RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
The priory was dedicated to the Holy 
Trinity, and the name most commonly given 
to it was ‘ Holy Trinity in the Wood.’ It 
seems to have been destroyed by fire almost 
as soon as built; for Matthew Paris asserts 
that Abbot Geoffrey built the house twice 
from the foundation." The later story says 
that Christine had great influence with the 
abbot, and often gave him good advice ; 
which may well have been, without the in- 
tervention of any ghosts.” There is happily 
no doubt of her real existence, as her name 
appears on the foundation charter and other 
documents ;* and an entry on the Pipe Roll 
of 1156* gives some evidence of the fame to 
which she attained. During her lifetime the 
priory acquired some property outside the 
county ;° there were certainly four churches 
belonging to it in the thirteenth century, and 
possibly more. But it was never a wealthy 
house. 
In 1259,° when the Friars Preachers came 
to Dunstable, the prioress of Markyate, Agnes 
Gobion, sent them a certain number of loaves 
every day for their dinner—‘out of pure 
charity,’ says the chronicler, because they 
were then building their church. But her 
kindness was ill requited, for when the im- 
mediate necessity was past, the friars would 
not allow her to withdraw the dole ; they 
sent to Rome and had it confirmed to them 
for ever.” This grant would not probably be 
in itself a heavy burden to the priory ; but 
there is no doubt that the nuns had some 
difficulty in maintaining themselves during 
the second half of the thirteenth century. 
Debts began to press heavily ; and in 1290 
they sent a petition to Parliament® to say 
1 Matth. Paris, Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), 
i. 95. This is not part of the later story. 
2 Geoffrey’s name appears as a witness on the 
foundation charter. He had been master of the 
school at Dunstable before he was abbot (ibid. p. 
73), and the neighbourhood of Markyate must have 
been quite familiar to him before Roger went there. 
3 Cott. Ch. xi. 36. 
* “In blado quod rex dedit dominz Cristine 
de Bosco t sol.’ Robert, the eighteenth abbot of 
St. Alban’s, on a visit to Rome, presented to the 
English pope, Adrian IV., some of the workman- 
ship of Christine—three mitres and a pair of sandals 
embroidered by her (Matth. Paris, Gesta Abbatum 
[Rolls Series], i. 127). 
5 Cott. Ch. xi. 36. Deddington, Oxon. 
® Matth. Paris, Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), i. 387. 
7<Let this be a warning to others,’ adds the 
chronicler, ‘ to take more care, and to cast forth the 
serpent from their bosom, before it can do them 
any further harm.’ It seems strange that there is 
no allusion to this in the Annals of Dunstable. 
8 Dugdale, Mon. iii. 368. 
that if they were to pay all that they owed 
(more than two hundred marks) they could 
not possibly live. ‘The relief they asked was 
not granted, but perhaps they found some 
other way out of their troubles, for the priory 
continued to exist. But its poverty was 
noticed by the bishop in 1332.° 
The number of nuns in 1406 was twelve,!° 
and in 1433 there were a prioress, sub- 
prioress and nine nuns" ; it is probable that 
the revenue would never have supported more. 
The priory had a warden or master in 1323,'? 
like many other nunneries at that time. 
There are records of several visitations of 
this house in the episcopal registers. In 
12977° it came under the notice of Bishop 
Sutton. He had heard that the apparitor of 
Dunstable had cited ‘certain persons of both 
sexes living in the priory of Markyate’ for 
immorality, whereby these persons had been 
defamed, and the house had incurred scandal. 
Evidently the bishop thought the evidence 
against them insufficient, for he ordered 
the archdeacon to see that they were not 
further molested. It seems improbable from 
the description that the persons alluded to 
were religious: they were perhaps boarders 
taken in during the great necessity of the 
house. At about the same time the prioress 
and convent were ordered to repair the chan- 
cel of one of their appropriate churches.'* 
In 1300 Bishop Dalderby*® visited the mon- 
astery in person to explain the statute of Boni- 
face VIII., De Claustura Monialium, and found 
the nuns at first ready to accept it; but when 
he had concluded his visit, and turned to go, 
four of them broke away from the rest and 
followed him to the outer gate, declaring that 
they would not observe it. Like a wise man, 
he did not stop then to argue the matter, and 
went on his way to Dunstable; but the next 
day he returned to Markyate, inquired the 
names of the four refractory nuns, and put the 
whole convent under penance on their ac- 
count, threatening to excommunicate them 
if the statute were not observed. But this 
was not the only house where the bishop had 
difficulties in enforcing this statute. 
In 13237° a visitation by the warden and 
the vicar of Kensworth was ordered by Bishop 
® Linc.-Epis. Reg., Memo. Burghersh, 242d. 
10 Ibid. Inst. Repingdon, 288 (1406): twelve 
nuns present at an election. 
1 [bid. Memo. Grey, 149. 
12 Tbid. Memo. Burghersh, 118. 
13 bid. Memo. Sutton, 173. 
14 Thid. 125 (1296). 
16 Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, tod. 
16 [bid. Memo. Burghersh, 118. 
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