116 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
justices through appeal of royal cases and, in 1674, through the pre-
vention and suppression of high justice rights (criminal cases). They
never, however, contested the legitimacy of these rights. It is important
to note that the 1279 accord, which included a transferring of rights to
the Hospitallers, was confirmed by all subsequent kings of France from
1287 to 1718—thirty-four confirmations in all. The last were made by
Louis XV in 1716 and 1718.
One of the rights of the Temple that had been transferred to the
Hospitallers stemmed from privileges and franchises that benefited the
craftsmen in the Templar domain. This meant that Templar communi-
ties of craftsmen, who were otherwise laypersons and outside the
Order, did not disappear with the Order.
The right of asylum in the Templar domain was confirmed for the
Hospitallers by numerous papal bulls, notably in 1523 and 1539. We
have some interesting texts from the eighteenth century showing how
far this right extended. A November 3, 1701, memorandum of the high
prior Philippe de Vendome^13 attests that not all were suffered to seek
sanctuary in the Temple Enclos and that the officers there were charged
with quelling any misuse of this privilege. A police regulation from the
high prior of Crussol on February 5, 1780, stipulates that asylum was
not granted to exiles, fugitives from justice, bad-faith debtors, fraudu-
lent bankrupts, and those who led criminal lifestyles. These kinds of
individuals would be given twenty-four hours to leave the Enclos.
Sometimes, for opportunistic reasons, the Temple refused to grant
to craftsmen the right to asylum in the Enclos. Thus in 1645 the
Compagnons Cordonniers du Devoir [Companion Cobblers of Duty]
were denounced among the Sorbonne's faculty of theology because of
initiation practices they employed to make an apprentice into a jour-
neyman. This exposure led to the targeting of other such practices
among the hatters, tailors, and saddlers, and condemnation of these
rites by verdict of the Officiality of Paris on May 30, 1648. Confessors
were ordered to see to it that their penitents atoned for all the rites in
compagnnonage [journeyman rituals], to make public confession of
their mysteries, and, most important, to renounce these mysteries. In
order to escape prosecution by the archbishop of Paris, the compagn-
nonages reunited within the enceinte of the Temple, but the right of asy-