Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/389

 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY and agreed or disagreed with a freedom which is rather striking at a time when treason in word only was liable to the same penalties as con- spiracy or open rebellion. The physician of Sir Francis Bryan had re- buked the curate of Woburn chapel for loyally railing against the pope and against images ; while the same gentleman's servant had fallen out with the schoolmaster of the abbey on the subject of the royal supremacy. In consequence of all these revelations articles were drawn up by the royal visitors against the warden of Toddington, the doctors of Cam- bridge and the ' doctor of physicke,' and an attempt seems to have been made to implicate Sir Francis Bryan also ; but only the abbot and two of his monks suffered the extreme penalty of the law at this time. 1 The parish churches 2 certainly suffered a great loss in the suppres- sion of the chantries and gilds ; the reports of those who drew up the certificates show plainly how much the services of these additional chap- lains were valued by the parish clergy. 3 The chantry priests may have been ' meanly learned ' (whatever that may actually imply), and ' not able to serve a cure ' in most cases ; but in nearly every report it is added that there is ' none other priest to help the vicar,' and that many of the parishioners live at considerable distances from the church. In the case of Northill Collegiate Church, it is explained that there are seven hamlets in this parish, ' whereof two are three quarters of a mile from the church, and every one as distant from the other ' ; and ' it is thought that one priest shall not be able to serve the same.' ' They were never- theless suppressed ; and though a part of the money thus secured to the Crown may have been put to good uses, the immediate sufferers received no compensation. The chapels of Gravenhurst, Roxhill and Silsoe, originally parochial chapels, fell under the same condemnation because of 1 Stow, Annates, p. 573, Speed, Chronicle, 1026, and Add. MS. 2-402, f. 47 (a list of those executed under Henry VIII., once in the possession of Hearne, probably drawn from the chroniclers) state that the parson of Podington, Beds, suffered with the abbot and one monk. The Controlment Roll, Trin. term, 30 Henry VIII., gives the record of the attainder of the abbot and fan monks, with no other companion. If a further example had been needed the choice would naturally fall upon Sir John Mylward, the warden of Toddington, who had brought himself well under the treason law by refusing to preach the king's supremacy, and compiling a book from the fathers called De Poustate Petri ; and in- deed it seems very unlikely that he should escape at this time. But the record o!" his attainder is want- ing, and the traditional number of victims is complete without him. Moreover the Chantry Cert, of 1 546 (No. 4) states that the hospital of Toddington was dissolved ' without the king's warrant, immedi- ately on the death of the last master John Mylward,' which docs not suggest an attainder. There is no record either of a parson of Podington, though the Epis. Reg. show a fresh institution in 1539. Amongst other partisans of the old learning in Bedfordshire we may note Lord Mordaunt, who gave evidence in favour of the unfortunate Friar Forrest in this same year (I. and P. Hen. Fill. xiii. pt. 1, 1043) ; and Sir John Gostwick, a knight of the shire, who had the courage to accuse Cranmer of heresy in open Parliament in 1544 (Canon R. W.Dixon, History of the Church of England, ii. 344-5). Members of the same two families are found amongst the recusants of Elizabeth's reign. 3 Before the end of the reign of Henry VIII. the town of Bedford had lost two very old parish churches. Of the church of All Saints there is no institution recorded after the year 1446 ; but the Valor Eccl. records under the head of Newnham Priory • Epo. Lincoln' pro indemnitate ecciie Omfi Scor Bedd. 3/. 4^.' The Church of St. Peter Dunstable is said to have been destroyed about the year 1545, and its stones used to repair St. Mary's, the bridge and the streets, as well as the other church of St. Peter {Beds Archa-ol. and A re hit. Soe. ix. 260). ' SS. Peter and Mary Dunstable' appear as one rectory in the Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) 3 Chant. Cert. Nos. I, 2, 4. 331
 * Ibid. 1 ; No. 4 adds, ' And it were right necessary for an almshouse, if it pleased the King.'