Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/466

 A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE the priory in 1265 for nine years, returning to his own house in 1274 1 ; and in 1278 the prior of Dunstable, William le Breton, visited and ate with the Dominicans. 2 In 1282, 3 at the funeral of a female parishioner of Dunstable, who had desired to be buried in the church of the friars, the offerings were shared quite amicably by the two churches ; but in 1287 * the porter of Dunstable was made to buy a house near the area of the Friars Preachers, so that they might not be able to enlarge their boundaries without the per- mission of the canons. Again in 1298 5 the bishop sent a mandate to the official of the archdeacon of Bedford to enjoin the canons of Dunstable to desist from forbidding and impeding the Friars Preachers from hearing the confessions of the people of that place ; but in 131 1 6 it was the bishop who found that friars who presented themselves to be licensed as confessors were becoming too numerous. Ten were offered to him on this occasion from Dunstable ; this number is scarcely likely to include all the friars in the house, as some had probably received licences before. John Coton, the prior of the Friars Preachers at Dunstable, subscribed the ac- knowledgment of the royal supremacy on 14 May 1534. 10 Nothing is known of the order of the house at this time, but it is somewhat discredited by some scandal that had taken place there in connection with the provincial of the order, who was also prior of (King's) Langley ; but Bishop Longland's letter, in which the affair is mentioned, is so allusive and obscure that it is difficult to understand what the scandal was, or whether any others than the provincial were involved in it. 11 The house was surrendered some time be- fore 8 May 1539, when it was granted to one of the yeomen of the guard 12 ; but as the deed of surrender has been lost, the exact date is unknown. The income of the house in 1535 was £4. 18;. 8d. 13 HOSPITALS 15. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN, BEDFORD The date of the foundation of the hospital of St. John Baptist at Bedford is somewhat uncertain. It is dated 980 in the transcript of the foundation charter which was entered in 1399 in the episcopal registers at Lincoln, 7 and 1280 in the Chantry Certificates of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. ; 8 the first date seems too early, and the second is certainly too late. Perhaps the correct date is 11 80, for the first mention of the hospital is found in 1216, 9 1 Ann. Man. (Rolls Series), iii. 261. 2 Ibid. 278. 3 Ibid. 289. The body was first carried to Dunstable church, where the canons sang the requiem mass, and had the oblations, including eight candles, four of which they kept and gave the other four to the Dominicans. The chronicler of Dunstable explains here that two candles were given to the brothers, and two to the sisters ; this looks as if there were Dominican nuns there at the time, but no other trace of their existence has been found. 4 Ibid. 338. « Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Sutton, 2i7d. 6 Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, igd. 7 Ibid. Memo. Beaufort, 22d. The first figure in the date is cancelled and 980 written afterwards (Beds N. and Q. i. 193). « Chant. Cert. (Beds), 1, 4. 8 Pat. 1 Hen. Ill.m. 3d. and not long after this Bishop Hugh de Wells ordained a vicarage for the church of St. John, which belonged then to the brothers of the hospital. 14 The founder's name was Robert de Parys ; other benefactors being John and Henry St. John. 16 The original endowment was in- tended to support two or three religious brethren, of whom one should be master ; it was to be a house of charity, where all needy persons free born of the town of Bedford (but from no other place) who had become poor by misfortune rather than by fault might seek admittance and be maintained ; though none should be presented by the mayor and bur- gesses unless with the consent of the founder and his successors. The brethren were to 10 /-. and P. Hen. Fill. vii. 665. 11 Bishop Longland's letter says that he encloses ' the detections of the most honest people of Dun- stable ' regarding the prior of Langley, who was also provincial of the order. It is therefore natural to conclude that the house of the Friars Preachers at Dunstable had been the scene of some particular scandal during some visit of the provincial, though it was not Dunstable but Langley that was ' in utter decay ' (L. and P. Hen. Fill. iv. 43 1 5 [dated 1 June 1528]). " Ibid. xv. 1032. 13 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 210. 14 A. Gibbons, Liber Antiquus, 20-5. 16 Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Beaufort, 22d. 396