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398 BOOK OF THE A. AND A. RITE.
In the year 1226, most of the Teutonic Knights
went from the Holy Land to Prussia ; the people of
which were still idolaters, waging cruel war against
their Christian neighbors, murdering priests at the
foot of the altar, and employing the sacred vessels
for profane uses.
For many years the Teutonic Knights held Prussia
as a fief depending on the crown of Poland.
After the Order of the Temple had been "sup-
pressed, extinguished, and abolished," in the year
1312, by the papal bull of the 6th May of that year,
by which all persons were forbidden to enter the
Order, or to assume the name of Templars, or to
wear then dress, under pain of excommunication, an
extension of the same, in the same year, adjudged
all the property and estates of the Templars to the
Knights of Rhodes (of St. John, or the Hospitallers,
afterward Knights of Malta), except such as were
in the realms of Spain, and without prejudice to the
right of any kings, princes, or lords to any property
of the Order in other countries.
A Knight Commander of the Temple should have
five excellent qualities, which are represented by the
five lights that form the symbolic cross upon our
table,—Humility, Temperance, Chastity, Generosity 5
and Honor.