Note 150 — Chapter III

It was suggested that Villiers might have been entered at the Middle Temple, but of that circumstance there is no evidence. “Not knowing the sacred antiquitie of anie of their houses, the chronicler set downe their names in the same order as that in which they were presented to his Majestie.” See Nichols, iii. 213, from Howe’s Chronicle. It is well known that in former times only men of gentle birth were entitled to be entered as students of law in the Temple—a relic of the statutes maintained in strict force by the Knights’ Templars.