ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY fluence, they found some disciples : two young canons of Dunstable fled away by night to join the Friars Minor at Oxford in 1232. 1 But their great popularity as confessors — partly due indeed to their holiness of life, but partly also to other reasons less exalted — brought them into collision sometimes with the parish clergy. In the memoranda of Bishop Sutton, 2 side by side with similar admonitions to certain priests of Lincoln, is a mandate to the official of the archdeacon of Bedford to bid the canons of Dunstable (where the conventual church was also a parish church) desist from forbidding and impeding the Friars Preachers from hearing the confessions of the people of that place. Only a few years later, 3 however, it was the bishop who complained of the number of friars presented to him for licences as confessors ; giving as his reason for refusing some of the candidates that those already licensed were surely enough, and that the rectors and curates of his diocese were suffi- cient for the cure of their subjects. The dealings of Edward I. with the clergy at the end of the cen- tury are matters of general rather than of local history. The names of most of the religious houses of Bedfordshire appear in the lists of those who sought the king's protection in 1295 ; and a few of the clergy also. The ' Placita de Quo Warranto ' of 1290 contain also much of local in- terest. Nearly all the religious superiors, as well as many laymen and one parish priest in Bedfordshire, were required to show by what title they exercised manorial rights, took court fees, and tolls from markets and fairs. The charters brought forward in defence were repeatedly pronounced too vague and undefined ; the plea of immemorial custom had to be supported by evidence. Of the religious, only the abbot of St. Alban's and the prioress of Haliwell ' seem to have clearly proved their rights in Luton and Dunton ; the abbot of Waltham and the vicar of Potton lost theirs 5 ; the other cases were many times postponed. It may be added that under the similar inquiry of the fourth year of Edward III. the same parties were again summoned, showing that they had all resumed their rights in the meanwhile ; and this time nearly all, including the vicar of Potton, and the parsons of Sandy, Toddington, Eversholt and Old Warden " were reinstated formally on payment of fine. The Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV. in 1291 requires a special notice, as it was the first clear summary of church property in the county since Domesday. The archdeaconry was divided at this point into six rural deaneries ; 1 1 1 churches were named, 4 in Bedford and 107 in the county besides. The revenue of two prebendaries was drawn from Bedford ; one from 1 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 133. J Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Sutton, 217. 3 Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, igd. Ten friars from Dunstable were presented at this time amongst others, by the provincial. 4 Plac. de quo (fair. (Rec. Com.), 2 and 7. 5 Ibid. 8, 9. " Ibid. 62, 69, 75, 78, 86. 323
