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The Temple
Church belongs to two of the four Inns of Court, the
Inner Temple and Middle Temple; it is thus the lawyers'
private chapel. It is extra diocesan, has no parish and
is not subject to the authority of the Bishop of London.
The Temple takes its name from the crusading Order of
Knights Templars founded in 1118 to protect pilgrims
travelling to the Holy Land. Their names comes from
their headquarters being near the site of the Temple in
Jerusalem. Henry I introduced them to England and they
first settled in Holborn near the top of Chancery Lane.
In the 12th century they built their great house of the
New Temple on the banks of the Thames. The Round Church
was built on the model of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Order was accused of heresy
and other offences and dissolved in 1312 at the
instigation of Phillipe Le Bel of France and the Grand
Master - Jacques Molay - burned at the stake. In England
the Templars' property passed to their rival order, the
Knights Hospitallers who, in turn, were suppressed at
the Reformation. Thus the Temple eventually passed to
the Crown, subject to the tenancies of the lawyers who
had settled there as tenants of the Hospitallers and
formed themselves into two societies, The Benchers of
the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, who secured the
freehold by charter from James l in 1608. One of the
conditions of the grant was that they were to maintain
the Temple Church and its services for ever. The
Minister of the Temple Church is still called the
"Master of the Temple".
In the Round are the nine military
effigies (shown) which probably do not represent Knights
Templars but rather their illustrious supporters. The
southern group (on your left) includes the effigy of
William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who
was Regent during the minority of Henry III, (1219),and
his sons William and Gilbert as well as
that of Robert de Ros, which was
brought from Yorkshire. In the southern group (on your
right) is the effigy of Geoffrey de Mandeville,
Earl of Essex (1144) and a 13th century coped
Purbeck marble coffin lid. These monuments were restored
by Edward Richardson in the early 1840's, whose efforts
were much criticised; his drawings of the effigies
appear on this page. On the night of 10th May 1941
London was subjected to a Luftwaffe bombing raid and the
roof of the church fell onto the effigies; they had been
protected in the anticipation of a raid by railway
sleepers but this was a fire bomb so each effigy was
subjected to its own inferno causing great damage. The
effigies have been carefully repaired.
Other monuments:
Edmund Plowden (1584),
Treasurer of the Middle Temple. Alabaster effigy with
richly decorated canopy.
Bishop Sylvester of
Carlisle (1255), Purbeck Marble and very well
carved. (shown)
Edward Littleton (1664),
heraldic brass with 29 shields and a Latin inscription
of a winding scroll in front of choir stalls.
Richard Martin (1615)
Recorder of London. He kneels before his desk holding an
open book. By William Cure II
John Selden (1654)
Middle Temple jurist, legal antiquary and scholar;
ledgerstone beneath a glass panel.
Sir John Williams (1669)
George Wylde (1679)
signed by William Stanton
Sir John Witham (1689)
signed by Thomas Cartwright Snr
Lord Chancellor Thurloe
(1806) bust by Carlo Rossi
Visit The Temple
Church Site for further information,
especially opening times, and
photographs - or even better visit this most interesting,
unusual
and very friendly London Church itself.
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