Many grave and improbable charges have been brought against the Templars by monks and priests who wrote in Europe concerning events in the Holy Land, and who regarded the vast privileges of the order with indignation and aversion. Matthew Paris tells us that they were leagued with the infidels, and fought pitched battles with the rival order of Saint John; but as contemporary historians of Palestine, who describe the exploits of the Templars, and were eye-witnesses of their career, make no mention of such occurrences, and as no allusion is made to them in the letters of the Pope addressed to the Grand Master of the order of Saint John shortly after the date of these pretended battles, I have omitted all mention of them, feeling convinced, after a careful examination of the best authorities, that they never did take place. At this distant day, when the times and scenes in which the Templars acted are changed, and the deep religious fervour and warm fresh feelings of bygone ages have given way to a cold and calculating philosophy, we may doubt the sincerity of the military friars, exclaim against their credulity, and deride their zeal; but when we call to mind the hardships and fatigues, the dangers, sufferings, and death, to which they voluntarily devoted themselves in a far distant land, the sacrifice of personal comforts, of the ties of kindred, and of all the endearments of domestic life, which they made without any prospect of worldly gain or temporal advantage, for objects which they believed to be just, and noble, and righteous, we must ever rank the generous impulses by which they were actuated among the sublime emotions which can influence the human character in those periods when men feel rather than calculate, before knowledge has chilled the sensibility, or selfish indifference hardened the heart. THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. CHAPTER I. The pilgrimages to Jerusalem--Origin of the Templars--Their location in the Temple--Hugh de Payens chosen Master of the Temple--His introduction to the Pope--The assembling of the Council of Troyes--The formation of a rule for the government of the Templars--The most curious parts of the rule displayed--Visit of Hugh de Payens to England--The foundation of the Order in this country--Lands and money granted to the Templars--St. Bernard displays their valour and piety. “Yet ’midst her towering fanes in ruin laid, The pilgrim saint his murmuring vespers paid; ’Twas his to mount the tufted rocks, and rove The chequer’d twilight of the olive grove; ’Twas his to bend beneath the sacred gloom, And wear with many a kiss Messiah’s tomb.”