The Moral And Religious Origin Of Freemasonry.

all their property was in the hands of the king , who , having dismissed an administrator whom the Pope had sent him , set himself against the Hospitallers taking possession . Pope Clement V . died , ancl then the Portuguese Templars reappeared . They were assigned pensions or liens on their sequestrated property ; they were treated with honour and distinctionand they were permitted to assume in

, public acts the title of " heretofore Knight of the Temple . " John II . succeeded Clement V ., ancl the ambassadors whom Denis sent to him carried on with the new Pope a negotiation which lasted for six years . It is most probable that this diplomacy had , on the part of the King of Portugal , the re-establishment , pur et simple—that is , real and in fact—of the Templars in his kingdom . Finally , at the conclusion of so prolonged a

negotiation , the Court of Avignon ( successive Popes had a long sojourn in this grand old place in France , for , whilst they excommunicated the monarchs of superstitious peoples , monarchs who had minds of their own used them as puppets ) granted King Denis everything except the word Templar—a designation which was superfluous and not essential , since it accrued from the residence of those Knihts in the neihbourhood of the

g g Temple . It was decided that this denomination should be replaced by that of the " Knights of Christ . " This was the title given to the brethren in their statute , and which they assumed , indifferently with the other , in public acts and proceedings . The Bull which approved these dispositions or settlements , was issued in 1319 .

All the documents relative to what I have above advanced as to the protection of King Denis ancl the re-establishment of the Order of the Templars under another title , are now deposited in the royal archives of Lisbon , where I myself have read and examined them with the most critical and scrutinising attention .

Nevertheless , the Order of the Kni ghts of Christ very soon degenerated from its primitive mission , and became little more than a religious confraternity entirely subject to the Vatican . The Order of the Kni ghts of Christ became , evenlater still , acivil order , which , prodigally bestowed without discrimination or restraint , depreciated and mayhap stigmatised the Institution . But if the Templars , who reappeared in Portugal under a new constitution , degenerated from their principlesit was not the same case with those who

, , spread over the two hemispheres , had founded , in the time of persecution , the Masonic Institution . This Institution has been faithful to its principles . See the centuries ( more than five and a half ) since its institution , and how gigantically it has grown , notwithstanding the innumerable fluctuations of fortunes it has undergone , ancl in the midst of a social condition corrupted by the most revolting egotism . The fury of kings and the hatred of the Vatican

have exhausted all their thunderbolts against the moral which we teach . Our fathers have been faithful to their sacred mission in many ages of strife and struggles , and we who are inheritors of their doctrine—although we have no longer now to battle against mere brute force—shall assail , man to man , the hideous monsters of corruption and of vice , inculcating our dogmas in the face of clay , and inspiring into all the human race those sentiments of brotherhood , religion , love , tolerance , justice , kindliness , and pity which alone can lead society to that perfection for which man has been created by the GREAT ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE .