>f California Regional Facility UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 4BJIVERSITY of CALTFOP AT J-OS ANGELES LIBRARY 3 4 2 2 ■ - I £/■ Lxrd del et litt. , M &. ~S . Haniiart , litii . Waters %xnxxxl xrf Jlmsxtc jS.e S 1 Jlfcrar, (gram) ^Tceptot x?f (fn^larrt) . SOUTH AISLE OP THE TEMPLE CHURCH. PROM THE ROUND TOWER. •,'» - (( )) ■- □ "I ■ ~i n -}■ ~i JxTTtdxrot N, GRS£N $&temostez iRjcrvn 1843. I ' LONGMi f-'uln? ixmum -'-'en Srina ad) iuhiuiu tu«jB H ®Unwm - 120454 :f,boEe fl. «• * * * < t r t ' i • • ■ » t r » • ^L/» ^r- :d a fe'. PREFACE. The projected restoration of that singularly beautiful and in- teresting relic of the middle ages the Temple Church, first suggested to me, as I have before mentioned, the idea of writing a short his- torical and descriptive account of the venerable building, and of that extraordinary religio-military order of monks and warriors by whom it was erected. Being desirous at the outset of my labours of compressing the materials I had collected into the smallest possible compass, I in- cluded in one volume a short and condensed summary of the history of the Templars, an account of the Temple Church, their chief ecclesiastical edifice in Britain, and a history of the Temple at London subsequent to the dissolution of the order. Thinking, moreover, that the public, in these novel-reading days, would be very unwilling to travel back with me to the dim and distant records of the middle ages, and to investigate the history and career of a class of men whose memory has been loaded (but most undeservedly and unjustly) with infamy and reproach ; with whom very few pleasing recollections were considered to be associated, and who were generally believed to be monsters of iniquity, and traders in every species of vice and a ii PREFACE. crime, I was induced greatly to abridge the fair and full history of the Order. Many of the usages and customs of the Knights Tem- plars, much of their religious chivalry and daring fanaticism, and many records of their glorious combats and astonishing deeds of prowess in defence of the Christian faithin the far East, were altogether omitted, as were also several curious and interesting particulars showing the leading and important part which they took in the government as well as in the defence and protection of the Latin kingdom. The favourable reception, however, given by the public to my labours, and the unexpected interest that was taken in the character and career, and varied fortunes of the Knights Templars, and in their dark and terrible end, induced me to alter the primary plan and arrangement of my subject, and to publish a greatly enlarged edition of the History of the Order, as a separate and independent work. I at the same time determined to postpone the republication of my account of the restoration of the Temple Church until the various works in progress had been executed, and all the intended decorations of the sacred edifice had been completed. Now that this has been effected I am enabled to lay before the reader a much more full and complete description of the venerable building than it was in my power previously to do. A vast many objects of interest which were not in existence at the period of the publication of my first work, are fully described in the ensuing pages, and an account is given of various interesting discoveries made during the recent restoration. More than one half of the present volume consequently consists of entirely new and fresh matter, and to make room for it I have greatly shortened and condensed the chapter containing an account of the history of the Temple sub- sequent to the dissolution of the order of the Knights Templars, PREFA< i iii which formed part of the original work, and which I have thought lit to retain as a sort of introduction to the present, inasmuch as it comprises many interesting particulars concerning the Temple Church when in the hands of the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, or " Knights of Rhodes," and various details illustrative of the history of the two learned societies of the Temple, who have just restored, at an immense expense, (50,000/.) the vene- r able Temple Church to its pristine state of beauty and magnificence. Two of the illustrations in the ensuing work, viz. " the door- way AND STAIRCASE LEADING TO THE PENITENTIAL CELL," and the " monumental effigies in the Temple Church," ap- peared in the Second Edition of the History of the Knights Tem- plars, but as they represent subjects of daily interest to visitors to the church, and are intimately connected with the subject-matter of this little volume, I have ventured to introduce them as an addi- tional attraction to the present work. Inner Temple, Tuesday, Nov. s, 1842. EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. The Frontispiece represents the south aisle of the Temple Church as restored. The archway through which it is seen was formerly filled up with a large wooden partition, furnished with windows and doors. It now appears in the same state as in the time of the Knights Templars. A re- presentation has been introduced of the funeral procession of the Grand Preceptor Amaric de St. Maur, who was the personal friend of King John, and died in the Temple, and was buried in the Temple Church. Tfie Title-page represents the Temple Church supported on either side by two Knights Templars bearing aloft the Beauseant, or black and white war -banner of the order of the Temple. At the top of the page is the christian emblem of the cross triumphant over the crescent of the Sara- cens, and at the bottom of it is the song, or shout of victory, raised by the Templars when triumphant in battle, " Xon nobis Domini, non nobis, sell nomini tuo tia Sloriam." " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the praise." At the corners of the page is the shield borne by the Knights Templars, and the octagonal ornament, with the cross of the order, which surmounted the baton or official staff borne by the Master of the Temple. The plate over the chapters represents the ancient seal used by the Master and ( Chapter of the Temple in this country. The plate facing CHAPTER II. represents the Round Tower of the Temple Church as restored, and a portion of the choir through the central archway which was formerly blocked up with the organ gallery. vi EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. The plate facing page 74 represents the doorway and staircase leading to the Penitential Cell in the Temple Church, and the burial of Sir Walter Le Bacheler, Grand Preceptor of Ireland, who was starved to death in the Penitential Cell for misconduct and disobedience to the Master, and was buried at morning's dawn by Brother John de Stoke and Brother Radulph de Barton, in the middle of the court between the church and the hall. The plate facing page 87 represents the interesting monumental effigies in the Temple Church as they were placed, side by side, previous to the recent restoration. Their position is now altered, and made more conform- able to what it was in ancient times. C ONTENT S. CHAPfER I. The history of the Temple subsequent to the dissolution of the order of the Knights Templars. Page I CHAPTER II. The restoration of the Temple Church — The historical associations and recollections connected with the venerable building — The discoveries made during the recent restoration — The almeries or sacramental niches— The double marble piscina— The ancient tesselated ] iavi ment — Remains of decorative paintings and gilded ornaments on the ancient groined ceiling— The magnificent Purbeck marble columns — The Norman wheel window — The an- cient Norman porch — Historical account of the Temple Church — Description of the venera- ble building — The various styles of architecture displayed in it — The Round Tower and Square Church— The interlaced arcade— The restoration of the Round Tower — The orna- ments and inscriptions on the ceiling — -The stained window of the clere story — The circular aisle and grotesque arcade — The entrance to the choir — The beauty and elegance of the structure — The painted ceiling — The ancient devices displayed on the groined vaulting — The of the Temple — The Ukauseant, or war-banner of the Templars— The lamb bear hag the banner ai d cross of the order — The winged horse of the Inner Temple— The scrip- tural devices — The black letter inscriptions — The stained glass windows — The subjects dis played upon them — The Annunciation — The Nativity — The joun ey to Bethlehem — The angels appearing to the shepherds, &c. — The designs and paintings illustrative of the history of the Knights Templars— The Temple at Jerusalem— Representations of the Grand Pr ceptors of England — The motto-, of the ancient Templars — The arms of the Kings of Eng land and Jerusalem The ancient banners and devices of the Templars Thecitj of Beth lehem — The cross surmounting the crescent, &c. Tli<- new Gothic altar piece— The re iteration of the marble piscina— Tin' ancient tnoi in of the Bishop of Carlisle — The Vlll CONTENTS. stained window opposite the organ gallery— Description of the subjects displayed thereon — The new organ gallery — The new vestry and its monuments— The modern oaken seats and fittings — The various antique inscriptions displayed on the walls of the Temple Church — The portraits of the kings -Henry the First — King Stephen — Henry the Second — Richard Coeur de Lion— King John— King Henry the Third— The Penitential Cell in the Tem- ple Church — The Triforium and its numerous monuments— The staircase turret— The bell tower — The ancient roof of the church — The ancient chapel of Saint Anne — Various histo- rical matters connected therewith — The ancient ecclesiastical establishment of the Tem- ple Church— The custos and chaplains— The holy relics anciently preserved therein— The anxious desire manifested by kings and nobles to be buried in the Church — The ancient monumental remains. - - - - - - -41 CHAPTER III. The monumental effigies in the Temple Church — The cross-legged knights — Inquiries concerning them — Their connexion with the ancient order of the Temple — Excavations recently made beneath the figures — Discovery of stone coffins and enormous skeletons wrappeu in sackcloth — Evident change in the position of the monumental effigies — The restoration of the figures — Their present appearance — Some account of the knights and warriors they were intended to commemurate — Sir Geoffrey de Magnaville, constable of the Tower — His wars with king Stephen and miserable death before castle Burwell — His burial in the porch before the west doorway of the Temple Church — The earl of Pembroke the Protector of England during the minority of king Henry the Third — His brilliant conduct in the field and in the cabinet — His death and burial in the Round Tower of the Temple Church — The burial by his side of his two sons, William and Gilbert, both earls of Pembroke and earl marshals of England — Their monumental effigies— The monumental effigy of the Lord de Ros — His grant of land to the Templars — The grant of his body for interment in the Temple Church — The discovery of stone coffins in the porch — Ancient monuments erected in the Temple Church in the time of the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John— Ancient seal of the custos of the order of the Hospital found in the church— Explanation of some Latin inscriptions recently placed upon the walls of the sacred edifice. - - - - . - 87 CHAPTER I. THE TEMPLE. The history of the Temple subsequent to the dissolution of the order of the Knights Templars. " Those bricky towers, The which on Themme's brode aged back do ride Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers ; There whilom wont the Templer Knights to bide, Till they decayed thro' pride. " The proud and powerful Knights Templars were succeeded in the occupation of the Temple by a body of learned lawyers, who took possession of the old Hall and tbe gloomy cells of the military monks, and converted the chief bouse of their order into the great and most ancient Common Law University in England. For more than five centuries the retreats of the religious warriors have been devoted to "the studious and eloquent pleaders of causes," a new kind of Tem- plars, who, as Fuller quaintly observes, now "defend one Christian from another, as the old ones did Christians from Pagans." u 2 THE TEMPLE. This curious result was brought about in the following manner. Both before, and for a very considerable period after, the Norman conquest, the study of the law was confined to the ecclesiastics, who engrossed all the learning and knowledge of the age. In the reign of king Stephen, the foreign clergy attempted to introduce the ancient civil law of Rome into this country, as calculated to promote the power and advantage of their order, but were resolutely resisted by the king and the barons, who clung to their old customs and usages. The new law, however, was introduced into all the ecclesiastical courts, and the clergy gradually abandoned the municipal tribunals, and discontinued the study of the common law. Early in the reign of Henry the Third, episcopal constitutions were published, forbidding clerks and priests to practise as advocates in the common law courts,* and towards the close of the same reign, (a. d. 1254,) Pope Innocent IV. forbade the reading of the common law by the clergy in the English universities and seminaries of learning, because its decrees were not founded on the imperial constitutions, but merely on the customs of the laity. j- As the common law ceased to be studied and taught by the clergy, who were the great depositaries of legal learning, as of all other knowledge in those days, it became necessary to educate and train up a body of laymen to transact the judicial business of the coun- try ; and Edward I. in the twentieth year of his reign, (a. d. 1 292,) in order to promote and encourage the study by laymen of the ancient municipal law of England, authorized the chief justice and other • Xec advocati sint clerici vel sacerdotes in foro saeculari, nisi vel proprias causas vel miserabilium personarum prosequantur. Spelm. concil. torn. 2, ad ann. 1217- tlNNOCENTius, &c Prasterea cum in Anglia?, Scotias, Wallise regnis, causa? laicorum non imperatoriis legibus, sed laicorum consuetudinibus decidantur, fratrum uostrorum, et alio- rum religiosorum consilio et rogatu, statuimus quod in pri'dictis regnis leges stvculares de cietero non legantur. Matt. Par., p. 883, ad ann. 1254, et in additamentis, p. 191. THE TEMPLE. 3 justices of the court of Common Pleas, to confer the exclusive privilege of pleading causes upon a certain number of persons learned in the laws, who were to be selected from every county in England ; the king and his council deeming the number of one hundred and forty to be sufficient ; but it was left to the discretion of the said justices to add to that number or to diminish it, as they should think fit.* At this period the court of Common Pleas, which then had exclu- sive jurisdiction over all civil causes, had been fixed at Westminster, which brought together the students and professors of the common law at London, and about the period of the imprisonment of the Knights Templars, (a.d. 130/,) the advocates of that court and the students who were candidates for the prh'ilege of pleading therein, appear to have fallen into a sort of collegiate order, and to have formed them- selves into a society under the sanction of the judges, for the study and advancement of the science of the law. The deserted convent of the Temple, seated in the suburb of London, away from the noise and bustle of the city, and presenting a ready and easy access by water to Westminster, appeared a desirable retreat for the learned members of this infant legal society ; and measures were taken by them to obtain possession of it. On the imprisonment of the Knights Templars, the Temple had, in common with the other property of the military monks, been seized into the king's hands, and was committed to the care of James le Botiller and William dc Basing ; but as soon as the order of the Temple was abolished by the Pope, king Edward the Second granted it to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, j As Thomas Earl of Lancaster, the king's cousin and first prince of the blood, * Rolls Of Pari. 20. E. 1. vol. i. p. 84, No. 22. ■ eta el fa dera Rpnu , i, torn. 3, p. 296. 297. Cart. vi. E. 2, n. 41. I! 1' 4 THE TEMPLE. however, claimed the Temple by escheat, as the immediate lord of the fee, the Earl of Pembroke, on the 3rd of October, a. d. 1315, at the request of the king, and in consideration of the grant to him by his sovereign of other land, gave up the property to the Earl of Lancaster.* This Earl of Lancaster was president of the council, and the most powerful and opulent subject of the kingdom, and we are told that the students and professors of the common law made interest with him for a lodging in the Temple, and first gained a footing therein as his lessees.^ Subsequently to this event the fee simple or inheritance of the place passed successively through various hands. On the memorable attainder and ignominious execution before his own castle of the Earl of Lancaster it reverted to the crown, and was again granted to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who was shortly afterwards murdered at Paris. This nobleman died without issue, and the Temple accordingly once more vested in the crown 4 It was then granted to the royal favorite, Hugh le Despenser the younger, and on his attainder and execution by the Lancastrian faction, it came into the hands of the young king Edward the Third, who had just then ascended the throne, and was committed by him to the keeping of the Mayor of London, his escheator in the city. The mayor, as guardian of the Temple, took it into his head to close the gate leading to the waterside, which stood at the bottom of the present Middle Temple Lane, whereby the lawyers were much in- commoded in their progress backwards and forwards from the Temple * Pat. it. E. 2. m. 17. The Temple is described therein as de fcodo Tlwmce comitis Lancas- trice et de honorie Leiccistrice. t Ancient MS. account of the Temple, formerly the property of Lord Somers, and afterwards of Nicholls, the celebrated antiquary. + Cart. 15. E. 2. m. 21. Acta Rymeri, torn. 3, p. 936, 940. Lei. coll. vol. 1, p. 663. Rot. Escaet. 1, E. 3. Dvgd. baron, vol. 1, p. 777, 778. THE TEMPLE. 