*/
Tomb and Temple: Re-imagining the Sacred Buildings of Jerusalem
Editor: Robin Griffith-Jones and Eric Fernie
Publisher: Boydell (May 2018)
ISBN: 9781783272808
For 800 years the Temple and its Church have been at the centre of England’s constitutional and legal life. If you walk down Inner Temple Lane or across Church Court, you will see the Round Church, built by the Knights Templar in 1160. It is one of the earliest Gothic buildings in England. It was modelled on the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built in the 4th century over the empty tomb acknowledged by Constantine to be the tomb of Christ. To be in the Round Church was, to the medieval imagination, to be in Jerusalem, the holiest place in the world.
The Temple was King John’s headquarters from 1214-15. It was here that the King, advised by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (who held the balance of power in England) and Brother Aymeric, Master of the Temple, began negotiations with the Barons that led to John putting his seal to Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215. William Marshal and Aymeric were later buried in the Temple, next to each other. William’s effigy still lies in the Temple in the Round together with his son, and younger brother Gilbert. The Temple Church was as much a representation of Jerusalem as a shrine to the Marshals and their royal connections.
The present Master of the Temple, The Reverend and Valiant Robin Griffith-Jones, has co-edited with Eric Fernie, formerly Director of the Courtauld, a magnificent collection of essays which explore how Jerusalem’s numinous buildings have been distinctively re-imagined and represented in the design, topography, decorations and dedications of some striking churches in Western Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Ethiopia, as well as at the Temple Church in the heart of legal London.
The essays in this richly illustrated book combine to do justice to these evocative buildings’ architecture, roles and history. As Griffith-Jones concludes somewhat wistfully in the epilogue as these buildings have survived, and perhaps with them ‘even in a time of dry disenchantment’, there is some recoverable sense of awe they were built to inspire and of the ages they were built to inform.
Reviewer The Revd Mark Hatcher is Reader of the Temple at the Temple Church in London and Special Adviser to the Chair of the Bar.
The Temple Church is generally open for visiting Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm. Choral matins (BCP) Sunday 11.15am; choral evensong (BCP) Wednesday 5.30pm (www.templechurch.com).
Mark Hatcher was Special Adviser to the Chair of the Bar until 2019. After working at the Law Commission and in the House of Lords, he became Head of Global Public Affairs at PwC. He is a Bencher of Middle Temple, as well as being a priest. He is Reader of the Temple.
For 800 years the Temple and its Church have been at the centre of England’s constitutional and legal life. If you walk down Inner Temple Lane or across Church Court, you will see the Round Church, built by the Knights Templar in 1160. It is one of the earliest Gothic buildings in England. It was modelled on the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built in the 4th century over the empty tomb acknowledged by Constantine to be the tomb of Christ. To be in the Round Church was, to the medieval imagination, to be in Jerusalem, the holiest place in the world.
The Temple was King John’s headquarters from 1214-15. It was here that the King, advised by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (who held the balance of power in England) and Brother Aymeric, Master of the Temple, began negotiations with the Barons that led to John putting his seal to Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215. William Marshal and Aymeric were later buried in the Temple, next to each other. William’s effigy still lies in the Temple in the Round together with his son, and younger brother Gilbert. The Temple Church was as much a representation of Jerusalem as a shrine to the Marshals and their royal connections.
The present Master of the Temple, The Reverend and Valiant Robin Griffith-Jones, has co-edited with Eric Fernie, formerly Director of the Courtauld, a magnificent collection of essays which explore how Jerusalem’s numinous buildings have been distinctively re-imagined and represented in the design, topography, decorations and dedications of some striking churches in Western Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Ethiopia, as well as at the Temple Church in the heart of legal London.
The essays in this richly illustrated book combine to do justice to these evocative buildings’ architecture, roles and history. As Griffith-Jones concludes somewhat wistfully in the epilogue as these buildings have survived, and perhaps with them ‘even in a time of dry disenchantment’, there is some recoverable sense of awe they were built to inspire and of the ages they were built to inform.
Reviewer The Revd Mark Hatcher is Reader of the Temple at the Temple Church in London and Special Adviser to the Chair of the Bar.
The Temple Church is generally open for visiting Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm. Choral matins (BCP) Sunday 11.15am; choral evensong (BCP) Wednesday 5.30pm (www.templechurch.com).
Tomb and Temple: Re-imagining the Sacred Buildings of Jerusalem
Editor: Robin Griffith-Jones and Eric Fernie
Publisher: Boydell (May 2018)
ISBN: 9781783272808
On both fronts – representing the Bar’s interests and protecting the rule of law
Kate West discusses how best to interpret a drug test report, and the common misconceptions about what can be learnt from a drug test
Ashley Hodgkinson looks at drug testing methods and some of the most common ways people try to cheat a drug test
Clerksroom Chambers has recruited Matthew Wildish from 3 Paper Buildings (3PB) to a newly created position of Director of Clerking. Matthew joined the team at Clerksroom on 1 June
... have you seen through yours? asks Julian Morgan
Opportunity for female sopranos/contraltos in secondary education, or who have recently finished secondary education but have not yet begun tertiary education. Eligibility includes children of members of the Bar
Clerksroom Chambers has recruited Matthew Wildish from 3 Paper Buildings (3PB) to a newly created position of Director of Clerking. Matthew joined the team at Clerksroom on 1 June
Ashley Hodgkinson looks at drug testing methods and some of the most common ways people try to cheat a drug test
Kate West discusses how best to interpret a drug test report, and the common misconceptions about what can be learnt from a drug test
