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TEMPLE CHURCH

The Temple Church is a late 12th century church in London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built for and by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters.

In modern times, two Inns of Court (Inner Temple and Middle Temple) both use the church, which is famous for its effigy tombs. It was heavily damaged during the Second World War but has been largely restored. The area around the Temple Church is known as the "Temple" and nearby is Temple tube station on the District (green) and Circle (yellow) lines.

Among other purposes, the structure was originally used for Templar initiation ceremonies. In England, the ceremony involved new recruits entering the Temple via the western door at dawn. The initiates would enter the circular nave, and then take monastic vows of piety, chastity, poverty and obedience. The details of initiation at the time were a closely-guarded secret, though this secrecy later caused trouble as gossip and rumours spread about possible Templar blasphemy. These suspicions were manipulated and expanded by the Order's enemies, such as King Philip IV of France.

The Temple Church holds regular church services, including Holy Communion on Sunday morning. It also holds weddings, but only for members of the Inner and Middle Temples. The Temple Church serves both the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple as a private chapel.

The Temple Church has always been a royal peculiar, and the choristers have the privilege of wearing scarlet cassocks as a result. This means that it is subject to the jurisdiction of the Crown, and not of the Bishop of London. Modern-day relations with the Bishop of London are, however, very good; he regularly attends events and services at the Temple Church.

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TEMPLE CHURCH IN THE DA VINCI CODE

The church was featured in the controversial popular novel The Da Vinci Code by American author Dan Brown and was also used as a location in the The Da Vinci Code film. The release of doves in the round church in the film relate to Ernest Lough's (the most famous boy soprano to come from Temple Church) recording of "O for the wings of a dove".

Recent lunchtime talks by the present Master (Reverend Robin Griffith-Jones) have been on the subject of the Templars and the church's role in the novel, and he has published a book on the same topic.

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CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH

In the mid 12th century, before the construction of the church, the Knights Templar in London had met at a site in High Holborn in a structure originally established by Hughes de Payens (the site had been historically the location of a Roman temple in Londinium). Because of the rapid growth of the order, by the 1160s the site had become too confined, and the Order purchased the current site for the establishment of a larger monastic complex as their headquarters in England. In addition to the church, the new compound originally contained residences, military training facilities, and recreational grounds for the military brethren and novices, who were not permitted to go into the city without the permission of the Master of the Temple.

The church building comprises two separate sections. The original nave section, called the Round Church, and an adjoining rectangular section, built approximately half a century later, called the Chancel. In keeping with the traditions of the order, the nave of the church was constructed on a round design based on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The nave is 55 feet in diameter, and is surrounded by the first-ever free-standing dark Purbeck Marble columns. It is probable that the walls and grotesque heads were originally painted in colours.

It was consecrated on February 10, 1185 in a ceremony by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. It is believed that Henry II was present at the consecration.

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1185 - 1307

The Knights Templar order was very powerful in England, with the Master of the Temple sitting in parliament as primus baro (the first baron of the realm). The compound was regularly used as a residence by kings and by legates of the Pope. The Temple also served as an early depository bank, sometimes in defiance of the Crown's wishes to seize the funds of nobles who had entrusted their wealth there. The independence and wealth of the order throughout Europe is considered by most historians to have been the primary cause of its eventual downfall.

In January 1215 William Marshall (who is buried in the nave next to his sons, under one of the 9 marble effigies of medieval knights there) served as a negotiator during a meeting in the Temple between King John and the barons, who demanded that John uphold the rights enshrined the Coronation Charter of his predecessor Richard I. William swore on behalf of the king that the grievances of the barons would be addressed in the summer, leading to John's signing of Magna Carta in June.

William later became regent during the reign of John's son, Henry III. Henry later expressed a desire to be buried in the church and so, in the early 13th century, the choir of the original church was pulled down and a new larger structure, now called the Chancel, was built. It was consecrated on Ascension Day 1240 and comprises a central aisle and two side aisles of identical width. The height of the vault is 36 feet 3 inches. One of Henry's sons, who died in infancy, is buried in the Chancel, but Henry later altered his will with instructions to be interred in Westminster Abbey.

