A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE of course not primitive, but it was clearly marked in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. From the time when the religious life in com- munity began first to be well organised, we know by the testimony of Cassian and later of St. Benedict' that men were always discouraged from attempting solitude until they had been first exercised in the ordinary discipline of the ccenobium ; but it was not found possible to enforce this rule in all cases. Roger of Markyate had been a monk of St. Albans a before he was a hermit, and was carried back after his death to the abbey church, where the place of his burial is still marked by an in- scription ; but of Ralf the hermit, 3 whose oratory and cell were granted by Robert d'Albini to the priory of Beaulieu ; of Simon the hermit, 4 who bequeathed his little property to Newnham Priory ; of the hermit of Bletsoe B and of the hermit who was traditionally the founder of Bushmead, 8 nothing further is known. Amongst solitaries of the other type (more severe in its restraint, but less apart from the common life of men) were ' Simon anachorita,' who came from Lichfield to Dunstable and lived six years beside the priory church, 7 and doubtless others whose names are not recorded. This form of solitude was as a rule the only one possible for women ; ' Isabella inclusa,' e who died at Bedford near the beginning of the thirteenth century, was probably an anchoress of the ordinary type ; but Christine of Markyate, for many years a strict recluse, was not attached to any church. Her career belongs to the history of the house of which she was first prioress. The Religious Houses of Bedfordshire, if we except Woburn and Dunstable, have few points of contact with general history, and only one produced a chronicle. Little that is definite can be said even of their local influence. The abbey of Elstow had its school, and the Austin canons were patrons of a large number of churches, and must have been well known figures in the county. The canons of Dunstable had many difficulties with their tenants ; but these were connected with their feudal lordship of the town rather than with any matter of religion. One point however may be worth noting : in spite of much that has been said of the mutual jealousies of the different orders, in this little county they lived together for the most part' on very friendly terms. The Chronicler of Dunstable, who records all the gossip of his neigh- bourhood, as well as much genuine history, has seldom anything to say of his brethren in other orders but what is sympathetic and kindly. 10 He ' Rule, cap. i. Anachorita; vel Eremitae, horum qui non conversionis fervore novitio, sed monasterii probatione diuturna didicerunt contra diabolum . . . pugnare'. 2 Matth. Paris, Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), i. 97-105. 3 Foundation Charter of Beaulieu Priory. « Harl.MS. 3656,!. 11. 5 Cat. of And. Deeds (P.R.O.), C. 2 1 88. His name was Robert Parage : and as he had ' brethren ' with him in the hermitage, it does not seem likely he had been previously a monk. The same might be inferred of the hermit of Bushmead, if he really existed. Those who began as solitaries were more likely to gather a following than those who had left a monastery to seek solitude. 8 Leland, Collect, i. 68. 7 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 77, 109. 8 Harl. MS. 3656, f. 22b. '■> Except Elstow, of which a great many suits with other houses are recorded. •° Between the four houses of Austin canons there seems to have been much intercourse, and their constant general chapters must have had the effect of promoting corporate feeling amongst them. 350
