T E M 



cat, or a wooden head crowiiod witli gold. It is fartlier 

 uffirim-d, that, among them, the odious and unnatural a£t 

 of lodomy was a matter of obligation ; and they arc charged 

 with other crimes too horrible to be mentioned, or even 

 imagined. However, though there be reafon to believe 

 that in this order, as well as otiu-rs of the fame period, there 

 were Ihocking examples of impiety and profligacy ; yet that 

 the whole order was thus cnormoully corrupt, is fo far from 

 being proved, tliat the contrary may be concluded even 

 from the ads and records, yet extant, of the tribunals be- 

 fore which they were tried and examined. If to this we 

 add, that many of tlie accufations advanced againft them 

 flatly contradicft each other, and that many members of this 

 unfortunate order folemnly avowed their innocence, while 

 lar.gnilhing under tlie feverell tortures, and even with their 

 d)ir.g breath ; it would feem probable, that king Philip fet 

 oil foot this bloody tragedy, with a view to gratify his 

 avarice, and glut his refentment againft the Templars, and 

 efpecially againft their grand-mafter, who had highly of- 

 fended him. The principal caufe of this invincible hatred 

 againft them was, that in his quarrel with Boniface VIII. 

 t!ic knights efpoufed the caufe of the pope, and furniflied 

 him with money to carry on the war. Mofiieim's Eccl. 

 Hift. vol. iii. ed. 8vo. Bower's Hift. of the Popes, vol. vi. 



P- 393- 



TEMPLE, Templum, a public building erefted in 

 honour of fome deity, cither true or falfe ; and in which 

 the people meet to pay religious worthip to the fame. 



The word is formed from the Latin lemplum, which fome 

 derive from the Greek rifj-in-:, fignifying the fame thing ; 

 and others from Ti/^ra, abfc'mdo, I cut off, I feparate, becaufe 

 a temple is a place feparated from common ules ; others, with 

 more probabihty, derive it from the old Latin word templare, 

 to contemplate. It is certain the ancient augurs gave the name 

 templa to thofe parts of the lieavens which were marked out 

 for the obfervation of the flight of birds. Their formula 

 was this : Templa tefqua Junto. 



Temples were originally all open, and hence received their 

 name. See Phil. Tranf. N° 47 1 . feft. 5. where we have 

 an account of the ancient temple in Ireland of the fame fort 

 as our famous Stonehenge. 



The word templum, in its primary fenfe among the old 

 Romans, fignified nothing more than a place fet apart, and 

 confecrated by the augurs, whether enclofed or open ; in the 

 city, or in the fields. 



Clemens Alexandrinus and Enfebius refer the origin of 

 temples to the fepulchres built for the dead. This notion 

 has been lately illuftrated and confirmed by a variety of tefti- 

 monies by Mr. Farmer, in his Tre.itife on the Worfliip of 

 Human Spirits, p. 373, Sec. Herodotus, Lucian, and 

 Strabo, will have the Egyptians to have been the firtt who 

 built temples to the gods ; and from them the cuftom was 

 propagated to the AtTyrians, comprehending under this ap- 

 pellation Phoenicia, Syria, and other countries. From 

 Egypt and Phoenicia it f)a(red to Greece with the colonies, 

 and from Greece to Rome. The firft erefted in Greece is 

 afcribed to Deucalion by ApoUonius (Argonaut, lib. iii.) 

 and the firft in Italy to .Tnnus. 



In antiquity we meet with many people who would not 

 build any temples to their gods, for fear of confining them 

 to too naiTOw bounds, lliey performed their facrifices 

 in all places indifferently, from a perfuafion, that the whole 

 world is the temple of God, and that he required no other. 

 This was the doftrine of the magi, followed by the Per- 

 fians,_ the Scythians, the Numidians, and many other nations 

 mentioned by Herodotus, lib. i. Strabo, lib. xv. and 

 Cicero, in his fccond oration againft Verres. 



T E M 



The Perijans, who worfhipped the fun, believed it would 

 wrong his power, to enclofe him in the walls of a temple, 

 who had the whole world for his habitation ; and lieucc, 

 when Xerxes ravaged Greece, the magi exhorted him to 

 deftroy all the temples he met with. 



The Sicyonians would build no temples to their goddefs 

 Coronis ; nor the Athenians, for the hke reafon, ereft any 

 ftatue to Clemency, who, they faid, was to live in the hearts 

 of men, not within ftone walls. 



The Bithynians had no temples but the mountains to 

 worfliip on ; nor had the ancient Germans any other but the 

 woods. 



Even fome philofophers have blamed the ufe and building 

 of temples, particularly Diogenes, Zeno, and his followers 

 the Stoics, But it may be faid, that if God hath no need of 

 temples, men have nt ed of places to meet in for the pubhc 

 offices of religion : accordingly, temples may be traced back 

 even unto the remoteft antiquity. See Hofpinian, de Ori- 

 gine Templorum. 



The Romans had feveral kinds of temples ; of which thofe 

 built by the kings, &c. confecrated by the augurs, and in 

 which the exercife of religion was regulai-ly performed, were 

 called, by way of eminence, templa, temples. Thole that 

 were not confecrated were called udes. The little temples, 

 that were covered or roofed, they called ttdiculee ; thofe 

 open, facella. Some other edifices, confecrated to particular 

 myfteries of religion, they called fana and delulra. 



All thefe kinds of temples, Vitruvius tells us, had other 

 particular denominations, according to the form and manner 

 of their conftruftion ; as will be hereafter fpecified. In- 

 deed, the Romans out-did all nations with regard to temples : 

 they not only built temples to their gods, to their virtues, 

 to their difeafes, S:c. but alfo to their emperors, and that 

 in their life -time ; inftances of which we meet with in medals, 

 infcriptions, and other monuments. Horace compliments 

 Auguftus hereupon, and fets him above Hercules, and all 

 the heroes of fable ; in that thofe were only admitted into 

 temples after their death, whereas Auguftus had his temples 

 and altars while living. 



" Prsefenti tibi matures largimur honores ; 

 Jurandafque tuum per nomen ponimus aras." 



Epift. ad Aug. 



Suetonius, on this occafion, gives an inftance of the mo- 

 defty of that emperor, who would allow of no temples being 

 erefted to liim in the city ; and even in the provinces, wliere 

 he knew it was ufual to raife temples to the very proconfids, 

 refufed any but thofe erefted in the name of Rome as well 

 as his own. Vide Suet, in Oftav. cap. 52. 



Whenever a temple was to be erefted, the arufpices were 

 confulted as to the fcite of it, and the time when the con- 

 ftruftion of it was to commence. The fpot afligned to it 

 was carefully purified, and it was encircled with fillets and 

 garlands. The veftals, accompanied with young boys and 

 girls, waftied the ground with water, and the prieft expiated 

 it by a folemn facrifice. Then he touched the foundation- 

 ftone, and bound it with a fillet ; and the people, animated 

 with extraordinary zeal, threw it in thither with fome pieces 

 of money, or metal which had not pafled through the fur- 

 nace. When the edifice was finiflied, it was confecrated 

 with a variety of ceremonies, in which the prieft, or, in his 

 ab fence, fome of his college, prefided. Some of thefe temples 

 were not to be built within the precinfts of cities, but with- 

 out the walls, as thofe of Mars, Vulcan, and Venus, for 

 reafons particularly affigned by Vitruvius. The temples 

 were held in great veneration ; and, in fome cafes, they were 

 a fanftuary for criminals and debtors. Within they were 



very 



