Thomas Andrew Archer

“ Into the curious history of the short-lived pagan revival in the Western empire there is no need to enter here. Zosimus assures us that the tears of Galla threw the whole court into confusion; but there can be little doubt that to a religious, if not superstitious, mind like that of Theodosius it might well have seemed that he was fighting the battles of God, as he led his army of the cross against an enemy on whose standard shone the image of Hercules (Theodoret, v. 24) . His host consisted partly of Romans and partly of barbarians. ”

“ In England nearly all the worst evidence comes at second or third hand or through the depositions of Franciscans and Dominicans. Yet it can hardly be doubted that the "spuitio super crucem” did form a part of the initiation ceremony. Even the English Templars admitted that the statutes of the order were one and the same all the world over; and there is no setting aside the consistent evidence of almost every French Templar as to his guilt in this matter. ”

“ The Templars carried the body of their dead sovereign to Jerusalem for burial; and then, unknown to the barons of the realm, Gerard and the patriarch crowned Sibylla and her husband Guy. The coronation of Guy was the triumph of Reginald of Châtillon, once prince of Antioch, and Saladin’s deadliest foe. It was at the same time the overthrow of Raymond's ambition; and both Latin and Arabic writers are agreed that the Christian count and the Mohammedan sultan now entered into an alliance. ”

“ Theobald of Navarre and his crusaders reached Palestine about August 1239. The Templars shared in the great defeat near Jaffa, an engagement which their temerity had done much to provoke (13th November 1239) . If the king ever accepted the overtures of Ṣáliḥ of Damascus, he was supporting the policy of Hermann of Perigord, the grand-master, who towards the summer of 1244 wrote a triumphant letter to England, telling how he had engaged this sultan and Násir of Kerak to make an alliance against the sultan of Egypt and restore the whole of Palestine from the Jordan to the sea. ”

“ The Place du Capitole may be regarded as the centre, whence streets branch out in every direction. Eastward and north-east the Rue La Fayette leads across the boulevards towards the Allee La Fayette, beyond which, across the Canal du Midi, are the Ecole Veterinaire and the railway station, and still farther off the obelisk erected to commemorate the battle of Toulouse (April 10, 1814) , and the observatory. From the north west of the Place du Capitole the Rue du Taur runs due north past the ancient Eglise du Taur to the great Eglise St Sernin. ”

“ By a mutual agreement the Templars and Hospitallers, despite their long and deadly feud, were bound not to receive ejected members of the rival order; and the Templar cut off in battle and defeat from all hope of rejoining his own ranks might rally to the cross of St John. As Acre was the headquarters of the order in the East, so Paris was its centre in the West (Matt. Paris, v, 478) . Every member before admission must declare himself free of debt, sound of body, and affiliated to no other religious society ”

“ From this time the counts of Toulouse were the greatest lords in southern France. Raymond IV., the hero of the first crusade, assumed the formal titles of marquis of Provence, duke of Narbonne, and count of Toulouse. While Raymond was away in the Holy Land, Toulouse was seized by William IX., duke of Aquitaine, who claimed the city in right of his wife Philippa, the daughter of William IV., but was unable to hold it long (1098-1100) . ”

“ From the middle years of the 12th century the people of Toulouse seem to have begun to free themselves from the most oppressive feudal dues. An act of Alphonse-Jourdain (1141) exempts them from the tax on salt and wine; and in 1152 we have traces of a " commune consilium Tolosse " making police ordinances in its own name "with the advice of Lord Raymond, count of Toulouse, duke of Narbonne, and marquis of Provence. " ”

“ On the left of the Garonne stands the church of St Nicholas, also with an octagonal belfry and a spire dating from the 15th century. There are many other churches of considerable antiquity.
Of secular buildings the most noteworthy are the capitole, the museum, and the lycee. The capitole (16th-17th centuries) has a long Ionic facade constructed by Cammas (1750-60) . The theatre is situated in the left wing. Running along almost the whole length of the first floor is the " salle des illustres" adorned with the busts of forty-four great natives of Toulouse ”

“ From the very first the Templars seem to have been opposed to Frederick II., and when he landed at Acre (7th September 1228) they refused to march under the banners of an excommunicated man, and would only accompany his host from Acre to Joppa in a separate body. They were accused of notifying Frederick’s intended pilgrimage to the Jordan to the sultan, and they were certainly opposed to Frederick’s ten years’ peace with Al-Kámil, the sultan of Egypt, and refused to be present at his coronation in Jerusalem. ”

“ Plan of Toulouse.
The more ancient part of the city consists of narrow irregular pebble-paved streets. Most of the houses are of brick, and none of any great architectural pretensions, except those which date back at least to the 17th century. In 1868 the municipal authorities determined to construct two entirely new streets, broad and straight, intended to cut one another at right angles near the centre of the city. Of these the first, the Rue de Metz, starts eastward from the Pont Neuf, and will ultimately intersect the Rue d'Alsace-Lorraine running from north to south. ”

“ During the reign of Theodosius Gregory of Nazianzus was made bishop of Constantinople an appointment which he did not long retain. In 383 Theodosius called a new council for the discussion of the true faith. The orthodox, the Arians, the Eunomians, and the Macedonians all sent champions to maintain their special tenets before the emperor, who finally decided in favour of the orthodox party. ”

“ Meanwhile there had been fresh dangers from the Goths. In 386 another band of the Groethingi or Ostrogoths, attempting to cross the Danube, was cut off by Promotus. The same general, in the course of the next two years, punished the barbarians who had deserted Theodosius at the beginning of the campaign against Maximus. Such signal services as these, though coupled with the fact that he had saved the emperor's life, did not prevent Promotus from falling a victim to the intrigues of the favourite Rufinus, who is charged by Zosimus with compassing the death of other noble men. ”

