Temple Church, and cut Smith's bellows--so that on the
following morning his organ was of no more service than an old
linen-press. A row ensued; and in the ardor of debate swords were drawn.

In June, 1685, the benchers of the Middle Temple, made a written
declaration in favor of Father Smith, and urged that his organ should be
forthwith accepted. Strongly and rather discourteously worded, this
declaration gave offence to the benchers of the Inner Temple, who
regarded it as an attempt at dictation; and on June 22, 1685, they
recommended the appointment of another committee with powers to decide
the contest. Declining to adopt this suggestion, the Middle Temple
benchers reiterated their high opinion of Smith's instrument. On this
the Battle of the Organs became a squabble between the two Temples; and
the outside public, laughing over the quarrel of the lawyers, expressed
a hope that honest men would get their own since the rogues had fallen
out.

At length, when the organ-builders had well-nigh ruined each other, and
the town had grown weary of the dispute, the Inner Temple yielded
somewhere about the beginning of 1688--at an early date of which year
Smith received a sum of money in part payment for his organ. On May 27th
of the same year, Mr. Pigott was appointed organist. After its rejection
by the Temple, Renatus Harris divided his organ into two, and having
sent the one part to the cathedral of Christ's Church, Dublin, he set up
the other part in the church of St. Andrew, Holborn. Three years after
his disappointment, Renatus Harris was tried at the Old Bailey for a
political offence, the nature of which may be seen from the following
entry in Narcissus Luttrell's Diary:--"April, 1691. The Sessions have
been at the Old Bailey, where these persons, Renatus Harris, John Watts,
William Rutland, Henry Gandy, and Thomas Tysoe, were tried at the Old
Bailey for setting up policies of insurance that Dublin would be in the
hands of some other king than their present majesties by Christmas next:
the jury found them guilty of a misdemeanor." For this offence Renatus
Harris was fined L200, and was required to give security for his good
conduct until Christmas.

An erroneous tradition assigns to Lord Jeffreys the honor of bringing
the Battle of the Organs to a conclusion, and writers improving upon
this tradition, have represented that Jeffreys acted as sole umpire
between the contendants. In his 'History of Music,' Dr. Burney,