A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



church of Luton, where there was merely a single temporary stipendiary 

 priest as vicar, without any legalized income or recognized position in the 

 diocese. This battle of the parishes against the monasteries — for all 

 recognized this as a test case — was a prolonged one, and very costly to 

 both combatants. It eventually resulted in the appointment by Pope 

 Honorius of a special commission (the bishop of Salisbury and the abbots of 

 Westminster and Waltham), which gave judgment in 12 19. It was thereby 

 ordered: (i) that the vicar should be presented for approval and institution to 

 his diocesan ; (2) that he should receive all the small tithes and obventions of 

 the church and its parochial chapels, with a suitable manse ; (3) that he 

 should pay all parish dues, procurations, and synodals ; and (4) that the 

 bishops of Lincoln should for the future have full jurisdiction in the church 

 of Luton. ^ After this victory the religious houses thoughout England gave 

 way all along the line, wherever pressed, and the formal ordination of 

 vicarages became general. 



From this time onward any further encroachment on parochial rights by 

 monasteries or other religious orders was very exceptional. In a considerable 

 number of parishes the benefices remained rectories, the monasteries merely 

 presenting the rectors, and obtaining now and again a small pension from the 

 tithes ; whilst in cases where the great tithes were appropriated, the vicars 

 were presented, and had an assured income, usually about a third of the value 

 of the benefice. Houses of regular canons, such as the Augustinian and 

 Premonstratensian, might present to the livings their own members, but in 

 the case of the much more numerous monks, whether Benedictine, Cluniac, 

 or Cistercian, this was strictly forbidden, though the restriction was 

 occasionally evaded. Save, then, that the income of a benefice appropriated 

 to a religious house was divided between that house and the incumbent, the 

 parishes that had religious patrons and those that had secular patrons differed 

 practically in no way from one another. The question of the vicarages is 

 one with which the ecclesiastical history of this county is specially connected. 

 It is usually assumed that no vicarage was formally ordained in England until 

 about 1200, but the living of Blakesley in the south of the county was entered 

 as a vicarage on the diocesan roll in 11 56. It was appropriated to the 

 Knights Hospitallers.^ 



No sooner was the Luton case settled than Bishop Wells proceeded 

 to secure the definite establishment of vicarages throughout his diocese, and 

 the enrolment of others that had been ordained in previous times. One of 

 the most interesting items in the fine collection of episcopal muniments at 

 Lincoln is the Liber Antiquus of that energetic prelate, wherein are entered 

 particulars of no fewer than 300 vicarages in the seven archdeaconries of his 

 diocese. Internal evidence shows that this list was compiled about 1220, 

 but certain additions were made somewhat later in his episcopate. The 

 Northampton vicarages enumerated in this volume are fifty-three, and 

 comprise Little Addington, Canons Ashby, Cold Ashby, Mears Ashby, 



' A copy of this deed is given in AnU<i. of Beds. (Biblio. Topog. Brit.), iv. 62. See also Cobbe, 

 History of Luton Church (1899), 100-3. 



' Blakesley is briefly entered on Bishop Wells' list of vicarages, and a later hand has added that the 

 ordination of this vicarage was entered on the roll of Robert, formerly bishop of Lincoln, in the eighth 

 year of his episcopate. This must refer to Bishop Robert de Chesney, who was consecrated in 1 148. Cf. 

 the important charter of Robert de Chesney in Round, Cal. Doc. France, p. 444., No. 1,231. This must be 

 earlier than 1 154. 



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