Section 593

ed event was received with delight by the Christian world. The IMogiil Tartars, counselled doubtless by some of the Christian chiefs, sent messengers 16 Eu- rope, to the pope and the kings of France and England, urging them to engage in a new crusade, which should strike a final blow at the Mohammedan power in the East. But the Tartar messengers had scarcely returned before reverses and treason had destroyed the army of the grand khan. Jerusalem was lost in 1300, and the Templars under Jacques de Molay were obliged to re- tire to the island of Tortosa, near Tripoli, whence they could simply watch and harass the movements of the enemy. But in 1302 they were finally surprised and defeated, and the grand -master, with those that re- mained of the order, took refuge in Cyprus, now and then renewing the contest by sudden incursions upon the jMohammedans. The brother and successor of the grand klian still looked for aid from Europe, and even approached the pope, but the replies were evasive. Philip IV, in his attempt to check the feudal power and all ecclesiastical control, feared that the papacy might recover, in an institution like that of the Temple, the military force it needed to defend its theocracy. He dreaded leaving to the nobility an order so entirely filled with its members and benefit-s, and an organized consti- tution as a means of rallying and defence ; for the Tem- plars had become in almost every kingdom of the West a formidable repubUc, governed by their own laws, an- imated by the closest corporate spirit, under the severest internal discipline, and an all-pervading organization; independent alike of the civil power and of the spiritual hierarchy; possessing fifteen thousand of the bravest and best-trained sokliers in the world, armed and ac- coutred in the most splendid fashion of the time, ready at the summons of the grand-master to embark on any service, their one aim being the aggrandizement of the order. Philip, fearing the strength and the wealth of the order, claiming allegiance only to the pope, as the supreme head of the Church, and greatly desirous of possessing their lands, munitions, arms, ships, and treas- ures, determined upon its destruction ; but, lest his in- liuence might be overpowered in an open contest, he re- solved to make the pope his instrument. A new cru- sade, he saw clearly, would only revive religious pas- sions favorable to the Hoh' See, and render necessary, inviolable, more important, and more powerful still, these soldier-monks ; consequently Philip promptly op- posed the opening of a new crusade. June 6, 1306, Clement V summoned the grand-masters of the Tem- l)lars and Hospitallers to Europe, under pretext of con- sulting them in regard to the proposed crusade, and some previously advanced plans for uniting the two or- ders of Tem])lars and Hospitallers. Promptly Molay returned to Europe, but the manner in which he came was not of a nature to stille the ambitious designs of his enemies. With sixty of the most distinguished knights of the order and a vast amount of treasure, he made an ostentatious entry iiito Paris, August, 1306, where he was received by the king with great courtesj-. If De JMolay had been of a less generous and unsuspi- cious character, he would have understood that every motive that influenced Philip was concentrated in great intensity against his order. The grand-master, lulled into security by the apparent kindness of the French king, proceeded to Poitiers to pay his allegiance to the pope, and to present two memorials drawn up by him- self, relative to the state of affairs in the East, and the projected union of the different existent military orders, which he opposed on the ground that by such act tlieir power n-ould only be augmented, and thus consequently provoke greater envy, of which even now there was more than enough ; and, so far from suppressing pre- vailing jealousies among the knights, it would only embitter the strife among the brethren, and cause more frequent collisions. He begged the pope to examine into thesinister rumors which had spread abroad concern- ing the faith, morals, and secret mysteries of the order; VI.— E E