another hospitium was raised on the site of the place on whicli pious tradition affirmed had stood the house wherein our Lorcl instituted the
Sacrament of the Last Supper . A chapel Avas also built in connection with this new hospitium , which was dedicated to St . John of Cyprus , a canonised Bishop of Alexandria , commonly called
St . John Eleemon , or the Compassionate . This new hospitium possessed no funds of its own , but derived its revenues from the parent institution , and from the charity of the pilgrims . In 1099 , Godfrey de Bouillon , on taking Jerusalem ,
endowed this new hospitium ; and Gerard , its first inspector , separating it from the jurisdiction of the abbot and monks of the original hospital , established in it a congregation to the honour of St . John the Baptist . Gerard was succeeded by
Raymond Dupuy , a Knight of Dauphine , who organised the Order of Hospitallers , and became , under the new arrangement , its first Grand Master , in the year 1118 , the very year of the Templars receiving the Temple of Solomon . De Vertol , in
his " History of the Knights of Malta , " endeavours to shoiv that the Templars sprang out of the Hospital , and , quoting Brompton , says that , in his ( Brompton's ) time , it Avas generally supposed that the Knights of the Temple were pupils of the
Hospitallers , and subsisted for several years only by relief from them . * De Vertol does very little justice to the Templars Avhen he mentions them , Avhich is seldom , and in several instances he states what is absolutely false . All glory and renown
was won , by his showing , by the Knights of St . John , and the Templars , except as their followers , did little . Now the learned Abbe , in his desire to magnify the Knights of St . John , lias altogether ignored facts . The Templars were
of greater note in the Holy Land than all the other Orders put together , and they Avere the first religious and military Order that ever existed . De Vertol writes , " 'Tis astonishing that none of the historians of that time take any notice of the
year in which these Hospitallers had recourse to arms , and that those writers have kept the same silence with regard to - their exploits , or at least have spoken of them only , by-the-by , and superficially . However , we learn from a bull of Pope
Innocent , bearing date A . D . 1130 , that they talked of nothing in all Europe but of the importance of the services done the Kings of Jerusalem by the Hospitallers against the Infidels , ivhich supposes that they had been some time before in arms ; and
yet there is no carrying the epocha Ave are in search of higher than A . D . 1118 , when Raymond Dnpni Avas dignified with the Mastership of this new militia . " Ashmole makes the date 1104 , but this is extremely doubtful . f
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Knights Templars.
lurking about the hills and forests , slew the poor wayfarer . The nobility of the cause in which they fought , the simplicity and abnegation of their lives , and their matchless courage , Avon the applause of all pilgrims . Fulk , Count of Anjou ,
on the visit whicli he made to the Holy Land in 1120 , charmed with their bravery and humility , joined them as a married brother , and bestowed upon them annually thirty pounds of silver , to enable them to prosecute their schemes , an example
afterwards followed by other nobles . From this beginning—this Society of nine Knights bound together for the protection of the poor pilgrims to the Holy Land—sprang the noble and famous Order of the Knights Templars ,
Avhich for two hundred years ivas the bulwark of Christianity in the East , spreading its houses over every land in Europe , rivalling in wealth and influence the greatest kingdoms of the Middle Ages—the champion of the iveak and distressed ,
and the avenger of wrong . Let us for a little look at the Order of the Hospital , the great rival and final absorber of part of the riches , and the Knights of the Temple .
Pilgrims to the Holy Land often combined the pursuit of salvation and a heavenly crown with an earthly and material desire for profit , to be derived from commercial intercourse ivith the inhabitants
of Juctea . Tims , certain merchants belonging to Amalfi , trading to Jerusalem , applied to the Caliph of Egypt for permission to erect a small and convenient house for the entertainment of themselves and their brethren . This request the
Caliph granted , and a house—hospitimn or hospital , as such erections ivere called—was built by the applicants , close by the Holy Sepulchre . They afterwards , upon a renewed application to the Caliph , obtained permission to build a chapel in
connection with this hospitium , which they dedicated to Sancta Maria de Latina , in ivhich the services were conducted in the Latin tongue . Shortly after this chapel ivas built certain canons of St . Augustine joined them in their pious duties
, and built another chapel ; but the numbers to Jerusalem daily increasing , for their better entertainment another hospitium was raised on the site of the place on whicli pious tradition affirmed had stood the house wherein our Lorcl instituted the
Sacrament of the Last Supper . A chapel Avas also built in connection with this new hospitium , which was dedicated to St . John of Cyprus , a canonised Bishop of Alexandria , commonly called
St . John Eleemon , or the Compassionate . This new hospitium possessed no funds of its own , but derived its revenues from the parent institution , and from the charity of the pilgrims . In 1099 , Godfrey de Bouillon , on taking Jerusalem ,
endowed this new hospitium ; and Gerard , its first inspector , separating it from the jurisdiction of the abbot and monks of the original hospital , established in it a congregation to the honour of St . John the Baptist . Gerard was succeeded by
Raymond Dupuy , a Knight of Dauphine , who organised the Order of Hospitallers , and became , under the new arrangement , its first Grand Master , in the year 1118 , the very year of the Templars receiving the Temple of Solomon . De Vertol , in
his " History of the Knights of Malta , " endeavours to shoiv that the Templars sprang out of the Hospital , and , quoting Brompton , says that , in his ( Brompton's ) time , it Avas generally supposed that the Knights of the Temple were pupils of the
Hospitallers , and subsisted for several years only by relief from them . * De Vertol does very little justice to the Templars Avhen he mentions them , Avhich is seldom , and in several instances he states what is absolutely false . All glory and renown
was won , by his showing , by the Knights of St . John , and the Templars , except as their followers , did little . Now the learned Abbe , in his desire to magnify the Knights of St . John , lias altogether ignored facts . The Templars were
of greater note in the Holy Land than all the other Orders put together , and they Avere the first religious and military Order that ever existed . De Vertol writes , " 'Tis astonishing that none of the historians of that time take any notice of the
year in which these Hospitallers had recourse to arms , and that those writers have kept the same silence with regard to - their exploits , or at least have spoken of them only , by-the-by , and superficially . However , we learn from a bull of Pope
Innocent , bearing date A . D . 1130 , that they talked of nothing in all Europe but of the importance of the services done the Kings of Jerusalem by the Hospitallers against the Infidels , ivhich supposes that they had been some time before in arms ; and
yet there is no carrying the epocha Ave are in search of higher than A . D . 1118 , when Raymond Dnpni Avas dignified with the Mastership of this new militia . " Ashmole makes the date 1104 , but this is extremely doubtful . f