A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



or cells owed special allegiance to the parent house, and were expected, with 

 some irregularity, to respond to a chapter summons. 



None of their priors could be elected by their own convent, but were 

 nominated by the mother-house beyond the seas, which almost invariably sent 

 foreigners to this country. The majority of the monks until the time of 

 Edward III were French, for novices could not be professed by the priors in 

 England. During the wars with France these houses were not unnaturally 

 treated as alien priories, and their revenues and patronage administered by the 

 crown. Some few were altogether suppressed and transferred to other religious 

 foundations, but the majority were gradually made denizen, and discharged 

 from foreign subjection and obedience, while remaining under the discipUne 

 of the Order of Cluny. One or two, such as Daventry, took out new founda- 

 tion charters and united themselves to the general chapter and congregation of 

 the Benedictines ; but even these usually styled themselves Cluniac, and the 

 priors (thirty-two in number) at the time of the dissolution surrendered under 

 that title. The great majority of the English houses, however, continued 

 down to the dissolution to make considerable payments or annual pensions to 

 Cluny, the abbot of Cluny drawing from this source an annual income of 

 ^2,000. But up to the time of the suppression of the alien houses, the whole 

 income of the English cells or priories was subject to foreign administration, 

 a certain portion only being reserved for local needs. 



The Northamptonshire religious houses of Cluny are peculiarly interest- 

 ing as illustrating the gradual way in which foreign rule was lost, and diocesan 

 control substituted. The story, however, of St. Andrew's will be found to 

 differ materially from that of Daventry ; while the record of the convent of 

 Delapre admits of no comparison, for it was one of the very few houses of 

 Cluniac nuns in England. 



The austere order of the Cistercians, another reformed Benedictine branch, 

 was first established in England in 1128. In 1142 a colony of these white 

 monks from Newminster in Northumberland (which was itself the eldest 

 daughter of Fountains) established an abbey at Pipewell. This order generally 

 sought out unreclaimed wastes or undrained valleys for their houses, but now 

 and again they were content to settle in some thick-grown forest. The yet 

 unwritten history, for which there is abundant material, of these monks of 

 Rockingham Forest is full of exceptional interest. 



The Austin or Black Canons, an order of conventual clergy following 

 the rule of St. Augustine of Hippo, were next in numbers in this country 

 to the Benedictines. The abbey of St. James, on the west side of Northamp- 

 ton, was their largest house in the county, and of some importance. They 

 had three priories in Northamptonshire : at Canons Ashby, Chalcombe, and 

 Fineshade. There was also a hermitage or small priory at Grafton Regis, the 

 brethren of which, in its earlier days, probably followed the Austin rule. On 

 the Northamptonshire side of Stamford there was a twelfth-century house of 

 St. Sepulchre. . 



The Premonstratensian, or White Canons, a reformed order of canons 

 regular, founded their first English house in 1 140 at Newhouse, Lincolnshire; 

 thence a colony established themselves at Sulby in 1 155. 



Four of the six chief orders of nuns found in England had houses within 

 the county. The Benedictine nuns were at Stamford Baron and Wothorpe. 



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