180 THE HISTORY OE THE ORDER OE [book i.

until now, there was a fable ready made, in com-plete contradiction to any narrative that could beformed from documentary evidence. So Pantale-one, Bosio, Vertot, and all the historians followingthem, found it more convenient to uphold and dis-seminate that fable concerning a Nineveh of whichit was supposed all records were irreparably lost.

And now behold they are come to light, and thewhole scaffolding is wrong, and must be over-turned to get at the truth. It nettles to be obligedto do any such work. Double labour, both fableand narrative; the former more wearisome to re-move, than to weave the latter. Dishearteningto have to set out with what may lead to cruel,perhaps flippant ridicule. It may disgust myreader, but it is necessary to overturn the commonbasis of a whole progeny, some of them esteemed,and deserving of esteem, though in this particularthey are in error. Then the entire of what Williamof Tyre says respecting the origin of the order, istotally erroneous; that is, of its having changedits institution under its second chief. The docu-ments come down to us disprove it. They all areabsolutely irreconcileable with any great change;but show that the rule was from the very com-mencement pretty much what has come down toour own times, modified a little occasionally,