The Secret Doctrine Of The Templars.

this statement of Pere Thenier does actually exhaust all extant MSS . on the subject in the Vatican , as the " doctrine of reserve , " familiar to the members of the Society of Jesus ancl to the Casuists of the Church of Rome , has long prevailed at the Vatican library . If Munter ' s statements bo true , other documents exist , but we fear also , on his parta tendency to a "frauspia . " Thusas ever"history repeats

, , , itself , " and Ave poor students of to-day have still to deal with the " suppressio veri" and the " suggestio falsi . " Hard lines for us to have to steer safel y between this Scylla ancl Charybdis of veritable history . It is interesting to note how that another fact " creeps out " of these inquiries , whose " outcome " is unfavourable to the Templars ! Contemporary Avriters accuse them of pridearroganceinterference with affairs of State

, , , natural Aveaknesses , ancl even unnatural offences ! Common sayings current among all classes of society , known ancl quoted by many writers , all point to habits Avhich are evil , luxury which is alarming , and crimes which are dishonouring and degrading ! . We are not bound to take all the statements of Matthew Paris and William

of Tyre , for instance , except " cum grano salis , " but we cannot shut our eyes or ears to certain facts ancl declarations from such a " consensus" of writers as exists undoubtedly upon the point . In 1272 the Council of Saltzburg already proposed to reform the Templars and unite them with the Hospital of St . John . In 1273 Gregory X ., and in 1289 Pope Nicholas IV ., sought also to reform them and the Hospitaliers as well , ancl it is quite clear that , for some time previous to their fall , inquiries had been made , by Papal authority , secretly into their habits of life ancl the scandals so widel y propagated respecting them , their morals , ancl—above all , their faith !

Now , this is a very important point , as it disposes of the charge of " sudden vengeance " and merel y " interested cupidity " in the otherwise startling proceedings of the French King- ancl the Roman Pontiff . Ancl then this question forces itself upon us—Had the Templars secret regulations and a " Seoreta Reoeptio , " over ancl aboA r e their regular ancl authorised reception ? There is no trace in their known rules or commonly received ceremonial of anything wrong or even suspicious . In the form of receptionwhich be seen in

, may many works , all is decorous ancl devout . But then , it is saicl that they had certain " points of the Order " which were communicated in special and secret reception alone , and on penalty of death for violation of the secret , to all professed Kni ghts and Chaplains of the Order . The word " points " has always appeared to us to decide a connection of some kind with the Masonic guilds , it being' a Masonic technical word .

No such " secret points " are , however , extant , nor has any publication of documents bearing on this head taken place to which the slightest real authority can be attached . Munter ' s posthumously published MSS . are open to the gravest suspicion . Dupuy , in his remarkable work , "Histoire de 1 'OrdreMilitaire des Templiers "—first published by his brother after his death in 1651 , and of which a condensed form , which we have , was published at Brussels in 1751—states that the fift-first witness admits that he made

y this statement to a lay friend , and which we translate from the French : — "If even you were my father , ancl that you could become G . M . of the Order , I should not wish you to enter into our body ; for we have three articles which no one will ever know , except God ancl the devil , ancl we ourselves , Brethren of the Order . " This statement-is obtained , however , after torture , "Bene noianda est . "

In the inquiry at Paris , a certain Eaoul de Presle , a lawyer , declared that Gervais de Laon , Ruler of the Temple at Laon , told him that in the " Chapter General of the Order , there Avas a matter so secret ( ' quidam punctus adeo secretus ' ) , that if , for his misfortune , any saw it , were it the King of France G 2