RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
were not very wealthy, and sometimes they 
proved a source of expense rather than of 
revenue. The chapel of Clapham in their 
own county, and the church of Marsworth in 
Buckinghamshire must have cost the canons 
a good deal of money. A part of the 
tithes from both of these had been granted to 
Osney Abbey at its foundation,’ amounting 
to a pension of 12 marks ; and from the first 
the canons of Caldwell seem to have made 
efforts to escape this payment. In 1279? 
they had to be ordered to pay it ‘on pain of 
excommunication’ ; but in the beginning of 
the fourteenth century Hugh de Beauchamp, 
who was prior at the time, began a long series 
of suits with Osney on the same subject.° 
He was seemingly unsuccessful, for this pen- 
sion was still reckoned among the liabilities 
of the priory in 1535.4 It was probably 
the pressure of poverty at this particular 
time that stirred the prior to make these 
efforts; he was then rebuilding the con- 
ventual church, and only a few years be- 
fore Bishop Dalderby had granted a licence 
to the canons to beg alms for this purpose, 
as they were so poor. Several chantries 
were granted at about the same time.® 
The priory did not grow any richer as time 
went on. In 1318 the canons parted with 
the advowson of Broughton church to the 
dean and chapter of Lincoln’; and in 1525 
with that of Sandy to Bishop Longland and 
his brother. The bishop wrote of it in the 
1 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 249. 
2 Bodl. Lib. Oxon. Chart. Osney Abbey, No. 22. 
This charter is described in the calendar as referring 
to Canwell Priory ; but the name in the charter is 
* Caldewelle,’ and the mention in it of the tithes of 
Marsworth and Clopham makes the reference quite 
clear. It is addressed by the prior and sub-prior 
of St. Oswald’s, Gloucester, to the dean of Bedford. 
In 1253 the chronicler of Dunstable notices that 
the canons secured the presentation to Marsworth, 
but gained nothing from the church (Anan. Mon. 
[Rolls Series], iii. 189). 
3 Ibid. Beds Chart. 2-19; Beds R.i. The 
latter is dated 1322; and the name of Hugh de 
Beauchamp occurs frequently in the charters. 
The pension is called the ‘ ancient and accustomed 
pension,’ and valued at 12 marks. 
4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 190. 
12 marks, 
5 Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Dalderby, 176d. 
Licence to prior and convent of Caldwell to beg 
alms for the repair and rebuilding of their church 
on account of poverty. Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 
f. 39d. Indulgence for the fabric of the convent- 
ual church, 1321. 
6 Tbid.; Inst. Dalderby, 302; Inst. Burghersh, 
292, 294, 294d. 
7 Pat. 11 Edw. II. pt. 1, m. 8. 
8 Harl. Ch. 83, A 29. 
It was still 
same year as ‘a very poor place,’ and said 
that instead of the £100 which the king had 
asked for in his letter, he had only instructed 
the prior to contribute £20 towards the loan 
which was being collected from all the religi- 
ous houses.® 
The prior, Thomas Dey, with six canons 
and two lay brothers, subscribed to the Royal 
Supremacy in 15357°; and as the house had 
an income of only £109 8s. 5d." clear, it was 
surrendered under the act of 1536.” 
The visitation of Bishop Grossetéte in 
1249, when Prior Eudo fled to the Cister- 
cians, has been already alluded to. Bishop 
Buckingham visited the house in 1387** and 
reminded the canons, according to the custom 
of a visitation, of the duties of obedience, 
silence, assistance in choir, and proper ad- 
ministration of the goods of the monastery. 
He laid special stress on the necessity of in- 
structing the younger canons in song and in 
grammar, that they might be fit to perform 
the divine office. They were forbidden 
under pain of imprisonment and excom- 
munication to enter taverns in Bedford, or 
to visit the monastery of Elstow. 
Bishop Repingdon ** repeated these injunc- 
tions not to go to Bedford, or to the abbey of 
Elstow on any pretext whatever ; and one of 
the canons was forbidden to go outside the 
cloister at all. ‘The canons generally were 
not to drink anywhere but in the prior’s 
presence, which seems to imply some laxity 
in this respect. 
When Bishop Grey *° visited the priory he 
found John Wymington, the brother whom 
Bishop Repingdon had ordered to keep within 
the cloister, holding the office of sub-prior ; 
he had now to be deposed. There is nothing 
special in the injunctions of this time which 
9 L. and P. Hen. VIII. iv. 1330. 
10 Rymer, Federa, vi. (2), 198. 
11 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 190, 192. 
12 DL, and P. Hen. VIII. x. 1238. (List of those 
houses under {200 revenue.) ‘The actual date of 
the surrender is not given, nor the pensions. 
13 Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Buckingham, f. 342. 
With regard to Elstow, it should be remembered 
that the two houses were near together; and also 
that in 1318, when Hugh de Beauchamp became 
prior of Caldwell, Elizabeth de Beauchamp became 
abbess of Elstow. If these two were nearly related, 
it may have led toa certain amount of intercourse 
between the two houses, which would be natural 
enough, and yet call for some care and watchful- 
ness on the part of superiors. 
14 Ibid. Memo. Repingdon, 232 (undated). 
15 Ibid. Memo. Grey, 200d. Just before this 
the bishop had ordered the prior and convent to 
receive back an apostate canon who had repented. 
383 
