narrow, unsavoury, insanitary streets bred dire fevers and plagues.
Thousands died from this dread malady. The homes of the artizans and
craftsmen were not remarkable for comfort. They were bound down by
strict regulations as regards their work. No one could dwell where he
pleased, but only nigh the craftsmen of his particular trade. But, on
the whole, the lot of the men of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
was by no means an unhappy one. They were very quick, easily aroused,
turbulent, savage in their punishments, brutal perhaps in their sport;
but they had many sterling qualities which helped to raise England to
attain to her high rank among the nations of the world, and they left
behind them sturdy sons and daughters who made London great and their
country honoured.
THE TEMPLE
BY THE REV. HENRY GEORGE WOODS, D.D.
_Master of the Temple_
"On the 10th of February in the year from the Incarnation of our Lord
1185, this Church was consecrated in honour of the Blessed Mary by the
Lord Heraclius, by the grace of God Patriarch of the Church of the Holy
Resurrection, who to those yearly visiting it granted an Indulgence of
sixty days off the penance enjoined upon them."
So we may render the ancient Latin inscription, formerly on the wall of
the Round Church, which supplies the earliest definite date in the
history of the Temple. Originally settled near the Holborn end of
Chancery Lane, the Templars had apparently been in occupation of the
present site (still called "the _New_ Temple" in formal documents) for
some considerable time before the Round Church was consecrated. There is
evidence, at any rate, that "the Old Temple" in the parish of St.
Andrew's, Holborn, had been sold as a town house for the Bishops of
Lincoln before 1163. We must suppose that a temporary church was used
during this interval--perhaps St. Clement's, which had been granted to
the Order in 1162 by Henry II. The performance of the consecration
ceremony by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the presence at it of
Henry II. and his court, show that the headquarters of the Templars in
England were felt to be of national importance. Never, indeed, since
its foundation were the services of the Order more needed. The Templars
in Palestine were being sorely pressed by Saladin, and Heraclius had
come to England to obtain help. When absolution for the murder of Thomas
a Becket was granted to Henry, he had promised to lead an army into
Palestine, as well as to maintain two hundred Templars there at his own
cost. This personal service he now found himself unable to perform.
Fabyan (died 1513) gives a quaint version of the King's conversation
with the Patriarch:
"'I may not wende oute of my lande, for myne own sonnes wyll
aryse agayne me whan I were absente.' 'No wonder,' sayde the
patryarke, 'for of the deuyll they come, and to the deuyll they
shall go,' and so departyd from the kynge in great ire."
Two years later Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin, and Henry, after
conferring with the King of France, arranged for the collection of a
"Saladin tithe" to meet the cost of the new crusade.
[Illustration: THE TEMPLE CHURCH: EXTERIOR VIEW.]
"The poor fellow-soldiers of Jesus Christ of the Temple of Solomon"--for
such was the full designation of the Templars in commemoration of the
quarters assigned them within the area of the former Jewish
Temple--naturally had their thoughts turned towards Jerusalem, wherever
they were stationed. The design of the church which Heraclius
consecrated was determined by the circular chapel which stood on the
site of the Old Temple in Holborn, and the prototype of both buildings
was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, with which English
Templars must have been familiar from the earliest days of the Order.
The travels of Templars and Crusaders undeniably influenced English
architecture. One such influence we find in the constructive use of the
pointed arch, which is said to have been introduced about 1125 from the
South of France--a route which Norman Crusaders frequently followed. For
many years after that date pointed and round arches were used almost
indifferently in Norman work, so that the strongly pointed arches of
the Round Church are not in themselves decisive of the date of the
building. It is not till about 1170 that the real transition from Norman
to Early English can be said to have begun. In the interior of the Round
Church this movement is in full swing. The lower arcade has been
inaccurately restored and must not be taken as evidence, but in the
decorative band of arcading on the upper wall which frames the openings
into the triforium we see how the intersection of two semi-circular
arches gives the pure lancet form. The crucial point, however, is the
absence of the massive Romanesque columns which invariably mark true
Norman work. In their place we have columns of comparative slenderness,
each consisting of four almost insulated shafts of Purbeck marble, two
smaller and two larger. These columns must be among the earliest
examples of their kind in England. There is a somewhat similar treatment
(two shafts only, as originally designed) in the Galilee of Durham
Cathedral, built a few years later, whereas in the choir of Canterbury
Cathedral, which was rebuilt only a few years before 1185, the
Romanesque columns are still retained, though the style of the capitals
is modified.
