298 THE ANTIQUITIES 



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 precept oris 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 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 seu or she, and the order of the 

 words " preceptoris nostri, vel baUivi, 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 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.^ 



1 In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald's hospital in 

 the city of Worcester, printed by Dr. Nash, p. 227 and 228, of his 

 collections for the history of Worcestershire, the words preceptorium and 

 preceptoria signify the mastership of the said hospital : " ad preceptorium 