“ Roughly speaking, they confess with the most elaborate detail to every charge,—even the most loathsome; and the perusal of their evidence induces a constant suspicion that their answers were practically dictated to them in the process of the examination or invented by the witnesses themselves. [4] In England, where perhaps torture was not used, out of eighty Templars examined only four confessed to the charge of denying Christ, and of these four two were apostate knights. But some English Templars would only guarantee the purity of their own country. ”

“ In 1166 Amalric, the Latin king of Jerusalem, hanged twelve Templars on a charge of betraying a fortress beyond the Jordan to an emir of Núr al-Dín of Damascus. Relations with Núr al-Dín.The military power of Núr al-Dín (1145–1173) was a standing menace to the Christian settlements in the East. Edessa had fallen to the prowess of his father (1144‒45) ; Damascus was conquered by the son (1153) , who four years earlier had carried his depredations almost to the walls of Antioch, and in 1157 laid siege to the Christian town of Paneas near the sources of the Jordan. ”

“ Besides its university, which ranks next to those of Paris and Lyons, and has faculties of law, science, letters, and medicine, Toulouse possesses many educational and learned societies, among which may be mentioned the Ecole des Beaux Arts et des Sciences Industrielles, the Ecole Normale, the Ecole de Musique, the Aca demies des Jeux Floraux, des Sciences et des Belles Lettreset Arts, and de Legislation, the Societe d'Agriculture, and the archaeological Societe du Midi. ”

“ In the ensuing year, when Mary of Antioch had sold her claim to the crown to Charles of Anjou, they welcomed this prince’s lieutenant to Acre and succeeded for the moment in forcing the knights of that city to do homage to the new king. Thirteen years later (26th April 1290) Tripoli fell, and next year Acre, after a siege of six weeks at the close of which (16th May) William de Beaujeu, the grand-master, was slain. Abandonment of Palestine.The few surviving Templars elected a new master, and, forcing their way to the seashore sailed for Cyprus, which now became the headquarters of the order. ”

“ The most interesting building is the church of St Sernin or Saturninus, whom legend represents as the first preacher of the gospel in Toulouse, where he was perhaps martyred towards the middle of the 3d century. The oldest part of the present building was consecrated by Urban II. in 1096. This church is now the largest edifice of southern France, being 375 feet from east to west and 217 feet in its utmost breadth. The nave (12th and 13th centuries) is remarkable for having double aisles. ”

“ But, though weak against external foes, the Templars were strong enough for internal warfare. In 1277 they espoused the quarrel of the bishop of Tripoli, formerly a member of the order, against his nephew Bohemond, prince of Antioch and Tripoli, and commenced a war which lasted three years. In 1276 their conduct drove Hugh III., king of Cyprus and Jerusalem, from Acre to Tyre. ”

“ Power and influence of the order.For more than a hundred years the Templars had been one of the wealthiest and most influential factors in European politics. If we confine our attention to the East, we realize but a small part of their enormous power. Two Templars were appointed guardians of the disputed castles on the betrothal of Prince Henry of England and the French princess in 1161. ”

“ The opinion that the monstrous charges brought against the Templars were false and the confessions were only extracted by torture is supported by the general results of the investigation (in almost every country outside France) , as we have them collected in Raynouard, Labbe, and Du Puy. In Castile, where the king flung them into prison, they were acquitted at the council of Salamanca. In Aragon, where they held out for a time in their fortresses against the royal power, the council of Tarragona proclaimed in their favour (4th November 1312) . ”

“ The knights were either bound for life or for a fixed period, and were the only members entitled to wear the white mantle. Married brethren were admitted; but no woman might enter the order. Each knight might keep three horses and one man-at-arms, who, like his master, might be bound for life or only for a time. ”

“ Very many confessed to other charges, even of the worst description, Clement V., although he suspended the inquisitors’ powers on 27th October (Loiseleur, 159) , before the end of the next month wrote to Edward II. to arrest all the English Templars, who were accordingly seized on 10th January 1308. About the same time they were arrested in Sicily (24th January) and in Cyprus (27th May) . As Clement did not move fast enough, Philip went to Poitiers with 700 armed men, and the pope was at his mercy. ”

“ The great council of Constantinople, consisting of 150 orthodox and 36 Macedonian bishops, met in the following year, confirmed the Nicene faith, ordered the affairs of the various sees, and declared the bishop of Constantinople to rank next to the bishop of Rome. The emperor cannot be acquitted of the intolerance which marks edicts such as that depriving apostatizing Christians of the right of bequest. ”

“ The latter half of the compact was enforced, but not the former; and the barbarians, left without any sustenance, began to plunder the open country. After their great victory at Adrianople they reached the walls of Constantinople, whence they were driven back by the valour of a band of Saracens. Meanwhile the Ostrogoths, the Taifali, the Huns, and the Alans had all crossed the Danube to share the spoils of the empire; and it was against this motley host that Theodosius had to contend. ”

“ Toulouse is singularly rich in mansions of the 16th and 17th centuries. Several of these are richly adorned by Bachelier, Michelangelo's pupil. The Hotels d Assezat, de St Jean, Las Bordes, Felzins, Duranti, and Maison de Pierre may be specially mentioned. A few houses are said to date from the 14th century or even earlier. Near the Allee St Michel is the palais de justice, the old meeting house of the parlement of Toulouse. ”

“ The penalties for the three classes were respectively (1) penitence, (2) perpetual imprisonment, (3) death by fire. The cases of the grand-master, the visitor of France, and the masters of Aquitaine and Normandy were reserved for the pope’s decision. Early in 1314 they were forced to make a public confession in Notre Dame, and had already been condemned to perpetual imprisonment when the grand-master and the preceptor of Normandy publicly proclaimed their entire innocence. ”