From the period of the dissolution of the order of Saint John, down to the present time, the _custos_, or, as he is now incorrectly styled, "the Master of the Temple," has been appointed by letters patent from the crown, and takes his place as in the olden time, without the ceremony of admission, institution, or induction. These letters patent are couched in very general and extensive terms, and give the _custos_ or Master many things to which he is justly entitled, as against the crown, but no longer obtains, and profess to give him many other things which the crown had no power whatever to grant. He is appointed, for instance, "to rule, govern, and superintend the house of the New Temple;" but the crown had no power whatever to make him governor thereof, the government having always been in the hands of the Masters of the bench of the two societies, who succeeded to the authority of the Master and chapter of the Knights Templars. In these letters patent the Temple is described as a rectory, which it never had been, nor anything like it. They profess to give to the _custos_ "all and all manner of tythes," but there were no tythes to give, the Temple having been specially exempted from tythe as a religious house by numerous papal bulls. The letters patent give the _custos_ all the revenues and profits of money which the _custodes_ had at any time previously enjoyed by virtue of their office, but these revenues were dissipated by the crown, and the property formerly granted by the prior and chapter of Saint John, and by pious persons in the time of the Templars, for the maintenance of the priests and the celebration of divine service in the Temple Church was handed over to strangers, and the _custos_ was thrown by the crown for support upon the voluntary contributions of the two societies. He received, indeed, a miserable pittance of 37_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ per annum from the exchequer, but for this he was to find at his own expense a minister to serve the church, and also a clerk or sexton! As the crown retained in its own hands the appointment of the custos and all the antient revenues of the Temple Church, it ought to have provided for the support of the officiating ministers, as did the Hospitallers of Saint John. "The chardges of the fellowshyppe," says the MS. account of the Temple written in the reign of Hen. VIII., "towards the salary or mete and drink of the priests, is none; for they are found by my lord of Saint John's, and they that are of the fellowshyppe of the house are chardged with nothing to the priests, saving that they have eighteen offring days in the yeare, so that the chardge of each of them is xviii_d._"[607]