ABSTRACT
Sophia Menache observed in her article "Contemporary attitudes concerning the Templars' affair" that local chroniclers in England "supported the French version of the Templars' heresy," although King Edward and his prelates did not. The chroniclers in question included a continuation of Matthew Paris's Flores Historiarum written at Tintern Abbey, near to the Templars' commandery of Garway in the Welsh March, which the chronicler accurately describes as 'next to Grosmont', indicating local knowledge. This chapter reviews records of chapel contents from sixty Templar chapels and churches in England and Ireland. Most chapels in England and Ireland had a collection of altar cloths and some also had "tapets," carpets or hangings, and lenten veils. Bisham had a silk cloth for the altar with golden stripes, a white silk cloth, a linen sheet with a red cross, a golden cloth which the initial inventory described as "Damaskyne" and the enrolled account called "Baudekin," and two banners.
