The History of the Knights Templars

The extraordinary and romantic career of the Knights Templars,their exploits and their misfortunes, render their history a subjectof peculiar interest.Born during the first fervour of the Crusades, they were flatteredand aggrandized as long as their great military power and religiousfanaticism could be made available for the support of the Easternchurch and the retention of the Holy Land, but when the crescenthad ultimately triumphed over the cross, and the religio-militaryenthusiasm of Christendom had died away, they encountered thebasest ingratitude in return for the services they had rendered tothe christian faith, and were plundered, persecuted, and condemnedto a cruel death, by those who ought in justice to havebeen their defenders and supporters. The memory of these holywarriors is embalmed in all our recollections of the wars of thecross; they were the bulwarks of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalemduring the short period of its existence, and were the last band ofEurope's host that contended for the possession of Palestine.