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 A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE Margaret Godfrey, 1 elected 1487, died or resigned 1 50 1 Elizabeth Hervey, 2 elected 1501, died 1524 Agnes Gascoigne, 3 elected. I 524, died 1529 Elizabeth Boyvill, 4 elected 1529 The seal of the abbey is found attached to the deed of surrender already mentioned. It is dark green, pointed oval, and represents Blessed Mary the Virgin standing with the Holy Child in her arms. St. Helen stands on the right, bearing the cross. An abbess kneels below, with crosier, and a nun on either side. Another seal (imperfect) bearing only the figure of St. Helen with the cross is attached to Harl. Ch. 44, D 35, and Campbell Charter, x. 9 (B.M.) 3. THE PRIORY OF MARKYATE The priory of Markyate was founded in the year 1 145, in a wood which was then part of the parish of Caddington, and be- longed to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, London. 6 Ralf de Langford, who was dean at the time, granted the site at a rent of 31. annually ; adding to it afterwards another portion at a rent of 6s. As the house was built under the patronage of Geoffrey, six- teenth abbot of St. Alban's, and endowed by him (though not with the goodwill of his convent) with tithes rrom Cashio and Wat- ford, 8 it has sometimes been called a cell of that abbey ; but this is scarcely a correct description of it, as the patronage remained always with the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, 7 and the nuns were never exempt from episcopal jurisdiction. There can however be no doubt that in its early days the priory was closely connected with St. Alban's, though the history of its origin is somewhat involved in legend. It is said that a monk called Roger 8 went out from the abbey some time during the reign of Henry I., with the con- sent of his abbot, to seek a place for a hermit- extracts from Rolls de Rest. Temporalium). = Ibid. f. 55. 3 L. and P. Hen. Fill. (P.R.O.), iv. 404, 487, from Pat. 16 Hen. VIII. pt. i. and Line. Epis. Reg., Longland, 241. « L. and P. Hen. VIII. (P.R.O.), 6211, from Pat. 21 Henry VIII., and in Pension List after the surrender. iii. 368. The grant was confirmed by Alexander Bishop of Lincoln (Cott. Ch. xi. 8). « Matth. Paris, Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), i. 95. a Matth. Paris. Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), i. age; and was guided to choose a spot in the woods near Caddington, not far from Watling Street. There he lived for some time in such solitude as he desired, until a damsel from Huntingdon, Christine by name, came and placed herself under his direction, believing that she had a similar vocation. He enclosed her in a shed close by his own hermitage, and fastened the door with planks in such a way that she could not open it herself, nor could she be seen by any passers-by ; and in this narrow dwelling she remained for four years, enduring with heroic courage heat and cold alike, and only released from her cramped posture once a day at dusk. At the end of this time her patience was rewarded by heavenly visions, 9 which convinced Roger that it was indeed her destiny to succeed him in his cell. When he died, and was carried to St. Alban's to be buried ' in a curved place on the south wall near the choir,' it was natural enough that the abbot should take Christine under his special protection and patronage. A woman could scarcely live quite alone in a wood away from either town or church, but it was not difficult in the twelfth century to find a few others who were willing to embrace the stricter forms of the religious life ; so Christine was soon sur- rounded by disciples. The formation of the house into a priory under the Benedictine rule was probably due to the influence of St. Alban's. 10 97-105. These pages do not form part of the original narrative, but are added by Walsingham or the compiler of the Gesta Abbatum. 8 One of these, whether historical or not, is at any rate characteristic of the crusading age to which the real Christine belonged. She thought she saw her Lord standing before her and holding a golden cross ; He bade her be of good courage, for they who would go to Jerusalem must needs bear the cross thither. 10 If the dates in the story of Roger and Chris- tine are at all correctly given, it was some time before this was formally done. It is said that Christine acted as an adviser to Abbot Geoffrey in the beginning of the reign of Stephen ; while the charter of foundation is dated 1 145. Christine has the distinction of being the only Bedfordshire saint (and after all she was born in Huntingdon !) There is a fifteenth century English life of her by Ros- carrok (printed from a MS. in Trinity College, Dublin) appended to John of Tynemouth's Nova Legenda Anglia?, ed. C. Horstman. It contains very little of interest, being chiefly an account of her life before she came to Markyate, of which the St. Alban's chronicler apparently knew nothing : and of her contentions with her parents and would- be husband, after the manner of St. Frideswide and many other virgin saints. 358
 * Lansd. MS. 963, f. 27b (Bishop Kennett's
 * Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 66, and Dugdale, Mon.
 * Line. Epis. Reg. (See Institutions of Prioresses),