OF SELBORNE. 503 



Temple no doubt did belong to the knights, as may 

 be asserted, not only from its name, but also from ano- 

 ther corroborating circumstance of its being still a 

 manor tithe-free ; " for, by virtue of their order," says 

 Dr. 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 ballivi nostri, qui pro tern- 

 pore 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 preceptorium was his residence. I am 

 well aware that, according to strict Latin, the vel should 

 have been sen or sive, and the order of the words "pre- 

 ceptoris 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 Suding- 

 ton, at the time of the transactions between the Tem- 

 plars and Selborne Priory, did always sign last as a 

 witness in the three deeds : he calls himself frater, it is 



oo 2 



