hood, to be admitted amongst this highly-esteemed order of men. The frères serjens of the Temple wore linen coifs, and red caps close over them.* At the ceremony of their admission into the fraternity, the Master of the Temple placed the coif upon their heads, and threw over their shoulders the white mantle of the Temple; he then caused them to sit down on the ground, and gave them a solemn admonition concerning the duties and responsibilities of their profession .f They were warned that they must enter upon a new life, that they must keep themselves fair and free from stain, like the white garment that had been thrown around them, which was the emblem of purity and innocence ; that they must render complete and perfect obedience to their superiors ; that they must protect the weak, succour the needy, reverence old men, and do good to the poor. The knights and Serjeants of the common law, on the other hand, have ever constituted a privileged fraternity, and always address one another by the endearing term brother. The religious character of the antient ceremony of admission into this legal brotherhood, which took place in church, and its striking similarity to the antient mode of reception into the fraternity of the Temple, are curious and remarkable. " Capitiilis Justitiarius," says an antient ΜΘ. account of the creation of serjeants-at-law in the reign of Henry the Seventh, " monstrabat eis plura bona esempla de eorum prsedecessoribus, et tunc posuit lee coyfes$ super eorum capitibus, et induebat eos * Dugd. nisi. Warwickshire, p. 70*. T Et tunc Magister Templi dedit sibi mantetlum, et imposait pileura capiti suo, et tunc fecit eum sedere ad temtm, injungens sibi, &c—jlete centra TempÌanos. Conni. Mag, BrU., torn. ii. ρ 380. See also p. 335. t It hni been supposed that the coif was first introduced by the clerical practitioners of the common law to hide the tornare of those priests who practised in the Court of Common Pleas, notwithstanding the ecclesiastical prohibition. This was not the case.