Heretic’s Tragedy, The; A Middle-Age Interlude

( Men and Women , 1855; Romances , 1863; Dramatic Romances , 1868.) “It would seem to be a glimpse from the burning of Jacques du Bourg Molay, at Paris, A.D. 1314; as distorted by the refraction from Flemish brain to brain during the course of a couple of centuries.” [ The History. ] Molay was Grand Master of the order of the Knights Templars, suppre ed by a decree of Pope Clement V. and the general council of Vienne, in 1312. The Knights Templars were instituted by seven gentlemen at Jerusalem, in 1118, to defend the holy places and pilgrims from the insults of the Saracens, and to keep the pa es free for such as undertook the voyage to the Holy Land. They took their name from the first house, which was given them by King Baldwin II., situated near the place where anciently the temple of Solomon stood. By the liberality of princes, immense riches suddenly flowed to this Order, by which the knights were puffed up to a degree of insolence which rendered them insupportable even to the kings who had been their protectors; and Philip the Fair, king of France, resolved to compa their ruin. They were accused of treasons and conspiracies with the infidels, and of other enormous crimes, which occasioned the suppre ion of the Order. The year following, the Grand Master, who was a French man, was burnt at Paris, and several others suffered death, though they all with their last breath protested their innocence as to the crimes that were laid to their charge. These were certainly much exaggerated by their enemies, and doubtle many innocent men were involved with the guilty. A great part of their estates was given to the Knights of Rhodes or Malta. ( Butler’s Lives of the Saints—sub May 5.) For half a century before the suppre ion of the Order, horrible stories about various unholy rites practised at its midnight a emblies had been in circulation. It was said that every member on his initiation was compelled to deny the Lord Jesus Christ, to spit upon and trample under foot a crucifix, and submit to certain indecent ceremonies. It was charged against them that hideous four-footed idols were worshipped, and other things too terrible to narrate were said to be done at these a emblies. Whether these things were true or not, has been hotly disputed ever since the accusations were made. The spitting on the cro seems, at any rate in France, to have been admitted by the accused; many of the worst things confe ed were admitted under the most cruel tortures, and are consequently more likely to have been false than true. In Carlyle’s e ay on the “Life and Writings of Werner” ( Critical and Miscellaneous E ays , vol. i., p. 66: 1888), the whole story of these mysterious rites is discu ed. After several pages of quotations from Werner’s drama The Templars in Cyprus , Carlyle says, “One might take this trampling on the Cro , which is said to have been actually enjoined on every Templar at his initiation, to be a type of his secret behest to undermine that institution (the Catholic Church) and redeem the spirit of religion from the state of thraldom and distortion under which it was there held. It is known at least, and was well known to Werner, that the heads of the Templars entertained views, both on religion and politics, which they did not think meet for communicating to their age, and only imparted by degrees, and under mysterious adumbrations, to the wiser of their own order. They had even publicly resisted, and succeeded in thwarting, some iniquitous measure of Philippe Auguste, the French king, in regard to his coinage; and this, while it secured them the love of the people, was one great cause, perhaps second only to their wealth, of the hatred which that sovereign bore them, and of the savage doom which he at last executed on the whole body.” [ The Poem. ] The Abbot Deodaet and his monks are singing in the choir of their church about the burning alive of the Master of the Temple two hundred years before. He has sinned the unknown sin, and sold the influence of the Order to the Mohammedan. In a graphic and lurid manner they picture the details of the execution. They have no pity for the victim, and seem to be gloating over his sufferings. They imagine that the victim calls in his agony on the Saviour whom he forsook and traitorously sold; he cries now “Saviour, save Thou me!” The Face upon which he had spat, the Face on the crucifix which he trampled upon, is revealed to the burning man feature by feature; he now sees his awful Judge, his voice dies, and John’s soul flares into the dark. Said the Abbot, “God help all poor souls lost in the dark!” Notes. —i., Organ: plagal cadence . The cadence formed when a subdominant chord immediately precedes the final tonic chord. ii., Emperor Aldabrod , probably the family name of one of the Greek emperors, but I can find nothing about him. Sultan Salad in , of Egypt and Syria, whose portrait is so faithfully drawn by Sir Walter Scott, in The Talisman . Pope Clement V. (1305-14). Platina, in his life of this Pope, says only a few words on the Templars: “He took off the Templars, who were fallen into very great errors (as denying Christ, etc.), and gave their goods to the Knights of Jerusalem”; clavi cithern : an upright musical instrument like a harpsichord. iv., Laudes : a Catholic service a ociated with Matins . It consists, amongst other devotions, of five Psalms. vi., Salvâ reverent iâ : “saving reverence,” like the “saving your presence” of the Irish man. vii., Sharon’s Rose: Solomon’s Song , ii. 1. The rose was the symbol of secrecy. viii., leman : a sweetheart of either sex.