2/6 WHITE 



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 cham- 

 ber, " camera" as directed ; so that, according to this expla- 

 nation, a preceptor was no other than a steward, and a precep- 

 torium was his residence. I am well aware that, according 

 to strict Latin, the vel should have been seu or sive, and the 

 order of the words "preceptoris nostri, vel ballivi, 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 transac- 

 tions between the Templars and Selborne Priory, did always 

 sign last as a witness in the three deeds ; he calls himself 

 frater, 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. 6 



NOTES 



* 

 1 THE MILITARY ORDERS OF THE RELIGIOUS 



The Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, afterwards called 

 Knights of Rhodes, now of Malta, came into England about the year noo, 

 i Hen. i. 



The Knights Templars came into England pretty early in Stephen's reign, 

 which commenced 1 135. The order was dissolved in 1312, and their estates 

 given by Act of Parliament to the Hospitalers in 1323 (all in Edw. II.), 

 though many of their estates were never actually enjoyed by the said Hos- 

 pitalers. Vid. TANNER, p. 24, 10. 



The commanderies of the Hospitalers, and preceptories of Templars, were 

 each subordinate to the principal house of their respective religion in London. 

 Although these are the different denominations, which Tanner at p. 37 

 assigns to the cells of these different orders, yet throughout the work very 

 frequent instances occur of preceptories attributed to the Hospitalers ; and 

 if in some passages of "Notitia Monast." commanderies are attributed to the 

 Templars, it is only where the place afterwards became the property of the 

 Hospitalers, and so is there indifferently styled preceptory or commandery ; 

 see pp. 243, 263, 276, 577, 678. But, to account for the first observed inac- 



