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Markyate Priory was a Benedictine priory in Bedfordshire, England. It was established in 1145 and disestablished in 1537. ==History== The priory of Markyate was founded in 1145, in a wood which was then part of the parish of Caddington, and belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral, London. Ralf de Langford, who was dean at the time, granted the site at a rent of 3s. annually; adding to it afterwards another portion at a rent of 6s. As the house was built under the patronage of Geoffrey, sixteenth abbot of St. Alban's, and endowed by him (though not with the goodwill of his convent) with tithes from Cashio and Watford, 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, 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 went out from the abbey some time during the reign of Henry I, with the consent of his abbot, to seek a place for a hermitage; 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, 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 surrounded by disciples. The formation of the house into a priory under the Benedictine rule was probably due to the influence of St. Alban's.〔Page, William; Doubleday, Herbert Arthur (''The Victoria History of the County of Bedford: Volume 1'' ), 1904, p.358-60〕 The priory was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the name most commonly given to it was 'Holy Trinity in the Wood.' It seems to have been destroyed by fire almost as soon as built; for Matthew Paris asserts that Abbot Geoffrey built the house twice from the foundation. The later story says that Christine had great influence with the abbot, and often gave him good advice; which may well have been, without the intervention of any ghosts. There is happily no doubt of her real existence, as her name appears on the foundation charter and other documents; and an entry on the Pipe Roll of 1156 gives some evidence of the fame to which she attained. During her lifetime the priory acquired some property outside the county; there were certainly four churches belonging to it in the thirteenth century, and possibly more. But it was never a wealthy house.〔 In 1259, when the Friars Preachers came to Dunstable, the prioress of Markyate, Agnes Gobion, sent them a certain number of loaves every day for their dinner—'out of pure charity,' says the chronicler, because they were then building their church. But her kindness was ill requited, for when the immediate necessity was past, the friars would not allow her to withdraw the dole; they sent to Rome and had it confirmed to them for ever. This grant would not probably be in itself a heavy burden to the priory; but there is no doubt that the nuns had some difficulty in maintaining themselves during the second half of the thirteenth century. Debts began to press heavily; and in 1290 they sent a petition to Parliament to say that if they were to pay all that they owed (more than two hundred marks) they could not possibly live. The relief they asked was not granted, but perhaps they found some other way out of their troubles, for the priory continued to exist. But its poverty was noticed by the bishop of Lincoln, Henry Burghersh, in 1332.〔 The number of nuns in 1406 was twelve, and in 1433 there were a prioress, subprioress and nine nuns; it is probable that the revenue would never have supported more. The priory had a warden or master in 1323, like many other nunneries at that time.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Markyate Priory」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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