knights, who craved permission to joiu his standard, and paid large sttflis of money for a passage to the far East. In the interval between these different voyages, the yonng knights were diligently employed at the different preceptories in the religious and military exercises necessary to fit them for their high vocation. On any sudden emergency, or when the ranks of the order had been greatly thinned by the casualties of war, the Grand Master sent circular letters to the grand preceptors or masters of the western provinces, requiring instant aid and assistance, on the receipt of which collections were made in the churches, and all the knights that could be spared forthwith embarked for the Holy Land. The Master of the Temple in England sat in parliament as first baron of the realm, (primus baro Angliœ,) but that is to be understood among priors only. To the parliament holden in the twenty-ninth year of King Henry the Third, there were summoned sixty-five abbots, thirty-five priors, and the Master of the Temple.* The oath taken by the grand priors, grand preceptors, or provincial Masters in Europe, on their assumption of the duties of their high administrative office, was drawn up in the following terms :— " I, A. B., Knight of the Order of the Temple, just now appointed Master of the knights who are in , promise to Jesus Christ my Saviour, and to his vicar the sovereign |ontiff and his successors, perpetual obedience and fidelity, I swear that I will defend, not only with my lips, but by force of arme and with all my strength, the mysteries of the faith ; the seven sacraments, the fourteen articles of the faith, the creed of the Apostles, and that of Saint Athanasius ; the books of the Old and the New Testament, with the commentaries of the holy fathers, as received by the church ; the unity of God, the plurality ' Rot. claus. 4», II. 111. m. xi. d. Acta Jfytwri, torn. iii. p. 6112.