The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple

The quantity of venison consumed on these festive occasions, particularly at the readers’ feasts, was enormous. In the reign of Queen Mary, it was ordered by the benchers of the Middle Temple, that no reader should spend less than fifteen bucks in the hall, and this number was generally greatly exceeded: “there be few summer readers,” we are informed in an old MS. account of the readers’ feasts, “who, in half the time that heretofore a reading was wont to continue, spent so little as threescore bucks, besides red deer; some have spent fourscore, some a hundred…”⁵⁹⁸ The lawyers in that golden age breakfasted on “brawn and malmsey,” and supped on “venison pasties and roasted hens!” Among the viands at dinner were “faire and large bores’ heads served upon silver platters, with minstralsye, roasted swans, bustards, herns, bitterns, turkey chicks, curlews, godwits, &c. &c.”

The following observations concerning the Temple, and a grand entertainment there, in the reign of Queen Mary, will be read with interest. “Arriuing in the faire river of Thames, I landed within halfe a leage from the city of London, which was, as I coniecture, in December last. And drawing neere the citie, sodenly hard the shot of double cannons, in so great a number, and so terrible, that it darkened the whole aire, wherewith, although I was in my native countrie, yet stoode I amazed, not knowing what it ment. Thus, as I abode in despaire either to returne or to continue my former purpose, I chaunced to see comming towardes me an honest citizen, clothed in long garment, keping the highway, seming to walke for his recreation, which prognosticated rather peace than perill. Of whom I demaunded the cause of this great shot, who frendly answered, ‘It is the warning shot to th’ officers of the Constable Marshall of the Inner Temple to prepare to dinner!’ Why, said I, is he of that estate, that seeketh not other meanes to warn his officers, then with such terrible shot in so peaceable a countrey? Marry, saith he, he vttereth himselfe the better to be that officer whose name he beareth. I then demanded what prouince did he gouerne that needeth such an officer. Hee answered me, the prouince was not great in quantitie, but antient in true nobilitie; a place, said he, priuileged by the most excellent princess, the high gouernour of the whole land, wherein are store of gentilmen of the whole realme, that repaire thither to learne to rule, and obey by LAWE, to yeelde their fleece to their prince and common weale, as also to vse all other exercises of bodie and minde whereunto nature most aptly serueth to adorne by speaking, countenance, gesture, and vse of apparel, the person of a gentleman; whereby amitie is obtained and continued, that gentilmen of al countries in theire young yeares, norished together in one place, with such comely order and daily conference, are knit by continual acquaintance in such vnitie of mindes and manners, as lightly neuer after is seuered, then which is nothing more profitable to the commonweale.

“And after he had told me thus much of honor of the place, I commended in mine own conceit the pollicie of the gouernour, which seemed to vtter in itselfe the foundation of a good commonweale. For that the best of their people from tender yeares trayned vp in precepts of justice, it could not chose but yeelde forth a profitable people to a wise commonweale. Wherefore I determined with myselfe to make proofe of that I heard by reporte.

“The next day I thought for my pastime to walke to this Temple, and entering in at the gates, I found the building nothing costly; but many comly gentlemen of face and person, and thereto very courteous, saw I passe too and fro. Passing forward, I entered into a church of auncient building, wherein were many monumentes of noble personnages armed in knighteley habite, with their cotes depainted in auncient shieldes, whereat I took pleasure to behold…

“Anon we heard the noise of drum and fyfe. What meaneth this drumme? said I. Quod he, this is to warn gentlemen of the household to repaire to the dresser; wherefore come on with me, and yee shall stand where ye may best see the hall serued; and so from thence brought me into a long gallerie that stretcheth itselfe alongest the hall, neere the prince’s table, where I saw the prince set, a man of tall personage, of mannelye countenance, somewhat browne of visage, strongelie featured, and thereto comelie proportioned. At the neather end of the same table were placed the ambassadors of diuers princes. Before him stood the caruer, seruer, and cup-bearer, with great number of gentlemen wayters attending his person. The lordes steward, treasorer, with diuers honorable personages, were placed at a side-table neere adjoyning the prince on the right hand, and at another table on the left side were placed the treasorer of the household, secretarie, the prince’s serjeant of law, the four masters of the reaulles, the king of armes, the deane of the chapell, and diuers gentlemen pentioners to furnish the same. At another table, on the other side, were set the maister of the game, and his chiefe ranger, maisters of household, clerkes of the greene cloth and checke, with diuers other strangers to furnish the same. On the other side, againste them, began the table of the lieutenant of the Tower, accompanied with diuers captaines of footbandes and shot. At the neather ende of the hall, began the table of the high butler and panter, clerkes of the kitchen, maister cooke of the priue kitchen, furnished throughout with the souldiours and guard of the prince…

