THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF BEDFORDSHIRE INTRODUCTION The county of Bedford was unusually rich in religious houses in proportion to its size, but none was of very ancient date. The abbey of Elstow was founded before the compiling of Domesday, and followed the Benedictine rule, which was as yet the only one introduced into England ; other houses of the same order were the priories of Beaulieu and Markyate, both founded about 1 1 45. The two Cistercian abbeys of Warden and Woburn were founded respectively in 1 1 35 and 1 145. Austin canons had been introduced into this country some twenty-seven years, when Henry I. founded the priory of Dunstable about 1132; the canons of St. Paul's, Bedford, were transferred to Newnham and brought under the same rule about 1 166 ; Bushmead Priory was founded a little later. Under the general heading of the Augustinian rule should be reckoned the priory of Caldwell, of the order of the Holy Sepulchre, founded some time during the reign of Stephen or of Henry II. ; and the priory of Harrold, which followed the Arrouasian form of the rule, was founded about 1140. The Gilbertine priory of Chicksand dates from about 1 1 50. There was one alien priory, La Grave or Grovebury, at Leighton Buzzard, which was founded under Henry II. ; this, with the Preceptory of Hospitallers at Melchbourne, makes a total of twelve houses in all. The Templars had lands in Sharnbrook 1 and elsewhere, and the churches of Langford and Little Stoughton ; but they had no Preceptory in this county. Besides these, there were certainly eight hospitals : four for lepers or the sick at Bedford, Luton (two) and Dunstable ; and four for the destitute poor at Bedford, Farley, Hockliffe and Toddington. All of these were probably founded in the twelfth century except Toddington, which be- longs to the reign of Henry VI. In the thirteenth century the Friars Minor settled at Bedford, and the Friars Preachers at Dunstable. And in the reign of Henry IV. the church of Northill became collegiate. It may be noted here that besides these regular and ordinary forms of the religious life, Bedfordshire had also from time to time its hermits and anchorets. The distinction between these two forms 3 of solitude is 1 Rot. Cbarta (Rec. Com.), I John, p. 2b ; Chart. R. 37 Hen. III. pt. i. m. 3. 1 It has been so often made that there is no need here to repeat it ; e.g. Dalgairns' essay on ' The Spiritual Life of Mediaeval England,' which is the preface to Hilton's ScaU of Perfection, ed. 1901. 349
