the remainder of their days, after a long period of honourable service against the infidels in Palestine. They were cells to the principal house at London. There were also under them certaiu smaller administrations established for the management of the farms, consisting of a Knight Templar, to whom were associated some serving brothers of the order, and a priest who acted as almoner. The commissions or mandates directed by the Masters of the Temple to the officers at the head of these establishments, were called precepts, from the commencement of them, " Prœcipimw Ubi," we enjoin or direct you, &c. &c. The knights to whom they were addressed were styled Prœceptores Templi, or Preceptors of the Temple, and the districts administered by them Prœ ceptoria, or preceptories. It will now be as well to take a general survey of the possessions and organization of the order both in Europe and Asia, "whose circumstances," saith William archbishop of Tyre, writing from Jerusalem about the period of the consecration at London of the Temple Church, " are in so flourishing a state, that at this day they have in their convent (the Temple on Mount Moriah) more than three hundred knights robed in the white habit, besides serving brothers innumerable. Their possessions indeed beyond sea, as well as in these parts, are said to be so vast, that there cannot now be a province in Christendom which does not contribute to the support of the aforesaid brethren, whose wealth is said to equal that of sovereign princes."* The eastern provinces of the order were, 1. Palestine, the ruling province. 2. The principality of Antioch. 3. The principality of Tripoli. * Quorum res adeo c revit in immensum, ut hodie, trecento* in conventu h&beant équités, albis chtamyditran indutoe : exceptis fratribus, quorum pene inhnitue est Humerus. Posscssiones autem, tarn ultra quam citra mare, adeo dicuntur imraensas habere, ut jam nan sit in orbe ehristiano provincia que prtedictia fmtribue suorum portionem non contttletit, et regtis opulentiis pares hodie dicuntur habere copias.—Wilt. Tyr. lib. xii. cap. 7.