5 t<> Westminster. Complaints were made to the king on the subject, who, on the 2nd day of November, in the third year of his reign, (a. d. 1330,) wrote as follows to the mayor : " The king to tbe mayor of London, his escheator* in the same city. " Since we have been given to understand that there ought to be a free passage through the court of the New Temple at Lon- don to the river Thames, for our justices, clerks, and others, who may wish to pass by water to Westminster to transact their business, and that you keep the gate of the Temple shut by day, and so prevent those same justices, clerks of ours, and other persons, from passing through the midst of the said court to the water- side, whereby as well our own affairs as those of our people in general are oftentimes greatly delayed, we command you, that you keep the gates of the said Temple open by day, so that our justices and clerks, and other persons who wish to go by water to West- minster may be able so to do by the way to which they have hitherto been accustomed. " Witness ourself at Kenilworth, the 2nd day of November, and third year of our reign."f The following year the king again wrote to the mayor, his escheator in the city of London, informing him that he had been given to understand that the pier in the said court of the Temple, leading to the river, was so broken and decayed, that his clerks and law officers, and others, could no longer get across it, and were con- * There was in those days an escheator in each county, and in various large towns : it was the duty of this officer to seize into the king's hands all lands held in capite of the crown, on receiving a writ of diem clattsit extremum, commanding him to assemble a jury to take in- quisition of the value of the lands, as to who was the next heir of the deceased, the rents and by which they were holden, &c. &c. t Clans. 8. K. 3. in. G. d. Ada Rymerl, torn. iv. p. 406. 6 THE TEMPLE. sequently prevented from passing by water to Westminster. " We therefore," he proceeds, "being desirous of providing such a remedy as we ought for this evil, command you to do whatever repairs are necessary to the said pier, and to defray the cost thereof out of the proceeds of the lands and rents appertaining to the said Temple now in your custody ; and when we shall have been informed of the things done in the matter, the expense shall be allowed you in your account of the same proceeds. " Witness ourself at Westminster, the 15th day of January, and fourth year of our reign."* Two years afterwards (6 E. Ill, a. d. 1333) the king committed the custody of the Temple to " his beloved clerk," William de Langford, " and farmed out the rents and proceeds thereof to him for the term of ten years, at a rent of 241. per annum, the said William undertaking to keep all the houses and tenements in good order and repair, and so deliver them up at the end of the term."f In the mean time, however, the pope and the bishops had been vigorously exerting themselves to obtain a transfer of the property, late belonging to the Templars, to the order of the Knights Hos- pitallers of Saint John, or " Knights of Rhodes." The Hospitallers petitioned the king, setting forth that the church, the cloisters, and other places within the Temple, were consecrated and dedicated to the service of God, that they had been unjustly occupied and detained from them by Hugh le Despenser the younger, and, through his attainder, had lately come into the king's hands, and they besought the king to deliver up to them possession thereof. King Edward accordingly commanded the mayor of London, his escheator in that city, to take inquisition concerning the premises. * Clans. 4. E. 3. in. 7. Acta Rymeri, torn. iv. p, 464. t Tat. (i. E. 3. p. -2, m. 22, in original at Rolls Garden ex parte Remembr. Tliesanr. THE TEMPLE. 7 From this inquisition, and the return thereof, it appears that many of the founders of the Temple Church, and many of the brethren of the order of Knights Templars, then lay buried in the church and cemetery of the Temple ; that the bishop of Ely had his lodging in the Temple, known by the name of the bishop of Ely's chamber ; that there was a chapel dedicated to St. Thomas-a-Becket, which extended from the door of the Temple Hall as far as the ancient gate of the Temple; also a cloister which began at the bishop of Ely's chamber, and ran in an easterly direction ; and that there was a wall which ran in a nor- therly direction as far as the said king's highway ; that in the front part of the cemetery towards the north, bordering on the king's highway, were thirteen houses formerly erected, with the assent and permission of the Master and brethren of the Temple, by Roger Blom, a messenger of the Temple, for the purpose of holding the lights and ornaments of the church ; that the land whereon these houses were built, the cemetery, the church, and all the space enclosed between St. Thomas's chapel, the church, the cloisters, and the wall running in a northerly direction, and all the buildings erected thereon, together with the hall, cloisters, and St. Thomas's chapel, were sanctified places dedicated to God ; that Hugh le Despcnser occupied and detained them unjustly, and that through his attainder and forfeiture, and not otherwise, they came into the king's hands."* After the return of this inquisition, the said sanctified places were assigned to the prior and brethren of the Hospital of Saint John ; and the king, on the 1 1th of January, in the tenth year of his reign, \. d. 1337, directed his writ to the barons of the Exchequer, com- • Rot. Escaet. 10, E, .;. 66. Claus. ;j, K. •'), p. l, m. 10. 8 THE TEMPLE. manding them to take inquisition of the value of the said sanctified places, so given up to the Hospitallers, and of the residue of the Temple, and certify the same under their seals to the king, in order that a reasonable abatement might he made in William de Langford's rent. From the inquiry made in pursuance of this writ before John de Shoreditch, a baron of the Exchequer, it further appears that on the said residue of the Temple upon the land then remaining in the custody of William de Langford, and withinside the great gate of the Temple, were another hall* and four chambers connected therewith, a kitchen, a garden, a stable, and a chamber beyond the great gate ; also eight shops, seven of which stood in Fleet Street, and the eighth in the suburb of London, without the bar of the New Temple ; that the annual value of these shops varied from ten to thirteen, fifteen, and sixteen shillings ; that the fruit out of the garden of the Temple sold for sixty shillings per annum in the gross, that seven out of the thirteen houses erected by Roger Blom were each of the annual value of eleven shillings ; and that the eighth, situated beyond the gate of entrance to the church, was worth four marks per annum. It appears, moreover, that the total annual revenue of the Temple then amounted to 731. 6s. lid., equal to about 1,000/. of our present money, and that William de Langford was abated 12'. 4*. 2d. of his said rent.f Three years after the taking of this inquisition, and in the thir- * Sunt etiam ibidem claustrum, capella Sancti Thomse, et qusedam platea terra; eidem capelke anne\ata, cum una aula et camera supra edificata, qua; sunt loca sancta, et Deo dedicata, et dicta; ecclesia; annexata, et eidem Priori per idem breve liberata .... Item dicunt, quod praotcr ista, sunt ibidem in custodia Wilielmi de Langford infra Magnam Portam dicti Novi Templi, extra metas et di.yunctiones prcedictas, una aula et quatuor earner*, una coquina, unum gardinum, unum stabulum, et una camera ultra JIagnam Portam praedic- tam, &c. t In memoiandis Scacc. inter recorda de Termino Sancti Hilarii. 11 E. 3, in officio Remem- bratoris Thesaurarii. THE TEMPLE. 9 teenth year of his reign, a. d. 1340, king Edward the Third, in con- sideration of the sum of one hundred pounds, which the prior of the Hospital promised to pay him towards the expense of his ex- pedition into France, granted to the said prior all the residue of the Temple then remaining in the king's hands, to hold, together with the cemetery, cloisters, and the other sanctified places, to the said prior and his brethren, and their successors, of the king and his heirs, for charitable purposes, for ever.* From this grant it appears that the porter of the Temple received sixty shillings and tenpence per annum, and twopence a day wages, which were to he paid him by the Hospitallers. At this period Philip Thane was prior of the Hospital ; and he exerted himself to impart to the celebration of divine service in the Temple Church, the dignity and the splendour it possessed in the time of the Templars. He, with the unanimous consent and approbation of the whole chapter of the Hospital, granted to Brother Hugh de Lichefeld, priest, and to his successors, guardians of the Temple Church, towards the improvement of the lights and the celebration of divine service therein, all the land called Ficketzfeld, and the garden called Cotterell Garden ; and two years afterwards he made a further grant, to the said Hugh and his successors, of ;t thousand fagots a year to be cut out of the wood of Lilleston, and carried to the New Temple to keep up the fire in the said church. j~ King Edward the Third, in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, a. d. 13G2, notwithstanding the grant of the Temple to the Hospitallers, exercised the right of appointing to the porter's office, and by his letters patent he promoted Roger Small to that post for the term • Pat 12. B.3, p. 2, m. J.'. Vugd. Monasticon, vol. vii. p. Rio, 811. + Ex registr, Bancti -I ihannu Ji in-, fol. 141, ;< Jiinni. Monast., torn. vi. part 2, p. 832. 10 THE TEMPLE. of his life, in return for the good service rendered him by the said Roger Small.