Here we have, seemingly, a link between Kerlogue and the vanished church of the Templars beside the stream of Bishop's Water. Anyhow, the festivals of St. Dulogue and St. James were only four days apart, and perhaps honours might reasonably be divided between the two holy wells, described by O'Donovan (?).1

Were our pen to stray farther afield, we might recall other instances of memorials of SS. James and Catherine having existed elsewhere in Ireland-in localities where the military-religious orders of the Crusaders had settlements. We shall content ourselves with a reference to one, in the neighbourhood of Dublin, namely, Kilmainham. The Royal Hospital, founded in the reign of Charles II, now occupies the site of an important Priory of one of the Orders of Chivalry, in mediæval times. Some ancient writers ascribe the original foundation to the Knights of the Temple, but later authorities lean towards the belief that Kilmainham belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, and state that the Priory was established and endowed by Strongbow, about the year 1174. Be this as it may, it is clear that both were religious orders-both were military organizations, and both were originally instituted for the protection of Christians in the East, and for the performance of works of charity and mercy, in behalf of pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land. In rather close proximity to Kilmainham -within the old part of Dublin-there existed two venerable shrines, dating from the Middle Ages, and lying not far apart, which were dedicated to St. James of Compostella and to St. Catherine of Alexandria. These were the forerunners of the two beautiful Gothic churches of James's Street and Meath Street, which perpetuate the veneration of those two great saints of the Church at the present day."

St. James, as our readers are aware, is the titular Patron of Spain, whither he set out to preach the Gospel when the Apostles dispersed from Jerusalem, after the first Pentecost. Here the resting-place of his body was miraculously revealed (after the lapse of eight centuries from the date of his martyrdom), near the obscure town of Compostellawhich henceforth became the resort of pilgrims from every

1The altar table which remained intact in the ruined chapel of Kerlogue, was removed to the grounds of St. Bride's Church, Wexford, 1887. It now is used during public processions on the festival of Corpus Christi, etc.

2 The parishes of St. James, St. Catherine, and St. John (Kilmainham) were united in 1546 by George Browne, the reformed Archbishop of Dublin. VOL XIV-8

part of Christendom. History records the frequent apparition of the Apostle in the ranks of the Christian armies, in their desperate struggles with the infidel; his name, 'San Iago,' was the battle-cry on many a bloody field, and to his aid the soldiers of the Cross were wont to ascribe many of their victories. Nowhere more than in Spain were the Templars enthusiastically honoured. Lands and wealth were lavished on their order, with a liberality exceeding that of any other country. At the close of the twelfth century the possessions of the Knights Templars in Europe are said to have exceeded 7,000 manors-more than onehalf of these were situated in the Peninsula.

Again, the tomb of St. Catherine, in the monastery of St. Basil, on Mount Sinai, whither her body was transported after her martyrdom (A.D. 307), was for many centuries a magnet of great devotion in the Eastern Church. With the exception of the Holy Places, sanctified by the birth, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Our Divine Redeemer, scarcely any spot in Palestine was esteemed more sacred. About the year 550 the Emperor Justinian caused a noble basilica to be erected over the place where her remains were deposited. Here her shrine was visited by countless pilgrims, the numbers of whom were immensely increased owing to the intercourse between the East and West during the time of the Crusades.

The leaders of the Christian armies, in their protracted struggles to rescue the Holy Places from the power of the Saracens, failed not to invoke the blessing of St. Catherine on their standards, and regarded her as heavenly Protectress of the sacred cause for which they fought and died. Down to the seventeenth century and later the feast of the virgin-martyr of Alexandria was observed as a holiday of obligation, and its vigil as a fast day.

This somewhat lengthened digression will, perhaps, serve to explain some of the reasons that led to the special devotion accorded SS. James and Catherine in many parts of Ireland.

On the dissolution of the Order of the Knights Templars -by the Decree of the Council of Vienne (1312)—its possessions were given over to the Hospitallers of St. John, in whose hands they remained till the time of the Protestant Reformation. During the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth and James I the estates formerly belonging to the Templars in the Co. Wexford were conferred, chiefly,

on the families of Loftus, Wallop and Chichester (now represented by the Marquis of Ely, the Earl of Portsmouth, and Lord Templemore), who retained them down to the early part of the present century. The greater portion of the lands, within the last few years, by the provisions of the Land Purchase Act, have become the property of the occupying tenants.

