The order of the Templars[529] grew out of the Augustinians. The canons of this order were established in the Temple by Godfrey; and in the reign of Baldwin II., in 1118 A. D., eight Burgundian knights, under Hugh de Payen, vowed to poverty, obedience, and chastity as tonsured monks, were established in the Aḳṣa Mosque as their hospice. A rule was given them by Pope Honorius in 1128. The Templars were the richest and proudest of the four orders, and it is curious that they were always unpopular, and constantly suspected of treachery. They seem to have been willing to establish good relations with Moslems in time of peace, and to have studied Oriental philosophy; and for such reasons, as also because they were independent of the patriarch, they were coldly regarded by the Church. Their records were destroyed when the order was suppressed in 1312 A. D., but their possessions in Europe were yet more numerous than in Palestine or Syria. They held castles near the coast, and escorted pilgrims. They had also a castle on the Jericho road, and built ’Athlit under Carmel in 1218, or seventy-three years before the fall of Acre. They acted as bankers, and they were given, or bought, many properties in the later times when the barons of Palestine and Syria were eager to get rid of their lands. [Sidenote: THE STABLES] The Templars carried out considerable works in the Ḥaram area. They added a Norman porch to the Aḳṣa Mosque, and a refectory, on the west of that building which was converted into a church with three apses on the east; and a long hall south of them was perhaps the vestry, with windows on the south Ḥaram wall, and pillars with braided shafts and elaborate capitals. John of Würzburg, about 1160 A. D., says that “the new and large church is not yet finished.” Their hospice was called “the Palace of Solomon,” and the same writer says, “There is the wonderful stable, of such size as to be able to hold two thousand horses, or five hundred camels.” He evidently means the vaults now called “Solomon’s Stables,” near the south-east part of the Ḥaram, for he says, “Near the Templar buildings, on the city wall, was the house of Simeon the Just.... In this house [converted into a church] blessed Simeon lies buried. In the same church, in the crypt below, ... is the wooden Cradle of Christ.” The crypt in question still exists at the south-east angle of the Ḥaram, and a cradle (a Roman statue niche) is still shown. The stables were formed by setting on end the great Herodian stones (drafted on one side) which formed stout piers with barrel vaults for roof. The holes made for the halters of the horses can still be seen, and the so-called “Single Gate,” in the south wall east of the Triple Gate, now walled up, shows its late date by its pointed arch. This was one entry to the Templars’ stables, and a larger one was made by altering the Triple Gateway itself, at the west end of the vaults. Theodorich says that the stables would hold