ing from the four corners of the
floor. This work is perhaps a little older than the Round Church. The
lower chamber has been supposed to be what is called in the records "the
Hall of the Priests." With these exceptions the church alone remains as
a monument of the greatness and the glory of the Templars. For a century
and a half at the New Temple they were a power in the land. Men
deposited treasure in their custody. Popes conferred upon them
exceptional privileges. They stood high in royal favour. Henry II. and
Richard were benefactors. John was a frequent guest. It was while he was
holding his court at the Temple on the Epiphany feast of 1215 that the
Barons came before him in full armour to announce their ultimatum, and
his signing the _Magna Carta_ was partly due to the influence of the
then Master of the Temple. Henry III. at one time intended to be buried
in the Temple Church. His subsequent change of mind perhaps marks some
decline in the popularity of the Templars. But their downfall in England
(1308) was mainly owing to Papal pressure. Edward II. resisted as long
as he could, and the more serious charges against them, which were based
on confessions extracted by torture, are now generally regarded by
historians as unfounded.

The premises of the Temple were eventually (1340) granted to the Knights
Hospitallers, the rivals and bitter enemies of the fallen Order. They
held the property for two hundred years, but they had their own
settlement at Clerkenwell, and the Temple did not mean to them what it
had meant to the Templars. About 1347 they leased all but the
consecrated buildings and ecclesiastical precincts to "certain lawyers,"
who had already become tenants of the Earl of Lancaster and others, on
whom in the first instance Edward II. had bestowed the premises. Great
interest attaches to this settlement of lawyers, but much remains
obscure about it. Some of the early documents may have been destroyed
during Wat Tyler's insurrection (1381). A manuscript (quoted by Dugdale)
describes the scene in the law-French of the day.

"Les Rebells alleront a le Temple ... et alleront en l'Esglise,
et pristeront touts les liveres et Rolles de Remembrances que
furont en lour huches deins le Temple de Apprentices de la Ley,
et porteront en le haut chimene et les arderont."

This, however, is not the full extent of the loss which has been
sustained. The records of the following 120 years up to 1500 are