already far more than sufficient to supply the charitable uses of the hospital, and it was resolved to devote the surplus to the defence of the state. The former soldiers of the cross, therefore, resumed their military without discarding their religious garb and profession, and thenceforth the banner and the battle-cry of the knights of St. John were seen and heard foremost and loudest in every encounter with the heathen enemy.

The government of the order was vested in the grand master, and a general council of the knights, all of whom were required to be of noble birth. A distinct body of regular clergy was provided for the offices of religion, and a third and inferior class of sergeants, or serving men, both swelled the martial array of the knightly fraternity, and discharged the civil duties of the hospital. The members were required to receive the eucharist three times in the course of the year, and if possible to hear mass once in every day. They were forbidden to engage in merchandise, or to lend out money on interest. Their order also prohibited all private duels, and obliged them to stand neuter in all disputes between the various princes of Christendom. Their profession was to wage war against Mohammedanism, and to protect the Christian pilgrim in his visits to the holy sepulchre.

The ceremonies of investiture were considered highly significant of their order. A sword with a cross hilt was delivered to the

novice, intimating that he was to be valiant in the defence of the faith. With the sword he was struck three times across the shoulder, in token of the sufferings he was patiently to endure in the cause he had espoused. As expressive of the unspotted purity of the new life he was to live, he was required to wipe the sword which he received. Gilt spurs were then buckled on his heels, in scorn of earthly riches. And, lastly, a lighted taper was placed in his hand, for he was to be not only a defence to the church, but to shine as a light in the world.

The renown which the order acquired in the fields of Palestine soon attracted the nobility from all parts of Europe to its standard. Admiration of both its pious and its chivalric purposes multiplied its endowments of land and donations of money, and the rents of nineteen thousand farms, administered by preceptories and commanderies, as the principal houses were termed, which the knights established in every Christian country, supplied a perpetual revenue to their hospital in Palestine, and served to maintain its regular military force. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, they had grown so rich and powerful that they were buying for themselves castles and towns, and submitting territories to their authority, like princes of the earth.

The order of the Templars originated with a few French knights, who had followed the first Crusade, and who were animated beyond their fellows with the religious and military fury

which inspired that enterprise. The original design of their association differed from that of the Hospitallers, in having from the outset united the martial and the charitable profession. Even after the conquest of the Holy Land by the Crusaders, the roads to Jerusalem, from the ports and northern frontiers in Palestine, continued to be infested by bands of Turks, who indulged at once their thirst for plunder, and their hatred of the Christian name, by the robbery and murder of the numerous defenceless pilgrims from Europe. The dangers which beset these poor votaries to the shrine of the holy sepulchre from the cruelty of the infidels, roused the pious compassion and chivalric indignation of Geoffrey de St. Aldamar, Hugh de Payens, and other French knights in Palestine, who bound themselves mutually by oath to devote their lives to the relief and safe conduct of all pilgrims. As their association partook of a religious character, they followed the example of the fraternity of the Hospitallers, assuming the monastic vows.

Having no fixed dwelling-place, the Templars were assigned a lodging in a palace in the immediate vicinity of the temple, from whence they derived the name by which they have since been known. In this early period of their history, this subsequently proud and luxurious order were fed and clothed by the brothers of the Hospital. They are said never to have been idle, even mending their own clothes when wanting other employment. Chess, dice, hawk

ing, and hunting, indeed, all the customary amusements of the age, were forbidden to them. To signify both their poverty and humility, they adopted as their seal two men riding on one horse. The maintenance, however, which they at first received from the charity of the Hospitallers of St. John was soon more independently provided by the respect which was won for their order throughout Christendom, in consequence of the grateful report of the pilgrims. During the first nine years which followed their institution, they were distinguished by no particular garb, wearing the secular habit of the day. But after their order was confirmed by the pope, a white garment became their appointed dress. They added a red cross to their robe, and raised a banner of their own. With the increase of their means and numbers, they aspired to extend their humbler services of guarding the roads of Palestine to the more glorious enterprise of offensive warfare against the infidels; and thenceforth, in wealth, privileges, and power, and in heroic adventure, their history differs but little from that of the Hospitallers.

The constitution of the two orders was similar; and the preceptories and estates possessed by the Templars in every kingdom of Europe were immense sources of influence and opulence, second only in degree to those of the elder fraternity. But in honourable estimation, and in martial renown, no superiority could with justice be claimed by either, and ad

mission to the ranks of both was sought with equal avidity by the flower of European chivalry. The Templars were soon one of the richest, and, beyond comparison, the proudest, of these religious orders. Other fraternities combining religious vows with the profession of arms, were also established, but the Hospitallers and the Templars were the chief both in number and influence.

The fate of these institutions may be noticed here. The order of the Templars was abolished by Philip the Fair of France. On his accession to the throne, Philip had shown them great favour, but in the dispute between himself and Boniface VIII., the Templars taking the part of the pope, and treating the monarch in his own realm with insolent contempt, they aroused his wrath, and he secretly resolved on their destruction. Their notorious crimes afforded

ample pretext for the execution of his purpose; and on the succession of Bertrand to the papal chair, the knights of the Temple were inveigled into France by various stratagems, and having been brought to trial, were sentenced to be imprisoned for life or burned to death. Their large possessions were confiscated and appropriated by the revengeful monarch to his own uses. In other countries, they suffered similar persecutions, until eventually the order was dissolved, and its estates were transferred to the Hospitallers.

In England, the Hospitallers also were suppressed by Henry VIII., for persisting in their