Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/388

 A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE funds were devoted to superstitious uses. Every gild had its altar where a priest was maintained to sing mass for the good estate of the brethren and sisters while living and for the repose of their souls after death. They were found in Bedfordshire at Blunham, St. Paul's Bedford, Biggleswade, Dunstable, Eaton Socon, Houghton Regis and Luton ; ' their favourite dedication was to the Holy Trinity. The richest and best known of these was the Gild of the Trinity at Luton ; records of its expenses, etc., are still preserved among the MSS. of the Marquis of Bute.' The object was to maintain a priest and poor brethren. The gilds of Eaton and Dunstable also had funds set apart for distribution to the poor and other charitable purposes. There are scarcely any records to help us to form an opinion as to how far the teaching of the Lollards was known or welcomed in Bed- fordshire. At a time when Bishop Buckingham complained that heresy was rife in Northamptonshire, 3 when Leicestershire was the centre of WyclifFe's teaching, it is difficult to believe that Bedfordshire remained untouched. There was however only one prosecution in this county re- corded by the Lincoln registers : that of John Langeley, vicar of Pullox- hill, in 141 7/ His arrest is noted, but nothing further. There is the same want of detailed information for the first half of the sixteenth century as for the fifteenth ; so that it is impossible to gather any clear impression as to the state of popular feeling in Bedford- shire with regard to the many and great changes which were taking place. In a county where so much land and so large a proportion of the churches belonged to religious houses, there must surely have been strong feelings either for or against the dissolution ; but very little is re- corded. We possess however one vivid picture of the way in which the Act of Supremacy was discussed, not only amongst the religious but amongst some of the clergy and laity in one part of Bedfordshire. The depositions of the abbot of Woburn and others at the surrender of the abbey in 1538 s contain references to many well known people. The abbot had evidently discussed the subjects of the supremacy, the royal divorce, the death of More and Fisher, the suppression of the smaller monasteries, quite freely with all his neighbours ; with Sir Francis Bryan, though he was in the king's service, and inclined to the new learning ; with Lord Grey of Wilton and Lady Grey of Wrest (with whom he never could agree) ; with Sir Francis Bryan's physician ; with the parson of Milton Bryan, some doctors of Cambridge and the warden of Toddington Hospital. All these people had listened to his arguments, 1 All in Chant. Cert. i. The gild of Dunstable also occurs in Inq. a. q. d. 19-23 Henry VI. No. 81. It maintained (Chant. Cert. 4) a house with three chambers containing beds for poor travellers passing through Dunstable ; and four tenements under the same roof for brethren of the gild fallen into poverty, where they might dwell without paying rent. That of Eaton (ibid.) had merely a dist-ibution of money to the poor. 8 Hist, to "S. Com. iii. 207. 3 Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Buckingham, 393 (1392). 6 L. and P. Her.. Vlll. xiii.pt. 1, No. 981. The depositions were taken n and 12 May 1538 ; the abbey having been urrendered 8 May. 330
 * Ibid. Memo Repingdon, 184 (141 7).