I should obtain the same result if I were to examine in this manner in detail all that relates to the cups and chalices in which M. Hammer believes he sees Gnostic emblems; not only is there nothing upon them concerning the Templars, but M. Hammer has only collected them in places and upon monuments quite foreign to the order of the Templars.
As to the Gnostic sculptures which M. Hammer persists in seeing in some churches, is it not well known that we find in the churches of the middle ages sculptures and monuments which it is very difficult to explain, either on account of the moral and religious ideas which the artists of the time expressed under very unsuitable images; or on account of the pious allegories, the tradition of which is not come down to us?
The relievos of the capitals of the church of St. Germaine des Prés have embarrassed antiquaries, and if M. Hammer had found such in a church of the Templars, he would not have failed to magnify by them his act of accusation.
He cites seven churches in Germany, in which he pretends to recognise Gnostic emblems: but he offers no proof that these churches belonged to the Templars; and, even if the Order had built them, is it to be conceived, that if there existed a secret doctrine among them, the leaders would have exposed the symbols of it in public in their churches? And how is it that they selected seven German churches to receive these irreligious signs, whilst they did nothing of the same kind in the three thousand churches they possessed in Christendom?
M. Hammer is not more fortunate when he seeks in romances, which speak of the Saint Graal, the emblematic history, or the symbol of the order of the Temple.
These romances present nothing contrary to religion; the knights, who are the personages, promise fidelity to God and the ladies; they arm and fight for religion and beauty. Can we then be astounded that at the period when these romances were composed, the search for the St. Graal, or holy cup, was considered an exploit worthy of chivalry?
M. Hammer fancies he finds something very favourable to him in the following passage:—“As the St. Graal came to Tramelet on the day of Pentecost,”—he remarks that the festival of St. Graal was not celebrated on Christmas-day, but at Pentecost; “if by this cup,” says he, “had been meant, as some people suppose, the Lord’s cup, the festival would have been celebrated either on Christmas-day or Holy Thursday, and not on the day of Pentecost, which the Gnostics regarded as very holy, as the day of the Holy Ghost, which was for the Gnostics Sophia, and for the Templars Mete.”
The reply to this is very easy:—1st. King Artus held his plenary court on the great festivals of the year; it is not, then, surprising that the St. Graal should arrive at Pentecost. 2nd. The author of the romance could not choose the day of Christmas-day, which festival was not appointed in the time of King Artus. 3rd. It is even probable that the romance in question was composed before the institution of that festival by Urban IV., in 1264.
M. Hammer has been sensible that it was strange to form, after a lapse of five centuries, an accusation against the Templars quite different from that which served as a pretext for the contemporary oppressors. Therefore he advances that the pope, by the sentence which was pronounced against the Templars, was willing to conceal the knowledge of their true crimes; but he maintains, that when the archives of Rome shall come to light, as everything does sooner or later, we shall there find the proof of the crimes he now denounces.
How is it possible to be believed, that if the knights had been guilty of the crimes M. Hammer attributes to them, the pope and kings would have preferred the absurd system of accusation which they employed, to a system such as that which M. Hammer puts forth?