Discourse of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre

part of their commanderies was given to the Hospitaller Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.

The Grand Master Despriauls, Gouy, and the Grand Preceptor were led to the scaffold erected before the portal of Notre Dame so that they might declare before the people the crimes of which they were guilty, being interrogated by the Commissioners. The G.M. and Gouy declared in the face of heaven and earth that they were innocent of all such crimes accusation of the Master's degree, that everything was false and abominable, that they were not unaware of the torments that awaited them, but that this would not prevent them from maintaining the truth until death. The judges, who did not expect such firmness on their part, gave notice to the King, who ordered them to be taken back to prison the P. M., that the guilty be led out of the city, and that they be put to death between the King's Garden and the Augustinians (today the Petit Place Dauphine). The sentence was executed against all and overturned by the tomb of Hiram, and they cited the Pope and the King—the one in 40 days and the other in a year—to appear at the tribunal of the sovereign Judge they both died just as they were cited; see the history of the Order, which makes mention of this. After these executions, and several others that were carried out in different states, the Kingdom of Scotland alone offered an asylum to the brothers who had escaped from the hands of their persecutors.

The Kings of Scotland and England, who had taken their side in this affair, had declared themselves in their favor by suspending the persecutions that had been raging against

them. Those who had revealed themselves resumed their first name and continued to exercise the works of mercy in such secrecy of the Order.

In the aftermath, having shared this with several people, they did not declare their secret to them; they contented themselves with communicating that of their origin. It is from there that it passed into England, where it sustained itself for about 300 years, and then into France. This, my dear brothers, is how the Order has always sustained itself and still sustains itself today under the name of Freemasons. This, my dear Knights, is the end and the true goal of the Order, which composes the Scottish Directory, etc.

Observations

All Knights must remember that the Order, being founded on the love of God and neighbor, must guard the secret of its institution with extreme care, work for the reformation of its morals, and follow exactly the statutes and regulations of the Chapter as well as those of the blue works referring to the basic degrees of Craft Masonry.

An inviolable attachment to the King and the Fatherland, to lead a life without reproach, and to live as a good, faithful, and worthy Knight until eternal life, which I wish for you. Amen.