ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
marks, though the rectory was only worth r1oos. ; and he ordered the 
canons of Newnham to make up the vicarage of Ravensden to 5 marks, 
even if the tithes greater and less did not amount to so much. Only 
occasionally, if the rectory was of considerable value, the vicar’s portion 
was made larger; the rectory of Great Barford, worth 22 marks, the vicar 
received 8 ; the rectory of Luton, worth 100 marks, the vicar had 24. 
The arrangement for Harrold is different to the rest and may serve 
as an example of the treatment of a case where the parish church be- 
came conventual.' The vicar was to have his living at the prioress’s 
table, with 2 marks yearly for his clothing, hay for his palfrey, and the 
oblations at great festivals. His manse might be within the priory en- 
closure or out of it, according to what was most convenient for his 
parishioners ; and the prioress was to provide him with a deacon and a 
boy to serve his mass.” 
Bishop Grossetéte continued the work of his predecessor, ordaining 
however only one vicarage in Bedfordshire—Caddington,’ the property 
of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, London. Bishop Gravesend 
ordained a vicarage for Wootton in 1272, Southill* in 1264, and pro- 
bably Sharnbrook.* He also ordained vicarages for the two prebendal 
churches of Leighton Buzzard and Biggleswade.’ Streatley’ was ordained 
before 1289, and Eaton Socon* before 1291. The last of this century 
was Oakley,” ordained in 1296. 
Mention has been made incidentally already of the parochial chapels, 
which served for the devotion of villages and hamlets remote from the 
parish church. They are a special feature of the twelfth century, being 
built in large numbers all over the country during the reigns of Henry I. 
and Stephen. They are mostly due to the generosity of lords of manors, 
who wished to provide not only for themselves and their own households, 
but also for the villagers amongst whom they dwelt ; and the chapels 
thus built were usually appendant to the parish church. The building 
of private chapels became common in the thirteenth century, as the 
bishops’ registers show ; but the parochial chapels were nearly all earlier. 
It is probable that there were several, even in a small county like Bed- 
1 No other church of this type in Bedfordshire had a vicarage ordained, except Elstow in 1345 
(Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Bek. 102) ; and that was revoked almost at once. The canons of Newnham ap- 
pointed one of their own brethren as warden of St. Paul’s, Bedford (Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Grey, 199) 
and so did the canons of Dunstable (4%. Mon. [Rolls Series], iii. 220) until 1392 (Linc. Epis. Reg., 
Memo. Buckingham, 411). 
® All from the Liber Autiquus, Alfred Gibbons, pp. 20-5. 
3 A vicar was instituted in 1250 (Excerpta from Linc. Epis. Reg., Harl. MS. 3650). The church 
had two rectors before. 
* Wootton and Southill are both in Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Gravesend ; but the pope had ordered 
the reservation of a vicar’s portion for both in 1255 (Cal. of Pap. Letters, i. 314, 316. Sugmele is 
evidently a misreading for Sugivele). 
® Vicarage vacant in 1283 (Harl. MS. 3650). 
§ 1276 and 1277 (ibid.) 
7 Ibid. 
® Vicarage noted in Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), p. 35 
® Hugh de Wells had compelled the prior and convent of Caldwell to present secular clerks, who 
were to receive half the tithes (total value, 244 marks), but Oliver Sutton preferred to ordain a vicarage 
in 1296 (Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Sutton, 100). 
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