l'Ordre du Temple* relates the incident in the following manner:
After the death of Jacques du Molay, some Scottish Templars having become apostates, at the instigation of Robert Bruce ranged themselves under the banners of a new Order<sup></sup> instituted by this prince and in which the receptions were based on those of the Order of the Temple. It is there that we must seek the origin of Scottish Masonry and even that of the other masonic rites. The Scottish Templars were excommunicated in 1324 by Larmenius, who declared them to be *Templi desertores* and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, *Dominiorum Militiæ spoliatores*, placed for ever outside the pale of the Temple: *Extra girum Templi, nunc et in futurum, volo, dico et jubeo.* A similar anathema has since been launched by several Grand Masters against Templars who were rebellious to legitimate authority. From the schism that was introduced into Scotland a number of sects took birth.<sup></sup>
This account forms a complete exoneration of the Scottish Templars; as apostates from the bogus Christian Church and the doctrines of Johannism they showed themselves loyal to the true Church and to the Christian faith as formulated in the published statutes of their Order. What they appear, then, to have introduced to Masonry was their manner of reception, that is to say their outer forms and organization, and possibly certain Eastern esoteric doctrines and Judaic legends concerning the building of the Temple of Solomon in no way incompatible with the teaching of Christianity.
It will be noticed, moreover, that in the ban passed by the Ordre du Temple on the Scottish Templars the Knights of St. John of