sions directly they were off the rack, and all died, from the grand master downwards, protesting their innocence, and preferring death to immunity purchased by a base admission of guilt. Hume adds that England sent an ample testimony of their piety and morals; but as the order was now annihilated [by Clement V.] the knights were distributed into several convents, and their possessions were, by command of the pope, transferred to the order of St. John." Lingard is more reserved, for a reason sufficiently obvious. He speaks of their "indulging in indolence and luxury" which is only true in the same sense as of other religious orders at the period, which were left unmolested and of "reports the most prejudicial to their reputation being circulated and credited," and reaching the ear of the French king. He does not say by whom these reports were circulated namely, the French jurists- or why Philip IV., who had probably prompted them, lent so ready an ear to evidence which no magistrate in this day would listen to against the vilest criminal. But he does add that "Clement V. was dissatisfied with the precipitance of the king - who had ordered all the knights in France to be arrested and had burnt sixty of them without awaiting any papal sanction-though he fails to point out how miserably Clement betrayed his trust as their ex officio protector and the representative of the cause of justice. But his candor compels him to admit that, after the process had lasted three years, "if it be fair to judge from the informations taken in England [we shall see that it was the same elsewhere], however we may condemn a few individuals, we must certainly acquit the order," and that accordingly the pope abolished it, "not by way of a judicial sentence establishing its guilt, but by the plenitude of his power, and as a measure of expediency rather than of justice." That is true, but Lingard hardly seems to perceive that it only renders Clement's conduct the more deeply discreditable. He knew and confessed that he knew these charges to be wholly unproved, but he had sunk into a mere head chaplain of the French court- the very position Napoleon afterwards designed for Pius VII., but without success and dared not resist the imperious will of "our dear son," one of the most profligate and unscrupu. lous tyrants who ever disgraced the throne of St. Louis. His own shameless avowal is on record: "If it cannot be destroyed by the way of justice, let it be destroyed by the way of expediency, lest our dear son, the king of France, be offended." Milman naturally goes more at length into the matter than Hume or Lingard, and those who desire fuller information may be advised to study the two chapters bearing on it in the seventh volume of "Latin Christianity," with the authorities cited there. It is probable enough that the Templars were not immaculate. Bound by vows of chastity, and living, many of them, in distant convents in the East and under circumstances of exceptional temptation, without the sacred ties and safeguards of the priesthood, it would be little short of a miracle if they were all faithful to their vows in an age when monastic and clerical incontinence was so notorious a scandal that, at the very Council of Vienne - summoned not to examine their case, but to prejudge it-one bishop openly proposed as the sole adequate remedy the abolition of the rule of clerical celibacy. But it was not for any such vices — proved or unproved — that they were condemned. The specific indictment against them, confessed by a few under extremity of torture, but disavowed by all in prison and at the stake, was not that some members of the order had broken their vows, but that the whole order as such and every member of it was committed to beliefs and practices subversive alike of Christian faith and Christian morality, to habitual and systematic indulgence, by virtue of his membership, in obscenities too shocking to be even whispered to Christian ears. This and nothing short of this is the indictment on the strength of which French Templars were tortured and burned by the hundred, and the entire institution suppressed. And it was handed down from age to age, even to the days of Louis XIV., by the tradition of French legists on the one hand, who wished to save the credit of their profession and the honor of the monarchy, and who had the whole archives entirely in their own hands; and on the other hand by Ultramontane historians and divines, anxious to protect the personal character and judicial infallibility of Clement V. The real explanation, confirmed by all recent criticism and research, is simply this; that the order of Templars was sacrificed to a barefaced conspiracy of French lawyers, who took a brief to provide funds for the royal exchequer. Philip IV. of France had cast avaricious