V

Preliminary Report

...[remains] silent; that he, wherever possible, always speaks with evidence in hand, and spared no effort—through the comparison of authors, the searching out of the best sources, and the compilation of facts—to justify the title of his work. That is to say, he intends to show that the crimes and outrages attributed to the Order were the work of individual members or houses, but never the spirit of the whole.

This work appeared in the past year of 1789 in two quarto volumes quarto: a large book size where each sheet of paper is folded twice to create four leaves, under the title:

Critical and Apologetic History of the Order of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, known as Templars, by the late Reverend Father M. I., Regular Canon of the Order of Prémontré, Doctor of Theology, and Prior of the Abbey of Etival. Paris. original: "Histoire critique et apologetique de l' ordre des Chevaliers du Temple de Jerusalem, dits Templiers, par feu le R. P. M. I. Chanoine regulier de l' ordre de Prémontré, Docteur en Theologie, et Prieur de l' abbaye d' Etival."

The unnamed Premonstratensian Premonstratensian: a Catholic religious order of Canons Regular founded by St. Norbert in 1120; they are also known as the "White Canons" Prior seems to have spent several years on the production of this work and spared no research in order to give it the completeness that one could expect from him, given the abundance of resources the original German Hülfsmittel refers to the various scholarly aids, documents, and archives available to the author at his disposal. An example of his zealous efforts to collect everything concerning his subject can be found in the...