VII

Preliminary Report

The author demonstrates the groundlessness of this Jesuit’s defense, which rests on mere favorite opinions and arbitrary assumptions. However, as this concerns only a private dispute that has no direct influence on the history of the Templar Order Templar Order: The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, a wealthy and powerful military order during the Crusades, and moreover, since the most famous historians agree on the character of Clement V Pope Clement V (reigned 1305–1314), the pope who officially dissolved the Templars under pressure from the French King Philip IV, we considered it superfluous to enlarge the present work by inserting this treatise.

In regard to the mindset in which the author undertook the elaboration of this work, he explains himself as follows:

“The Kings and the Pontiffs original: “Les Rois et les Pontifes” who have
“played a part in this history will appear well or
“poorly treated, according to whether their conduct
“seemed to me worthy of praise or blame original: “Louange ou de Blâme”.
“For the rest, if I have exceeded the bounds of mo-
“deration on this point, it is not the
“fault of my friends. Often they have
“summoned me to pay attention to it. — I confess
“that one ought to draw the curtain over the faults
“of these respectable personages, as long as they
“are the images of the Divinity on
“Earth; but as soon as they once come—