The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTSTEMPLARwhen a third removal was made to the PilgrimsCastle near Caesarea, a city founded by Herod theGreat, in 22 B. C, and built in honor of Caesar.It was situated northwest of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean,and north of Jaffa, but now lies in shapelessruins. In 1291 the city of Acre againfell intothe hands of the Moslems under Sultan Khatil ofCairo, and with the subsequent overthrow of theChristian kingdom, the Templars retired to theisland of Cyprus, which was captured in 1191 byRichard Cceur de Lion, during the third Crusade,and to whom they paid thirty-five thousand marks.Many of the Templars, after a brief stay in theisland of Cyprus, retired to their different Preceptoriesin Europe. A brief description of the defensewith theand fall of Acre can only be comparedmany accounts of their past glorious struggles withthe infidel in defense of the Holy Land, and of Christianpilgrimage, sometimes successful and often disastrous;of arid sands well moistened with the bloodof Christian and Saracen warriors ;of final forceddeparture from the places which its prowess hadconquered, but which it had not the strength tohold.Defense and Fall of Acre.With less than twelve thousand persons able tobear arms, they manned the ramparts and defendedthe city against two hundred thousand Moslems.Almost every nation of Europe was representedin the multitudes that thronged the streets that hadgathered within the defenses of the city. On thefourth of May, a dayfatal to the Christians,'146