336 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Although the Templars were only allowed one guest-house in each 

 city to be free of tolls, some of their other tenants, e.g., in Waterford, 

 tried to escape paying the usual services to the citizens on the 

 ground of their belonging to the Order. ^ 



But the Templars found their privileges frequently attacked. In 

 1254-5, the collectors in Ireland of the aid granted to the King by 

 the Pope in favour of the Holy Land attempted to levy it on the 

 Templars, who were exempt under papal authority. A letter from 

 the King, in 1256, was necessary to stop such a proceeding.^ They 

 were several times assessed to supply armed men, but, on bringing 

 the matter before the Justiciar, they proved their right of exemption, 

 and won their cases. The right they possessed of making a collec- 

 tion in the churches once a year was often nullified by the clergy 

 insisting on making their own collections first before they would 

 allow the Templars to exercise their privilege. 



When we consider the freedom which the Order possessed from 

 the usual services, it is not to be wondered at that others tried 

 to avail themselves of it too. Henry III had to forbid expressly 

 any tenant of the King in Waterford, if he wished to retain his 

 tenement, transferring himself to the land of the Templars. The 

 latter, too, were in the habit of erecting crosses on their houses to 

 signify their immunity, and this practice was imitated by the tenants 

 of other lords, in the hope of also escaping their proper services.^ 



In trying to gain some idea of the administration of the Templars 

 in this country, it is regrettable that there is so little evidence to go 

 upon ; but by putting together the few scattered data which are known, 

 it will be possible in some slight degree to picture their life. The 

 Master was the head of the Order in Ireland ; but he and all the 

 brethren here in Ireland were subject to the Master of the Templars 

 in England. It is probable that he was elected by the latter, or by 

 the General Chapter held by him, for though, in 1235, the King sent 

 his mandate to the Justiciar to admit Brother Iloger le "Waleis as 

 Master,* this was merely an order to the former to recognize the 

 authority of the latter, and does not mean that the King had any part 

 in the election of a Master. It was apparently his duty to visit each 

 preceptory and admit recruits. We find that Eobert de Pourbriggs 



1 Cal. Irish Documents, 1171-1251. No. 1916. 



2 Ibid., 1252-1284, No. 516. 



3 Statute of Westminster, ii, c. 33. Coke's " Institutes," ii., pp. 432, 465. 



4 Cal. Irish Documents, 1171-1251, No. 2264. 



