ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
fluence, they found some disciples: two young canons of Dunstable fled 
away by night to join the Friars Minor at Oxford in 1232.’ But their 
great popularity as confessors—partly due indeed to their holiness of 
life, but partly also to other reasons less exalted—brought them into 
collision sometimes with the parish clergy. In the memoranda of 
Bishop Sutton,” side by side with similar admonitions to certain priests 
of Lincoln, is a mandate to the official of the archdeacon of Bedford to 
bid the canons of Dunstable (where the conventual church was also a 
parish church) desist from forbidding and impeding the Friars Preachers 
from hearing the confessions of the people of that place. Only a few 
years later,’ however, it was the bishop who complained of the number 
of friars presented to him for licences as confessors ; giving as his reason 
for refusing some of the candidates that those already licensed were 
surely enough, and that the rectors and curates of his diocese were suffi- 
cient for the cure of their subjects. 
The dealings of Edward I. with the clergy at the end of the cen- 
tury are matters of general rather than of local history. The names of 
most of the religious houses of Bedfordshire appear in the lists of those 
who sought the king’s protection in 1295 ; and a few of the clergy also. 
The ‘ Placita de Quo Warranto’ of 1290 contain also much of local in- 
terest. Nearly all the religious superiors, as well as many laymen and 
one parish priest in Bedfordshire, were required to show by what title 
they exercised manorial rights, took court fees, and tolls from markets 
and fairs. The charters brought forward in defence were repeatedly 
pronounced too vague and undefined ; the plea of immemorial custom 
had to be supported by evidence. Of the religious, only the abbot of 
St. Alban’s and the prioress of Haliwell* seem to have clearly proved 
their rights in Luton and Dunton; the abbot of Waltham and the 
vicar of Potton lost theirs®; the other cases were many times postponed. 
It may be added that under the similar inquiry of the fourth year of 
Edward III. the same parties were again summoned, showing that they 
had all resumed their rights in the meanwhile ; and this time nearly all, 
including the vicar of Potton, and the parsons of Sandy, Toddington, 
Eversholt and Old Warden® were reinstated formally on payment of 
fine. 
The Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV. in 1291 requires a special notice, 
as it was the first clear summary of church property in the county since 
Domesday. 
The archdeaconry was divided at this point into six rural deaneries ; 
111 churches were named, 4 in Bedford and 107 in the county besides. 
The revenue of two prebendaries was drawn from Bedford ; one from 
1 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 133. 
3 Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Sutton, 217. 
3 Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, 19d. Ten friars from Dunstable were presented at this time amongst 
others, by the provincial. 
* Plac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 2 and 7. 
5 Ibid. 8, 9. 
6 Ibid. 62, 69, 75, 78, 86. 
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