Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/369

 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Bedford, without further comment, as if there had been a monastery there for a long time. It is introduced as the burial-place of Oskytel, Archbishop of York, who was translated from the Mercian see of Dorchester in 956. 1 His kinsman Thurkytel 2 was at that time abbot of Bedford ; he brought the archbishop's body from Thame, to bury it in the monastery. Almost immediately after the Conquest we find the county well provided with parish churches. Only four are named in Domesday ; but it is well understood that this survey was never intended to supply a complete list of churches ; they are only mentioned incidentally in connection with the tenure of land. Complete lists can be made out for the thirteenth century, correcting the returns from the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas by the Episcopal registers at Lincoln and the chartu- laries of the religious houses ; and with the help of these it is possible to work a good way backwards. The total number of parish churches in 1291, not counting the seven 3 in Bedford town, was 115; and of these about eighty can be clearly proved to have been in existence in the twelfth century, and a few are mentioned even in documents of the eleventh. Actual proof is impossible without fuller records ; but it seems probable that in the century before the Conquest Bedford- shire was as well provided with churches as other counties,' and the archaeological evidence will probably tend to the same conclusion. The four churches of the Domesday Survey — Luton, Houghton (Regis), Leighton, and St. Paul's, Bedford — were probably the best en- dowed. Luton had belonged in the time of King Edward to Morcar the priest, and now William the Chamberlain held it with five hides of land, a mill and a wood ; the whole property being worth 60s. The same man also held Houghton church of the king, with half a hide of land, worth 1 2s. a year. Leighton had become a part of the endow- ment of Lincoln Cathedral, and was held of the king by Remigius the bishop. The foundation charter of the Cathedral granted by the Con- queror 5 names the four churches of Aylesbury, Buckingham, Leighton and Bedford, as having all belonged to the ancient see of Dorchester ; but the church of Bedford here mentioned (St. Mary's) is not named in Domesday, which speaks only of St. Paul's and the secular canons there. The account of church property in Domesday " is of much interest in relation to later history. Already several important manors and portions of land were claimed by religious houses, as well as by the Bishops of 1 Florence of Wore. (Engl. Hist. Soc), i. 139, 142. 3 The dates make it impossible to identify this Thurkytel with the rebuildcr of Croyland Abbey under Edred, as Canon Venables did in the Diocesan History of Lincoln (S.P.C.K.), p. 37. 3 St. Paul's, St. Mary's, St. Peter Merton and St. Peter Dunstable, St. John's, St. Cuthbert's and All Saints'. They are all found in documents of the twelfth century. 4 The Chronicle of Dunstable records under the year 1220 (p. 56) the dedication of churches at Studham, Chalgrave and Pulloxhill ; obviously after rebuilding, for there had been old churches in all three places, which were given to the monastery in the twelfth century, and they would scarcely have required rebuilding if they had not been Saxon churches. These are small and unimportant places. 6 Confirmed by Henry II. and embodied in the Inspeximus of Henry VI. (Dugdale's Mon. vi. [3] 1250. 6 See Introduction to Domesday. 3"