A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE appeal to the heart and conscience. At the same time it must be borne in mind that these missions were not intended to supplant the services of the Church, or to draw men away from them ; they were only meant to re-awaken the careless and ignorant to a sense of the real demands of religion upon daily life. Hicks and Berridge remained churchmen and retained their livings to the end ; and though their parish work must have suffered during their travels, yet their lives do not contrast un- favourably with one or two of the contemporary clergy described by Cole the antiquary l — such as Mr. Christopher Hatton of St. John's, Cambridge, rector of Marston Mortaine and of Maulden, who lived en- tirely at Ampthill ' in a very elegant house ' ; or the vicar of St. Paul's (and rector also of Barton), who left his beautiful church to a curate, allowing the chancel to be in a slovenly condition, and entirely unused except at Communions. And the work of Wesley and his followers, in spite of the separation, had a profound effect in rousing the Church to her responsibilities. The most distinctive mark of renewed vigour in the Church of the nineteenth century — the formation of new parishes, and the building of new churches to meet the needs of an increasing population — is not wanting in Bedfordshire. While the county was still a part of the diocese of Lincoln, the old chapelries of the Leighton district were made into separate parishes ; and since it was made an archdeaconry of Ely, a large number of new churches have been built. The town of Bed- ford, which had only five parishes from the sixteenth century onwards, now embraces eight 2 ; while at Luton (as indeed it should be in the chief industrial centre of the county) the old parish church of St. Mary is supplemented by six others — three within the town, and others in the districts of East Hyde, Stopsley and Biscot. The organisation of church work generally during the last thirty or forty years, the increased number of services on Sundays and week days, the frequent administration of the sacraments even in churches where the clergy do not hold advanced views, the reawakened interest in church fabric and church ornaments, all suggest points of contrast with the previous century ; but it is too early yet to judge of the results of these things in any particular county or district. That will be better done by a later generation. APPENDIX I ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTY The churches in Bedfordshire must have been in their earliest days under the jurisdiction of the Bishops of Mercia, until the division of that diocese, planned by Archbishop Theodore in 679 at the Council of Hertford, was complete. They would then fall naturally to the new see 1 Add. MS. 5834, ff. 125, 125. Cole went to hear Berridge preach at Tempsford, on a table under a tree outside the church, and was more impressed by his ' wry faces ' than his eloquence (Add. MS. 5832, f. 85).
- It is interesting to note that one of these new churches has revived the memory of an old
hospital, being dedicated to St. Leonard. 346
