130 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
we can still see at this location the House of the Temple designated as
such by name, on the rue des Barres. The maps of Truschet (1551) and
Nicolay (1609) depict at this spot abutting Saint Gervais a large build-
ing with two facades, one facing the rue de Longport (the rue de Brosse
today) and the other overlooking the rue des Barres.* In reference this
property is often referred to as Old Temple, Small Temple, or Hotel of
the Garrison. Its division into parcels prompted a legal action between
the church wardens of Saint Gervais and the grand prior of Malta, act-
ing in the name of the "Noble Lords of the Temple." The subsequent
trial ended in an agreement following two acts of Parliament on
February 6 and 24, 1618.+ The house, rebuilt in 1623, was demolished
in 1945.
Following the transfer of its seat, the Temple retained its port, mills,
and barns in the Barres area. In 1250 the road was called the ruelle aux
Moulins des Barres; in 1293, the ruelle des Moulins du Temple; then the
rue Barres or Barris. Historical dictionaries of Paris remain mute on the
origin of this name, though it is possible that it derives from Evrard des
Barres or Barris, who was grand master of the Temple from 1146 to
1149, the exact time a general chapter of the Order existed in this area.
In the middle of the thirteenth century, a large building, the Hotel
des Barres, was erected on the rue des Barres, occupying a large site on
what is now the corner of rue des Barres and rue de l'Hotel de Ville.
Remnants of this Hotel des Barres are still in existence: At number 56
of rue de l'Hotel de Ville (the former rue de la Mortellerie), we can see
a strange ogive-shaped cavern in two bays. One of the arch keystones
adorning the first bay is adorned with a crest that includes a cross; the
keystone of the second bay is decorated with a rose window with a
leafy border.^40
In three parishes with confused borders—Saint Paul, Saint Gervais,
and Saint Jean en Greve—the number of properties owned by the
- J. Hillairet is mistaken in his assumption that the first Templar establishment was
slightly more to the north, at the site of the Napoleon Barracks (J. Hillairet, Evocation
du vieux Paris, 134), an opinion he borrowed from Rochegude and Dumolin, 71 and
- For more on this topic, see also C. Piton, La + Cite (1911), 105-76.
Probst-Biraben (Les Mysteres des Templiers, 165-67) sees in "these Noble Lords of the
Temple" a survival of the Templars in the form of a third order, whereas they were sim-
ply the Knights Hospitallers.