“The prince was serued with tender meates, sweet fruites, and daintie delicates, confectioned with curious cookerie, as it seemed woonder a word to serue the prouision. And at euerie course, the trompettes blew the courageous blaste of deadlye warre, with noise of drum and fyfe, with the sweet harmony of viollens, shakbuts, recorders, and cornettes, with other instruments of musicke, as it seemed Apolloe’s harpe had tewned their stroke.”

After dinner, prizes were prepared for “tilt and turney, and such knighteley pastime, and for their solace they masked with bewtie’s dames with such heauenly armonie as if Apollo and Orpheus had shewed their cunning.”⁵⁹⁹

Masques, revels, plays, and eating and drinking, seem to have been as much attended to in the Temple in those days as the grave study of the law. Sir Christopher Hatton, a member of the Inner Temple, gained the favour of Queen Elizabeth, for his grace and activity in a masque which was acted before her majesty. He was made vice-chamberlain, and afterwards lord chancellor!⁶⁰⁰ In A. D. 1568, the tragedy of Tancred and Gismund, the joint production of five students of the Inner Temple, was acted at the Temple before queen Elizabeth and her court.⁶⁰¹

On the marriage of the lady Elizabeth, daughter of king James I., to prince Frederick, the elector palatine, (Feb. 14th, A. D. 1613,) a masque was performed at court by the gentlemen of the Temple, and shortly after, twenty Templars were appointed barristers there in honour of prince Charles, who had lately become prince of Wales, “the chardges thereof being defrayed by a contribution of xxxs, from each bencher, xvs. from euery barister of seauen years’ standing, and xs. a peice from all other gentlemen in commons.”⁶⁰²

Of all the pageants prepared for the entertainment of the sovereigns of England, the most famous one was that splendid masque, which cost upwards of £20,000, presented by the Templars, in conjunction with the members of Lincoln’s Inn and Gray’s Inn, to king Charles I., and his young queen, Henrietta of France. Whitelock, in his Memorials, gives a minute and most animated account of this masque, which will be read with interest, as affording a characteristic and admirable exhibition of the manners of the age.

The procession from the Temple to the palace of Whitehall was the most magnificent that had ever been seen in London. “One hundred gentlemen in very rich clothes, with scarce anything to be seen on them but gold and silver lace, were mounted on the best horses and the best furniture that the king’s stable and the stables of all the noblemen in town could afford.” Each gentleman had a page and two lacqueys in livery waiting by his horse’s side. The lacqueys carried torches, and the page his master’s cloak. “The richness of their apparel and furniture glittering by the light of innumerable torches, the motion and stirring of their mettled horses, and the many and gay liveries of their servants, but especially the personal beauty and gallantry of the handsome young gentlemen, made the most glorious and splendid show that ever was beheld in England.”

These gallant Templars were accompanied by the finest band of picked musicians that London could afford, and were followed by the antimasque of beggars and cripples, who were mounted on “the poorest, leanest jades that could be gotten out of the dirt-carts.” The habits and dresses of these cripples were most ingeniously arranged, and as the “gallant Inns of Court men” had their music, so also had the beggars and cripples. It consisted of keys, tongs, and gridirons, “snapping and yet playing in concert before them.” After the beggars’ antimasque came a band of pipes, whistles, and instruments, sounding notes like those of birds, of all sorts, in excellent harmony; and these ushered in “the antimasque of birds,” which consisted of an owl in an ivy bush, with innumerable other birds in a cluster about the owl, gazing upon her. “These were little boys put into covers of the shape of those birds, rarely fitted, and sitting on small horses with footmen going by them with torches in their hands, and there were some besides to look unto the children, and these were very pleasant to the beholders.” Then came a wild, harsh band of northern music, bagpipes, horns, &c., followed by the “antimasque of projectors,” who were in turn succeeded by a string of chariots drawn by four horses abreast, filled with “gods and goddesses,” and preceded by heathen priests. Then followed the chariots of the grand masquers drawn by four horses abreast.