The historical interest of the church is not confined to its
architecture. The eight small half-length figures between the capitals
outside the west door, though sadly defaced and only reproductions of
the originals, stand in close relation to the consecration ceremony. In
1783, according to a writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, they were
"very perfect," and were believed to represent on the north side Henry
II. with three Knights Templars, and on the opposite side Queen Eleanor
with Heraclius and two other ecclesiastics. This identification is in
the main correct. The king and queen are farthest from the door. He is
holding a sceptre, or possibly a roll containing a grant to the Order.
One of the figures by his side--it is difficult to see whether they are
bearded, as Knights Templars would have been--is certainly holding a
roll, perhaps the royal licence for the building of the church. Others
have their hands folded in prayer.
The unique and most successfully restored series of nine marble effigies
on the floor of the church is also of great antiquity. Six are
cross-legged, but not necessarily on that account to be regarded as
Crusaders. One of them has been supposed to represent the notorious
Geoffrey de Magnaville, Earl of Essex, who died excommunicate in 1144,
ten years before the accession of Henry II. Three others probably
represent William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (died 1219), Protector of
England during the minority of Henry III., and his two sons, William
(died 1231) and Gilbert (died 1241). The figure which lies apart cannot
be older than the latter half of the thirteenth century, and according
to tradition is a Lord de Ros. Of the others nothing is known. It seems
certain, however, that the series contains no effigy of an actual Knight
of the Order, since none of the figures are represented as wearing the
red cross mantle. Men of wealth and position were often admitted to the
privileges of the Order without taking the vows, under the title of
"Associates of the Temple." The special exemption from interdicts which
the Templars enjoyed, and the sanctity of their churches as
burial-places, made this associateship attractive to devout men, who
willingly gave benefactions in return for it. It is one of fate's
ironies that of the many Knights Templars buried in the church not a
single name or monument should have been preserved _in situ_. No
separate graves are now marked by the effigies, but during the 1841
restorations stone and leaden coffins containing skeletons were found
below the pavement. These remains have been reburied in a vault in the
middle of the church.
[Illustration: DOORWAY OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH.]
The outline of the Round Church was never probably a perfect circle.
Excavations have been made, and some foundations have been discovered
underground on the east side of the church, which seem to shew that an
apse existed nearly fifty feet long. This, of course, contained the
altar. Even so, however, the church must often have been inconveniently
crowded, and the spaciousness of the later addition shows how much this
inconvenience had been felt. The middle opening between the two churches
is probably the original arch by which the apse was entered, since it
does not, like the two side arches, break into the line of arcading. In
passing from the earlier to the later church, we pass from Transitional
Norman to a pure example of Early English style, the details of which
closely remind us of Salisbury Cathedral. That cathedral, which was not
finished till 1258, was begun in 1220, and the foundations of the Temple
choir cannot have been laid very long after this. Matthew Paris (died
1259) tells us that "the noble church of the New Temple, of a
construction worthy to be looked at," was consecrated on Ascension Day,
1240, in the presence of Henry III. and many great men of the realm. As
the king looked round the new church during the consecration ceremony,
it is quite conceivable that he turned over in his mind the idea of
rebuilding the east end of Westminster Abbey in this same style--a
design which he proceeded to put into execution five years later. The
combination of the two Temple Churches into one harmonious whole is a
stroke of genius on the part of the unknown architect. It might have
been a failure had there been any violence of contrast. As it is, we
feel that we are only moving one step forward in the evolution of
church-building. The general effect of the columns and arches is much
the same throughout, and the view from either church into the other
pleases the eye.
To realise the full beauty of this great choir we must in thought sweep
away the present seats and pulpit, and reconstruct the two side altars
dedicated to St. John and St. Nicolas, which flanked the high altar
dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Traces of this original arrangement are
still to be seen in the restored aumbreys and piscina on the north and
south walls. The height of these niches seems to show that the side
altars were some four or five steps above the level of the present
floor. The three aumbreys over the high altar are unfortunately hidden
by the incongruous reredos which was put up in 1841. In these locked
cupboards some of the church plate was kept. The inventory of 1307
contains various priced items of silver-gilt plate, together with
numerous relics, unpriced--among them "the sword with which the Blessed
Thomas of Canterbury was killed, and two crosses of the wood on which
Christ was crucified." The safe custody of these treasures must have
been a source of anxiety. Opening out of the staircase which leads to
the triforium a small chamber has been constructed in the thickness of
the wall, lighted by two loop-holes, one of which looks towards the
altar, the other across the church. This has been supposed to be a
penitential cell for disobedient Templars, but it was more probably a
watcher's chamber, used as a safeguard against possible theft. The three
altars seem to have been at first entirely open to the body of the
church, the idea being that the whole building was a chancel or choir.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however, the space round
the high altar seems to have been enclosed by a screen with gates, thus
forming a separate chancel. The side altars were presumably removed soon
after the Reformation, and in Puritan days the communion table was for a
time brought down from the east end and placed longitudinally on the
floor in the body of the church. Probably about this time the old
stained glass was wrecked, and the marble columns were white-washed. The
only pre-Reformation monument which has survived in the choir is the
recumbent figure of a bishop, supposed to be Silvester de Everdon,
Bishop of Carlisle, who was killed by a fall from his horse in 1254. A
good many brasses seem to have disappeared. "Divers plates of brass of
late times have been torn out," says Dugdale (1671), who gives one or
two epitaphs in French. Of post-Reformation monuments but two now
remain in the body of the church--those of Richard Hooker (died 1600)
and John Selden (died 1654). The rest have been placed in the triforium.
