The Knights Templars

by C. G. Addison

During the Mastership of Robert Sanford, on Ascension Day, A. D. 1240, the oblong portion of the Temple Church, which extendeth eastward from “THE ROUND,” was consecrated in the presence of king Henry the Third and all his court, and much of the nobility of the kingdom. This portion of the sacred edifice was of a lighter and more florid style of architecture than the earlier Round Church consecrated by the patriarch Heraclius (ante [p. 46]). The walls were pierced with numerous triple lancet windows filled with stained glass, and the floor was covered with tesselated pavement. The roof was supported by dark grey Purbeck marble columns, and the vaulted ceiling was decorated with the star of Bethlehem, and with ornaments of frosted silver placed on a blue ground. The extensive area of the church was open and unencumbered by pews, and the beauty of the columns and windows, the lively colours of the tiled floor, and the elegant proportions of the fabric were seen at a glance. After the consecration, the king made provision for the maintenance in the Temple of three chaplains, who were to say three masses daily for ever, one for the king himself, another for all christian people, and the third for the faithful departed.[113]

INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH

King Henry III. was one of the greatest of the benefactors of the order. He granted to the Templars the manors of Lilleston, Hechewayton, and Saunford, the wood of Carletone, Kingswood near Chippenhan, a messuage, and six bovates of land with their appurtenances in Great Lymburgh; a fair at Walnesford, in the county of Essex, every three years for three days, to commence on the anniversary of the beheading of St. John the Baptist; also annual fairs and weekly markets at Newburgh, Walnesford, Balsall, Kirkeby, and a variety of other places; he granted them free warren in all their demesne lands; and by his famous charter, dated the 9th day of February, in the eleventh year of his reign, he confirmed to them all the donations of his predecessors, and of their other benefactors, and conferred upon them vast privileges and immunities in the following pious and reverential terms.

“The king, &c., to all the archbishops, bishops, barons, &c. &c., to whom these presents shall come, salvation through the Lord. Be it known to you that we have granted and confirmed to God and the blessed Mary, and the brethren of the chivalry of the Temple of Solomon, all reasonable donations of lands, men, and eleemosynary gifts, bestowed on them by our predecessors, or by others in times past, or by ourselves at this present period, or which may be hereafter conferred on them by kings or by the liberality of subjects, or may be acquired, or be about to be acquired in any other manner, as well churches as worldly goods and possessions; wherefore we will and firmly command that the aforesaid brethren and their men may have and hold all their possessions and eleemosynary donations with all liberties and free customs and immunities, in wood and plain, in meadow and pasture, in water and water-mills, on highways and byeways, in ponds and running streams, in marshes and fisheries, in granges and broad acres, within burgh and without the burgh, with soc and sac, tol and theam, infangenethef and unfangenethef, and hamsoc and grithbrich, and blodwit and fictwit, and flictwit and ferdwite, and hengewite and lierwite, and flemenefrith, murder, robbery, forstall, ordel, oreste, in season and out of season, at all times and in all places, &c.

“We ordain, likewise, that the aforesaid brethren shall for ever hereafter be freed from royal aids, and sheriff’s aids, and officer’s aids, and from hidage and carucage, and danegeld and hornegeld, and from military and wapentake services, and scutages and lastages and stallages, shires and hundreds, pleas and quarrels, ward and wardpeny, and averpeni and hundredspeni, and borethalpeni and thethingepeni, and from the works of castles, parks, bridges, and inclosures; and from the duty of providing carriages and beasts of burthen, boats, and vessels, and from the building of royal houses, and all other works. And we prohibit all persons from taking timber from their woods and forests for such works, or for any other purposes whatever: neither shall their corn, nor the corn of their men, nor any of their goods, nor the goods of any belonging to them, be taken to fortify castles. We will also that they shall have free and full liberty to cut and fell timber whenever they please, in all their woods, for the use of their fraternity, without any let or hindrance whatever; and for doing so they shall not incur forfeiture or waste, or in any way be punishable by law. And all their lands, and the ground which they or their men have cleared of wood, and recovered from the forest, or which they may clear in time to come, with the assent of the king, we make quit and free for ever hereafter from waste regard, and view of foresters, and from all other customs. And we concede also to the aforesaid brethren the privilege of cutting down trees in all the woods they possess at present within the forest boundaries, and of clearing and bringing the land into cultivation without any license from our bailiffs, so that they may never at any time hereafter be in any way called to account by ourselves, or our heirs, or any of our bailiffs.

“We ordain, moreover, that the aforesaid brethren and their men shall be quit and free from every kind of toll in all markets and fairs, and upon crossing bridges, roads, and ferries, throughout the whole of our kingdom, and throughout all lands in which we are able to grant liberties; and all their markets, and the markets of their men, shall in like manner be quit and free from all toll. We grant and confirm also to the aforesaid brethren, that if any of their men be condemned to lose life or limb for crime, or shall have fled from justice, or have committed any offence for which he hath incurred forfeiture of his goods and chattels, the goods and chattels so forfeited shall belong to the aforesaid brethren, whether the cognizance of the offence belongeth to our court or to any other inferior court; and it shall be lawful for the aforesaid brethren, under such circumstances and in such cases, to put themselves in possession of the aforesaid goods and chattels at such time as our bailiffs would or ought to have seized them into our hands, had such goods and chattels belonged to ourselves, without the molestation or hindrance of the sheriffs or bailiffs, or any other persons whatever.

“We concede also to the aforesaid brethren, that animals called waif, lost by their owners, and found within the feud of the Templars, shall belong to the aforesaid brethren, unless they are followed by some one able and willing to prove that they are his own, and unless they shall be sought after and taken possession of by the owner within a moderate period of time, according to the custom of the country. And if any of the tenants of the aforesaid brethren shall happen to have incurred a forfeiture of his feud, it shall be lawful for the said brethren to take possession of the said feud, and hold the same, notwithstanding the law which concedes to ourselves the possession of the feud of fugitives and criminals, for the space of a year and a day. In like manner, if any of the men of the aforesaid brethren shall have incurred a fine to be paid to ourselves or to any of our bailiffs, under any process, or for any crime, or any other matter, the amercements of money shall be collected and brought in a purse to our exchequer, and there handed over to the aforesaid brethren; judgment of death and limb being always reserved to the royal authority.

“We moreover ordain, that if any of the liberties and privileges contained in this our charter shall happen to have been disused for a length of time, such disuse shall in no respect prejudice the right, but such liberty or privilege may be again exercised without contradiction, notwithstanding that it may have been discontinued and disused as aforesaid. And all the aforesaid things, and all other secular services and customs which are not included in this present writing, we, through love of God, and for the good of the soul of the lord king John, our father, and for the good of the souls of all our predecessors and successors, grant and confirm to them, as a perpetual alms-gift, with all liberties and free customs, as fully, freely, and effectually as the royal power can confer them upon any religious house. And we prohibit all persons, on pain of forfeiture, from proceeding against them or their men contrary to this our charter, for we have taken the aforesaid brethren, and all their goods, and possessions, and all their men, under our especial guardianship and protection. As witness the king, at Westminster, the 9th day of February, in the eleventh year of our reign.”[114]