The chariots of the Inner and Middle Temple were silver and blue. The horses were covered to their heels with cloth of tissue, and their heads were adorned with huge plumes of blue and white feathers. “The torches and flaming flamboys borne by the side of each chariot made it seem lightsom as at noonday… It was, indeed, a glorious spectacle.”

Whitelock gives a most animated description of the scene in the banqueting-room. “It was so crowded,” says he, “with fair ladies glittering with their rich cloaths and richer jewels, and with lords and gentlemen of great quality, that there was scarce room for the king and queen to enter in.” The young queen danced with the masquers herself, and judged them “as good dancers as ever she saw!” The great ladies of the court, too, were “very free and easy and civil in dancing with all the masquers as they were taken out by them.”

Queen Henrietta was so delighted with the masque, “the dances, speeches, musick, and singing,” that she desired to see the whole thing acted over again! whereupon the lord mayor invited their majesties and all the Inns of Court men into the city, and entertained them with great state and magnificence at Merchant Taylor’s Hall.⁶⁰³

Many of the Templars who were the foremost in these festive scenes afterwards took up arms against their sovereign. Whitelock himself commanded a body of horse, and fought several sanguinary engagements with the royalist forces.

The year after the restoration, Sir Heneage Finch, afterwards earl of Nottingham, kept his readers’ feast in the great hall of the Inner Temple with extraordinary splendour. The entertainments lasted from the 4th to the 17th of August.

At the first day’s dinner were several of the nobility of the kingdom and privy councillors, with divers others of his friends; at the second were the lord mayor, aldermen, and principal citizens of London; to the third, which was two days after the former, came the whole college of physicians, who all appeared in their caps and gowns; at the fourth were all the judges, advocates, and doctors of the civil law, and all the society of Doctors’ Commons; at the fifth were entertained the archbishops, bishops, and chief of the clergy; and on the 15th of August his majesty king Charles the Second came from Whitehall in his state barge, and dined with the reader and the whole society in the hall. His majesty was accompanied by the duke of York, and attended by the lord chancellor, lord treasurer, lord privy seal, the dukes of Buckingham, Richmond, and Ormond; the lord chamberlain, the earls of Ossory, Bristol, Berks, Portland, Strafford, Anglesy, Essex, Bath, and Carlisle; the lords Wentworth, Cornbury, De la Warre, Gerard of Brandon, Berkley of Stratton and Cornwallis, the comptroller and vice-chamberlain of his majesties’s household; Sir William Morice, one of his principal secretaries of state; the earl of Middleton, lord commissioner of Scotland, the earl of Glencairne, lord chancellor of Scotland, the earls of Lauderdale and Newburgh, and others the commissioners of that kingdom, and the earl of Kildare and others, commissioners of Ireland.

An entrance was made from the river through the wall into the Temple Garden, and his majesty was received on his landing from the barge by the reader and the lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, whilst the path from the garden to the hall was lined with the readers’ servants in scarlet cloaks and white tabba doublets, and above them were ranged the benchers, barristers, and students of the society, “the loud musick playing from the time that his majesty landed till he entered the hall, where he was received with xx. violins.” Dinner was brought up by fifty of the young gentlemen of the society in their gowns, “who gave their attendance all dinner-while, none other appearing in the hall but themselves.”

On the 3rd of November following, his royal highness the duke of York, the duke of Buckingham, the earl of Dorset, and Sir William Morrice, secretary of state, were admitted members of the society of the Inner Temple, the duke of York being called to the bar and bench.⁶⁰⁴

In 8 Car. II., A. D. 1668, Sir William Turner, lord mayor of London, came to the readers’ feast in the Inner Temple with his sword and mace and external emblems of civic authority, which was considered to be an affront to the society, and the lord mayor was consequently very roughly handled by some of the junior members of the Temple. His worship complained to the king, and the matter was inquired into by the council, as appears from the following proceedings: —

“At the Courte att Whitehall, the 7th April, 1669,

“Present the king’s most excellent majestie.”

“Whereas, it was ordered the 31st of March last, that the complaints of the lord maior of the city of London concerneing personall indignities offered to his 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. Wyn, and Mr. Mundy, gentlemen of the Inner Temple, against whome particular complaint was made, sshould 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 principall 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 majestie 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 Hall; his majestie therefore thought fitt to suspend the declaration of his pleasure thereupon until the said right and priviledge shall accordinglie be determined att lawe.”

