Page images
PDF
EPUB

their angular form, are lighter than the particles which form fluid water, the expansion of water below 40° may be due to its particles being in a process of arrangement preparatory to their becoming visibly crystalline, as they do below 32°. "Ground-ice," as it is called, seldom is formed in still-water, but not unfrequently in shallow running water. When ice is formed, it is so light as to float on the surface of the water, and in so doing covers and protects water actually warmer than itself below; the propagation of cold, from above downwards, being extremely slow in fluids, and being, in the case of water, rendered additionally difficult by the refusal of the cooled particles to sink, when their temperature is reduced to the point in question.

A curious fact is related by Krusenstern with reference to the temperature of a part of the sea which was sounded in his travels. It was found, in a series of experiments made in some places in the Gulf Stream, that on letting down the lead to the depth of 600 feet and raising it again, it was too hot to be handled. The experiments were many times repeated with the same result, and the inference could not be denied that below the cool surface of the blue waters was a bed of a degree of heat not far from boiling-point.

In consequence of the bad radiating properties of water, the temperature of the Ocean is much less subject to variations than that of the air, and those which occur are small in amount. The result of this is, that the air overlying the Ocean is much more uniform, in regard to temperature, than that over the land. In parallels where the range of the thermometer suspended in air over the land, amounts to twenty or thirty degrees, or even more, a thermometer suspended over the ocean's surface does not range more than five or six degrees.

Thus, the effect of the sea upon a climate is to equalise it, and this is remarkably the case in the climatology of small islands.

In the Channel Islands-for example, in Guernsey and Jersey-this influence is most remarkable; frosts are of rare occurrence, and are of very short duration; and the extreme of heat is seldom experienced there. In the quarter ending on the 31st of December, 1849, the mean temperature of Guernsey was 49° 2', while that of Greenwich was 44° 8'-a difference of about five degrees. Thus, in these islands summer and winter are not separated by the chasm which divides them in the climate of great continents, and the excessive degrees of temperature are almost unknown on either side of the thermometric scale.

The influence of such a climate upon their floriculture and horticulture can scarcely be believed. The most delicate and beautiful plants, which in England must be carefully kept during the winter in conservatories, and cherished with artificial warmth, are there exposed without injury all through that part of the year; and the markets in summer exhibit an exuberant fertility scarcely to be expected even in districts much farther south than these islands. In all probability the equalising influence of the Ocean is felt universally, through every region of our globe, to a greater or less extent. The waters, heated in warmer regions, are directed by the various currents of the Ocean to others, where the solar influence is far more feeble, and roll down the shores of countries lying in latitudes far remote.

The Ocean is the great reservoir from whence, raised by the process of evaporation, the earth derives its supply of water, and to which all springs and rivers carry back their contents. A system of circulation is thus established on the grandest scale. Water rises as vapour from the Ocean, assumes the form of clouds, descends on land in the various conditions of rain, hail, snow, and dew; and becoming then collected in larger currents, it seeks the Ocean again, to undergo once more the same series of changes. A small portion of the

saline contents of the sea are thus made available to the necessities of plants on land, by uniting with the ascending vapour, and being precipitated in the descending shower.-Chemistry of Creation.

CHAPTER LV.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS.

THE Brethren of the Temple at Jerusalem formed one of the four great military Orders of monks which rose in the twelfth century.

This Order was founded about 1120, and originated in France; nine knights bound themselves together by solemn vows, to maintain safe passage for the pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. Ostensibly they had no means of subsistence but the alms of the Faithful, and they were generally known by the name of the "Pauper Soldiers of the Holy City."

Baldwin II., King of Jerusalem, gave them as a place of residence a part of his palace, to which the Abbot and Canons of the Convent of the Temple added an adjoining building, for storing their arms. Hence their name Templars.

Their head was a Grand Master, elected by themselves; after him came the Lieutenant, the Marshal, and the Treasurer. These were the chief officers.

The Order gradually spread into different countries of Europe and Asia, and acquired considerable possessions in land.

These foreign possessions were called "Provinces," and each was presided over by a chief-who was callad, sometimes a Grand Prior, sometimes a Grand Preceptor, and sometimes a Provincial Master. Next to him came the Priors, Bailiffs, or Masters, and under these the Preceptors. The principal of the Provinces was Jerusalem.

France, emphatically the land of chivalry, was especially the cradle of the chivalry of the Temple. At the extinction of the Order more than one-half of the entire body were Frenchmen, and from this nation had been successively chosen almost all the Grand Masters from the earliest times. The Temple at Paris was the Centre, the "Chapter-house," and Treasury of the Order. The eight European Provinces (of which England and Ireland formed one) depended on it, and its boundaries extended over one-third of the whole city. Little now remains of it besides its name; but up to the time of the Revolution at the end of the last century, some habitable portions were yet standing, and figured conspicuously in the scenes of those frightful days.

It was a King of France who projected and accomplished the suppression of this strong and wealthy Order of Knights Templars throughout the world, in order that he might seize its possessions within his own dominions; our Edward II. was but a subaltern, executing (with no very good grace). the orders of Philippe le Bel, conveyed through his servant the Pope.

Before the circumstances of the catastrophe can be rendered completely intelligible, we must go to France for some previous incidents in the story, and glance at the state of three important parties at the opening of the drama-the Templars, the King, and the Pope.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Templars were richer, mightier, and more numerous than at any previous period of their career. But although their valour was still unquestioned, it was almost the sole remnant of their ancient character: their simplicity and austerity had changed into luxury and pride; their dealings with the Infidel were suspected, and-what was worse than all-their arms had been unsuccessful. They had long since been expelled from the Holy City, and the fall of Acre, in 1291, completed the destruction of their power in the East.

In 1297, Jacques de Molay, a grizzled old warrior, who was descended from a poor but knightly house in Burgundy, was chosen Grand Master. The seat of this officer and his Chapter was always in the East, whither the bulk of the Order were naturally summoned by the duties of their calling; but latterly their noble domains in the West had detained a great part of them.

In 1300, De Molay, with a detachment of knights, made an effort to seize and hold against the Mahometans the small island of Tortosa, but was defeated; and after this, the Templars appeared no more on the field of battle. The other military Orders found fresh work for their swords-the Hospitallers in Rhodes, the Teutonic Knights in the North of Europe; but the staff of the Templars sate sullenly in Cyprus-inert, wealthy, and suspected.

At the beginning of this fourteenth century, Philippe le Bel, King of France, entered upon the thirty-second year of his age, and the fifteenth of his reign.

[ocr errors]

Before the sixteenth century the most important relations of any crowned head were those with the Pope. Philippe's relations with his Pontiff were as follows:

In 1303, his quarrel of fourteen years' standing with Boniface VIII. was at its height; the Papal Court had excommunicated Philippe, and Philippe had presented a formal charge of sorcery, simony, and heresy against the Head of the Church. The Pontiff was then at Anagni. On the 7th of September, just before dawn, Philippe's Chancellor, William de Nogaret, appeared with 300 men before the gates, which were opened to them by a traitor; they entered, seized on the person of the Pope, and for three days kept him a prisoner in his own palace. On the fourth day he was rescued by the inhabitants, and returned to Rome; but the insult and hardships were too much for an old man of fourscoreand-six. He remained convulsed and speechless, refused nourishment, and one morning, when his attendant

« PreviousContinue »