* It appears that the lawyers in the Temple had at this period their purveyor of provisions as at present, and that they were consequently then keeping commons or dining together in hall. The poet Chaucer, who was born at the close of the reign of Edward the Second, a. d. 1327, and was in high favour at court in the reign of Edward the Third, thus speaks of the Manciple, or the purveyor of provisions of the lawyers in the Temple : "A gentil Manciple was there of the Temple, Of whom aehatours mighten take ensample, For to hen wise in hying of vitaille. For whether that he paid or toke by taille, Algate he waited so in his achate, That he was aye before in good estate. Now is not that of God a full fayre grace, That swiche a lewed mannes wit shal pace, The wisdome of an hepe of lemed men ?" "Of maisters had he mo than thries ten, That were of lawe expert and curious ; Of which there was adosein in that hous Worthy to ben stewardes of rent and lond Of any lord that is in Englelond, To maken him live by his propre good, In honour detteles, but if he were wood, Or live as scarsly, as him list desire ; And able for to helpen all a shire, In any cas that mighte fallen or happe ; And yet this manciple sette hiraller cappe."t * Rex omnibus ad quos &c. salutem. Sciatis quod de gratia nostra speciali, et pro bono servitio quod Rogerus Small nobis impendit et impendat in futuro, concessimus ei offieium Janiloris Novi Templi London Habeud. &c. pro vita sua &c. pertinend. &c. omnia vada et feoda &c. eodem modo quali Robertus Petyt defunct, qui offieium illud ex concessione domini Edwardi nuper regis Angliae patris nostri habuit .... Teste meipso apudWestm. 5 die Aprilis, anno regni nostri 35. Pat. 35. E. 3, p. 2, m. 33. 1 Prologee to the Canterbury Tales. The wages of the Manciples of the Temple, temp. Henry VIII. were xxxvis, per annum. Bib. Cotton. Vitellius, c. 9, f. 320, a. THE TEMPLE. I 1 At the period of the dissolution of the order of the Templars many of the retainers of the ancient knights were residing in the Temple supported hy pensions from the crown. These were of the class of free servants of office, they held their posts for life, and not having been members of the order, they were not included in the general proscription of the fraternity. On the seizure by the sheriffs and royal officers of the property of their ancient masters, they had been reduced to great distress, and had petitioned the king to be allowed their customary stipends. Edward the Second had accordingly granted to Robert Styfford, clerk-chaplain of the Temple Church, two denier s a day for his maintenance in the house of the Temple at London, and five shillings a year for necessaries, provided he did service in the Temple Church ; and when unable to do so, he was to receive only his food and lodging. Geoffrey Talaver, Geoffrey de Cave, clerk, and John de Shelton, were also, each of them, to receive for their good services, annual pensions for the term of their lives. Some of these retainers, in addition to their various stipends, were to have a gown of the class of free-serving brethren of the order of the Temple each year ; one old garment out of the stock of old garments belonging to the brethren ; one mark a year for their shoes, &c. ; their sons also received so much per diem, on condition that they did the daily work of the house.* These domestics and retainers of the ancient brotherhood of the Knights Templars, appear to have transferred their services to the learned society of lawyers established in the Temple. From the time of Chaucer to the present day, the professors of the law have dined together in the ancient hall of the knights, as the military monks did before them ; and the rule of their order requiring " two and two to eat together," and " all the fragments to be given • Rot < liiu-. ... E. _'. in. in. Acta Rymcri, torn. 3, p. 292, _>!I4, 331, 332. 12 THE TEMPLE. in brotherly charity to the domestics," is observed to this day, and has been in force from time immemorial. The attendants at table are still called paniers, as in the days of the Knights Templars.* The leading punishments of the Temple, too, remain the same as in the olden time. The ancient Templar, for example, for a light fault, was " withdrawn from the companionship of his fellows," and not allowed "to eat with them at the same table,"f and the modern Templar, for impropriety of conduct, is " expelled the hall " and " put out of commons." The brethren of the ancient fraternity were, for grave offences, in addition to the above punishment, de- prived of their lodgings, | and were compelled to sleep with the beasts in the open court ; and the members of the modern fellowship have in bygone times, as a mode of punishment, been temporarily deprived of their chambers in the Temple for misconduct, and padlocks have been put upon the doors. The Master and Chapter of the Temple, in the time of the Knights Templars, exercised the power of imprisonment and expulsion from the fellowship, and the same punishments have been used down to a recent period by the Masters of the Bench of the modern societies. § There has also been, in connexion with the modern fellowship, a class of associates similar to the associates of the ancient Tem- plars. These were illustrious persons who paid large sums of money, and made presents of plate to be admitted to the fellow- • Thomas of Wotlirope, at the trial of the Templars in England, was unable to give an account of the reception of some brethren into the order, quia erat panetarius et vacabat circa suum offieimn. Concil. May. Brit., torn. ii. p. 355. Tunc panetarius mittat comiti duos panes atque vini sextarium . . . Ita appellabant officialem domesticuni, qui mensas panem, mappas et mamitergiasubministrabat. Ducange, Gloss, verb, panetarius. i Uegula Templar ioriim, cap. lxvii. History of the Templars, 2nd ed. p. 19. i Concil. Mag. Brit., torn. ii. p. 371 to 3/3. § Post, p. -2i. THE TEMPLE. 13 ship of the Masters of the Bench ; they were allowed to dine at the Bench table, to be as it were honorary members of the so- ciety, but were freed from the ordinary exercises and regulations of the house, and had at the same time no voice in the government thereof. In the sixth year of the reign of Edward the Third, (a. d. 1333,) a few years after the lawyers had established themselves in the convent of the Temple, the judges of the Court of Common Pleas were made knights,* being the earliest instance on record of the grant of the honour of knighthood for services purely civil, and the professors of the common law, who had the exclusive privilege of practising in that court, assumed the title or degree of freres serjens or fratres servientes, so that knights and serving- brethren, similar to those of the ancient order of the Temple, were most curiously revived and introduced into the profession of the law. It is true that the word serviens, serjen, or serjeant, was applied to the professors of the law long before the reign of Edward the Third, but not to denote a privileged brotherhood. It was applied to lawyers in common with all persons who did any description of work for another, from the serviens domini regis ad legem, who pro- secuted the pleas of the crown in the county court, to the serviens or serjen who walked with his cane before the concubine of the corrupt Patriarch Ileraclius in the streets of Jerusalem. The priest who worked for the Lord was called serjen de Dieu, and the lover who served the lady of his affections serjen d'amour.'f It was in the order of the Temple that the word/reres serjens or fratres servientes • Dugd. Orig. Jurid., cap. xxxix. p. 102. t Mace-bearers, bell-ringers, thief-takers, gaolers, bailiffs, public executioners, and all per- sons who performed a for another, wei ervientes, serjens, or Serjeants. — Ducawje, Gloss. / R I . liv. viii. cap. 19*. 14 THE TEMPLE. signified an honorary title or degree, and denoted a powerful pri- vileged class of men. The f rat res servient es armigeri or freresserj ens des mines, of the chivalry of the Temple, were of the rank of gentle- men. They united in their own persons the monastic and the military character, they were allotted one horse each, they wore the cross of the order of the Temple on their breasts,* they participated in all the privileges of the brotherhood, and were eligible to the dig- nity of Preceptor. Large sums of money were frequently given by seculars who had not been advanced to the honour of knighthood, to be admitted amongst this highly esteemed order of men. The freres serjens of the Temple wore linen coifs, and red caps close over them.f At the ceremony of their admission into the fraternity, the Master of the Temple placed the coif upon their heads, and threw over their shoulders the white mantle of the Temple ; he then caused them to sit down on the ground, and gave them a solemn admonition concerning the duties and responsibilities of their profession. % Tbey were warned that they must enter upon a new life, that they must keep themselves fair and free from stain, like the white garment that had been thrown around them, which was the emblem of purity and innocence ; that they must render complete and perfect obedience to their superiors ; that they must protect the weak, succour the needy, reverence old men, and do good to the poor. The knights and Serjeants of the common law, on the other hand, have ever constituted a privileged fraternity, and always address * Will. Tip:, lib. i. p. 50, lib. xii. p. 814. t Dugd. Hist. Warwickshire, p. 7"4. j Et tunc Magister Templi dedit sibi mantellum, et imposuit pilcum capiti sun, et tunc fecit eum sedere ad terrain, injungens sibi, &c. — Acta contra Templarios. Concil. Mag- Brit., torn. ii. p. 380. See also p. 335. THE TEMPLE. 15 one another by the endearing term brother. The religions cha- racter of the ancient ceremony of admission into this legal brother- hood, which took place in church, and its striking similarity to the ancient mode of reception into the fraternity of the Temple, are curious and remarkable.