RELIGIOUS HOUSES were not very wealthy, and sometimes they same year as ' a very poor place,' and said proved a source of expense rather than of that instead of the £100 which the king had revenue. The chapel of Clapham in their asked for in his letter, he had only instructed own county, and the church of Marsworth in the prior to contribute £20 towards the loan Buckinghamshire must have cost the canons which was being collected from all the religi- a good deal of money. A part of the ous houses. 8 tithes from both of these had been granted to The prior, Thomas Dey, with six canons Osney Abbey at its foundation, 1 amounting and two lay brothers, subscribed to the Royal to a pension of 1 2 marks ; and from the first the canons of Caldwell seem to have made efforts to escape this payment. In 1279 2 they had to be ordered to pay it ' on pain of excommunication ' ; but in the beginning of the fourteenth century Hugh de Beauchamp, who was prior at the time, began a long series of suits with Osney on the same subject. 3 He was seemingly unsuccessful, for this pen- sion was still reckoned among the liabilities of the priory in 1535.* It was probably the pressure of poverty at this particular time that stirred the prior to make these efforts ; he was then rebuilding the con- ventual church, and only a few years be- fore Bishop Dalderby had granted a licence to the canons to beg alms for this purpose, as they were so poor. 6 Several chantries were granted at about the same time. The priory did not grow any richer as time went on. In 1 318 the canons parted with the advowson of Broughton church to the dean and chapter of Lincoln 7 ; and in 1525 with that of Sandy to Bishop Longland and his brother. 6 The bishop wrote of it in the 1 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 249. 2 Bodl. Lib. Oxon. Chart. Osney Abbey, No. 22. This charter is described in the calendar as referring to Canwell Priory ; but the name in the charter is ' Caldewelle,' and the mention in it of the tithes of Marsworth and Clopham makes the reference quite clear. It is addressed by the prior and sub-prior of St. Oswald's, Gloucester, to the dean of Bedford. In 1253 the chronicler of Dunstable notices that the canons secured the presentation to Marsworth, but gained nothing from the church {Ann. Mon. [Rolls Series], iii. 189). a Ibid. Beds Chart. 2-19; Beds R. i. The latter is dated 1322 ; and the name of Hugh de Beauchamp occurs frequently in the charters. The pension is called the ' ancient and accustomed pension,' and valued at 12 marks.
- Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 190. It was still
12 marks. 6 Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Dalderby, 176&. Licence to prior and convent of Caldwell to beg alms for the repair and rebuilding of their church on account of poverty. Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, f. 39d. Indulgence for the fabric of the convent- ual church, 1321. « Ibid. ; Inst. Dalderby, 302 ; Inst. Burghersh, 292, 294, 294d. ' Pat. n Edw. II. pt. 1, m. 8. « Had. Ch. 83, A 29. Supremacy in 1 535 10 ; and as the house had an income of only £109 8s. 5*/. 11 clear, it was surrendered under the act of 1536. 12 The visitation of Bishop Grosset£te in 1 249, when Prior Eudo fled to the Cister- cians, has been already alluded to. Bishop Buckingham visited the house in 1387 13 and reminded the canons, according to the custom of a visitation, of the duties of obedience, silence, assistance in choir, and proper ad- ministration of the goods of the monastery. He laid special stress on the necessity of in- structing the younger canons in song and in grammar, that they might be fit to perform the divine office. They were forbidden under pain of imprisonment and excom- munication to enter taverns in Bedford, or to visit the monastery of Elstow. Bishop Repingdon u repeated these injunc- tions not to go to Bedford, or to the abbey of Elstow on any pretext whatever ; and one of the canons was forbidden to go outside the cloister at all. The canons generally were not to drink anywhere but in the prior's presence, which seems to imply some laxity in this respect. When Bishop Grey I5 visited the priory he found John Wymington, the brother whom Bishop Repingdon had ordered to keep within the cloister, holding the office of sub-prior ; he had now to be deposed. There is nothing special in the injunctions of this time which » L. and P. Hen. V 11 I. iv. 1330. >° Rymer, Fcedera, vi. (2), 198. 11 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 190, 192. 12 L. and P. Hen. VIII. x. 1238. (List of those houses under £200 revenue.) The actual date of the surrender is not given, nor the pensions. 13 Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Buckingham, f. 342. With regard to Elstow, it should be remembered that the two houses were near together ; and also that in 13 18, when Hugh de Beauchamp became prior of Caldwell, Elizabeth de Beauchamp became abbess of Elstow. If these two were nearly related, it may have led to a certain amount of intercourse between the two houses, which would be natural enough, and yet call for some care and watchful- ness on the part of superiors. 11 Ibid. Memo. Repingdon, 232 (undated). " Ibid. Memo. Grey, 20od. Just before this the bishop had ordered the prior and convent to receive back an apostate canon who had repented. 383
