TEMPLE, Templum, a public building erected in honour of some deity, either true or false; and in which the people meet for the purpose of religious worship. The word is formed from the Latin templum, which some derive from the Greek ῥύμος, signifying the same thing. The word templum, in its primary sense among the old Romans, signified nothing more than a place set apart and consecrated by the augurs, whether enclosed or open, in the city or in the fields. Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius refer the origin of temples to the sepulchres built for the dead. This notion has been illustrated and confirmed by a variety of testimonies by Mr Farmer in his Treatise on the Worship of Human Spirits, p. 373, &c. Herodotus and Strabo represent the Egyptians as the first who built temples to the gods. The first erected in Greece is ascribed to Deucalion, by Apollonius, Argonaut. lib. iii. Some ancient people performed their sacrifices in all places indifferently, from a persuasion that the whole world is the temple of God, and that he required no other. This was the doctrine of the magi, followed by the Persians, the Scythians, the Numidians, and many other nations mentioned by Herodotus, lib. i., Strabo, lib. xv., and Cicero in his second oration against Verres. The Persians, who worshipped the sun, believed it would wrong his power to enclose him within the
walls of a temple, who had the whole world for his habitation; and hence, when Xerxes ravaged Greece, the magi exhorted him to destroy all the temples he met with. The Sicyonians would build no temple to their goddess Coronis; nor the Athenians, for the like reason, erect any statue to Clemency, who, they said, was to live in the hearts of men, not within stone walls. The Bithynians had no temples but the mountains; nor had the ancient Germans any other but the woods. Even some philosophers have blamed the use and building of temples, particularly Diogenes, Zeno, and his followers the Stoics. But it may be said, that if God has no need of temples, men have need of places to meet in for the public offices of religion; and accordingly temples may be traced back even into the remotest antiquity. See Hospinian De Origine Templorum.
The Romans had several kinds of temples. Those built by the kings, &c. consecrated by the augurs, and in which the exercise of religion was regularly performed, were called, by way of eminence, templa. Those that were not consecrated were called edes. The little temples that were covered or roofed they called adictulae; those open, vacella. Some other edifices, consecrated to particular mysteries of religion, they called fana and delubra. All these kinds of temples, Vitruvius tells us, had other particular denominations, according to the form and manner of their construction. The Romans indeed surpassed all nations with regard to temples: they not only built temples to their gods, to their virtues, to their diseases, &c., but also to their emperors, and that in their life-time. These particulars are sufficiently ascertained from medals, inscriptions, and other monuments. Horace compliments Augustus, and sets him above Hercules and all the heroes of fable; because those were only admitted into temples after their death, whereas Augustus had his temples and altars while living. Epist. ad Aug.
Presenti tibi maturos largimur honores,
Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras.
Suetonius gives an instance of the modesty of that emperor, who would allow of no temples being erected to him in the city; and who, even in the provinces, where he knew it was usual to raise temples to the very proconsuls, refused any but those erected in the name of Rome as well as his own. The most celebrated temples among the Romans were the Capitol and Pantheon. The temple of Saturn served for the public treasury.
The temple at Jerusalem was similar in its plan to the Tabernacle. The first temple was begun by Solomon about the year of the world 2992, and before Christ 1012 according to some chronologists, and finished in eight years. Great mistakes have been committed respecting the dimensions of this temple, by confounding the emblematical description of Ezekiel with the plain account of it in the books of King and Chronicles. It consisted of the holy of holies, the sanctuary, and a portico. The holy of holies was a square room of twenty cubits; the sanctuary, or holy place, was forty cubits long and twenty broad, consequently the length of both these together was sixty cubits. The portico, which stood before the sanctuary, was twenty cubits long and ten cubits broad. Whether the portico was separated by a wall from the rest of the temple is not mentioned in Scripture. If it was, the whole length of the temple, computing the cubit at twenty-two inches, did not exceed 110 feet in length and thirty-six feet eight inches in breadth. In the portico stood the two brazen pillars called Jachin and Boaz; which, upon comparing and reconciling the seemingly different accounts in different places, appear to have been forty cubits high, and about four cubits diameter. The court probably at first extended all round the temple. We are informed that the court about the tabernacle was 100 cubits long and fifty broad;
and as Solomon made every part of the temple about twice as large as the corresponding part in the tabernacle, we have reason to conclude that the court around the temple was 200 cubits long and 100 broad. According to this description, which is taken from the Scripture history, the temple of Solomon was by no means so large as it is commonly represented. Still, however, it was very magnificent in size and splendid in ornament. It was plundered of its treasures in the reign of Rehoboam, and repaired by Josiah: it was again spoiled in the time of Ahaz and of Hezekiah; and after being restored by Josiah, was demolished by Nebuchadnezzar in the year of the world 3416, after it had stood 476 according to Josephus, and according to Usher 428 years.
The second temple was built by the Jews, after their return from the Babylonish captivity, under the direction and influence of Zerubbabel their governor, and of Joshua the high priest, with the leave and encouragement of Cyrus the Persian emperor, to whom Judea had now become a tributary kingdom. According to the Jews, this temple was destitute of five remarkable appendages, which were the chief glory of the first temple; the ark and mercy-seat, the Shechinah, the holy fire on the altar, which had been first kindled from heaven, the urim and thummim, and the spirit of prophecy. This temple was plundered and profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, who also caused the public worship in it to cease. It was afterwards purified by Judas Maccabeus, who restored the divine worship; and after having stood 500 years, was rebuilt by Herod, with a magnificence approaching to that of Solomon's. Tacitus calls it "immense opulentia templum;" and Josephus states that it was the most astonishing structure he had ever seen, as well on account of its architecture as its magnitude, and likewise the richness and magnificence of its various parts, and the reputation of its sacred appurtenances. This temple, which Herod began to build about sixteen years before the birth of Christ, and so far completed in nine years and a half as to be fit for divine service, was at length destroyed by the Romans on the same month and day of the month on which Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.
TEMPLES among us denote two inns of court in London, thus called because anciently the dwelling-house of the knights templars. At the suppression of that order, they were purchased by the professors of the common law, and converted into hospitia or inns. They are called the Inner and Middle Temple, in relation to Essex-house; which was also a part of the house of the templars, and called the Outer Temple, because situated without Temple-Bar.
TEMPORALITIES or BISHOPS, are the revenues, lands, tenements, and lay-fees, belonging to bishops, as they are barons and lords of parliament.