* We are told in an ancient chronicle, written in Norman French, formerly belonging to the abbey of St. Mary's at York, that in the fourth year of the reign of Richard the Second, a.d. 1381, the rebels under Wat Tyler went to the Temple, and pulled down the houses, and entered the church, and took all the books and the rolls of remembrances which were in the chests of the learners of the law in the Temple, and carried them into the highway and burnt them ;f and Walsingham, who wrote in the reign of * " Capitalis Justitiarius," says an ancient MS. account of the creation of serjeants-at- law in the reign of Henry the Seventh, " monstrabat eis plura bona exempla de eorum pra:decessoribus, et tunc posuit les coyfes super eorum capitibus, et induebat eos singulariter de capital de skarletto, et sic creati fuerunt servientes ad legem." In his admonitory exhorta- tion, the chief justice displays to them the moral and religious duties of their profession. " Ambulate in vocatione in qua vocati estis. . . . Disce cultum Dei, reverentiam tuperioris {.'), misericordiam pauperi." He tells them the coif is sieut vestis Candida et immaculata, the emblem of purity and virtue, and he commences a portion of his discourse in the scriptural language used by the popes in the famous bull conceding to the Templars their vast spiritual and temporal privileges, " Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfection desurtum est descenders a palre luminum, Sjc. S>c. !% It has been supposed that the coin was first introduced by the clerical practitioners of the common law to hide the tonsure of those priests who practised in the Court of Common PleaSj notwithstanding the ecclesiastical prohibition. This was not the case. The early portraits of our judges exhibit them with a coif of very much larger dimensions than the coifs now worn by the serjeants-at-law, very much larger than would be necessary to hide the mere el rical Immure. A covering for that purpose indeed would be absurd. I ],, alleront a le Temple et jetteront les measons a la terre et aveghcront tighlcs, ■ liie ils fairont coverture en mal array ; et alleront en l'esglise, et pristeront touts les i Ex coil. MS. apud sub-thesaurarium Hosp. Medii Templi, f. 4. a. Dugd. Orig. .lurid, cap. 43, 46. 16 THE TEMPLE. Henry the Sixth, about fifty years after the occurrence of these events, tells us that after the rebels, under Wat -Tyler and Jack Straw, had burnt the Savoy, the noble palace of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, they pulled down the place called Temple Barr, where the apprentices or learners of the highest branch of the pro- fession of the law dwelt, on account of the spite they bore to Robert Hales, Master of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, and burnt many deeds which the lawyers there had in their custody.* In a subsequent passage, however, he gives us a better clue to the attack upon the Temple, and the burning of the deeds and writings, for he tells us that it was the intention of the rebels to decapitate all the lawyers, for they thought that by destroying them they could put an end to the law, and so be enabled to order matters according to their own will and pleasure. j No great mis- chief, however, was done to them, for they continued rapidly to increase, and between the reigns of Richard the Second and Henry the Sixth, they divided themselves into two bodies. " In the raigne of king Henry the Sixth," says the MS. account of the Temple, written 9 Charles the First, " they were soe multiplied and grown into soe great a bulke as could not conveniently be liveres et rolles de remembrances, que furent en leur huches deins le Temple de Appren- tices de la Ley; et porteront en le haut chimene et Ies arderont." Annal. Olim-Sancts Mariae Ebor. * " Q,uibus perpetratis, satis malitiose etiam locum qui vocatur Temple Barre, in quo apprenticii juris morabantur nobiliores, diruer\int,ob iram quam conceperant contra Robertum de Hales Magistrum Hospitalis Sancti Johannis Jerusalem, ubi plura munimenta, quae Juridici in custodia habuerunt, igne consumpta sunt." — JValsing. 4 Ric. 2. ad ann. 1381. Hist. p. 249, ed. 1G03. t " Ad decollandum onmes juridicos, escaetores, et universes qui vel in lege docti fuere, vel cum jure ratione officii communicavere. Mente nempe conceperant, doctis in lege necatis, universa juxta communis plebis scitum de cnetero ordinare, et nullam omnino legem fore futuram, vel si futura foret, esse pro suorum arbitrio statuenda." THE TEMPLE. 17 regulated into one society, nor indeed was the old hall capable of containing so great a number, whereupon they were forced to divide themselves. A new hall was then erected, which is now the Junior Temple Hall, whereunto divers of those who before took their repast and diet in the old hall resorted, and in process of time became a distinct and divided society." From the inquisition taken 10 E. III. a.d. 1337, it appears that in the time of the Knights Templars there were tivo halls in the Temple, the one being the hall of the knights, and the other the hall of the freres seiye/is, or serving brethren of the order, so that it is not likely that a fresh one was built. One of these halls, the present Inner Temple Hall, had been assigned, the year previous to the taking of that inquisition, to the prior and brethren of the Hospital of Saint John, together with the church, cloisters, &c, as before mentioned, whilst the other hall remained in the hands of the crown, and was not granted to the Hospitallers until 13 E. III. a. d. 1340. It was probably soon after this period that the Hos- pitallers conceded the use of both halls to the professors of the law, and these last, from dining apart and being attached to different halls, at last separated into two societies, as at present. " Although there be two several societies, yet in sundry places they are promiscuously lodged together without any metes or bounds to distinguish them, and the ground rooms in some places belong to the new house, and the upper rooms to the old one, a manifest argument that both made at first but one house, nor did they either before or after this division claim by several leases, but by one entire grant. And as they took their diet apart, so likewise were they stationed apart in the church, viz. those of the Middle Temple mi the left hand side as you go therein, and those of the old house c 18 THE TEMPLE. on the right hand side, and so it remains between them at tins day." * Burton, the antiquary, who wrote in the reign of queen Elizabeth, speaks of this " old house" (the Inner Temple) as the " mother and most ancient of all the other houses of court, to which," says he, " I must acknowledge all due respect, being a fellow thereof, admitted into the same society on the 20th of May, 1593." -j- The two societies of the Temple are of equal antiquity ; the members in the first instance dined together in one or other of the ancient halls of the Templars, as it suited their convenience and inclination ; and to this day, in memory of the old custom, the Benchers or Ancients of the one so c ietv dine once every vear in the hall of the other society. The period of the division has been generally re- ferred to the commencement of the reign of Henry the Sixth, as at the close of that long reign the present four Inns of Court were all in existence, and then contained about two thousand students. The Court of King's Bench, the Court of Exchequer, and the Court of Chancery, had then encroached upon the jurisdiction of the Common Pleas, and had taken cognizance of civil causes between subject and subject, which were formerly decided in that court alone. % The legal business of the country had consequently greatly increased, the profession of the law became highly honourable, and the gentry and the nobility considered the study of it a necessary part of education. * MS. in Bib. Int. Temp. No. 17- fo. 408. f Burton's Leicestershire, p. 235. % After the courts of King's Bench and Exchequer had by a fiction of law drawn to them- selves a vast portion of the civil business originally transacted in the Common Pleas alone, the degree of serjeant-at-law, with its exclusive privilege of practising in the last-named court, was not sought after as before. The advocates or barristers of the King's Bench and Exchequer were, consequently, at different times, commanded by writ to take upon them the degree of tlv coif, mid transfer their practice to the Common Pleas. i in: temple. I!) Sir John Fortesoue, who was the chief justice of the King's Bench during half the reign of Henry the Sixth, in his famous discourse de laudibus legum Anglice, tells us that in his time the annual ex- penses of each law-student amounted to more than 28/., (equal to about 450?. of our present money,) that all the students of the law were gentlemen by birth and fortune, and had great regard for their character and honour ; that in each Inn of Court there was an academy or gymnasium, where singing, music, and dancing, and a variety of accomplishments, were taught. Law was studied at stated periods, and on festival days, after the offices of the church were over, the students employed themselves in the study of history, and in reading the Holy Scriptures. Everything good and virtuous was there taught, vice was discouraged and banished, so tbat knights, and barons, and the greatest of the nobility of the kingdom, placed their sons in the Temple and the other Inns of Court ; not so much, he tells us, to make the law their study, or to enable them to live by the profession, as to form their manners and to preserve them from the contagion of vice. " Quarrelling, insubordination, and murmuring, are unheard of; if a student dis- honours himself, he is expelled the society ; a punishment which is dreaded more than imprisonment and irons, for he who has been driven from one society is never admitted into any of the others ; whence it happens, that there is a constant harmony amongst them, the greatest friendship, and a general freedom of conver- sation." The two societies of the Temple arc now