Honourable Society of the Middle Temple

	HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE Institutional Heraldry of the World: United Kingdom England

Official blazon
English	Argent, on a cross gules a Paschal Lamb supporting a banner Or.

Origin/meaning

The arms were officially granted on March 9, 1949.

The arms of the Middle Temple seem to have been brought into use during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

The paschal lamb is the emblem of St. John the Baptist. The lamb with pennon was long the badge of the Knights Templar, whose remarkable Order combining priestly and military characters was founded about 1118, and the arms of the Middle Temple combine this badge with the arms used by the English arms of St. George.

The Knights Templar removed from Holborn to the banks of the Thames in 1185 and they built the famous Temple Church. After the abolition of the Order in 1312, Edward II gave their property to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. On the death of the earl, the Knights Hospitaller (or Knights of St. John) became the owners, and they leased the property to the doctors and students of the law, who have held it ever since, King James I having in 1609 abandoned his rights in favour of the two societies of the Inner and Middle Temple, the names of which tell us that there was formerly an Outer Temple, and even today an office block near Temple Bar bears the name of Outer Temple.

Literature: Bretton, 1957