e
Commonwealth was established. From 1651 to 1654 every barrister and
master of the bench before opening his lips in court had to take what
was called "the engagement"--"I do declare and promise that I will be
true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, as it is now
established without a king or a house of lords." Soon after the
Restoration there came further troubles from plague and fire. Twelve
deaths from the plague are recorded in the Burial Register for 1665, and
the buildings were again for a time deserted. The great fire of 1666,
the flames of which, after destroying King's Bench Walk, licked the east
end of the Temple Church, was followed in 1678 by another fire which did
much damage to the buildings of the Middle Temple, burned down the old
cloisters (afterwards replaced by Wren's somewhat commonplace colonnade)
and threatened the south-west angle of the church. A bird's-eye view
made in 1671 and John Ogilby's plan of 1677 enable us to follow the
process of reconstruction after the great fire, and at the same time
call attention to the disfigurement of the church by the mean shops and
small houses which had been built against its walls and even over its
porch. It seems as if for a time all appreciation of the beauty of the
buildings was lost. The Round Church, not being used for Divine service,
became, like Paul's Walk, a rendezvous for business appointments, and
the font was often specified in legal documents as the place where
payment was to be made to complete some transaction. That is why the
lawyer consulted by Hudibras advises his client while getting up his
case to

"Walk the Round with Knights o' th' Posts[74]
About the cross-legged Knights their hosts."

Still, in spite of its shortcomings, the seventeenth century has at
least one claim upon the gratitude of those who worship in the Temple
Church. The organ of Bernard Schmidt (Father Smith), purchased in 1686,
still survives as the foundation of the modern instrument. The story of
the Battle of the Organs has been often told. The masters of the bench
were anxious to secure by competition the best possible make, and rival
organs were set up in the church by Smith and Harris. The decision was
eventually left to Judge Jeffreys, not apparently on account of his
musical knowledge, but because he was Lord Chancellor at the time. The
beautiful music of the Temple Church is thus strangely linked with a
name not usually associated with sweetness