distinguished by the several denominations of the Inner and the Middle Temple, names 1 1 mi appear to have been adopted with reference to apart of the ancient Temple, which, in common with other property of the Knights Templars, never came into the hands of the Hospitallers. c L' 20 THE TEMPLE. After the lawyers of the Temple had separated into two hodies and occupied distinct portions of ground, this part came to he known by the name of the outward Temple, as being the farthest away from the city, and is thus referred to in a manuscript in the British Museum, written in the reign of James the First : — " A third part, called outward Temple, was procured by one Dr. Stapleton, bishop of Exeter, in the days of king Edward the Second, for a residing mansion-house for him and his successors, bishops of that see. It was called Exeter Inn until the reign of the late queen Mary, when the lord Paget, her principal secretary of state, obtained the said' third part, called Exeter-house, to him and his heirs, and did re-edify the same. After whom the said third part of the Templar's house came to Thomas late duke of Norfolk, and was by him con- veyed to Sir Robert Dudley, knight, earl of Leicester, who be- queathed the same to Sir Robert Dudley, knight, his son, and lastly, by purchase, came to Robert late earl of Essex, who died in the reign of the late queen Elizabeth, and is still called Essex-house." * In the Cotton Library is a manuscript written at the commence- ment of the reign of Henry the Eighth, entitled " A description of the Form and Manner, how, and by what Orders and Customs the State of the Fellowshyppe of the Myddil Temple is maintained, and what ways they have to attaine unto Learning." f It contains a great deal of curious information concerning the government of the house, the readings, mot-yngs, boltings, and other exercises formerly performed for the advancement of learning, and of the different degrees of benchers, readers, cupboard men, inner-bar- risters, utter-barristers, and students, together with " the chardges for their mete and drynke by the yeare, and the manner of the * Malcom. Lond. Rediviv., vol. ii. p. 252. f MS. Bib. Cotton Vitellius, c. 9, fol. 320, a. THE TEMPLE. 21 dyetj and the stipende of their officers." The writer tells us that it was the duty of the " Tresorer to gather of certen of the fellow- ship a tribute } r erely of iiis. uid. a piece, and to pajr out of it the rent due to my lord of Saint Johu's for the house that they dwell in." " Item ; they have no place to walk in, and talk and confer their learnings, hut in the Church ; which place all the terme times hath in it no more of quietnesse than the perwyse of Pawles, by occasion of the confluence and concourse of such as be suters in the lawe." The conferences hetween lawyers and their clients in the Temple Church are thus alluded to by Butler : •■ Retain all sorts of witnesses, That ply in the Temple under trees. Or walk tin' Round with knights of the posts, About the cross-legged knights their hosts." " Item ; they have every day three masses said one after the other, and the first masse doth begin at seaven of the clock, or thereabouts. On festivall days they have mattens and masse so- lemnly sung ; and during the matyns singing they have three masses said." THEIR USAGE IN TIME OF PESTILENCE. " If it happen that the plague of pestilence be anything nigh their house, they immediately break up their house, and every man goeth home into his country, which is a great loss of learning ; for if they had some house nigh London to resort unto, they might as well exercise their learning as in the Temple until the plague were ceased."* At the commencement off he reign of Henry the Eighth, a wall was • MS, Bib. ' otlon, c. 9, fol. 320, a. •22 THE TEMPLE. built between the Temple Garden * and the river ; the Inner Temple Hall was " seeled," various new chambers were erected, and the societies expended sums of money, and acted as if they were absolute proprietors of the Temple, rather than as lessees of the Hospitallers of Saint John. In 32 Hen. VIII. was passed the act of parliament dissolving the order of the Hospital, and vesting all the property of the brethren in the crown, saving the rights and interests of lessees' and others who held under them. The two law societies consequently 7 once more held of the crown. When the lawyers originally came into the Temple, they found engraved upon the ancient buildings the armorial bearings of the Knights Templars, which were, on a shield argent, a plain cross gules, and (brochant sur le tout) the holy lamb bearing the banner of the order, surmounted by a red cross. Tbese arms remained the emblem of the Temple until the fifth year of the reign of queen Elizabeth, when unfortunately the society of the Inner Temple, yielding to the advice and persuasion of Master Gerard Leigh, a member of the College of Heralds, abandoned the ancient and ho- nourable device of the Knights Templars, and assumed in its place a galloping winged horse called a Pegasus, or, as it has been ex- plained to us, " a horse striking the earth with its hoof, or Pegasus /una on a field argent /" Master Gerard Leigh, we are told, " emblazoned them with precious stones and planets, and by these strange arms he intended to signify that the knowledge acquired at the learned seminary of the Inner Temple would raise the professors * Shakspeare makes the Temple garden the scene of the choice of the white ami red roses, as the badges of the rival houses of York and Lancaster. " Suffolk. — Within the Temple Hall we were too loud; The Garden here is more convenient." THE TEMPLE. 23 of the law to the highest honours, adding, by way of motto, volat ad cethera virtus, and he intended to allude to what are esteemed the more liberal sciences, by giving them Pegasus forming the fountain of Hippocrene, by striking his hoof against the rock, as a proper emblem of lawyers becoming poets, as Chaucer and Gower, who were both of the Temple . The Society of the Middle Temple, with better taste, still pre- serves, in that part of the Temple over which its sway extends, the widely-renowned and time-honoured badge of the ancient order of the Temple. In 5 Eliz. the present spacious and magnificent Middle Temple Hall, one of the most elegant and beautiful structures in the king- dom, was commenced, (the old hall being converted into chambers ;) and in the reigns both of Mary and Elizabeth, various buildings and sets of chambers were erected in the Inner and Middle Temple, at the expense of the Benchers and members of the two societies. All this was done in full reliance upon the justice and honour of the crown. In the reign of James I., however, some Scotchman attempted to obtain from his majesty a grant of the fee-simple or inheritance of the Temple, which being brought to the knowledge of the two societies, they forthwith made " humble suit" to the king, and obtained a grant of the property to themselves. By letters patent, bearing date at Westminster the 13th of August, in the sixth year of his reign, a. o. 1G09, king James granted the Temple to the Benchers of the two societies, their heirs and assigns for ever, for the lodging, reception, and education of the professors and students of the laws of England, the said Benchers yielding ami paying to the said king, his heirs and successors, ten pounds yearly for the mansion called the Inner Temple, and ten pounds yearly for the Middle Temple.* i . 24 THE TEMPLE. In grateful acknowledgment of this donation, the two societies presented to his majesty " a stately cup of pure gold, weighinge two hundred ounces and an halfe, the which it pleased his majesty most gratiously to accept and receiue .... Upon one side of this cup is curiously engraven the proporcion of a church or temple beau- tified, with turrets and pinnacles, and on the other side is figured an altar, whereon is a representation of a holy fire, the flames propper, and over the flames these words engraven, Nil nisi vobis. The cover of this rich cup of gold is in the upper parte thereof adorned with a fahrick fashioned like a pyramid, whereon standeth the statue of a military person leaning with the left hand upon a Roman-fashioned shield or target, the which cup his excellent niajestie, whilst he lived, esteemed for one of his roialest and richest Jewells." * Some of the ancient orders and regulations for the government of the two societies are not unworthy of attention. From the record of a parliament holden in the Inner Temple on the loth of November, 3 and 4 Ph. and Mary, a.d. 1558, it appears that eight gentlemen of the house, in the previous reading vocation, " were committed to the Fleete for wilfull de- menoure and disobedience to the Bench, and were worthyly ex- pulsed the fellowshyppe of the house, since which tyme, upon their humble suite and submission unto the said Benchers of the said house, it is agreed that they shall be readmitted into the fellowshyppe, and into commons again, without payeing any frine." f • MS. in Bib. In. Temp. No. 19, fol. t In. Temp. Ad. Parliament, ibm. XV. die Novembris Anno Philippi et Maria; tertio et quarto, coram Johe. Baker Milite Xicho. Hare Milite, Tlioma Whyte Milite, et al. MS. Bib. In Tern. Div. 9, shelf 5, vol. xvii. fol. 393. THE TEMPLE. 25 In the reign of Philip and .Mary, at the personal request of the queen, attempts were made to limit THE LENGTH OF A LAWYERS BEARD. On the 22nd of June, 3 and 4 Philip and Mary, a.d. 15.