Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wales, a person must belong to one of these Inns. It is located in the wider Temple area, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. As a liberty, it functions largely as an independent local government authority.
The Inn is a professional body that provides legal training, selection, and regulation for members. It is ruled by a governing council called "Parliament", made up of the Masters of the Bench, and led by the Treasurer, who is elected to serve a one-year term. The Temple takes its name from the Knights Templar, who originally leased the land to the Temple's inhabitants. The Inner Temple was a distinct society from at least 1388, although as with all the Inns of Court its precise date of founding is not known. After a disrupted early period it flourished, becoming the second-largest Inn during the Elizabethan period.
The Inner Temple expanded during the reigns of James I and Charles I, with 1,700 students admitted between 1600 and 1640. The First English Civil War's outbreak led to a complete suspension of legal education, with the Inns close to being shut down for almost four years. Following the English Restoration the Inner Templars welcomed Charles II back to London personally with a lavish banquet.
After a period of slow decline in the 18th century, the following 100 years saw a restoration of the Temple's fortunes, with buildings constructed or restored, such as the Hall and the Library. Much of this work was destroyed during The Blitz, when the Hall, Temple, Temple Church, and many sets of barristers' chambers were devastated. Rebuilding was completed in 1959, and today the Temple is an active Inn of Court with over 8,000 members.
Role
The Inner Temple is one of the four Inns of Court, along with Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, and the Middle Temple. The Inns are responsible for training, regulating, and selecting barristers within England and Wales, and are the only bodies allowed to call a barrister to the Bar and allow him or her to practice.The Inner Temple is an independent, unincorporated organisation, and works as a trust. It has approximately 8,000 members and around 450 apply to join per year. Although the Inn was previously a disciplinary and teaching body, these functions are now shared between the four Inns, with the Bar Standards Board acting as a disciplinary body and the Inns of Court and Bar Educational Trust providing education.
History
The Knights Templar and the founding of the Inner Temple
The history of the Inner Temple begins in the early years of the reign of Henry II, when the contingent of Knights Templar in London moved from the Old Temple in Holborn to a new location on the banks of the River Thames, stretching from Fleet Street to what is now Essex House. The original Temple covered much of what is now the northern part of Chancery Lane, which the Knights created to provide access to their new buildings. The old Temple eventually became the London palace of the Bishop of Lincoln. After the Reformation it became the home of the Earl of Southampton, and the location is now named Southampton Buildings. The first group of lawyers came to live here during the 13th century, although as legal advisers to the Knights rather than as a society. The Knights fell out of favour, and the order was dissolved in 1312, with the land seized by the king and later granted to the Knights Hospitaller. The Hospitallers probably did not live on the property, but rather used it as a source of revenue through rent.The secular, common law lawyers migrated to the hamlet of Holborn, as it was easy to get to the law courts at Westminster Hall and was just outside the City.
Two groups occupied the Hospitaller land, and became known as the "inner inn" and the "middle inn". These became the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, and were distinct societies by 1388, when they are mentioned in a year book. The Hospitallers leased the land to the Inner Temple for £10 a year, with students coming from Thavie's Inn to study there.
Early years
There are few records of the Inner Temple from the 14th and 15th centuries—indeed, from all the societies, although Lincoln's Inn's records stretch back to 1422. The Temple was sacked by Wat Tyler and his rebels during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, with buildings pulled down and records destroyed. John Stow wrote that, after breaking into Fleet Prison, the rebels:went to the Temple to destroy it, and plucked down the houses, tooke off the tyles of the other buildings left; went to the churche, tooke out all the bookes and remembrances that were m the hatches of the prentices of the law, carried them into the high street, and there burnt them. This house they spoyled for wrathe they bare to the prior of St. John's, unto whom it belonged, and, after a number of them had sacked this Temple, what with labour and what with wine being overcome, they lay down under the walls and housing,, and were slain like swyne, one of them killing another for old grudge and hatred, and others also made quick dispatch of them. A number of them that burnt the Temple went from thence to the Savoy, destroying in their way all the houses that belonged to the Hospital of St. John.
