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 A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE The original arrangement in the case of such grants was for the monastery to present a rector in the same way as the lay patrons had done, receiving from him a fixed pension. And the intention of the donor was for the good of the church as well as the monastery ; he might well hope that the monks would have higher motives in the selec- tion of rectors, and better opportunities of finding suitable men. But when the tithes were granted as well as the advowson the temptation to look, upon their churches as mainly a source of income proved sometimes too much for the religious. Chaplains removable at pleasure might be put into the rectory at a small stipend ; monks might be sent merely to perform the necessary duties ; and in either case the parish had no one with a continuous interest in its welfare. Between the worst and the best that might come of such arrange- ments there were doubtless many grades. But the bishops seem to have been early dissatisfied with the way in which the cure of souls was under- taken in the appropriate churches, and they succeeded in obtaining from the Lateran Council of 1 1 79 the power to provide a remedy. It was to this end that the Council of Westminster in 1200 ordered the establish- ment of perpetual vicarages. Certainly among the earliest in England was the vicarage ordained at Pulloxhill in 1204 1 by William, Bishop of Lincoln. And in the Liber Antiquus of Hugh de Wells those at Henlow, Arlesey and Dun- ton are said to have been § ' exdudum ordinatas,' presumably before his own episcopate began in 1209. In Bedfordshire before 1235 there were thirty-six besides the four already mentioned. 2 The usual amount fixed for the vicar's income was 5 marks ; only a few were more or less. This was made up from the small tithes, and the altarage of the church ; a competent manse was usually added. The vicars were bound to pay the synodalia, but the religious the archdeacon's fees (except in the case of Luton, where the vicarage was worth jC 1 ^)- There was no attempt to fix any proportion between the value of the whole rectory and the vicar's stipend ; the principle being simply to provide the vicar with a proper maintenance, not to give him a fair share in the profits. The benefice might be worth 10, 1 2 or 15 marks, but still the vicar's portion was 5 or 5! marks ; the monastery took the residue, small or great. The rule was the same for very poor churches. The bishop fixed the stipend of the vicar of Ampthill at 5 1 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series) iii. 28. 2 Appropriate to Elstow : Flitton, Westoning, Kempston. To Chicksand : Haynes, Stotfold, Cople, Keysoe. To Dunstable : Husborne Crawley, Segenhoe, Chalgrave, Totternhoe and Studham. To Newnham : Salford, Goldington, Cardington, Willington, Barford, Renhold, Ravensden, Stagsden. To Beaulieu : Ampthill, Clophill, Millbrook and Potsgrave. To Markyate : Sundon. To Harrold : Harrold and Stevington. To Caldwell : Bromham and Roxton, To St. John's Hospital : St. John's, Bedford. Besides these, Luton, Houghton, Tillsworth, Eaton Bray, Langford, Podington, were appropriated to monasteries outside the county, 316