eyes on the property of the French Templars, estimated at six hundred thousand gold florins, just as Henry VIII. of England two centuries later cast avaricious Most High. And certain it is that in the following year (1314) both Clement and Philip passed to their account. eyes on the property of the religious or in Milman's language, "utterly inconceivders here, and resolved by a very similar able," will believe anything that happens process of mingled fraud and violence to to jump with his interest or his prejudice. seize it for the replenishment of his ex To all who are not equally destitute of hausted treasury; but with this difference common candor and common sense the Henry had broken with the pope before words of De Molay the last grand master, he entered on his career of licentious when he endured with unflinching heroism spoliation, but Philip kept a tame pope at the agonies of death by a slow fire before Avignon, who did not shrink from the the portals of Notre Dame — he had once baseness of prostituting his apostolic pow- faltered under torture will carry convicers, and invoking the aid of a so-called tion: "Before heaven and earth, on the General Council to what he must have verge of death, when the least falsehood believed to be an act of wholesale sacri- presses on the soul with intolerable weight, lege and knew to be an act of the grossest I protest that we have really deserved cruelty and injustice. As Milman puts it, death, not on account of any heresy or sin "All contemporary history, and that his- of which ourselves or our order have been tory which is nearest the times, except for guilty, but because we have yielded, to the most part the French biographers of save our lives, to the seductive words of Pope Clement, denounce in plain, un- the pope and the king, and by our confesequivocal terms the avarice of Philip the sions have brought shame and ruin on our Fair as the sole cause of the unrighteous blameless, holy, and orthodox brothercondemnation of the Templars.' Villani hood." De Molay was regarded at the says roundly that "the pope abandoned time not only as a martyr, but as a prophet. the order to the king of France, in order According to the testimony of an eye. to avert if possible the condemnation of witness he summoned " Clement, iniquiBoniface VIII.," his predecessor. A tous and cruel judge,” and the king — who bird's-eye glance at the result of the in- was present at the execution to meet vestigation, instituted to bolster up a fore-him next year before the throne of the gone conclusion, is enough to show the real state of the case. In England, where no prejudice or interest intervened, and it was only in deference to papal insistence that the king reluctantly allowed the question to be tried at all, the order was virtually acquitted; in Scotland and Ireland nothing was proved by adverse witnesses and no confession was extracted from Templars; in Italy, wherever French or papal influence predominated, confession was obtained, but nowhere else; in Spain "the acquittal of the order in each of the kingdoms was solemn, general, complete; " in Germany several councils were summoned by direction of the pope to condemn them, but were compelled to declare their innocence. To sum up, we may say that beyond the confessions of the Templars themselves there was not a syllable of evidence but the wildest and most impossible tales of superstition or hatred, and these confessions were obtained only in France or where French influence prevailed, and invariably, without exception, were crushed out of men imprisoned, starved, disgraced, and under torture or immediate threat of torture, while promised pardon and favor if they would admit their guilt; and even these worthless confessions were almost invariably retracted. A man who can accept on such absence of evidence as this charges in themselves so wildly improbable as to be, From The Spectator. SOME TURKISH PROVERBS. IF the Turk has been qualified as "unspeakable," he is very far from being inarticulate. Strange as it may seem to those who have formed their opinion of him from hearsay, it is not the less true that he is commonly a good conversationalist, and can say well and pointedly what he has got to say, with a wealth of illustration in anecdote, quotation, and proverb. The latter form commends itself especially to the sententious Turkish mind. The synthetic form of the language, too, secures brevity and conciseness, and op. portunities are afforded for those constant assonances or rhyming vowels which are so dear to the Oriental. On looking over a note-book containing several hundred Turkish proverbs, taken down in the course of reading and conversation, or borrowed from a collection made at the Oriental Academy at Vienna, the writer has amused himself by grouping them roughly