The Knights TemplarsAddison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet)
History
The Knights Templars
Addison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet)
Templars
The abbot of Lagny, indeed, was as good as his word, for on the 29th
of June, four days after this imprudent avowal, Brother Thomas Tocci
de Thoroldeby was brought back to St. Martin’s Church, and there, in
the presence of the same parties, he made a third confession, in which
he declares that, coerced by two Templars with drawn swords in their
hands, he denied Christ with his mouth, but not with his heart; and
spat _beside_ the cross, but not on it; that he was required to spit
upon the image of the Virgin Mary, but contrived, instead of doing so,
to give her a kiss on the foot. He declares that he had heard Brian le
Jay, the Master of the Temple at London, say a hundred times over, that
Jesus Christ was not the true God, but a man: and that the smallest
hair out of the beard of one Saracen, was of more worth than the whole
body of any Christian. He declares that he was once standing in the
presence of Brother Brian, when some poor people besought charity of
him for the love of God and our lady the blessed Virgin Mary; and he
answered, “_Que dame, alez vous pendre a vostre dame_”--“What lady,
go and be hanged to your lady,” and violently casting a halfpenny
into the mud, he made the poor people hunt for it, although it was in
the depth of a severe winter. He also relates that, at the chapters,
the priest stood like a beast, and had nothing to do but to repeat
the psalm, “God be merciful unto us, and bless us,” which was read at
the closing of the chapter. (The Templars, by the way, must have been
strange idolaters to have closed their chapters, in which they are
accused of worshipping a cat, a man’s head, and a black idol, with the
reading of the beautiful psalm, “God be merciful unto us, and bless us,
and show us the light of thy countenance, that thy way may be known
upon earth, thy saving health among all nations,” &c., Psalm lxvii.)
This witness further states, that the priest had no power to impose a
heavier penance than a day’s fast on bread and water, and could not
even do that without the permission of the brethren. He is made also to
relate that the Templars always favoured the Saracens in the holy wars
in Palestine, and oppressed the Christians! and he declares, speaking
of himself, that for three years before he had never seen the body of
Christ without thinking of the devil, nor could he remove that evil
thought from his heart by prayer, or in any other way that he knew
of; but that very morning he had heard mass with great devotion, and
since then had thought only of Christ, and thinks there is no one in
the order of the Temple whose soul will be saved, unless a reformation
takes place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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