*)/, it was ordered that none of the companies of the Inner and Middle Temple, under the degree of a knight being in commons, should wear their beards above three weeks growing, upon pain of XL*-., and so double for every week after monition. They were, moreover, required to lay aside their arms, and it was ordered " that none of the companies, when they be in commons, shall wear Spanish cloak, sword and buckler, or rapier, or gownes and hats, or gownes girded with a dagger ;" also, that " none of the companions, except Knights or Benchers, should thenceforth wear in their doublets or hoses any light colours, except scarlet and crimson ; or \\ ear any upper velvet cap, or any scarf, or wings on their gownes, white jerkyns, buskins or velvet shoes, double cuffs on their shirts, teat hers or ribbens on their caps!" That no attorney should be admitted into either of the houses, and that in all admissions from thenceforth, it should be an implied condition, that if the party admitted " should practyse any attorneyship," he was ipso facto dismissed.* In 1 Jac. I., it was ordered, in obedience to the commands of the king, that no one should be admitted a member of either so- ciety who was not a gentleman by descent ; — that none of the gen- tlemen should come into the hall " in cloaks, boots, spurs, swords, or daggers ;" and it was publicly declared that their " yellow bands, and ear toye-, and short cloaks, and weapons," were " much dis- liked and forbidden." * Ex rcgistr. In. Temp., I. M2, 119, b. Sled. Temp., f. -'■), a. l)n. 305. i mi; TEMPLE. 31 Earle of Bridgewater. Mr. Vice-chamberlaine. Earle of Bath. Mr. Secretary Trevor. Earle of Craven. Mr. Chancellor of the Dutchy. Earle of Middleton. Mr. John Duncombe. " Whereas, it was ordered the 31st of March last, that the com- plaints of the lord maior of th.e city of London concerneing per- sonall indignities offered to Ids lordshippe and his officers when he was lately invited to dine with the reader of the Inner Temple, should this day have a further hearing, and that Mr. Hodges, Mr. Wyu, and Mr. Munday, gentlemen of the Inner Temple, against whome particular complaint was made, should appeare att the board, when accordingly, they attendinge, and both parties being called in and heard by their counsell learned, and affidavits haveing been read against the said three persons, accuseing them to have beene the principal! actors in that disorder, to which they haveing made their defence, and haveing presented severall affidavits to justifie their carriage that day, though they could not extenuate the faults of others who in the tumult affronted the lord maior and his officers ; and the officers of the lord maior, who was alleaged to have beene abused in the tumult, did not charge it upon anie of their particular persons ; upon consideration whereof it appeareing to his majestic that the matter dependinge very much upon the right and priviledge of beareing up the lord maior's sword within the Temple, which by order of this board of the 24th of March last is left to be decided by due proceedings of lawe in the courts of Westminster Hail ; his majestic therefore thought fitt to suspend the declaration of his pleasure thereupon until the said right and priviledge shall accordinglie be determined att law,'." On the Kb of November, 11 Car. II., his highness Rupert prince palatine, Thomas earl of Cleveland, Jocelyn lord Percy, 32 THE TEMPLE. John lord Berkeley of Stratton, with Henry and Bernard Howard of Norfolk, were admitted members of the fellowship of the Inner Temple. * We must now close our remarks on the Temple, with a short account of the quarrel with Dr. Micklethwaite, the custos or guar- dian of the Temple Church. After the Hospitallers had been put into possession of the Temple by King Edward the Third, the prior and chapter of that order, appointed to the ancient and honourable post of custos, and the priest who occupied that office, had his diet in one or other of the halls of the two law societies, in the same way as the guardian priest of the order of the Temple formerly had his diet in the ancient hall of the Knights Templars. He took his place, as did also the chaplains, by virtue of the appointment of the prior and chapter of the Hospital, without admission, institution, or in- duction, for the Hospitallers were clothed with the privileges, as well as with the property, of the Knights Templars, and were exempt from episcopal jurisdiction. The custos had, as before mentioned, by grant from the prior and chapter of the order of St. John, one thousand faggots a year to keep up the fire in the church, and the rents of Ficketzfeld and Cotterell Garden to be employed in im- proving the lights and providing for the due celebration of divine service. From two to three chaplains were also provided by the Hospitallers, and nearly the same ecclesiastical establishment ap- pears to have been maintained by them, as was formerly kept up in the Temple by the Knights Templars. In 21 Hen. VII. these priests had divers lodgings in the Temple, on the east side of the churchyard, part of which were let out to the students of the two societies. * Dugd. On'?, p. 158. THE TEMPLE. 33 I5v sections 9 and 10 of the act 32 Hen. VIII. , dissolving the order of the Hospital of St. John, it is provided that William Ennsted, clerk, the custos or guardian of the Temple Church, who is there styled " Master of the Temple," and Walter Limseie and John Winter, chaplains, should receive and enjoy, during their lives, all such mansion-houses, stipends, and wages, and all other profits of money, in as large or ample a manner as they then law- fully had the* same, the said Master and chaplains of the Temple doing their duties and services there, as they had previously been accustomed to do, and letters patent confirming them in their offices and pensions were to be made out and passed under the great seal. This appellation of " Master of the Temple," which anciently de- noted the superior of the proud and powerful order of Knights Templars in England, the counsellor of kings and princes, and the leader of armies, was incorrectly applied to the mere cvstos or guar- dian of the Temple Church. The act makes no provision for the successors of the custos and chaplains, and Edward the Sixth consequently, after the decease of William Ermsted, conveyed the lodgings, previously appropriated to the officiating ministers, to a Mr. Keilway and his heirs, after which the custos and clergymen had no longer of right any lodgings at all in the Temple.* From the period of the dissolution of the order of Saint John, down to the present time, the custos, or, as he is now incorrectly styled, " the Master of the Temple," has been appointed by letters patent from the crown, and takes his place as in the olden time, without the ceremony of admission, institution, or induc- tion. These letters patent are couched in very general and ex- tensive terms, and give the custos or Master many things to which he is justly entitled, as against the crown, but no longer obtains, • Harleian MS. No. 830. 34 THE TEMPLE. and profess to give him many other things which the crown had no power whatever to grant. He is appointed, for instance, " to rule, govern, and superintend the house of the New Temple ;" but the crown had no power whatever to make him governor thereof, the government having always been in the hands of the Masters of the bench of the two societies, who succeeded to the authority of the Master and chapter of the Knights Templars. In these letters patent the Temple is described as a rectory, which it never had been, nor anything like it. They profess to give to the custos " all and all manner of tythes," but there were no tythes to give, the Temple having been specially exempted from tythe as a religious house by numerous papal bulls. The letters patent give the custos all the revenues and profits of money which the custodes had at any time previously enjoyed by virtue of their office, but these revenues were dissipated by the crown, and the property formerly granted by the prior and chapter of Saint John, and by pious persons in the time of the Templars, for the maintenance of the priests and the celebration of divine service in the Temple Church was handed over to strangers, and the custos was thrown by the crown for support upon the voluntary contribu- tions of the two societies. He received, indeed, a miserable pittance of 371. 6s. 8d. per annum from the exchequer, but for this he was to find at his own expense a minister to serve the church, and also a clerk or sexton. As the crown retained in its own hands the appointment of the custos and all the ancient revenues of the Temple Church, it ought to have provided for the support of the officiating ministers, as did the Hospitallers of Saint John. " The chardges of the fellowshippe," says the MS. account of the Temple written in the reign of Henry the Eighth, " towards the salary THE TEMPLE. 