450 ANTIQUITIES 



Temple on that order in support of the holy land ; and, 

 moreover, she seems to have been moving from Selborne 

 when she sold her goods and chattels to the priory, as men- 

 tioned above. 



Temple no doubt did belong to the knights, as may be 

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

 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 

 f< per manum preceptoris vel ballivi nostri, qui pro tempore 

 fuerit ibidem," may help to explain the difficulty. For 

 if it be allowed here that preceptor and ballivus are synony- 

 mous words, then the brother who took on him that office 

 resided in the house of the Templars at Sudington, a pre- 

 ceptory ; 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 

 (f preceptoris nostri, vel ballivi, qui" et " ibidem" should 

 have been&t; 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, 