Little else of the Templars' work now survives. Below the pavement
outside the south wall of the Round Church are the remains of the crypt
of St. Ann's Chapel, built about 1220. There is enough left to show that
the building was in the Early English style, and corresponded in its
details with the choir church. Parts of the upper chapel still existed
in a ruined state, hidden among encroaching buildings, as recently as
1825. On the west side of the Inner Temple Hall, which occupies the site
of the Templars' Refectory (or perhaps, we should say, one of their
refectories, for in the inquisition of 1337 two halls are mentioned),
are two ancient chambers, one above the other, the roofs of which are
supported by intersecting arches, rising from the four corners of the
floor. This work is perhaps a little older than the Round Church. The
lower chamber has been supposed to be what is called in the records "the
Hall of the Priests." With these exceptions the church alone remains as
a monument of the greatness and the glory of the Templars. For a century
and a half at the New Temple they were a power in the land. Men
deposited treasure in their custody. Popes conferred upon them
exceptional privileges. They stood high in royal favour. Henry II. and
Richard were benefactors. John was a frequent guest. It was while he was
holding his court at the Temple on the Epiphany feast of 1215 that the
Barons came before him in full armour to announce their ultimatum, and
his signing the _Magna Carta_ was partly due to the influence of the
then Master of the Temple. Henry III. at one time intended to be buried
in the Temple Church. His subsequent change of mind perhaps marks some
decline in the popularity of the Templars. But their downfall in England
(1308) was mainly owing to Papal pressure. Edward II. resisted as long
as he could, and the more serious charges against them, which were based
on confessions extracted by torture, are now generally regarded by
historians as unfounded.
The premises of the Temple were eventually (1340) granted to the Knights
Hospitallers, the rivals and bitter enemies of the fallen Order. They
held the property for two hundred years, but they had their own
settlement at Clerkenwell, and the Temple did not mean to them what it
had meant to the Templars. About 1347 they leased all but the
consecrated buildings and ecclesiastical precincts to "certain lawyers,"
who had already become tenants of the Earl of Lancaster and others, on
whom in the first instance Edward II. had bestowed the premises. Great
interest attaches to this settlement of lawyers, but much remains
obscure about it. Some of the early documents may have been destroyed
during Wat Tyler's insurrection (1381). A manuscript (quoted by Dugdale)
describes the scene in the law-French of the day.
"Les Rebells alleront a le Temple ... et alleront en l'Esglise,
et pristeront touts les liveres et Rolles de Remembrances que
furont en lour huches deins le Temple de Apprentices de la Ley,
et porteront en le haut chimene et les arderont."
This, however, is not the full extent of the loss which has been
sustained. The records of the following 120 years up to 1500 are
missing, both in the Inner and the Middle Temples.[73] One result of
these losses is that there is nothing to show when the two Inns became
separate societies, on the assumption that they were not independent
bodies from the outset. Chaucer's well-known description (about 1390) of
"a gentil manciple of the [or perhaps the true reading is 'a'] Temple"
is not decisive.
"Of maisters had he mo than thries ten
That were of lawe expert and curious,
Of which there was a dosein _in that hous_
Worthy to ben stewardes of rent and lond
Of any lord that is in Englelond."
An entry in the books of Lincoln's Inn incidentally mentions the Middle
Temple in 1422, and in one of the _Paston Letters_, dated 1440, we read
"qwan your leysyr is, resorte ageyn on to your college, the Inner
Temple." It is generally admitted now that neither society can establish
any claim of priority or precedence over the other. Appeal has been made
to the badges, but they throw no light on the question. The Agnus of the
Middle Temple is apparently not mentioned till about 1615, and the
Pegasus of the Inner Temple not before 1562. It is still a matter of
dispute whether the Templars' emblem of a horse with two knights on its
back can have been altered into a horse with two wings by the ignorance
or ingenuity of some workman.
