'- ... - FOUNDED BY GOLDW1N SMITH I 1901 HARRIET" SMITH L, ! A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND Dfctorfa Ibtetoi^ of the Counties of Englanb EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE F.S.A. A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND VOLUME II A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND EDITED BY JAMES WILSON, M.A. THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND CUMBERLAND LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED This History is issued to Subscribers only By Archibald Constable & Company Limited and printed by Butler fcf Tanner of Promt and London INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF HER LATE MAJESTY QJJEEN VICTORIA WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE THE TITLE TO AND ACCEPTED THE DEDICATION OF THIS HISTORY / VI ISTOR1 V OF D \ \ THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND EDITED BY JAMES WILSON, M.A. VOLUME TWO JAMES STREET HAYMARKET 1905 . D/\ £7(9 Cai/6 v. a CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO PAGE Dedication • v Contents . . ix List of Illustrations • . xi Editorial Note • xiii Table of Abbreviations • . xv Ecclesiastical History . . By the Rev. JAMES WILSON, M.A. . i Religious Houses . • » » » » » •> Introduction ... . • .127 Priory of Carlisle • J31 „ „ Lanercost . ... . • J52 Abbey of Holmcultram .162 „ „ Calder -174 Priory of St. Bees .178 „ „ Wetheral .... . . 184 Nunnery of Armathwaite ... . . 189 „ „ Seton or Lekeley .'.... ... .192 Four Houses of Friars .......... . 194 Hospital of St. Nicholas, Carlisle • IO9 „ „ St. Sepulchre, Carlisle .203 ,', „ St. Leonard, Wigton . 204 „ „ Lennh', Bewcastle • 204 „ House of Caldbeck . .204 House of St. John, Keswick . 204 College of Greystoke . .204 „ „ Kirkoswald • 208 Monumental Effigies . . By the Rev. CANON BOWER, M.A. . .211 Political History . . -By the RCV- JAMES WILSON, M.A., and R. A. ALLISON . . 221 Industries. Introduction . . By the Rev. JAMES WILSON, M.A 331 Coal Mining . . By R. W. MOORE 348 Hematite Mining .' By JOHN MACKELLAR MAIN .... . 385 Eden and Esk Fisheries By THOMAS ROBINSON . 407 Derwent Fisheries . By H. P. SEN HOUSE, M.A . 411 Ravenglass Fisheries . By FREDERICK REYNOLDS 415 Solway Fisheries . . By GEORGE HOLMES 416 Sport Ancient and Modern. Introduction . By G. W. HARTLEY . . . . . • . .419 Fox Hunting . . By the Lady MABEL HOWARD 422 Shooting . . By G. W. HARTLEY 428 ix CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO Sport (continued) — PAGE Horse Racing . . By the Rev. JAMES WILSON, M.A 440 Wildfowling . . By WILLIAM NICOL 446 Foulmart Hunting . By the Rev. JAMES WILSON, M.A 452 Sweetmart Hunting . „ „ „ „ . 455 North Country Trail Hounds and Trails . By FRANCIS NICHOLSON, F.Z.S. 457 Otter Hunting . . By WILLIAM STEEL 461 Angling . . -By FRASER SANDEMAN ........ 464 Coursing . . . By W. F. LAMONBY 469 Game Cockfighting . By FRANCIS NICHOLSON, F.Z.S. 475 Wrestling . . „ „ „ . 482 Football . . . By C. W. ALCOCK, assisted by R. WESTRAY and R. S. WILSON . 491 Forestry . . . . By J. NISBET, D.Oec 497 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Carlisle. By WILLIAM HYDE frontispiece Episcopal Seals, Plate I full-page plate facing 14 „ „ Plate II .. . . „ „ „ 30 The Meeting of Richard II and Bishop Merb with Henry of Lancaster „ „ „ 42 Episcopal Seals, Plate III „ „ „ 46 Thomas Smith, Bishop of Carlisle „ „ „ IO2 Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle ... „ „ „ 108 Seals of Religious Houses and Various . „ „ „ 130 Representation of the defence of Carlisle by Sir Andrew de Harcla against the Scots in 1315 on a charter of Edward II to the City of Carlisle „ „ „ 262 Sir John Lowther, bart „ „ „ 296 John Christian Curwen, esq. . . ... . ,, „ „ 312 Longitudinal section from Maryport to Whitehaven two full-page plates facing 348 Maryport to Bolton Low Houses Ancient corves or baskets used at Whitehaven Colliery . . . full-page plate facing 352 Town and Harbour of Whitehaven (1738) „ „ „ 362 LIST OF MAPS Ecclesiastical Map of Cumberland . facing 126 Map of Castles and Fortresses ............ 