A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
The original arrangement in the case of such grants was for the 
monastery to present a rector in the same way as the lay patrons had 
done, receiving from him a fixed pension. And the intention of the 
donor was for the good of the church as well as the monastery ; he 
might well hope that the monks would have higher motives in the selec- 
tion of rectors, and better opportunities of finding suitable men. But 
when the tithes were granted as well as the advowson the temptation to 
look upon their churches as mainly a source of income proved sometimes 
too much for the religious. Chaplains removable at pleasure might be 
put into the rectory at a small stipend ; monks might be sent merely to 
perform the necessary duties ; and in either case the parish had no one 
with a continuous interest in its welfare. 
Between the worst and the best that might come of such arrange- 
ments there were doubtless many grades. But the bishops seem to have 
been early dissatisfied with the way in which the cure of souls was under- 
taken in the appropriate churches, and they succeeded in obtaining from 
the Lateran Council of 1179 the power to provide a remedy. It was to 
this end that the Council of Westminster in 1200 ordered the establish- 
ment of perpetual vicarages. 
Certainly among the earliest in England was the vicarage ordained 
at Pulloxhill in 1204* by William, Bishop of Lincoln. And in the 
Liber Antiquus of Hugh de Wells those at Henlow, Arlesey and Dun- 
ton are said to have been ,‘ exdudum ordinate,’ presumably before his 
own episcopate began in 1209. In Bedfordshire before 1235 there 
were thirty-six besides the four already mentioned.” 
The usual amount fixed for the vicar’s income was 5 marks; only a 
few were more or less. This was made up from the small tithes, and the 
altarage of the church ; a competent manse was usually added. The vicars 
were bound to pay the synodalia, but the religious the archdeacon’s 
fees (except in the case of Luton, where the vicarage was worth £16). 
There was no attempt to fix any proportion between the value of the 
whole rectory and the vicar’s stipend ; the principle being simply to 
provide the vicar with a proper maintenance, not to give him a fair 
share in the profits. The benefice might be worth 10, 12 or 15 marks, 
but still the vicar’s portion was 5 or 54 marks; the monastery took 
the residue, small or great. The rule was the same for very poor 
churches. The bishop fixed the stipend of the vicar of Ampthill at 5 
1 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series) iii. 28. 
2 Appropriate to Elstow : Flitton, Westoning, Kempston. 
To Chicksand : Haynes, Stotfold, Cople, Keysoe. 
To Dunstable : Husborne Crawley, Segenhoe, Chalgrave, Totternhoe and Studham. 
To Newnham: Salford, Goldington, Cardington, Willington, Barford, Renhold, Ravensden, 
Stagsden. 
To Beaulieu : Ampthill, Clophill, Millbrook and Potsgrave. 
To Markyate : Sundon. 
To Harrold : Harrold and Stevington. 
To Caldwell: Bromham and Roxton, 
To St. John’s Hospital : St. John’s, Bedford. 
Besides these, Luton, Houghton, Tillsworth, Eaton Bray, Langford, Podington, were appropriated 
to monasteries outside the county. 
316 