under certain heads, so as to illustrate some aspects of the national character and surroundings. But first it may be interesting to remark | not even think that good manners require how many well-known English and other him to make small talk when he has nothEuropean proverbs have their exact coun- ing to say. In fact, when on a visit to a terpart in Turkish. How far are these to well-bred Turk, with whom you have no be accounted for by contact with, or con- common subjects of interest to discuss, quest of, Indo-European races? Or has after exhausting those suggested by poit been a case of "Les beaux esprits se liteness his health, your own, that of rencontrent"? For instance, we find your family, the weather, and the water (a "You should not look a gift-horse in the most interesting topic in the East) - you mouth," in exactly the same words, as may safely fall back upon that golden well as "He that is born to be hanged silence which their proverb, like ours, will never be drowned," the Turkish ver- rates above silver speech. Hear his comsion having the advantage of being ex-ments on the chatterer: "There is no pressed in two words. The change of ass but brays; "The dog barks, the words is but slight in "Troubled waters caravan passes; ""Fool is he who alone suit the fisher," "One flower does not talks, and is his only listener; "The make summer," and "The robe does not fool wears his heart on his tongue, the wise make the dervish;" while in Turkey it is man keeps his tongue in his heart; " and not pot that says to kettle, but negro to negro, that his face is black. We are disposed to prefer "The nail saved the shoe, the shoe the horse, the horse the man, the man the kingdom," to our somewhat lumbering "For want of a nail the shoe was lost," etc. "Wake not the sleeping dog," has as a corollary, "Step not on the sleeping serpent; " and we are warned that there is "no rose without a thorn, nor love without a rival." One instance in which our proverbial wisdom is opposed to the Turkish is to be found in the expression "to kill two birds with one stone." The attempt to do this is condemned by sundry proverbs, such as "One arrow does not bring down two birds," and "You cannot knock down nine walnuts with one stone." Often we are reminded of Scriptural proverbs and aphorisms. Nothing unheard of in the world" sounds Solomonian enough; while "Out with the eye that profits me not," "The negro does not whiten with washing," and "That which thou sowest, that also shalt thou reap," are strikingly like New Testament teaching. Again and again we find expressed in other words lessons of charity, considerateness, and justice, that would not be unworthy of a Christian teacher, as, "The stranger's prayer is heard; "The heart's testimony is stronger than a thousand witnesses; "" 66 Among the blind, close your eyes; In truth is right; "Justice is half religion;" "Neighbor's right, God's right." Many words, an unsound heart." He warns us of the mischief of evil-speaking, "The knife's wound heals, the tongue's never; ""The tongue slays more than the sword;" and "The tongue is boneless, but it breaks bones." Again, he feels keenly the danger of free speech under a corrupt and despotic rule; while he extols honesty and good faith, and generally condemns lying. The latter is condoned in certain cases, for "Some lies are better than truth," and we may "lie, but with measure." The suppressio veri is even strongly recommended, for is not the " truth-teller banished out of nine cities"? while "He who holds his tongue saves his head," and "There is no better answer than this, I know not, I saw not.'" But to turn to something pleasanter, we will quote a few sayings still familiar in our Turk's mouth, which have survived the corruption of the palace and official kings, and seem still to breathe the hardy and independent spirit of the old days, when courage and enterprise were the only passports to the highest places in a conquering empire. Then it could be said that "the horse is to him who mounts, the sword to him who girds it on,' ""The brave man's word is a coat of mail," "Fortune is not far from the brave man's head," ""The hero is known on the battle-field," and "Fear not to-morrow's mischance." Who but a conquering race "could have produced such a proverb as "Power on my head, or the raven on my corpse; " and who can fail to hear a true ring in "Peasant erect is taller than noble on bended knee," or "I am the slave of him who regards me; the king of him who disregards me "? The heading under which, perhaps, the largest number of proverbs can be grouped, is that of opportune speech and silence. If the Turk, as has been said, talks well, he also knows how to hold his Almsgiving is creditable, for "The tongue. He looks down with the greatest hand which gives is above that