We try in vain to reconstruct with any fullness the life of the lawyers
and their apprentices at the Temple in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. But it is clear that, together with the buildings, they
inherited some of the traditions. The old church remained their place of
worship. In the old refectory they were served by "panier-men" on wooden
platters and in wooden cups, as the Templars had been before them. The
penalties inflicted for small misdemeanours, such as being "expelled the
hall" and "put out of commons," were much the same as those prescribed
in the "Rule" of the Templars, as drawn up by St. Bernard.
It is a curious coincidence that not long after the coming of the
lawyers a change was introduced in the legal profession which recalls
the organisation of the old military brotherhood. In 1333, according to
Dugdale, the judges of the Court of Common Pleas received knighthood,
and so became in a sense successors of the Knights Templars. The
creation of sergeants-at-law (now abolished) goes further back, but it
has been suggested that they were representatives of the _freres
serjens_, the _fratres servientes_, of the old Order. Had the white
linen coif worn by sergeants the same symbolical meaning as the
Templars' white mantle? Was it, as some say, the survival of a linen
headdress brought back by the Templars from the East? These are
disputable points. At any rate, the common life at the Temple, with the
associations which it recalled, cannot have been without its influence
on the lawyers. Their numbers grew apace. By 1470 courses of legal
studies had been organised, and each of the two Inns at the Temple had
more (perhaps considerably more) than two hundred students--numbers
amply sufficient to resist successfully any attempts on the part of the
Lord Mayor, backed by the city apprentices, to enforce an illegal
jurisdiction over the precincts. In the absence of maps and records we
cannot trace with certainty the gradual extension of the buildings. Such
names as Elm Court and Figtree Court suggest that in byegone days open
spaces and garden plots were interspersed among the chambers. Not least
among the amenities of the lawyers' goodly heritage was the large garden
by the river side with its pretty fifteenth century story of the red and
white roses. It has been said that Shakespeare in his well-known scene
refers to the smallness of the hall in the phrase which he assigns to
Suffolk:
"Within the Temple Hall we were too loud;
The garden here is more convenient."
But do the words imply more than the obvious contrast between being
indoors and in the open air, as regards noise? We have a companion
picture to Shakespeare's garden-scene in Spenser's river-piece. Some
people see in it a reference to "Brick Buildings" which stood on the
site of what is now Brick Court:
"Those bricky towers
The which on Themmes brode aged back do ride
Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers;
There whilome wont the Templer Knights to bide,
Till they decayed through pride."
In 1540, on the dissolution of the Order of Knights Hospitallers, the
two societies became yearly tenants of the Crown, and took over the
charge of the fabric of the church. No change, however, was made in the
ecclesiastical staff, John Mableston, sub-prior, William Ermestede,
master of the Temple, and the two chaplains of the house being continued
in their offices. There were modifications, of course, in the services
of the church; but nowhere probably in London did the Reformation cause
less interference with established custom. Dr. Ermestede, indeed,
bridges over the critical interval between 1540 and 1560 in a remarkable
way, for on Mary's accession he went back to the old form of worship,
and then accepted a third change of religion under Elizabeth. The
building of the beautiful Middle Temple Hall, soon after Elizabeth's
accession, is associated with the name of Edmund Plowden (died 1585),
whose fine monument stands in the triforium of the church. The work was
begun during his treasurership in 1561, and in 1571 he "offered his
account for the new buildings." In 1575 the fine carved oak screen was
put up. Towards the cost of this contributions were made by the masters
of the bench, the masters of "le Utter Barre," and other members of the
society. In this hall took place the interesting Shakespearean
performance recorded by John Manningham, barrister, in his diary
(1601-2). "At our feast wee had a play called Twelve Night or what you
will, much like the Commedy of Errores or Menechmi in Plautus, but most
like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni. A good practise in it
to make the steward beleeve his lady widdowe was in love with him," etc.
The halls of the Inns of Court lent themselves very conveniently for
dramatic representations at a time when there were no theatres in
London. In 1561-2 "Gorboduc," one of the earliest of English plays,
written by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, members of the Inner
Temple, was performed in the Inner Temple Hall before Queen Elizabeth,
and in 1568 she was also present there at the performance of "Tancred
and Gismund." Masques were frequently given in the halls of both
societies during the early part of the seventeenth century, and with
these some interesting literary names are connected, such as Francis
Beaumont, William Browne, Michael Drayton, and John Selden.
[Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH BEFORE IT WAS
RESTORED.]