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XII. A Letter from the Hon. Daines Barrington to the Rev. Dr. Lort, on the Origin of the Arms belonging to the two Honourable Societies of the Inner and Middle Temple; the Pegasus and the Holy Lamb.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

The question which you lately put to me with regard to the two societies of the Inner and Middle Temple having assumed so very different coats of arms, as the Pagan Pegasus, and the Holy Lamb, will occasion my troubling you with a rather long investigation of this matter, as well as some few observations on the origin and abolition of the Knights Templars.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1789

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References

page 128 note [a] Afterwards Knights of Rhodes, and now of Malta.

page 128 note [b] So called because they built their monastery near the porch where the old Temple of Solomon was supposed to have stood.

page 128 note [c] Hugo de Paganis and Godefridus de Sancto Odemaro. Matthew Paris.

page 129 note [d] Both Henry II. and his Queen Eleanor direct their bodies to be buried in the Temple Church. Dugd. Monast. Henry II. left by his will 500 marks to the Templars (see Rymer's Fœd.) and Henry III. was educated in the Temple by direction of the Earl of Pembroke. Petyt MSS. Inn. Temple Library.

page 129 note [e] This officer was so general in the different parts of Europe, that he wa styled in the Eastern Empire, . See Du Fresne's Glossary of the Lower Greek; Bonorum Militiœ Templi in Franciâ Magnus Magister. There was a Temple also in Paris. See Saint Foix's Essais sur les rues de Paris.

page 129 note [f] The Bishop of Durham was so in the time of Edward II. Rymer's Fœd.

page 129 note [g] See a letter from Edward II. to his father-in-law Phillip de Bel, in the first year of his reign. Rymer's Fœd.

page 130 note [h] Except from the 10th to the 17th of Edward III. which chasm however may be supplied from a MS. in the Library of the Inner Temple.

page 130 note [i] Styled Hospitallers of St. John.

page 130 note [k] Thence called the New Temple. See Petyt MS. N° 17. press 5, shelf 5.—A grant of the office of Master of the Temple so late as 5 Eliz. styles him Magister, five Custos, Novi Templi. Rymer's Fœd. in anno.

page 131 note [l] See Dugdale's Origines Jurid.

page 131 note [m] Commonly subjoined to Stowe's Chronicle.

page 131 note [n] Before referred to.

page 132 note [o] The seal is affixed by the Treasurer of the Society to certificates chiefly of Members having been called to the bar, which are sometimes wanted by those who practise the law out of the four seas.

page 132 note [p] See Petyt MS. before cited.

page 132 note [q] Thus Gwillim emblasons the arms of Sir Edward Coke in the same manmer, from the great respect which he says the chief justice deserved.

page 133 note [r] “And surely the coat armour was at first appropriated to the noble Socicty “by reason of their affinity to the Muses, and the springs of Hippoorens “and Aganippe arising from Pegasus's foot.” Petyt MS. before cited.

page 133 note [s] Dispensary.

page 133 note [t] It is perhaps the best painting we have of the master.

page 134 note [u] Sir George was Master of the Revels, and appears to have been well versed in blasonry, living much with the heralds of the time and particularly Camden. His Life of Richard III. is well known.

page 134 note [x] See Matthew Paris, in additions.

page 134 note [y] I can find no other account of these second arms having been assumed by the Knights Templars but in this illuminated MS. I conceive however that the Holy Lamb over the Middle Temple gate is not properly represented, as there is no nimbus to encircle it. That this is necessary, see Guillim's Heraldry and Prince's Devon, art. Rowe, it being a representation of Christ.

The Holy Lamb with its nimbus and banner appears as the seal of a deed dated 1273, whereby Guido de Foresta magister militiæ Templi in Anglia & sratres ejusdem militiæ leased out certain lands in Pampesworth, c. Camb. the rent to be paid domino Templi in Duxworth in the same county, in which last parish is still a manor called Temple manor. Round this seal is ✠ SIGILLVM TEMPLI. Blomefield's MS. Collections for Cambridgeshire penes R. G.

page 135 note [z] It should seem from Sir George Buc likewise that Grays Inn had pitched upon their arms a little before 1615, and that Lincoln's Inn intended to retain, the arms of the Earl of Lincoln, though Sir James Lea had proposed another, device. I conclude from this, that the Treasurer's seal to certificates of admissions to the bar began to be wanted in the four great Inns of courts, the Inner Temple having by many years taken the lead.