In the Cotton Library is a manuscript written at the commencement 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.”[591] 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-barristers, utter-barristers, and students, together with “the chardges for their mete and drynke by the yeare, and the manner of the dyet, and the stipende of their officers.” The writer tells us that it was the duty of the “Tresorer to gather of certen of the fellowship a tribute yerely of iiis. iiid. a piece, and to pay out of it the rent due to my lord of Saint John’s for the house that they dwell in.”
“Item; they have no place to walk in, and talk and confer their learnings, but 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 between lawyers and 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 the 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 solemnly sung; and during the matyns singing they have three masses said.”[592]
At the commencement of the reign of Henry VIII. a wall was 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 now held of the crown.
In 5 Eliz. the present spacious and magnificent Middle Temple Hall, one of the most elegant and beautiful structures in the kingdom, 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. D. 1609, 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 and 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.[593]
In grateful acknowledgment of this donation, the two societies caused to be made, at their mutual cost, “a stately cup of pure gold, weighinge two hundred ounces and an halfe, of the value of one thousand markes, or thereabouts, the which in all humbleness was presented to his excellent majestie att the court att Whitehall, in the said sixth year of his majestie’s raigne over the realme of England, for a new yeare’s gifte, by the hands of the said sir Henry Mountague, afterwards baron Mountague, viscount Mandevil, the earl of Manchester, Richard Daston, esq., and other eminent persons of both those honourable societies, the which it pleased his majesty most gratiously to accept and receive.... Upon one side of this cup is curiously engraven the proporcion of a church or temple beautified, 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 fabrick 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 majestie, whilst he lived, esteemed for one of his roialest and richest jewells.”[594]
Some of the antient orders and regulations for the government of the two societies are not unworthy of attention.