RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



The Austin nuns had a small settlement at Rothwell. The Cluniac nuns had 

 a house of some importance, termed an abbey, at Delapre on the south side of 

 Northampton. The most strictly cloistered order were the Cistercian nuns ; 

 they had a house, under exceptional rule, at Catesby, also a small convent of 

 early foundation at Sewardsley. 



The two great orders of knights following the rule of St. Austin had each 

 possessions in Northamptonshire. The Knights Hospitallers had a comman- 

 dery at Dingley, founded temp. Stephen. The Knights Templars had three 

 ' camerae ' at Blakesley, Guilsborough, and Harrington, which were all 

 transferred to the Hospitallers when the Templars were suppressed in 13 12. 



The strange and terrible suppression of the Templars occurred during 

 the episcopate of the saintly Bishop Dalderby, who was nominated by the 

 pope as one of the commissioners to try the accused in England. The bishop 

 avoided acting with the other commissioners, but held a private inquiry, so 

 far as his own diocese was concerned, in the Lincoln chapter-house, and 

 subsequently declined to take any further part in the proceedings. From 

 letters in his register, it is concluded that he believed in their innocence. 

 When, however, the Provincial Synod of Canterbury passed sentence against 

 the Templars in 131 1, the bishop of Lincoln had to carry out the archbishop's 

 sentence in consigning the knights to the various monasteries as prisoners to 

 fulfil their penance. Seventeen of the order were sent to as many monasteries 

 of the diocese. The monks of St. Andrew, Northampton, were ordered to 

 receive William de Pocklington, but the monastery refused to receive him 

 and sent a letter to that effect to the bishop. The bishop repeated his order 

 in sterner tones, but the priory again refused obedience. Bishop Dalderby 

 then took the grave step of writing to the rural dean of Northampton, 

 bidding him to cause to be published in every church of the deanery the 

 excommunication of the prior, sub-prior, precentor, cellarer, and sacristan of 

 St. Andrew's. This apparently secured the desired result, for there is no 

 further reference to the matter in the bishop's register.' There is no other 

 incident in the jurisdiction of this great diocese during the fourteenth century 

 that shows in such a marked way the strength of the episcopal power, for the 

 priory of St. Andrew dominated the town of Northampton, and almost every 

 church in the deanery was in their gift. 



Those great evangelizers of the towns, the friars, who, theoretically at 

 least, rejected endowments and lived on the alms of the faithful, naturally 

 found their way with speed to Northampton, as one of the chief towns of 

 the kingdom. The Franciscans established themselves in 1224, the very 

 year of their first arrival in the kingdom, at Northampton, where they 

 eventually had one of the largest and most handsome churches of any per- 

 taining to the mendicant orders in England. They were closely followed by 

 the Dominicans, whose friary at Northampton was subsequently chosen as 

 the place for holding provincial chapters. Somewhat later in the century, 

 the Carmelites and Austin Friars started houses in the same town, so that 

 Northampton shared the distinction with eleven other boroughs of having 

 settlements of all the four great orders of mendicant brethren. Stamford, 

 on the northern verge of the county, was another of these twelve boroughs, 

 so that the smaller towns and villages of Northamptonshire would speedily 



1 Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of D.ilderby, ff. 195 d, 198. 

 2 81 II 



