Templars, Knights.
An order of knighthood established in Palestine in 1118, and confirmed by Honorius II in 1128. Its functions were the protection of pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre, and its headquarters were on the site of Solomon’s Temple. During the thirteenth century, the order, which had become very powerful, and spread widely over Europe, was accused of heresy and other crimes, and was proscribed by Clement V in 1312, and its property confiscated.
Ten Articles.
A profession of the Protestant Doctrine as then held in England drawn up by a Convocation held in 1536, and based upon the Confession of Augsburg.
Ten, Council of.
The Supreme Council of Venice, established in 1310. It really consisted of seventeen members, as to the ten were added the Doge and his six councillors. It controlled the magistracy and the senate, and had charge of the foreign relations of the Republic. It is, however, best known as an arbitrary secret tribunal, trying and condemning for all classes of offences against the laws and the State, without appeal.
Ten Jurisdictions, League of the.
A league formed in the eastern part of Rhætia in 1436, in the territories of the Counts of Toggenburg. It afterwards amalgamated with the Graubund and the Gotteshausbund.
Ten Minutes Bill.
The Reform Bill of 1867, as first introduced, is so called. At a Cabinet Council held on the day that Mr. Disraeli was to introduce the Bill, it was found that Ministers were not in agreement, and there were only ten minutes left to decide what was to be done. It happened that a Bill had been prepared, proposing a milder measure of reform, and this it was decided to introduce. It met with little approval from any section, and was ultimately withdrawn in favour of the original Bill. The story was some time afterwards told by Sir John Pakington to his constituents, and the makeshift Bill was promptly christened the Ten Minutes Bill.