328 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



asserted, not only from its name, but also from another corro- 

 borating circumstance of its being still a manor, tithe-free ; " for, 

 by virtue of their order," says Blackstone, " the lands of the 

 Knights Templars were privileged by the Pope with a discharge 

 from tithes." 



Antiquaries have been much puzzled about the terms preceptores 

 and preceptorium^ not being able to determine what officer or 

 edifice was meant. But perhaps all the while the passage quoted 

 above from one of my papers, " per manum preceptoris vel ballivt 

 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 

 explanation, a preceptor was no other than a steward, and a pre- 

 ceptorium was his residence. I am well aware that, according to 

 strict Latin, the vel should have been seu or st've, and the order of 

 the words " preceptor is nostri, velballivi, qui" et "ibidem" should 

 have been ibi ; ibidem 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 

 themselves 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 f rater, it is true, 

 among many other brothers, but subscribes with a kind of defer- 

 ence, 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 Worcester, printed by Dr. Nash, pp. 227, 228, of his collections for the 

 history of Worcestershire, the words preceptorium and preceptoria signify the 

 mastership of the said hospital : ' 'ad preceptorium si ve magisterium presentavit 



