ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 323 
from one of my papers, “‘ per manum Precepioris vel baliivi nostri, 
qui pro tempore fuerit, ibidem,”’ may help to explain the difficulty, 
For if it be allowed here that preceptor and ballivus are synonymous 
words, then the brother who took on him that office resided in the 
house of the Templars at Sudington, a preceptory ; where he 
was their preceptor, superintended their affairs, received their 
money, and, as in the instance there mentioned, paid from their 
chamber, “ camera,” as directed ; so that, according to this explana- 
tion, a preceptor was no other than a steward, and a preceptorium 
was his residence. I am well aware that, according to strict Latin, 
the veZ should have been sez or szve,and the order of the words 
‘“‘preceptoris nostrz, vel ballivi, qui”—et ‘‘zbidem” should have 
been 202, zbidem necessarily having reference to two or more 
persons ; but it will hardly be thought fair to apply the niceties of 
classic rules to the Latinity of the thirteenth century, the writers of - 
which seem to have aimed at nothing farther than to render them- 
selves intelligible. 
There is another remark that we have made, which, I think, 
corroborates what has been advanced; and that is, that Richard 
Carpenter, preceptor of Sudington, at the time of the transactions 
between the Templars and Selborne priory, did always sign last as 
a witness in the three deeds; he calls himself /rvazer, it is true, 
among many other brothers, but subscribes with a kind of deference, 
as if, for the time being, his office rendered him an inferior in the 
community.* 
* In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald’s Hospital in the city of Wor- 
cester, printed by Dr. Nash, pp. 227, 228, of his coilections for the history of Worcester- 
shire, the words preceptorium and preceptoria signify the mastership of the said hospital : 
‘ad preceptorium sive magisterium presentavit—preceptorii sive magisterii patronas. 
Vacavit dicta preceptoria seu magisterium—ad preceptoriam et regimen dicti hospitalis— 
Te preceptorem sive magistrum prefecimus.”” ‘ 
Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean the master’s 
lodgings, or at least the preceptor’s apartment, whatsoever may have been the office or 
employment of the said preceptor. Bate ; 
A preceptor is mentioned in Thoresby’s ‘‘ Ducatus Leodiensis,’’ or History of Leeds, 
p. 225, and a deed witnessed by the preceptor and chaplain before dates were inserted.— 
Du Fresne’s Supplement: ‘‘ Preceptoriz, praedia preceptoribus assignata.’? Cowel, in 
his ‘‘ Law Dictionary,’ enumerates sixteen preceptoriz, or preceptories, in England ; 
but Sudington is not among them.—It is remarkable that Gurtlerus, in his “‘ Historia 
Templariorum,’’ Amstel. 1691, never once mentions the words preceptor or preceptorium. 
