A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
of course not primitive, but it was clearly marked in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries. From the time when the religious life in com- 
munity began first to be well organised, we know by the testimony of 
Cassian and later of St. Benedict’ that men were always discouraged from 
attempting solitude until they had been first exercised in the ordinary 
discipline of the canobium ; but it was not found possible to enforce 
this rule in all cases. Roger of Markyate had been a monk of St. 
Albans* before he was a hermit, and was carried back after his death to 
the abbey church, where the place of his burial is still marked by an in- 
scription ; but of Ralf the hermit,’ whose oratory and cell were granted 
by Robert d’Albini to the priory of Beaulieu ; of Simon the hermit,‘ 
who bequeathed his little property to Newnham Priory ; of the hermit 
of Bletsoe* and of the hermit who was traditionally the founder of 
Bushmead,’ nothing further is known. Amongst solitaries of the other 
type (more severe in its restraint, but less apart from the common life of 
men) were ‘Simon anachorita,’ who came from Lichfield to Dunstable 
and lived six years beside the priory church,’ and doubtless others whose 
names are not recorded. This form of solitude was as a rule the only 
one possible for women ; ‘ Isabella inclusa,’* who died at Bedford near 
the beginning of the thirteenth century, was probably an anchoress of 
the ordinary type; but Christine of Markyate, for many years a strict 
recluse, was not attached to any church. Her career belongs to the 
history of the house of which she was first prioress. 
The Religious Houses of Bedfordshire, if we except Woburn and 
Dunstable, have few points of contact with general history, and only one 
produced a chronicle. Little that is definite can be said even of their 
local influence. The abbey of Elstow had its school, and the Austin 
canons were patrons of a large number of churches, and must have been 
well known figures in the county. The canons of Dunstable had many 
difficulties with their tenants; but these were connected with their 
feudal lordship of the town rather than with any matter of religion. 
One point however may be worth noting: in spite of much that has 
been said of the mutual jealousies of the different orders, in this little 
county they lived together for the most part’ on very friendly terms. 
The Chronicler of Dunstable, who records all the gossip of his neigh- 
bourhood, as well as much genuine history, has seldom anything to say 
of his brethren in other orders but what is sympathetic and kindly.” He 
1 Rule, cap. i. Anachoritz vel Eremitz, horum qui non conversionis fervore novitio, sed monasterii 
probatione diuturna didicerunt contra diabolum ... pugnare’, 
2 Matth. Paris, Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), i. 97-105. 
3 Foundation Charter of Beaulieu Priory. 
4 Harl. MS. 3656, f. 11. 
5 Cat. of Anct. Deeds (P.R.O.), C. 2188. His name was Robert Parage: and as he had ‘brethren’ 
with him in the hermitage, it does not seem likely he had been previously a monk. The same might 
be inferred of the hermit of Bushmead, if he really existed. Those who began as solitaries were more 
likely to gather a following than those who had left a monastery to seek solitude. 
® Leland, Collect. i. 68. * Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 77, 109. 8 Harl. MS. 3656, f. 22b. 
® Except Elstow, of which a great many suits with other houses are recorded. 
10 Between the four houses of Austin canons there seems to have been much intercourse, and their 
constant general chapters must have had the effect of promoting corporate feeling amongst them. 
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