der, and
endeavoring to prevail upon him to suppress it in the same way as the
Templars had lately been dealt with. Gerard, Count of Holstein,
however, came forward as the defender of the knights. A formal inquiry
was opened before the Pope at Avignon in 1323. The principal charges
brought forward by the Archbishop were, that the order had not
fulfilled the conditions of its sovereignty in defending the Church
against its heathen enemies; that it did not regard excommunications;
that it had offered insolence to the Archbishop, and seized some of
the property of his see, and other similar accusations. The grand
master explained some of these matters, denied others, and produced an
autograph letter of the Archbishop's, in which he secretly endeavored
to stir up the Grand Duke of Lithuania to make a treacherous attack
upon some of the fortresses of the knights. The end of the matter was
that the case was dismissed, and there is little doubt that there were
serious faults on both sides.

The times were indeed full of violence, cruelty, and crime. The annals
abound with terrible and shameful records, bloody and desolating wars,
and individual cases of oppression, injustice, and cruelty. Now a
grand master is assassinated in his chapel during vespers; now a judge
is proved to have received bribes, and to have induced a suitor to
sacrifice the honor of his wife as the price of a favorable decision.
Wealth and power led to luxury and sensuality, the weaker were
oppressed, noble and bishop alike showing themselves proud and
tyrannical. There are often two contradictory accounts of the same
transaction, and it is impossible to decide where the fault really
was, when there seems so little to choose between the conduct of
either side.

The conclusion seems forced upon us that human nature was in those
days much the same as it is now, and that riches and irresponsible
authority scarcely ever fail to lead to pride and to selfish and
oppressive treatment of inferiors. When we gaze upon the magnificent
cathedrals that were rising all over Europe at the bidding of the
great of those times, we are filled with admiration, and disposed to
imagine that piety and a high standard of religious life must have
prevailed; but a closer acquaintance with historical facts dissipates
the illusion, and we find that then as now good and evil were mingled.

The history of the order for the next century presents little of
interest. In 1388 two of the