which the legal knowledge acquired at the Inn doubtless qualified them.
The period over which the Catalogue extends embraces exactly four centuries, extending back from the end of the past year (1901) to the year 1501, the date of the earliest of the Inn Registers. It is, of course, only reasonable to suppose that there were many distinguished Middle Templars before that time, but unfortunately no means exists of tracing any beyond a few of the judicial class, who have been identified from entries in the Year Books and other legal records. Tradition has, indeed, connected two of the most interesting names in English literature—those of John Gower (1325—1402) and Geoffrey Chaucer (1340—1400) with "the Temple," but there is nothing to show to which of the Inns (if either) they belonged. They are, therefore, excluded from the Catalogue[1].
- ↑ The writer of the Article on Chaucer in the Biographia Britannica makes him of the Middle Temple. Urry, in the Preface to the poet's works, places him in the Inner; but there is no authority for either statement. Other attempts have been made to attach him to the latter Inn, but the evidence is quite insufficient. The same is true as to Gower.
