Temple
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Looking northwards down the village street | |
Location within Midlothian | |
OS grid reference | NT315587 |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | GOREBRIDGE |
Postcode district | EH23 |
Dialling code | 01875 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Temple (Scottish Gaelic : Baile nan Trodach) [1] is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, Scotland. Situated to the south of Edinburgh, the village lies on the east bank of the river South Esk.
The civil parish has a population of 225 (in 2011). [2]
The name "Temple" refers to its historical connection to the Knights Templar. In 1237, the town name was recorded as "Ballentrodoch", from the Scottish Gaelic Baile nan Trodach, which means "town of the warriors", again a reference to the Knights Templar. [3]
Historically the Parish of Temple was divided into three portions, the ancient parish of Clerkington, and the chapelries of Moorfoot and Balantrodach. Clerkington was a parsonage held by the monks of Newbattle Abbey, Moorfoot was a chapelry founded by monks from the same institution. Balantrodach on the other hand, was a chapelry of the Knights Templar.
In 1128, Hugues de Payens, the first Grand Master, met with David I in Scotland and was granted the lands of Balantrodach. [4] [5] In 1128, the Council of Troyes formally recognized the Order. Balantrodach became their principal Templar seat and preceptory in Scotland until the suppression of the order between 1307 and 1312. As Temple, being just to the south of the Firth of Forth, was an area of the country occupied by England at this time, knights were prosecuted, but not all were found guilty. [6] Nearby to the north, politics was even more on their side – Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated, and so was not required to follow papal commands , and at war with England, it has been suggested that he may have been welcoming to powerful and desperate allies. [7]
Following 1312 and the Papal bull (edict) entitled Ad providam , King Edward II of England abolished the Templars in both England and Scotland. According to the edict, all Knight Templar property was to be seized and handed over to the control of the Knights Hospitaller, who had a preceptory at Torphichen in West Lothian. Although he was located in Scotia, north of the Firth of Forth, Robert the Bruce, being under interdict at the time, was reluctant to do so. [6]
Many Templar Knights may have assimilated within the Hospitallers. But it's not necessarily the case that the Templars everywhere immediately ceased to be. Indeed, North of the Firth, in Scotland the Order combined with the Hospitallers and continued as The Order of St John and the Temple until the reformation. [8]
"Legend has it that treasure of the Knights Templar was removed secretly from Paris, to be hidden in Temple. A local legend states: 'Twixt the oak and the elm tree/You will find buried the millions free.' French legends about the Templar treasure apparently also state that the treasure was taken to Scotland, with the knights landing on the Isle of May, the first island they would encounter in the Firth of Forth. Geographically, this would take them to the mouth of the river Esk, which could take them on to Rosslyn..." [6]
Following the Reformation the present parish was formed from the three older divisions. In 1618, it took its name Temple from the preceptory chapel which had by then become the parish kirk.
In the following centuries Temple became a bustling agricultural village, but in recent years it has become a dormitory village for nearby Edinburgh. The current Church was funded by Thomas Creak whose family were leading figures in Temple in the 1820/30s and earlier. The family owned two houses in Temple but also owned a large farming property in Eccles, Berwickshire.
Temple has two large houses in the vicinity:
Midlothian is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders.
Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, Lord of Roslin was a Scottish and a Norwegian nobleman. Sinclair held the title Earl of Orkney and was Lord High Admiral of Scotland under the King of Scotland. He was sometimes identified by another spelling of his surname, St. Clair. He was the grandfather of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel. He was best known today because of a modern legend that he took part in explorations of Greenland and North America almost 100 years before Christopher Columbus. William Thomson, in his book The New History of Orkney, wrote: "It has been Earl Henry's singular fate to enjoy an ever-expanding posthumous reputation which has very little to do with anything he achieved in his lifetime."
Rosslyn Chapel, formerly known as the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, is a 15th-century chapel located in the village of Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland.
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The Knights Templar, full name The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, is a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a regular Masonic Lodge, which only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in Christianity. One of the obligations entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect and defend the Christian faith. The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple, the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.
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There are Masonic degrees named after the Knights Templar but not all Knights Templar Orders are Masonic.
In 1128, the cousin of St Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugues de Payens, met King David I in Scotland. The Order established a seat at Balantrodoch, now Temple, Midlothian on the South Esk. In 1189, Alan FitzWalter, the 2nd Lord High Steward of Scotland was a benefactor of the Order.
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Willoughton Preceptory was a holding of the Knights Templar in Lincolnshire, England. The preceptory stood at the farm still called Temple Garth.
Temple Hirst Preceptory was a priory in North Yorkshire, England.
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