Mediæval London, Volume 2: Ecclesiastical

by Walter Besant

The remains of the Priory consist now of the gate, the crypt of the church, some fragments of the ancient walls, and foundations of the former buildings. The crypt, which, until recently, was filled with coffins, has now been cleared; it is one of the most remarkable monuments in London; it was found by excavation to have extended, formerly, much farther to the west; probably to the whole extent of the church.

The Gatehouse consists of the gate itself, with two rooms, one on each side, and a large chamber above. In 1731 it was occupied by Edward Cave the publisher, and from this spot was issued the Gentleman’s Magazine. The associations of Johnson, Goldsmith, and others with the Gate belong to another place.

The Gatehouse served for some time as a tavern. In 1876 it became the Chapter House of the English Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

The Templars

We now turn to the second of the two great Military Orders which belong to the Mediæval Life. The Templar, as well as the Knight Hospitaller, rode through the streets with his following, haughty, rich, luxurious, hated by the people as a hard and cruel landlord; hated by the King for his privileges; by the Church as outside Episcopal jurisdiction; by the City for his pride, and for the vices which were freely attributed to him.

The story of the destruction of the Order of Knights Templars in 1306-1312 is a historical problem that will never, I suppose, be satisfactorily explained. The broad facts are well known. In the year 1305, through the influence of Philippe le Bel, King of France, Bertrand, Archbishop of Bordeaux, was elected Pope and took the title of Clement the Fifth. He was the first of the Popes of Avignon. In return for the tiara, Clement undertook to perform certain acts, in number six. Five of them are known. The sixth, kept a secret, is supposed to have been the suppression of the Templars. There were indeed various reasons why the King—or any king in Western Europe—should desire the suppression of this Order. The knights had grown enormously rich; some idea of their wealth may be obtained by the enumeration of some of the manors they possessed in England alone. Let us take one county, Hertfordshire (C. G. Addison’s Knights Templars, p. 94). In this county formerly they possessed the town and forest of Broxbourne, the manor of Chelsin Templars (Chelsin Templariorum) and the manors of Laugenok, Broxbourne, Letchworth, and Temple Dynnesley; demesne lands at Stanho, Preston, Charlton, Walden, Hiche Chelles, Levecamp and Benigho; the church of Broxbourne, two watermills, and a lock on the river Lea; property at Hichen, Pyrton, Ickilford, Offeley Parva, Walden Regis, Furnivale, Ipolitz, Wandsmyll, Watton, Therleton, Weston, Gravele, Wilien, Leccheworth, Baldock, Datheworth, Russenden, Codpeth, Sumershale, Buntynford, etc., and the church of Weston.

“THE TEMPLARS”: AN ANCIENT HOUSE AT HACKNEY
Drawn and engraved by S. Rawle.

It must not be supposed that Hertfordshire was exceptional in this respect; the whole of England was dotted over with the possessions of the Order. All this land was given to the Order at a time when the first passion for crusading had cooled, and princes began to think that it might be better for the country if men were paid to fight the Saracen. The Templars were at first a very fine regiment, splendidly equipped, and full of valour. To maintain this regiment was surely a good work, almost as good as going to fight in person. The land was given them on the condition that the larger part of the revenues should be sent every year to the Grand Master of the House and Order in Jerusalem. It was held by them, further, on such terms as were never before heard of; the knights were exempt from all taxation aids and “amerciaments”; they could not be compelled to plead except before the King or his Chief Justice; they had power to hold Courts; to impose fines upon their tenants; to hold markets; to try criminals caught on their lands; they could travel without paying toll; they were not obliged to contribute to bridges and other works; they seized the chattels of all felons caught on their lands. Nor was this all: they were exempted from paying tithe; they could not be excommunicated by Bishop or priest; their houses had the right of sanctuary; and they had an Ecclesiastical Court of their own, with a judge, whom they called Conservator Privilegiorum Suorum. The Grand Master and the Brotherhood were subordinate only to the Pope; a large number of priests had been admitted to the Order, which was entirely free from the Church in any country. This great Order, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, numbered, it is said, fifteen hundred knights, with chaplains and serving brothers innumerable. The revenues were, as has been shown, enormous, and not one penny went to the purpose for which the Order had been endowed. The Holy Land had been swept clear of Christians; the Latin Kingdom, the name of which survived, had been destroyed for more than a hundred years; the degenerate grandsons of the Crusaders had long been scattered to the four winds; the Knights Templars and Knights Hospitallers had been expelled from the country, even from the fortified ports: Jaffa and Antioch fell in 1268, Tripoli in 1290, Acre in 1291. Then the Templars, reduced in numbers, retired to Cyprus, whence, in 1300, Jacques de Moray, the last Grand Master, made an unsuccessful attempt to seize Alexandria, and in 1303, when he tried to found a settlement at Tortosa, not only the power of the knights had gone but also their prestige. These dates are necessary, because they show that as soon as the Templars were proved incapable of doing the work for which they existed, then the attack upon them commenced, and not before.