35 or mete and drink of the priests, is none ; for they are found by my lord of Saint John's, and they that are of the fellowshyppe of the house are chardged with nothing to the priests, saving that they have eighteen offring days in the yeare, so that the chardge of each of them is xviiir/." * In the reign of James the First, the ciestos, Dr. Micklethwaite, put forward certain arrogant claims and pretensions, which led to a rupture between him and the two societies. The Masters of the bench of the society of the Inner Temple, taking umbrage at his proceedings, deprived the doctor of his place at the dinner- table, and " willed him to forbear the hall till he was sent for." In 8 Car. I., a. d. 1633, the doctor presented a petition to the king, in which he claims precedence within the Temple " accord- ing to auncient custome, he being master of the house," and com- plains that " his place in the hall is denyed him and his dyett, which place the Master of the Temple hath ever had both before the profession of the lawe kept in the Temple and ever since, whensoever he came into the hall. That tythes are not payde him, whereas by pattent he is to have omnes et omnimodus deci- mas. . . . That they denye all ecclesiastical jurisdiction to the Master of the Temple, who is appointed by the king's majestie master and warden of the house ad regendum, gubernandum, et officiendum dommn et ecdesiain" &c. The doctor goes into a long list of grievances showing the little authority he possessed in the Temple, that he was not summoned to the deliberations of the bouses, and he complains that " they will give him no consideracion in the Inner House for his supernumerarie sermons in the forenoon, nor lor bis sermons in the afternoon," and that " the officers of the • .Ms. Bib. Coiho,, Vilnius, c. '■>. fol. 320 a. I) 'J, 36 THE TEMPLE. Inner Temple are commanded to disrespect the Master of the Temple when he comes to the hall." The short answer to the doctor's complaint is, that the custos of the church never had any of the things which the doctor claimed to be entitled to, and it was not in the power of the crown to give them to him. The petition was referred to the lords of the council, and after- wards to Noy, the attorney-general, and in the meantime the doctor locked up the church and took away the keys. The societies ordered fresh keys to be made, and the church to be set open. Noy, to settle all differences, appointed to meet the contending parties in the church, and then alluding to the pretensions of the doctor, he declared that if he were visitor he would proceed against him tanquam elatus et superbus. In the end the doctor got nothing by his petition. In the time of the Commonwealth, after Dr. Micklethwaite's death, Oliver Cromwell sent to inquire into the duties and emolu- ments of the post of " Master of the Temple."* There are but few remains of the ancient Knights Templars now existing in the Temple beyond the church. The present Inner Temple Hall was the ancient hall of the knights, but it has at dif- ferent periods been so altered and repaired as to have lost every trace and vestige of antiquity. In the year 1816 it was almost en- tirely rebuilt, and the following extract from " The Report and Observations of the Treasurer on the late Repairs of the Inner Temple Hall," may prove interesting, as showing the state of the edifice previous to that period. " From the proportions, the state of decay, the materials of the * Peck, Desiderata curiosa, lib. xiii. p. 504, 505. Ed. 177!>. THE TEMPLE. 37 eastern and southern ■nails, the buttresses of the southern front, the pointed form of the roof and arches, and the rude sculpture on the two doors of public entrance, the hall is evidently of very great antiquity The northern wall appears to have been rebuilt, except at its two extremities, in modern times, but on the old foun- dations. . . . The roof was found to be in a very decayed and pre- carious state. It appeared to have undergone reparation at three separate periods of time, at each of which timber had been unneces- sarily added, so as finally to accumulate a weight which had pro- truded the northern and southern walls. It became, therefore, indispensable to remove all the timber of the roof, and to replace it in a lighter form. On removing the old wainscoting of the western wall, a perpendicular crack of considerable height and width was discovered, which threatened at any moment the fall of that ex- tremity of the building with its superincumbent roof. .... The turret of the clock and the southern front of the hall are only cased with stone ; this was done in the year 1741, and very ill executed. The structure of the turret, composed of chalk, ragstone, and rubble, (the same material as the walls of the church,) seems to be very ancient .... The wooden cupola of the bell was so decayed as to let in the rain, and was obliged to be renewed in a form to agree with the other parts of the southern front." " Notwithstanding the Gotbic character of the building, in the year 1 680, during the treasurership of Sir Thomas Robinson, protho- notary of C. B., a Grecian screen of the Doric order was erected, surmounted by lions' heads, cones, and other incongruous de- \iccs." " In the year 1/41, during the treasurership of Jolni Blencowe, esq., low windows of Roman architecture were formed in the southern front." 120 38 THE TEMPLE. " The dates of such innovations appear from inscriptions with the respective treasurers' names." This ancient hall formed the far-famed refectory of the Knights Templars, and was the scene of their proud and sumptuous hospi- tality. Within its venerable walls they at different periods enter- tained king John, king Henry the Third, the haughty legates of Roman pontiffs, and the ambassadors of foreign powers. The old custom, alluded to by Matthew Paris,* of hanging around the wall the shields and armorial devices of the ancient knights, is still pre- served, and each succeeding treasurer of the Temple still continues to hoist his coat of arms on the wall, as in the high and palmy days of the warlike monks of old. In this hall, in the time of the Knights Templars, the discipline was administered to disobedient brethren, who were scourged upon their bare backs with leathern thongs, after which absolution was pronounced by the Master. In the Temple Hall was kept, according to the lying depositions of the witnesses who brought such dark and terrible accusations against the Templars before the ecclesiastical tribunal assembled in London, the famous black idol with shining eyes, and the gilded head, which the Templars worshipped! From thence, too, was taken the re- fractory knight, who having refused to spit upon the cross, was plunged into the well which stood in the middle of the Temple court ; and here it was that the Templars were playing at the game called Daly when Master William de Shokerwyk made his appear- ance and announced his desire to enter into the order, but was advised not to do so by a " certain old Templar," who said to him, " If you enter into our order it will be the worse for you." f • P. 89.0, 900. \ History of the Knights Templars, 1st. ed.,p. 252—257. 2nd. ed., p. .518—523. THE TEMPLE. 39 The general chapters of the Templars were frequently held in the Temple Hall, and the vicar of the church of Saint Clements at Sand- wich, swore before the Papal inquisitors assembled at London, that he had heard that a boy had been murdered by the Templars in the Temple, because he had crept by stealth into the Hall to witness the proceedings of the assembled brethren. At the west end of the hall are considerable remains of the ancient convent of the Knights. A groined Gothic arch of the same style of architecture as the oldest part of the Temple Church forms the roof of the present buttery, and in the apartment beyond is a groined vaulted ceiling of great beauty. The ribs of the arches in both rooms are elegantly moulded, but are sadly disfigured with a thick coating of plaster and barbarous whitewash. In the cellars underneath these rooms are some old walls of immense thickness, the remains of an ancient window, a curious fireplace, and some elegant pointed Gothic arches corresponding with the ceilings above ; but they are now, alas ! shrouded in darkness, choked with modern brick partitions and staircases, and soiled with the damp and dust of many centuries. These interesting remains form an upper and an under story, the floor of the upper story being on a level with the floor of the hall, and the floor of the under story on a level with the terrace on the south side thereof. They were formerly connected with the church by means of a covered way or cloister, which ran at right angles with them over the site of the present cloister-chambers, and communicated with the upper and under story of the chapel of St. Anne, which formerly stood on the south side of the church. By means of this corridor and chapel the brethren of the Temple had private access to the church for the performance of their strict religious duties, and of their secret ceremonies of admitting novices to the vows of the order. In 9 Jac. I. v. n. Hi 12, some brick 40 THE TEMPLE. buildings three stories high were erected over this ancient cloister by Francis Tate, esq., and being burnt down a few years after- wards, the interesting covered way which connected the church with the ancient convent was involved in the general destruction, as appears from the following inscription upon the present build- ings : " Vetustissima Templariortjm porticu igne consumta, anno 16/8, Nova umc, sumptibus Medii Templi extructa anno 1681 Gulielmo Whitelocke armigero, thesaurario. " The very ancient portico of the Templars being consumed by fire in the year 16/8, these new buildings were erected at the expense of the Middle Temple in the year 1681, during the treasurership of William Whitelocke, esq." The cloisters of the Templars formed the medium of communi- cation between the hall, the church, and the cells of the serving brethren of the order. During the formation of the present new entrance into the Temple by the church, at the bottom of the Inner Temple-lane, a considerable portion of the brickwork of the old houses was pulled down, and an ancient wall of great thickness was disclosed. It was composed of chalk, ragstone, and rubble, exactly resembling the walls of the church. It ran in a direction east and west, and appeared to have formed the extreme northern boundary of the old convent. The site of the remaining buildings of the ancient Temple cannot now be determined with certainty. INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH. !>>*