"The truth probably was, that the order "had become useless, and, from its great "affluence, dissolute and sensual. Many, "and perhaps most of its members, from that Epicurean state of mind and habit to which "wealthy luxury naturally leads, may have "thrown off all regard for either religion or "virtue; and some, from enlightened reason,

may have emancipated themselves from the

superstitions of the day. But that they "should have worshipped cats or calves; or "made the abnegation of Christianity, or

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spitting on the cross, any part of the cere mony of their admission into the order, is wholly incredible. Personal vice and irreligion may be believed of them; but not "that absurd conspiracy against the faith of "Christendom, of which they were accused.. "Their dissolution was however a benefit to "the world; because all societies, that place "mysterious secrecy and implicit obedience to "its leaders among their essential rules, are "dangerous to public order, and disadvantageous to public morals, being founded on principles that are inconsistent with both...

This rich and luxurious order had large possessions in our own country, as well as churches in London, Cambridge, Bristol, Canterbury, Dover, Warwick, and other places. Of the first of these sacred edifices, (which was built in the reign of Henry the Second, and dedicated to God and our blessed Lady, by Heraclius, patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1185,) a part of the original structure remains, and covers the dust of eleven of the Knights; some of whose effigies appear, crosslegged, on the flat stones which memorialize them. Three of these sculptured figures are intended to represent William Marshall the elder, Earl of Pembroke, who died in 1219; William Marshall, his son, Earl of Pembroke, who died in 1231; and Gilbert Marshall, his brother, Earl of Pembroke, slain in a tournament at Hertford, in the year 1241. The church stands nearly in the centre of a tract which formerly belonged to the Knights, stretching from White-Friars eastward, to Essex-street in the Strand on the west.*

Maitland's History and Survey of London, p. 967. Jortin cannot dismiss the Knights Templars without a few

TRIAL BY COMBAT.-Among the superstitions which our Saxon ancestors entertained in their native woods in Germany, was the notion, that their gods would always determine, by direct interference, the truth or falsehood of any accusation submitted to their arbitration, by solemn appeal. This fond but natural dictate of the ignorant and unenlightened mind became a leading feature of their criminal jurisprudence, after they had settled in England; and, accommodating it to the

caustic parting remarks. "St. Bernard," says he, “gives

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a most excellent character to these fighting saints. "How well they deserved it, the Lord knows. He "observes, which makes the wonder stil! greater, that "these saints had been for the most part debauched, "impious, perjured, sacrilegious thieves, murderers, fornicators, adulterers, ravishers, who now joined to the "innocence of the lamb the courage of the lion."- Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 223. "At this time, in the year 1173, the "Knights Templars acted the part of freebooters and mur"derers. They and the Knights Hospitallers had scarcely "been established sixty years, before they were corrupted “ to such a degree, that both Christian and Mahometan "writers, though seldom concurring in the same senti“ments, agree in describing them as the vilest of man"kind."-Ib. 238.

christian faith, which they had professed, they adopted it as the touchstone of guilt or innocence, in all matters where the deficiency of evidence seemed to preclude the establishment of truth. The name applied to this method of solemn decision was the ordeal, or great judgment, branching into two descriptions,-that of fire-ordeal, and that of waterordeal; the former being confined to persons of higher rank, the latter allowed to the common people. "Both these," says Judge Blackstone, "might be performed by deputy: "but the principal was to answer for the suc"cess of the trial; the deputy only venturing some corporal pain for hire, or perhaps for Fire-ordeal was performed "either by taking up in the hand, unhurt, a "piece of red-hot iron, of one, two, or three

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friendship.*

pounds weight; or else by walking, barefoot "and blindfold, over nine red-hot ploughshares, laid lengthwise at unequal distances; "and if the party escaped being hurt, he was adjudged innocent; but if it happened other

"This is still expressed in that common form of "speech, of going thro' fire and water to serve another.'

"wise, as without collusion it usually did, he "was then condemned as guilty. However, "by this latter method Queen Emma, the "mother of Edward the Confessor, is men"tioned to have cleared her character, when "suspected of familiarity with Alwyn bishop "of Winchester.*

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"Water-ordeal was performed, either by 'plunging the bare arm up to the elbow in "boiling water, and escaping unhurt thereby : "or by casting the person suspected into a "river or pond of cold water; and, if he

floated therein without any action of swim"ming, it was deemed an evidence of his

guilt; but if he sunk, he was acquitted. It "is easy to trace out the traditional relics of "this water-ordeal, in the ignorant barbarity "still practised in many countries to discover "witches, by casting them into a pool of water, "and drowning them to prove their innocence. "And in the eastern empire the fire-ordeal was used to the same purpose by the Em'peror Theodore Lascaris ;. who, attributing "his sickness to magic, caused all those whom

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*Tho. Rudborne Hist. maj. Winton, 1. 4, c. 1.