which contempt on the idle chatterer, and does | takes ;" and it offers temporal advantages as well as spiritual. In this world "No | an elephant," for "a thousand friends are one cuts the hand that gives," and "What few, one foe many." thou givest that shalt thou take with thee" [to the next]. But beware of accepting alms or favors if you would keep your self-respect, and "Accept the largess of thy friend as if thou wert an enemy." Great is the power of wealth; "Even the mountains fear the rich man." It covers a multitude of failings, and averts many ills. "If a man's money is white, Do matter if his face be black." "The knife cuts not hand of gold." But then the disadvantages and dangers of it in a land where empty treasuries are filled by the suppression of a few rich men, and the confiscation of their property! Truly the vacuus viator has the better part where brigands swarm. "Not even a thousand men in armor can strip a naked man." Our Turk is a man of few wants, pilaff, coffee, and tobacco are enough for him, and so he will rest contented in the "health that is better than fortune," sagely reflecting that "a big head has a big ache," that "he who has many vineyards has many cares," and congratulating himself if he can say, "My money is little, my head without strife." He is not likely to make a fortune in business, being destitute of the enterprise, as well as of the sharpness and hardness, necessary to success. "The bazaar knows neither father nor mother," and our easy-going friend has a great regard for these do mestic ties. Besides, his religion forbids him either to speculate or to put out money at interest, although he sometimes avoids this prohibition by the clumsy expedient of a fictitious sale, or a present" taken by the lender. 66 The references to women are as ungallant as they are unjust. She is to be treated as a child, and as such contemptuously pardoned for her shortcomings. "You should lecture neither child nor woman;" it would be waste of time. Her intelligence, too, is underrated; "her hair is long, her wits short." It is she who as a mother "makes the house, and mars it," and she is classed with good wine as "a sweet poison." But it must be admitted that in this want of gallantry the Turk is far surpassed by the Persian, who says, "The dog is faithful, woman never." The lover is regarded as a lunatic, unfit for the society of his fellows. "If you are in love, fly to the mountains," for "Lover and king brook no companion." He is "blind," and distance is nothing to him; for him, "Bagdad is not far," and the only cures for his malady are "travel and patience." A word of advice to those about to marry. Marry below you, but do not marry your daughter above you;" and "Choose cloth by its edge, and a wife by her mother." It is natural that we should find many references to that submission which is at the root of Islam. Sometimes we find the idea without reference to the Deity, as in the cases, "When fate comes the eye of wisdom is blind." "No one eats another's destined portion," and "What will come, will come, willy nilly; but more often he is directly invoked. His will is fate, "Whom he slays not, man slays not,' ""Who calls on him is not abandoned," "He delays, but neglects not," provides for the helpless and "builds the blind bird's nest;" and so we should address ourselves to him, "asking God for what we want, not his servant." If you apply to the latter, you may be disappointed. Even the minister of religion is chary of his assistance. "Food from the Imam's house, tears from the dead man's eye,' -you are as likely to get one We find some sound advice on the sub-as the other. Sometimes, too, we meet ject of friendship. Do not expect your friend to be a paragon, "Who seeks a faultless friend, rests friendless." But when you have found him, keep him, "Old friend, old bath," you will do better to change neither; and if he is "a true friend, he is better than a relation." On the other hand, avoid the British error of underrating your foe; he is always danger"Water sleeps, the enemy wakes," and "Be thine enemy an ant, see in him It is a pity that his rulers should not have profited by his experiences of debt. "Poor without debts is better than prince," ""A thousand cares do not pay one debt," and "Creditors have better memories than debtors," are explicit enough, but, perhaps, were not supposed to apply to government loans. ous. with a small touch of scepticism, as when we are told, "First tie up your donkey, then recommend him to God;" and sometimes a cry of black despair, "Happiest he who dies in the cradle." Let us conclude this hasty sketch with a few miscellaneous proverbs, remarkable for point or picturesqueness. "The fish stinks from the head" is often quoted in these days of Ottoman decay, in allusion to the bad example