The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the TempleAddison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet)
History
The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple
Addison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet)
Templars -- History
Matthew Paris gives a long account of an absurd quarrel which broke out
between this earl of Pembroke and king Henry the Third, when the latter
was eating his Christmas dinner at Winchester, in the year 1239.[533]
At a great meeting of Crusaders at Northampton, he took a solemn oath upon
the high altar of the church of All Saints to proceed without delay to
Palestine to fight against the enemies of the cross;[534] but his
intentions were frustrated by the hand of death. At a tournament held at
Ware, A. D. 1241, he was thrown from his horse, and died a few hours
afterwards at the monastery at Hertford. His entrails were buried in the
church of the Virgin at that place, but his body was brought up to London,
accompanied by all his family, and was interred in the Temple Church by
the side of his father and eldest brother.[535]
The above Gilbert Marshall granted to the Templars the church of Weston,
the borough of Baldok, lands and houses at Roydon, and the wood of
Langnoke.[536]
All the five sons of the elder Marshall, the Protector, died without issue
in the reign of Henry the Third, and the family became extinct. They
followed one another to the grave in regular succession, so that each
attained for a brief period to the dignity of the earldom, and to the
hereditary office of EARL MARSHALL.
Matthew Paris accounts for the melancholy extinction of this noble and
illustrious family in the following manner.
He tells us that the elder Marshall, the Protector, during a campaign in
Ireland, seized the lands of the reverend bishop of Fernes, and kept
possession of them in spite of a sentence of excommunication which was
pronounced against him. After the Protector had gone the way of all flesh,
and had been buried in the Temple Church, the reverend bishop came to
London, and mentioned the circumstance to the king, telling him that the
earl of Pembroke had certainly died excommunicated. The king was much
troubled and alarmed at this intelligence, and besought the bishop to go
to the earl's tomb and absolve him from the bond of excommunication,
promising the bishop that he would endeavour to procure him ample
satisfaction. So anxious, indeed, was king Henry for the safety of the
soul of his quondam guardian, that he accompanied the bishop in person to
the Temple Church; and Matthew Paris declares that the bishop, standing by
the tomb in the presence of the king, and in the hearing of many
bystanders, pronounced these words: "O William, who lyest here interred,
and held fast by the chain of excommunication, if those lands which thou
hast unjustly taken away from my church be rendered back to me by the
king, or by your heir, or by any of your family, and if due satisfaction
be made for the loss and injury I have sustained, I grant you absolution;
but if not, I confirm my previous sentence, so that, enveloped in your
sins, you stand for evermore condemned to hell!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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