On the 4th of November, 14 Car. II., his highness Rupert prince palatine, Thomas earl of Cleveland, Jocelyn lord Percy, John lord Berkeley of Stratton, with Henry and Bernard Howard of Norfolk, were admitted members of the fellowship of the Inner Temple.⁶⁰⁵

We must now close our remarks on the Temple, with a short account of the quarrel with Dr. Micklethwaite, the custos or guardian 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 antient 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 hall of the antient 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 induction, 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 improving 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 appears 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.

By sections 9 and 10 of the act 32 Hen. VIII., dissolving the order of the Hospital of St. John, it is provided that William Ermsted, 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 lawfully 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 antiently denoted 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 custos or guardian 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.⁶⁰⁶

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 induction. These letters patent are couched in very general and extensive terms, and give the custos or Master many things to which he is justly entitled, as against the crown, but no longer obtains, 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 contributions of the two societies. He received, indeed, a miserable pittance of 37l. 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 antient 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 fellowshyppe,” says the MS. account of the Temple written in the reign of Hen. VIII., “towards the salary 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 xviiid.”⁶⁰⁷

In the reign of James the First, the custos, Dr. Micklethwaite, put forward certain unheard-of 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 “according to auncient custome, he being master of the house,” and complains 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 omnimodas decimas… That they denye all ecclesiastical jurisdiction to the Master of the Temple, who is appointed by the king’s majesty master and warden of the house ad regendum, gubernandum, et officiendum domum et ecclesiam,” &c. The doctor goes into a long list of grievances showing the little authority that he possessed in the Temple, that he was not summoned to the deliberations of the houses, and he complains that “they will give him no consideracion in the Inner House for his supernumerarie sermons in the forenoon, nor for his sermons in the afternoon,” and that the officers of the 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 antient custos being, as before mentioned, a priest of the order of the Temple, and afterwards of the order of the Hospital, was a perfect slave to his temporal superiors, and could be deprived of his post, be condemned to a diet of bread and water, and be perpetually imprisoned, without appeal to any power, civil or ecclesiastical, unless he could cause his complaints to be brought to the ear of the pope. Dr. Micklethwaite quite misunderstood his position in the Temple, and it was well for him that the masters of the benches no longer exercised the despotic power of the antient master and chapter, or he would certainly have been condemned to the penitential cell in the church, and would not have been the first custos placed in that unenviable retreat.⁶⁰⁸

The petition was referred to the lords of the council, and afterwards to Noy, the attorney-general, and in the mean time 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 emoluments of the post of “Master of the Temple,” as appears from the following letter: —

“From his highness I was commanded to speake with you for resolution and satisfaction in theise following particulers —

“1. Whether the Master of the Temple be to be putt in him by way of presentation, or how?

“2. Whether he be bound to attend and preach among them in terme times and out of terme?

“3. Or if out of terme an assistant must be provided? then, whether at the charge of the Master, or how otherwise?

“4. Whether publique prayer in the chapell be allwayes performable by the Master himselfe in terme times? And whether in time of vacation it be constantly expected from himselfe or his assistant.

“5. What the certain revenue of the Master is, and how it arises?

“2. Sir, the gentleman his highness intends to make Master is Mr. Resburne of Oundle, a most worthy and learned man, pastor of the church there, whereof I myselfe am an unworthy member.

“3. The church would be willing (for publique good) to spare him in terme times, but will not part with him altogether. And in some of the particulers aforementioned Mr. R. is very desirous to be satisfyd; his highness chiefly in the first.

“4. I begg of you to leave a briefe answer to the said particulars, and I shall call on your servant for it.

“For the honourable Henry Scobell, esq., theise.”⁶⁰⁹

During the late repair of the Temple Church, A. D. 1830, the workmen discovered an antient seal of the order of the Hospital, which was carried away, and appears to have got into the hands of strangers. On one side of it is represented the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem, with the Saviour in his tomb. At his head is an elevated cross, and above is a tabernacle or chapel, from the roof of which depend two incense pots. Around the seal is the inscription, “Fr – Berengarii Custos Pauperum Hospitalis Jherusalem.” On the reverse a holy man is represented on his knees in the attitude of prayer before a patriarchal cross, on either side of which are the letters Alpha and Omega. Under the first letter is a star.

These particulars have been furnished me by Mr. Savage, the architect.

THE END