Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/438

A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE the marriage between Henry VIII. and Catherine of Aragon to be null and void. 1 In 1535 the prior, Gervase Markham, with twelve canons, signed the acknowledgment of the Royal Supremacy, 2 and on 20 January 1540-1, he surrendered his house to the king and received a pension of £6o. 3 There were only thirteen at this time be- sides the prior ; eleven canons and two lay brothers ; in the early days there were pro- bably more, though never a very large num- ber. Between the years 1223 and 1275 only twenty-five admissions to the novitiate are recorded, 4 and thirteen deaths ; but the entries were perhaps not always made with equal care, and the entrance of lay brothers was not noticed at all. 6 Besides the religi- ous there were a number of other inmates of the priory ; a ' new house for the carpenters and wheelwrights within the court ' was built in 1250 8 ; there was accommodation also for the chaplains of the monastery, and for boarders who had bought corrodies, as well as pensioners in the almonry. The porter of the great gate was sometimes a secular, 7 un- like the custom of Benedictine houses. 6 1 Rymer, Feeder a, vi. (2), 182-3. 1 Ibid. 202. » L. and P. Hen. VIII. xv. 1032 (333, 350b). 4 In Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. s They are mentioned however often in the annals : one was killed in defence of the rights of his brethren by the men of the prior of La Grave (ibid. 213), and one of them, ' Brother John the Carpenter,' once invented a new mill, ' novae struc- ture et exterius inauditae,' which was to be drawn by only one horse ; but when they began to use it, four strong horses could scarce move it ! (ibid. 402). « Ibid. 183. Several other handicrafts were practised by the canons and their dependants. In 1255 a canon made three windows for Step- pingley church (ibid. 197), and in 1283 it is stated ' we made a clock over the pulpit ' (ibid. 296). 7 The porter in 1287 must have been a secular, as he was asked by the canons to buy a house and prevent the Dominicans extending their boun- daries (ibid. 338), and had an anniversary granted him after his death in 1291 (ibid. 371). 8 The account of a disturbance caused by the quartering of some of the king's falconers on the priory in 1276 gives a curious picture of the house in the thirteenth century. The king was staying in the neighbourhood, and his men were quartered partly on the townsmen of Dunstable and partly on the priory. In the evening the party from the priory went out after supper and joined their fellows in the town, and after wandering about in a riotous fashion, they returned to the priory. The monks, who had all retired for the night, were awakened suddenly in the dormitory by a clamour in the court. The falconers had just burst in (probably half intoxicated) after beating There can be no doubt of the good order of the house during the time of Richard dc Morins ; he would scarcely have been chosen twice to visit other houses unless he had ruled his own with care and diligence. During his forty years of office canons of Dunstable were at least five times elected priors to other monas- teries of the order — at Caldwell, St. Frides- wide's, Ashby and Coldnorton." Bishop Grossetete visited the house once in 1236, not so much to inquire into the daily life of the priory as to investigate its title to several appropriate churches ; but he exacted an oath on this occasion from all the canons individually, and one of them fled to Wo- burn rather than submit to it. 10 The bishop came again in 1248, while Geof- frey of Barton was prior ; when the cellarer, accused by many, fled before his coming to Merivale 11 ; but he does not seem to have found fault with the convent in general, and his next visit in 1250 was for purposes of his own. 12 Archbishop Boniface came in 1253, but made no complaint. 13 In 1274 Bishop Gravesend sent a canon of Lincoln to visit Dunstable, who left his corrections in writing 14 ; and in Advent of the same year he made a personal visitation. 15 In November of 1279 Bishop Sutton came and discharged his office ' strictly and without respect of persons.' The sub-prior and certain others were re- moved from their charge, and forbidden to hold office in future, and certain ' less useful members ' of the household expelled ; in May of the following year he deposed the prior, William le Breton, from all pastoral care. 16 It seems most likely that these depositions were on account of mismanagement rather than for any personal failings ; the great necessity and heavy debts of the house called for stringent measures, and William le Breton had shown himself (like Abbot Richard of the porter and knocking down every one who re- sisted them : they even went so far as to kill one of the chaplains of the monastery, and handled some of the brethren so roughly that the prior had the great bell rung and summoned the townspeople to the rescue. They came very readily, having their own grudge against the falconers, and the prior had at last to defend his enemies against his friends, for fear of incurring the king's displeasure (ibid. 273). » See account of Caldwell Priory, and Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 144. 10 Ibid. 152. « Ibid. 178. >» Ibid. 182. a Ibid. 190. i» Ibid. 264. is Ibid. 267. •» Ibid. 283. 374