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A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE time of the dissolution it seems that there were only two prioresses l instead of the three prescribed by the rule ; but there is no means of finding out whether this was only an accident or whether it was a change of custom. The Gilbertines were exempt from episcopal visitation ; and beyond a few grants of indulgences for their chapels and altars, no mention is made of Chicksand in the Lincoln registers. 2 The argument from silence is not a very valuable one ; but in the case of such an order as this, it is certainly the evi- dence which the nuns themselves would have preferred, if they were faithful to the spirit of their rule. In passing from the rule of St. Benedict to that of Sempringham, we enter a wholly different atmosphere, and have to do with quite another ideal in the religious life. The rule of St. Benedict owes its great and lasting influence mainly to the fact that its author sought to define and organise the normal religious life, to establish a ' school of the service of the Lord ' in which large numbers of very varying disposition and attainment might live together in unity. In consequence of this aim his rule is as broad as it is high, and has as much power to tran- quillise as to inspire. But the ideal of the Gilbertines was strictly an ascetic one, for the few and not for the many ; and their rule is full of petty regulations and restric- tions which would be intolerable to all but those who sought after a ' strange and separate perfection ' ; who desired not merely to be free from the 'evil that is in the world,' but to shut the world out utterly and for ever. No doubt after a time their asceticism, like that of the Cistercians to whom they were so closely allied, became much modified ; but so long as the rule in its main outlines remained the same, nuns of such strict enclosure, separated alike from their brethren in the order and the world outside, bound even to recite their office in so low a tone that it could scarcely be heard beyond the party wall of their choir, 3 could wish no higher praise than that of being quite unknown. The evil report which Lay- 1 Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 91, Letter xlii. > Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Dalderby, 49d ; for the altar of the B.V.M. in the conventual church ; ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 28d ; the same for the altar of St. Katherine ; ibid. Memo. Repingdon, 37, the same for the chapel of the B.V.M. in the priory of Chicksand. 3 The rule of St. Gilbert is given at length in Dugdale, Man. vi. x.-xcix. ; and summarised in Miss R. Graham's St. Gilbert of Sempringham and his order ; which contains also some of the above references to the Patent and Close Rolls. ton gave them at the last is worth very little consideration. He clearly testified that he found them strictly enclosed ; and also that the charges which he laid against two of the nuns on the evidence of ' an old beldame ' were absolutely denied by the accused, by their two prioresses, and by all their sisters. 4 If the character of the ladies of the convent (we might add also, the ladies of the Hall) were to stand or fall by the testimony of the village gossips and their own dismissed ser- vants, it would have a poor chance at any period of history. In spite of Layton's charges, the priory of Chicksand was not surrendered till 22 October 1 538,° and pensions were then assigned to all the canons and probably all the nuns also ; the prioresses received £3 6s. 8d. each. 6 Payn and Roais de Beauchamp endowed the priory at its foundation with the church of Chicksand and lands attached ; the grange of Haynes with 400 acres, and the church there with its appurtenances ; a mill and half a virgate with a house in Willington ; 20 acres in Cople and 3 virgates in Campton, besides half the demesne of another benefactress, Adeliza, wife of Walter de Mareis, consisting of wood, plain, meadow and pastures. 7 To this Simon de Beauchamp added the churches of Cople and Keysoe, Stotfold with the chapel of Astwick, and Linslade, Bucks ; confirming a number of small gifts besides. 8 The income of the priory in 1 29 1 was £124 151. 5|^., 8 besides the churches in Bedfordshire ; but this of course takes no account of its debts. By this time some lands had been acquired in the counties of Northampton, Buckingham, Huntingdon, Norfolk and Suffolk, and por- tions of tithes in the three London churches of St. Mary's Colechurch, St. Mildred's Wall- brook, and St. Stephen's Jewry 10 ; and shortly afterwards the manor of Tadiow, Cambridge- « Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, Letter xlii. He accused two of the nuns of having broken their vow of chastity ; and involves in the same con- demnation the sub-prior and a serving man. 6 Deed of Surrender (P.R.O.), 56. « Willis, History of Abbeys, etc. ii. 2, says that in 1553 pensions were still paid to seven canons and eight nuns. ' Dugdale, Mon. vi. 950. 8 Ibid. The priory of Chicksand had very few suits about its churches : only the chapel of Astwick seems to have been disputed in 1198-9 (Feet of F. [Rec. Com.], 21), and in 1242 (Cur. Reg. R. 125, n. 22) Simon de Beauchamp supported the prior's claim on the first occasion, and William de Beau- champ opposed it on the second. » Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.) >« Ibid. 392