The Modern Order Of "Knights Templar" In The British Dominions.

fraternity being always adverse to publicity , handing clown their peculiar secrets " viva voce " to future generations , with the same caution that the philosophers Of old displayed in perpetuating their symbols and mysteries . The Templars also , like the Jesuits , never communicated their secrets to strangers , ancl some even were concealed from the greater part of their own members . It is therefore not reasonable to believe that the Order of the Templars ceased to exist after its political suppression . It is probable that small

organizations of it were kept up in many places , and the hope cherished that it would some day be possible to revive it . A great and extensive organization could not utterly have lost all cohesion ancl died without a struggle ; but it is equally unreasonable to believe that the fragments here ancl there entered into any association of working men , such as that of . "The Builders" or "Freemasons " then were , who could not have been expected to devote themselves to the restoration of the Templar Order , in direct opposition to the ban of the Church ; even personal safety would not have been secured , and there is no proof that the Knights ever joined the German building sodalities ; besides , if it had been seriously intended publicly to restore the Order , there would have been

no difficulty in doing so after the Reformation—therefore no valid reason exists why they should have concealed their organization under the mask of Freemasonry . At the same time , it is quite possible that remnants of the Order , to perpetuate the memory of their glory and wrongs , may have assumed some of the higher degrees and formed bodies consisting of themselves alone . The A . & A . S . Ritewould appear to throw some light on the matter , ancl I think I may adduce without any infringement of the

esoteric history of the degrees some allusion to this connection . One of these degrees , in which the numbers eight and one are indicated by the position of the . hands as a mode of recognition , would seem to refer to the ei g ht knights who founded the Order of the Temple , ancl the ninth who entered with them afterwards ; then again the nine elus may also represent these founders , and the Knights of the " East ancl West" may mean the Order of the Temple created in the East , and

afterwards having Preeeptories in Europe . The word Kadosh ( holy ) indicates a Templar , " Haikal Kadosh " meant " holy house of the Temple . " In fact , we have the degrees 15 , 1 G , and 17 , entitled in succession , Knights of the East , or Sword—creation , ancl first period of the Templar Order in Palestine—Prince of Jerusalem —( Knights of the Haikal Kadosh of Jerusalem ) . The rebuilding of the Temple may have been meant for the re-establishment hoped for of the Templar Order : other examples mi ght be quoted intelligible to the initiated alone , and in the highest degrees of the Rite will be found corroborative evidence implying a common origin with Templary .

That these degrees bear affinity to the Templar system is evident , being formerly iu England always given under the sanction of the Templar warrant , and the Templar Order was considered the guardian of these hi gh degrees , until of late years , when they were resigned to the A , & A . S . Rite of 33 ° ; but the ori ginal connection with Freemasonry , as an inherent part of it , is a mystery , ancl likely still , to remain so , for the Templar Order has not in its ceremonies any resemblance , even the most remote , to

Craft Masonry , and besides is intensely Trinitarian . The probability is that the connection was first entertained and brought about by individual Kni ghts joining the fraternity of Masons , and it is more than probable that this was particularly the case at the Eeformation , when the reli gious houses and fraternities of the middle ages , some of whom had preserved the ceremonies of the ancient Templars , were broken up and the members dispersed , for it is difficult to believe that men of probity in the Masonic

society of the last century deliberately invented the Templar degree , introducing it as the true Order long secretly attached to Freemasonry , unless they had some grounds to believe that actual Knights of the Temple had formerly entered ' it for the purpose of preserving their old Order from utter extinction . Taking this view , I am still impressed with the belief that our modern or Masonic Templary has a right to be considered the descendant of the Chivalric Order , and in consequence I have from time to time iu my addresses to the Great Priory of Canada endeavoured to point out inconsistencies and inaccuracies in its forms ancl practices ; but I fear my object and meaning have in many instances been greatly misunderstood ,