35$ TUB TKMPLE. tUe spite they bore to Robert Hales, Master of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, and burnt many deeds which the lawyers there had in their custody. (" Quibus perpetrati», satis nialittose etiain locum qui vocatur Temple Barre, in quo apprenticii juris morabantur nobUiores, diruerunt, ob irara quant conceperant contra Robertuin de Hales Magistrali) Hospitalis Sancti Johannis Jerusalem, ubi plura mnnimenta, quce Juridici in custodia habue runt, igne consuinpta sunt." * In a subsequent passage, however, he gives us a better clue to the attack upon the Temple, and the burning of the deeds and writings, for he tells us that it was the intention of the rebels to decapitate all the lawyers, for they thought that by destroying them they could put an end to the law, and so be enabled to order matters according to their own will and pleasure. (" Ad decollandum omnes juridicos, eseaetores, et universos qui vel in lege docti fuere, vel cum jure ratione officii coinmunicavere. Mente nempe conceperant, doctis in lege necatis, universa juxta communis plebis scitum de estero ordinare, et nullam omuino legem fore futuram, vel si futura foret, esse pro suorum arbitrio statuenda," It is evident that the lawyers were the immediate successors of the Knights Templars in the occupation of the Temple, as the lessees of the earl of Lancaster. Whilst the Templars were pining in captivity in the dungeons of London and of York, king Edward the Second paid to their servants and retainers the pensions they bad previously re ceived from the treasury of the Temple, on condition that they continued to perform the services and duties they had rendered to their antient masters. On the 26th of November, A.D . 1311, he granted to Robert Styfford, clerk, for his maintenance in the house of the Temple at London, two deniers a day, and five * IWiin;. 4 Rie. Î. ad aim. I3R1. Hist. p. 249, ed. 1603.