repairing the church. In the year 1695, was to the following; effect :— " On the 10th of February, in the year from the incarnation of our Lord 1185, this church was consecrated in honour of the blessed Mary by our lord Heraclius, by the grace of God pa triarch of the church of the Resurrection, who bath grauted an indulgence of fifty days to those yearly seeking it."* The oblong portion of the church, which extendeth eastwards from the Round, was consecrated on Ascension-day, A. D. Γ240, as appears from the following passage in the history of Matthew Paris, the monk of St. Alban's, who was probably himself present at the ceremony. " About the same time (A. D. 1240) was consecrated the noble church of the New Temple at London, an edifice worthy to be seen, in the presence of the king and much of the nobility of the kingdom, who, on the same day, that is to say, the day of the Ascension, after the solemnities of the consecration had been completed, royally feasted at a most magnificent banquet, prepared at the expense of the Hospitallers." f It was after the promulgation, A. D. 1162 and 1172, of the famous bull omne datum optimum, exempting the Templars from the ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and enabling them to admit priests and chaplains into their order, and appoint them to * Λ tâc-&imilc uf this inscription was Gulhfoily delineated by Mr. Geo. liotrncs. the antiquary, and was published by Str.vpe, A. D. 1670. The earliest copy I have been able to tied of it is in a manuscript history of the Temple, in the Inner Temple library, supposed to have been written at the commencement of the rourn of Charles the First by John Wilde, Esq., a bencher of the society, and Lent reader in the year 1630. + Tempore quoque sub eodern ( A. D. 1240) dedicata est nobtlis ecclesia, structura; aspectabiUs Novi Templi Londinensis, présente Repe et multi» regni Magiiatihus ; iiui codera die, scilicet die Ascensioni*. Completi* dedication is solemn!is, cunviviuiu in mensa nintis laute cclebrarunt, sumptihus Itospit&liorum.—Λίαιί. far. ad ann. 1240. p. ..26, ed. 161".