Volume II 1603-1660 - The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

d welve es afterwards Reeves years was reader baron appointed of of evening the his Exchequer, prayer place to in
xcvi INTRODUCTION.
Littletons was not confined to the inns of court. Many of them
held high positions in the church, and, in 1640, Timothy Littleton, a
was called by the king to be a serjeant-at-law before he had been
elected a bencher by his inn.' About this time also the Rev. Amos
the church at a stipend of ,4-5 per annum, retired from his post, and
in recognition of his long services received from each society a free
read the evening service, and received the same stipend. The staff
vol. i., p. lxi of the church during this and the preceding reign consisted of a
master, appointed by the crown, and receiving from each inn ,0 i 3s. 4d.
per annum, L20 from the exchequer, a house, and certain benefits
of doubtful amount, as appears from the clerk's book ; a lecturer
at ,4-40 per annum from each society, and a minister or reader of
evening prayer at L5 per annum from each society. The clerk's
wages were ,4-1 6s. 8d. a year from each inn, and sundry other
advantages. Among these was a payment of los. a year for going
through the courts and ringing the little bell before divine service.
As morning and evening prayer was said daily during this period,
the staff was probably not in excess of the requirements.
I have endeavoured to recall the internal appearance of the
Temple church during the short time that Dr. Littleton was master,
when Laud was at the head of the clergy and of the church of
England, and before the long parliament had striven to remove the
last vestige of pre-reformation ritual. For this purpose I have
examined the printed records now before the bench, the notes and
memoranda in the miscellaneous papers of the society, the very few
contemporaneous references to be found in the reports of the Historical
MSS. Commission, and the entries in the burial registers of the ino from
the year 1628. These are the earliest of such records in our possession.
They give in many cases the exact position of the several inhumations,
and indicate to some extent the structural arrangements of the
church.' From these various sources it would appear that the oblong
portion of the church was divided into three parts. First, the altar,
or altars, with the steps below them ; then a cross-aisle with a small
Bar in the text should be Bench.
Those entries will he found in the Appendix.