which comes from above. We have heard the incapacity for | the doctrine of the different Fathers, and action which is engendered in Turkish shows us how soon the Church formulated rulers by the enforced seclusion of their her creed as to the publication of the gosyouth commented on with "Who stays at pel to those who had passed away from home, loses his cap in the crowd." The earth. He traces the difference between difficulties of equality, "You are master, the teaching of the Roman Catholics on and I am master; who will groom the the subject and the teaching of the differhorse?" On an impostor, "The empty ent Reformed Churches. And he follows sack won't stand upright." Qui trop the gradual development of the theology embrasse, mal étreint, is rendered by of later times on the state of the dead, "Two water-melons won't fit under one showing how striking has been the alteraarm." "Old brooms are thrown on the tion of tone in relation to that state, not roof," may be taken to apply to the pro- only among the freer Churches, but even motion of superannuated fogies. Your amongst Roman Catholic divines themhangers-on profit by your success, "When selves. In a word, we have found Dr. you climb a tree your shoes go up too." Plumptre's book one of very deep interest, The higher you are the worse you fall, - very clear, very candid, very learned, for "There is a cure for him who falls so far at least as the present writer can from horse or donkey back, but a pick-pretend to be any judge of learning on axe (to dig his grave) for him who falls from a camel." Let us hope that, this proverb, in its literal sense, may never be justified in the persons of our gallant No one, however, will read the book, Camel Corps in the Soudan. Three deeply interesting as it is, and wisely balproverbs on the donkey, exemplifying the anced as its judgments seem to us, withuseful guest, "They asked the donkey to out being struck by the extraordinarily the wedding, water or wood was want-indirect character of the bearing of reveing;" the power of hope, "Die not, mylation on the future state. During a donkey; summer is coming and clover large part of the Jewish dispensation, will grow;" and the folly of exposing oneself to needless criticism, "Don't cut your donkey's tail in public; some will say, 'It is too long;' others, 'It is too short.'" And, lastly, as an instance in which the jingle of the original may be reproduced in English, "The mannerly man learns manners of the mannerless." From The Spectator. such subjects as these, - and needing only a little more boiling-down to be a model manual on the subject. Revelation, as we all know, studiously ignored the future state; and instead of dwelling on it, as the religion of Egypt did, concentrated all its force on the revelation of God, leaving, as it seemed, the condition of man after death in deliberate shadow. Dr. Plumptre puts the case truly enough:— May we not legitimately think of the divine education through which Moses was led as involving a reaction against the system in which he had grown up? He had seen how powerless THE DEAN OF WELLS ON THE FUTURE that system was to raise men out of evil; how LIFE.* THIS is a very interesting book, which, with a little condensation, might have been even better than it is. The Dean of Wells has read widely on the subject of the many hints supplied by revealed religion, they are little more than hints after all, concerning the conditions under which the spirit exists in the life beyond the grave. He tells us what the various doctrines of the Jewish synagogues were, immediately before and immediately after the time of Christ. He examines carefully all that the Gospels and the Epistles say and imply on the subject. He gives us • The Spirits in Prison, and other Studies on the Life after Death. By E. H. Plumptre, D.D., Dean of Wells. London: Isbister and Co. 1884. little the vague terrors of the future, even where men believed them, availed to restrain them; how they had become instruments of oppression in the hands of a priesthood who did not believe them. What was wanted was the belief in an ever-present God, governing and guiding now, rewarding the righteous, pardoning the penitent, and punishing the guilty. This government was to be seen partly in the general laws by which good and evil work out their own natural consequences of blessedness or misery, partly in the special enactments of the Mosaic code; partly, also, in the fact that in the theocracy which that code implied, the connection between the cause and the consequence was more visibly patent than in the history of other nations. It was, to use an image which I owe to Augustus Hare (Village Sermons, ii., p. 37), as if in this instance we were allowed to see the works of the clock of the world's history, while elsewhere we saw |