IV

Preliminary Report

...[accusations] The text begins mid-sentence, likely continuing from a discussion on page III regarding the various charges or investigations made against the Templars. being made against this Order, and the result of these efforts is in everyone’s hands.

Despite this, there has still been a lack of a complete history of the Order of the Temple Order of the Temple: better known as the Knights Templar, a medieval Catholic military order that became immensely powerful before being suppressed in the early 14th century until now. This is because most writers have restricted themselves merely to the suppression of the Order and the investigation of the accusations made against it, only briefly touching upon the history of its origins, its progress, its greatness, and its fall.

The same cause that moved some scholars in Germany to devote attention to the history of this ancient knighthood knighthood: or chivalric order (German: Ritterschaft) perhaps contributed much to the emergence of a scholar in France. This scholar, provided with sufficient knowledge and the necessary resources, undertook to present this Order—which was eradicated five hundred years ago—as less guilty than most of his predecessors have done. To what extent he succeeded in this is rightly left to the judgment of the historian historian: the original German Geschichtforscher implies a "historical researcher" or one who investigates the past scientifically; yet it is clear from a brief overview of the present work that, as much as the author seeks to defend the Order as a whole, he nevertheless never [conceals] original: ver= — this is the first part of the word verschweigt (remains silent or conceals), which is completed on the next page. the errors and injustices of individual members of the same—