chaplains, and Edward the Sixth consequently, after the decease of AVilliain Ermsted, conveyed the lodgings, previously appropriated to the officiating ministers, to a Mr. Keilway and his heirs, after which the custos and clergymen had no longer of •right any lotlgiugs at all in the Temple.* 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, arid profess to give him many other things which the crown had no power whatever to grant. lie is appointed, for instance, " forale, govern, and superintend the house of the New Temple ;" hut 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 cuslos " 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 cuslos all the revenues and profits of money which the custodies, 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 * //«rfew» MS., No. 830.