John Baker thinks that the inhabitants took the opportunity to rebuild much of the Temple, and that this was when the Temple's Hall was built, since it contained 14th century roofing that would not have been available to the Knights Templar. The Inns of Court were similarly attacked in Jack Cade's rebellion, although there are no specific records showing damage to the Inner Temple.
The Hospitallers' properties were confiscated and given to Henry VIII by a statute of 1539/40. The Benchers of the Inn then attorned to the crown and were tenants until 1608. Following a Scotsman's request to purchase the land, the Inner and Middle Temples appealed to James I, who granted the land to a group of noted lawyers and Benchers, including Henry Montague and Sir Julius Caesar, and to "their heirs and assignees for ever" on the condition that the Inner and Middle Temples each paid him £10 a year.
Elizabethan age
The Elizabethan age saw a large amount of rebuilding and beautification within the Temple, and with over 100 sets of chambers it was the second largest Inn, with 155 residential students reported in 1574.In winter 1561, the Inner Temple was the scene of an extraordinary set of revels that celebrated the raising of Robert Dudley as the Temple's "Christmas Prince", a role he was granted in gratitude for his intervention in a dispute with the Middle Temple over Lyon's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery that had historically been tied to the Inner Temple. Dudley's influence swayed Elizabeth into asking Nicholas Bacon to rule in favour of the Inner Temple, and in gratitude the Parliament and Governors swore never to take a case against Dudley and to offer him their legal services whenever required.
This pledge was always honoured, and in 1576 the Inner Temple Parliament referred to Dudley as the "chief governor of this House". The play was partially documented by Gerard Legh in his Accedens of Armory, a book of heraldry woodcuts, which described Dudley's role as Prince Pallaphilos, the lieutenant of Athena and Patron of the Order of the Pegasus.
Seventeenth century
The Inner Temple continued to expand during the reigns of James I and Charles I, with 1,700 students admitted to the Inn between 1600 and 1640. The outbreak of the First English Civil War led to a complete suspension of legal education, with the Inns almost shut down for nearly four years; the Inns "suffered a mortal collapse". Nothing was done to adapt the old system of legal education, which was declining anyway, to the new climate of internal war. After the end of the Civil War, the old system was not restored; Readers refused to read and both barristers and Benchers refused to follow the internal regulations. The last reading at Inner Temple was made in 1678.Following the English Restoration, the Inner Temple welcomed Charles II back to London with a lavish banquet on 15 August 1661. The banquet was hosted by Sir Heneage Finch, the Speaker of the House of Commons and was attended by the King, four Dukes including the Duke of York, fourteen Earls of England, Scotland and Ireland, 6 Lords and the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The group proceeded from Whitehall on the King's barge, landed at the Temple and walked through the Temple Garden surrounded by all the Benchers, barristers and servants of the Temple, fifty of whom brought a lavish feast for the revellers. At the start of the next legal term, two Dukes including the Duke of York, two Earls and two Lords were admitted as members, and the Duke of York was called to the Bar and made an honorary Bencher.
During the rule of the House of Stuart, much was done by the Court of Star Chamber to enforce religious edicts against Catholicism within the Inner Temple. An order was sent directly to the Benchers proclaiming that no "pson eyther convented or suspected for papistrye shulde be called eyther to the benche or to the barre", and at the same time Benchers were selected specifically because of their Protestant beliefs, with popular and successful Catholics held back.
This period also features an example of the independent standing of the Temple; in 1668 the Lord Mayor of London attempted to enter the Temple with his sword, something that was his right in the City but not permitted within the Temple. The students took his sword and forced him to spend the night in a set of chambers; when he escaped and tried to return, they called the Trained Bands. The Mayor complained to the King, who heard the case on 7 April 1669 and decided to allow it to be determined by law rather than by his royal privilege; the lawyers returned to the principle that the Temple could set its own internal rules on the right to carry swords.
Much of the Inn was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and extensive damage was done in other fires in 1677 and 1678. One of these fires destroyed Caesar's Buildings, on Middle Temple Lane where Lamb Buildings now stand, and the site was purchased by Middle Temple from Inner Temple, which needed the proceeds to repair or rebuild other buildings.