The Knights Templars.

of demons , affixing the Cross of their Order upon the breast of every kind of scoundrel , asserting that whoever by paying tAvo or three pence a year became one of their fraternity , and therefore , could not , even though interdicted , be deprived

of Christian burial . Hence known adulterers , usurers , and others , AVIIO were lying under interdict , were honourably interred in their cemeteries , and thus , they the Templars themselves , being captive to the devil , ceased not to make captive

the souls of the faithful , seeking to make alive those whom they knew to be dead . The Pope then with grief laments that instead of , like holy men , using the world for the sake of God , they employed their religious character as a means of

indulging in the pleasures of the world . Though an account of these and such like abuses , the Templars deserved to be deprived of the the privileges which had been conferred upon them , yet the Pope states that he would not proceed to such

extremities , but looked to the Master to see that an end Avas put to them . * ( To be continued . )

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

0 EIC 1 IN OP SPECULATIVE 3 IASONEX . A young Mason desires my advice as to the way in which he should begin to investigate this obscure matter . My advice is , that he should begin by collecting out of books and manuscripts , printed and written before the year 1717 all in which the

, passages epithet " speculative , " or any epithet apparently meant to he equivalent , or plainly not synonymous with the epithet " operative , " is used in relation to Masonry . —C . P . COOPEE .

PEEEMASONEY AND CHIVALBT . In answer to " Pictus , " I have to state that there never was any connection between the Hospitallers and Freemasons as a secret society . Like the Templars , the Hospitallers had among their serving brethren a large body of wrights ancl stonemasons .

"When Ramsay instituted tbe chivalric degrees , manuscripts ancl documents relating to tbe Military Orders were not patent to the public , and it was only in the present century that catalogues of all important libraries could be hacl . The Vatican Library , with all the Papal papers , are now catalogued , and in that

most important collection there is not a single document to be found which even hints at the Military Orders having such a connection . We might as well call a collector of a celebrated gallery a painter as the Templars and Hospitallers Freemasons , because they employed a vast number of workmen in erecting their stately edifices . If the Templars had a secret doctrine , we must then take for proved some of the

charges brought against them , and which brought about their downfall . Freemasons , to be consistent , must either acknowledge the guilt of the Templars , and , by extension , admit that the other Military Orders were no better ( which surely they will never do ) or they must deny that guilt and any secret

, doctrine . I made minute inquiries , relative to the presumed connection among persons acquainted with the Hospitallers of the present day , and they were surprised to hear of even such a supposition . The English charter by the Emperor Paul is , moreover , an illegal deed . Supposing certain Knihts cf the Bath

g , the Thistle , or the Garter were to dissociate themselves from the Order , and acknoAvledge the King of Prussia as their head , instead of the Q . ueen of England , would that be legal ? Supposing the King of Prussia granted a warrant to the Duke of Buccleugh to open a chapter in Scotlandand receive

, members , would such warrant be legal ? The Pope is the head of the Hospitallers ; he has never lost his rights . There are Commanderies of the Order in Italand landand these alone the

y Eng , are proper Hospitallers . Masonic Hospitallers insisting upon public notice being taken of them as legitimate would he laughed at on the Continent ; and when Freemasons claim to be the true descendants of the ancient Templarswithout rhymereasonor lawthe

, , , , laugh becomes a grin . I do not personally object to the Masonic Knights , and even think the assemblies in conclave pretty , although petty ; but when history is against their pretensions , and common sense sneers at their fables , it might be as well if they pitched their standards upon the battlements of truth .

When men claim to be the true and legitimate descendants of an Order supposed to have been extinguished five centuries ago , one requires evidence of this ; and when we find the evidence dating only a hundred years back , and that not of the most truthful character—while not a scrap of not a single

paper , historical notice , can be produced as emanating from the Order during the preceding four hundred yearsthe judgment can only be " a most barefaced imposture . "—ANTHONY ONEAL HAYE .

LANGUAGE OP MEDIAEVAL AECHITECTUEE . The words respecting which a learned brother inquires were entered in one of my memorandum-books about fifteen years ago . I found them somewhere in the " Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiques , " then recentl at Paris of the

y published . I subjoin a copy words : <; On sait que les nombres dans l ' architecture du moyen age ne servaient pas seulement a exprimer les proportions et la symetrie , mais avaient par euxmemes un sens mystique et secret qui faisait de l'architecture une languo religieuse . "—0 . P . COOPEE .

ANCIENT LODGE AND TEMPLAR PEECEPTOEY . In Maitland ' s " History of Melrose , " 1769 , there is the following sentence : "About a mile to the Avesfc on the Tweed stands Newstead , a place noted for an ancient lodge of Masons , but more remarkable for another abbacy on the east side of itcalled

Red-, Abbey-Stead . Whether it got this name from the colour of the stones whereAvith it Avas built , or because it was an house belonging to the Templars , they wearing a red cross for their distinguishing badge , I cannot determine ; but it is certain , where