In 1608, by letters patent, James I of England granted the Honourable Societies of the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple the freehold of the Temple lands. The 400th anniversary of this royal charter is being celebrated throughout 2008 with a multi-disciplinary festival.
The 1608 charter imposed a number of conditions on Inner and Middle Temple in order that they retain the freehold in perpetuity: the accommodation and legal training of students, the maintenance of the Temple Church as a place of worship and the provision of lodging for its Master.
It also marks the beginning of the modern Bar, founded on the relationship between the two learned societies, their property in the Inns and the barristers who lived and worked there. The Inner and Middle Temple are two of the four Inns of Court to which English barristers must belong before they can be called to the English bar. Over the years, there have also been many barristers called to the English bar by the two Inns who have subsequently gone to practice in other parts of the world; some have become statesmen. Mahatma Gandhi is perhaps the best known of all.
This significant anniversary in the history of the Inns will be marked by a year of celebration and rededication to their fundamental aims of:
- Legal education, collegiality and sustaining the Temple Church as required by King James
- Working to maintain the rule of law within society
- Contributing to the standards of the legal system
- Fostering the common law throughout the world
Famous quotes containing the words temple and/or festival:
“The same indignation that is said to have cleared the temple once will clear it again. The question is not about the weapon, but the spirit in which you use it. No man has appeared in America, as yet, who loved his fellow-man so well, and treated him so tenderly. He lived for him. He took up his life and he laid it down for him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed; all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 16:16,17.