As we have already remarked, little or no records of the Irish houses of the Templars have come down to us. When the existence of their order came to an end it perished entirely, and hardly a fragment of historical information survives to gratify the student's curiosity.

We shall not attempt here more than a very brief notice of the origin of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem. Their history is part of the history of the Crusades, to which their deeds of heroism and religious enthusiasm supply many picturesque pages.

From the days of the Apostles, the pious custom of visiting the Holy Places prevailed among the faithful, and with the spread of Christianity to the West, pilgrimages to Jerusalem were not only approved of by the Church, but enriched with numerous indulgences. When Palestine came under the rule of the Arabian Caliphs, and later on was governed by the Fatimides of Egypt, pilgrims to the Holy Land were not interfered with; on the contrary, their visits were regarded as a source of revenue and commercial advantage. However, when the Turks conquered Palestine in 1065, the hospitality of the previous rulers of the country gave place to oppression and acts of cruelty on the part of the Mohammedans. Soon the accounts of the atrocities inflicted on the Christians resounded over Europe and aroused such a feeling of indignation that the nations of Christendom rose to arms, and engaged in the protracted wars of Palestine, that occupied the arena of medieval history for almost two hundred years,

In 1095 Pope Urban II decreed the first Crusade which, after four years, resulted in the re-capture of Jerusalem, under the leadership of Godfrey de Bouillon. He was proclaimed King of the Holy City, which, for eighty-seven years subsequently, was ruled by Christian Sovereigns. But, for a considerable period, the pilgrim's road between Jerusalem and the port of Acre remained unsafe for travellers, owing to the constant dangers to which they were exposed

from the Saracen bandits that infested the country. At length, about 1118, a young French Knight-Hughes de Payens-who had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre and experienced the difficulties that existed, enlisted the co-operation of a few companions in forming a mounted guard for the purpose of protecting wayfarers on their perilous journeys to and from the Holy City. The project was hailed with admiration. A wing of the Palace of the Latin Kings was given to the Knights by Baldwin II, as a residence, and a church that stood on the site of the Temple of Solomon set apart for their use; hence they received the name of Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem. During the session of the General Council of Troyes (1128) Pope Honorius II confirmed the order, and assigned to the military Brotherhood a code of rules, drawn up by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. These constitutions provided that the Knights should be of noble birth, their attendants being styled esquires and servitors. The fame of their exploits drew numbers of princes and nobles to join their ranks, and also led the Sovereigns of Europe to bestow estates and other valuable endowments on the order.

During the interval between the Second and Third Crusades most of the Templars returned to Europe, when they busied themselves in developing the splendid foundations which they had acquired in various countries. Their vast possessions and supposed wealth, as well as the privileges and favours bestowed on the order by the Holy See, soon awakened jealousy and hostility. Plots and intrigues were set on foot. The initial step towards the overthrow of the Templars was undertaken by Philip the Fair of France, whose envious cravings for their wealth was well known. His son-in-law, Edward II of England, was not slow in following his example. Both kings were needy at the time, owing to the incessant demands of the wars that marked their reigns. The doubtful charges brought against some of the leading members, and the persecutions that followed, culminated in the suppression of the Order of the Templars, by the decree of the General Council of Vienne (France), in 1312.

Thus came to an end the existence of, probably, the finest body of soldiers that the world had ever seen, and whose valour in the service of the Cross and devotion to the cause of the Holy See had long been the, admiration of Christendom.

In the light of subsequent history, the extraordinary charges brought against the Templars by their enemies have been regarded by most authorities as gravely exaggerated, and the arbitrary destruction of their order as one of the saddest instances of political injustice on record. Their tragic fate verifies the lines of the great poet, who tells us

The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.

Once again, in the yesterday of our own time, Palestine has come under Christian domination, after the lapse of more than seven centuries. This historic event, naturally, recalls memories of the Crusaders and of the sacred cause for which they fought and died. At such a moment, perhaps, the subject of our cursory sketch may revive a transient gleam of interest in the story of one of the noblest Orders of the Age of Chivalry-the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem.

JOHN B. CULLEN.