Tradition has it that pilgrims travelling from Ireland on pilgrimage to the holy land were in the habit of avoiding the hazards of sailing round lands end, by going up the Padstow estuary probably as far as Wadbridge maybe further and then overland to the Fowey river. Padstow was an important port, and Fowey probably the busiest harbour on the south coast. So it is probable that the Knights Templar built their church and refuge on the moor to accommodate travellers who passed this wild stretch of country on their way to the Holy Land.
When the Knights Templar was suppressed the site was take over by the Knights Hospitaller. The Church dedicated to St Catherine became a famous place where marriages could be performed without banns or license. it is referred to by John Norden who visited it in 1584 as "a lawless church where manie badd marriages are consumated and where are wonte to be buried such as wrowght violent death on themselves" thus reminding us that in his day those who had committed suicide might not be buried in consecrated ground.
Many runaway couples must have eloped across the moor before the act was passed in 1753 declaring such marriages illegal.
Unfortunately the old registers were lost, and as a result of the act Temple lost its passing congregation and presumably a fruitful source of income, and soon fell into disuse. No services were held for more than a century and sometime during those years the roof caved in killing a tramp who was sheltering inside.