λ.1. 1118.] ORIGIN OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. The origin of the order of Knights Templars. About this time some noblemen of the equestrian order, religious men, who feared God, devoted themselves, after the manner of the regular canons, to the service of Christ, and renouncing all gratification of their own wills, made a vow to the patriarch of Jerusalem to live in perpetual chastity and obedience. The first of these were the venerable Hugh de Paganis and Godfrey de St. Omer. As they had no fixed residence, king Baldwin gave them a habitation in his palace on the south side of the Lord's temple ; and the canons of the temple gave up to them the open space which belonged to them round the palace, to build offices upon. The patriarch also, and king, with his nobles and the other prelates ot the churches, made them presents out of their own domains to find them in food and clothing. Their first profession was, for the remission of their sins, to clear of robbers the roads through which the pilgrims had to pass on their way to Jerusalem. At length, after nine years, a rule was given them at the council of Troyes, and a white habit assigned them by pope Honorius ; and when almost nine years were expired, their number, which had been only nine at first, began greatly to increase, and their possessions also. Afterwards, in the time of pope Eugenius, they sewed a red cross on their mantles to distinguish themselves from the others ; and their numbers so increased in a short time that there were no less than three hundred knights in their house, besides other brethren, whose number was infinite. They are said at present to have such immense possessions on both sides of the sea, that there is no province in all Christendom which has not given them a portion of its wealth, and at this day they excel even kings in riches. From their residing near our Lord's temple, they are called Knights Templars ; and though they long adhered to their original institution, they have now cast off their professed humility, withdrawn themselves from the patriarch from whom they received the institution of their order and their first bounties, and ceased to give obedience and to pay tithes to the church, and have thus become obnoxious to every body. The same year died Baldwin the First, king of Jerusalem, an illustrious prince, who had reduced under his dominion the cities of Acre, Cajsarea, Berytus, Sidon, Tripoli», and Arluth, together with