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The Church serves both the Inner and
Middle Temple, who own the freehold and are jointly
responsible for its upkeep, though it has the status of
a royal peculiar rather than a private chapel. The
incumbent, known since the fourteenth century as the
Master of the Temple, is appointed by the Crown, this
right of appointment having been reserved when the
Church was granted to the two Inns in 1608. As a
peculiar, the Church is outside any episcopal or
archiepiscopal jurisdiction; and the Master therefore
takes his place by patent, without induction or
institution. The Master is entitled to a house, provided
at the cost of the two societies. There is also a
Reader, appointed by one of the two inns by turns.

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The Round. Engraved by E. I. Roberts,
1816.
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The Church has a strong musical
tradition, brought to wide public notice under the long
directorships of Sir Walford Davies (organist 1898-1923)
and Sir George Thalben Ball (organist 1923-82). The old
organ, destroyed in the Blitz, was made after a fierce
building competition which was adjudicated upon by Lord
Chancellor Jeffreys, a former bencher of the Inner
Temple.
Members of the Inner Temple
traditionally sit on the south side of the Church, the
southern half being assigned to the Inn under the 1732
deed of partition. The custom was relied on by the Inn
in former times as indicating its precedence over the
Middle Temple: a disputed claim which has long ceased to
possess any significance. It also explains the
inscriptions on the outside and inside of the Round,
which record the restoration of the south side by the
Inner Temple in 1827, when John Gurney was Treasurer.
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