RELIGIOUS HOUSES HOUSES OF MILITARY ORDERS 8. THE TEMPLE The first mention of the Knights Templars in connexion with England is in 1 128, when Hugh de Payens, the master of the order, visited this country,^ and received aid both in men and money for the cause. The foundation of the house outside Holborn Bars probably dates from this time, for Hugh de Payens before he left appointed a prior to preside over the English branch of the order,' and since other settlements here were cells of the Temple at London it follows that this central house must have been established early. Among the first patrons of the Templars in this country were Earl Robert de Ferrers,' Bernard de Balliol,'* King Stephen and Queen Matilda," but the earliest grant made to them in London of which there is evidence was Henry II's gift or confirmation* of the place on the Fleet by Castle Baynard, the watercourse for a mill, a messuage by Fleet Bridge,^ and the advow- son of St. Clement Danes.* Henry seems to have been a great benefactor of the knights, for he gave them lands in other parts of England.' It is probably to him that they owed the silver mark paid from the revenues of many of the English counties in 1 1 55,^" since it is called 'alms newly constituted.' In Henry's reign there are indications that the Templars were already playing that part in diplomacy and finance which was so remarkable a feature of their career. Richard de Hastings, the master of the Temple, and two others were entrusted with the castles which were to be delivered to Henry II on the marriage of his son with Margaret of France, and found it expedient to leave France when Henry by a piece of sharp practice had the two children married and secured the castles.'^ Hastings' influence was also used to persuade Becket to accept the Con- ' Hoveden, Chronicle (Rolls Ser.), i, 184. ' Addison, The Knights Templars, 82. ' Cott. MS. Nero, E. vi, fol. 92.
- Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 819.
' Ibid. 820, 821, 843 ; Cott. MS. Nero, E. vi, fol. 289. ^ In the inquisition made in 1 185 by the master of the Temple Henry II is not mentioned in connexion with this property, but Gervase de Cornhill is said to have given one messuage and William Martell another. Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 82 1. ' The gr.int printed in Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 818, must have been before 1 1 62 asT. the chancellor is one of the witnesses. "Ibid. 'Ibid. 821. ^ Kwntfc, Great Roll of the Pipe, 1155-58, pp. 3, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 19, 21, 24, 26, &c. " Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 218. stitutions of Clarendon. '^ That the Templars were at this time employed by the king in monetary affairs is shown by Walter of Coven- try's story " of Gilbert de Ogrestan, the Knight Templar who, appointed collector of the tenth, was detected in embezzlement in 1 188, and severely punished by the master. The extent of the possessions acquired by the Templars in England during a period of scarcely sixty years can be seen in the return to an in- quisition ordered by Geoffrey Fitz Stephen, the master of the Temple, in 1185.^* The list in- cludes land in London, and in every part of the country, Essex, Kent, Warwickshire, Worcester- shire, Salop, Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, &c., and the holdings were large in many cases. At this time their possessions were divided into districts, apparently for the purposes of revenue, and one of these is called the ' Baillia ' of London." The master, of course, had his head quarters here, but the ordinary administra- tion of the house seems to have been carried on as elsewhere by a preceptor.^' There was also a prior,^' whose duties were presumably religious, for he was warden of the chapel.'* In 1 1 84 the house was transferred to what was probably a more convenient situation in Fleet Street, and was henceforth known as the New Temple. The church, round like the one in Holborn,^" was dedicated the next year by Heraclius, patriarch of Jerusalem, to the honour of God and the Virgin.'^ Richard I confirmed to the Templars all the previous donations made to them, granting them exemption from all pleas, suits, danegeld, and from murdrum and latrocinium, but otherwise he appears to have come but little in contact with them, a striking contrast to the relations of the Templars and the crown in the next two reigns. If the papal bull declaring the immunity of persons and goods within the houses of the " Ibid. 222. " Hist. Coll. (Rolls Ser.), i, 360. " K. R. Misc. Bks. No. 1 6, given in Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 821-31. " Ibid. '° Doc. of D. and C. of Westminster, London, B. Box I . An early grant of land by Castle Baynard is witnessed by William preceptor of London. " Wilkins, Concilia, 346. " Ibid. 335. " Stow, Survey 0/ London (ed. Strype), iii, 270. '" Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans. (New Ser.) ^57- " Stow, op. cit. iii, 270. An interesting point in connexion with the removal from Holborn is raised by the alleged burial of the earl of Essex in the cemetery of the New Temple in or about 1163. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 237. ^' Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), i (l), 49. "^ i.e. of course in England. 485