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CROWN SEIZURE

After the destruction and abolition of the Knights Templar in 1307, Edward II took control of the church as a Crown possession. It was later given to the Knights Hospitaller, who rented the Temple to two colleges of lawyers. One college moved into the part of the Temple previously used by the Temple's knights, and the other into the part previously used by its priests, and they shared the use of the church.

The colleges evolved into the Inner and Middle Temples, two of the four Inns of Court (the other two being Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn).

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16TH TO 19TH CENTURY

In 1540, the church became the property of The Crown once again when Henry VIII abolished the Knights Hospitaller in England and confiscated their property. Henry provided a priest for the church under the former title "Master of the Temple". In the 1580s, the church was the scene of the Battle of the Pulpits, a theological conflict between Calvinists and supporters of the Church of England.

At that time, William Shakespeare also knew it and hence, in his play Henry VI, part 1, it and the Temple garden feature as the setting for the fictional scene of the plucking of two roses and the start of the 15th century Wars of the Roses. In 2002, this was commemorated with the planting of new white and red roses in the modern gardens.

Following a later agreement in 1608 by James I, the two Inns were granted the use of the church in perpetuity, and continue to use the Temple as their chapel, on condition that they supported and maintained the church.

The church was undamaged by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Nevertheless, it was refurbished by Christopher Wren, who made extensive modifications to the interior, including an altar screen and the introduction of an organ to the church for the first time. The church was restored again in 1841 by Smirke and Burton, who decorated the walls and ceiling in the high Victorian Gothic style, in an attempt to bring the church back to its original appearance.

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SECOND WORLD WAR

On May 10, 1941, a German air raid of incendiary bombs set the roof of the Round Church on fire, and the fire quickly spread to the nave and chapel. The organ and all the wood parts of the church, including the Victorian renovations, were destroyed and the dark Purbeck marble columns of the Chancel cracked from the intense heat. Although these columns still supported the vault, they were deemed unsound and replaced by replicas. The original columns had a light outward lean, an architectural quirk which was duplicated in the replacement columns.

During the renovation by the architect Walter Godfrey, it was discovered that the renovations made by Wren in the 17th century were in storage and they were replaced in their original position. The church was rededicated in November 1958.

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MUSIC AT THE TEMPLE CHURCH

The church offers regular choral music performances and organ recitals. It has had a number of famous organists, including Obadiah Shuttleworth (d.1734) and the blind organist and composer John Stanley (appointed by the Inner Temple in 1734). A choir in the English cathedral tradition was established at the Temple Church in 1842 under the direction of Dr. E. J. Hopkins, and it soon earned a high reputation. Hopkins was succeeded as organist and Director of the Choir in 1897 by Sir Henry Walford Davies. Walford Davies was in turn succeeded by Sir George Thalben-Ball who held the post from 1923 to 1982.

In 1927, the Temple Choir under Thalben-Ball became world famous with its recording of Mendelssohn's Hear my Prayer, including the solo "O for the Wings of a Dove" sung by Ernest Lough. This became one of the most popular recordings by a church choir of all time, and it sold strongly throughout the twentieth century, reaching gold disc status (a million copies) in 1962 and achieving an estimated 6 million sales to date.

Dr John Birch was appointed as Thalben-Ball's successor in 1982. Stephen Layton was Director of Music from 1997 to 2006, when he was succeeded by James Vivian.

The choir continues to record, broadcast and perform, in addition to its regular services at the Temple Church. It is an all-male choir, consisting of 18 boys educated at the City of London School with choral scholarships and 12 professional men. They perform weekly at Sunday services, 11:15-12:15 PM, including special services, such as the monthly communion service, held the last Sunday of every month. The choir gave the world premiere of Sir John Tavener's epic "The Veil of the Temple", which took place over seven hours during an overnight vigil in the Temple Church in 2003. The following year it was performed by the choir at the Lincoln Festival in New York; a concert version was performed at the BBC Proms the same year.

The church contains two organs: a chamber organ built by Robin Jennings in 2001, and a four manual Harrison & Harrison organ.

The Temple Church's excellent acoustics have also attracted secular musicians: Sir John Barbirolli recorded a famous performance of the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams there in 1962, and Paul Tortelier made his recording of the complete Bach Cello Suites there in 1983.

From Wikipedia.org

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