276 XI EDITORIAL NOTE No claim to exhaustiveness is made for the lists of abbots and priors of the religious houses. It is probable that as the contents of private muniments and the public records become more accessible, new names will be added. Since the article on the religious houses was completed, the name of John, abbot of Holmcultram, in 1406, was brought to light by the publication of the Calendar of Papal Letters (vi. 77) : John, prior of St. Bees, was witness to a deed, dated 1330, at Cockermouth Castle, and Nicholas de Warthill was prior of the same place in 1387, as stated in a charter at the British Museum. During the time of the preparation of this volume death has removed two esteemed colleagues — the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, a zoologist of distinction, and Mr. William Steel, a keen sportsman as well as an experienced writer. The Editors wish to express their obligation to Mrs. Henry Ware for the loan of her valuable collection of casts of episcopal seals ; to the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society for the use of blocks ; to the Mayor and Corporation of Carlisle for liberty to photograph the initial letter of one of their royal charters ; to the Director of the Public Library, Carlisle, for the loan of engravings for reproduction ; to the Bishop and Chapter of Carlisle, the Earl of Lonsdale, and Lord Leconfield, for access to their muniments ; to the Rev. Dr. Greenwell, Mr. W. Farrer, Sir E. T. Bewley, Dr. George Neilson, Mr. William Brown, and Dr. Haswell, for advice and assistance readily given. Xlll TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.) Acts of P.C. . . Add Add. Chart. . . Admir Agarde .... Anct. Corresp. . Anct. D. (P.R.O.) A 2420 Antiq App Arch Arch. Cant. Archd. Rec. . . Archit Assize R. . . . Aud. Off. . . . Aug. Off. ... Ayloffe . . . . Bed Beds Berks . . . . Bdle B.M Bodl. Lib. . . . Boro Brev. Reg. . Brit Buck Bucks . . . . Cal Camb Cambr Cant Cap Carl Cart. Antiq. R. . C.C.C. Camb. . . Certiorari Bdles. (Rolls Chap.) Chan. Enr. Decree R. Chan. Proc. . . Chant. Cert. Chap. Ho. . . . Charity Inq. . Chart. R. 20 Hen. III.pt. i. No. 10 Chartul. Abbreviatio Placitorum (Re- cord Commission) Acts of Privy Council Additional Additional Charters Admiralty Agarde's Indices Ancient Correspondence Ancient Deeds (Public Record Office) A 2420 Antiquarian or Antiquaries Appendix Archaeologia or Archaeological Archasologia Cantiana Archdeacon's Records Architectural Assize Rolls Audit Office Augmentation Office Ayloffe's Calendars Bedford Bedfordshire Berkshire Bundle British Museum Bodley's Library Borough Brevia Regia Britain, British, Britannia, etc. Buckingham Buckinghamshire Calendar Cambridgeshire or Cambridge Cambria, Cambrian, Cam- brensis, etc. Canterbury Chapter Carlisle Cartae Antiquae Rolls Corpus Christi College, Cam- bridge Certiorari Bundles (Rolls Chapel) Chancery Enrolled Decree Rolls Chancery Proceedings Chantry Certificates (or Cer- tificates of Colleges and Chantries) Chapter House Charity Inquisitions Charter Roll, 20 Henry III. part i. Number 10 Chartulary Chas Ches Chest Ch. Gds. (Exch. K.R.) Chich Chron Close .... Co Colch. .... Coll Com Com. Pleas . Conf. R. . . . Co. Plac. . . . Cornw Corp Cott Ct. R Ct. of Wards . . Cumb Cur. Reg. . . . D. and C. . . . De Bane. R. . . Dec. and Ord. Dep. Keeper's Rep. Derb Devon .... Doc Dods. MSS. . . Dom. Bk. . . . Dors Duchy of Lane. Dur East Eccl Eccl. Com. Edw Eliz Engl Engl. Hist. Rev. . Epis. Reg. . Esch. Enr. Accts. . Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.) Exch. Dep. . . Exch. K.B. . . Exch. K.R. . . Exch. L.T.R. . . Exch. of Pleas, Plea R. Exch. of Receipt . Charles Cheshire Chester Church Goods (Exchequer King's Remembrancer) Chichester Chronicle, Chronica, etc. Close Roll County Colchester Collections Commission Common Pleas Confirmation Rolls County Placita Cornwall Corporation Cotton or Cottonian Court Rolls Court of Wards Cumberland Curia Regis Dean and Chapter De Banco Rolls Decrees and Orders Deputy Keeper's Reports Derbyshire or Derby Devonshire Documents Dodsworth MSS. Domesday Book Dorsetshire Duchy of Lancaster Durham Easter Term Ecclesiastical Ecclesiastical Commission Edward Elizabeth England or English English Historical Review Episcopal Registers Escheators Enrolled Accounts Excerpta e Rotulis Finium (Record Commission) Exchequer Depositions Exchequer King's Bench Exchequer King's Remem- brancer Exchequer Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer Exchequer of Pleas, Plea Roll Exchequer of Receipt xv TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS Exch. Spec. Com. Feet of F. . . . Feod. Accts. (Ct. of Wards) Feod. Surv. (Ct. of Wards) Feud. Aids . . . fol Foreign R. . . . Forest Proc. Gen Geo Glouc Guild Certif. (Chan.) Ric. II. Hants .... Harl Hen Heref. .... Hertf. .... Herts . . . . Hil Hist. Hist. MSS. Com. Hosp ..... Hund. R. . . . Hunt ..... Hunts . Inq. a.q.d. . . . Inq. p.m. . . . Inst ...... Invent ..... Itin Jas. . Journ. Lamb. Lib. Lane. L. and P. VIII. Lansd. . Ld. Rev. Rec. . Leic. . . . Le Neve's Ind. Lib Lich. . . . Line. Lond. Hen. m. Mem. . . Memo. R. . Mich. . . Midd. . . Mins. Accts. Exchequer Special Commis- sions Feet of Fines Feodaries Accounts (Court of Wards) Feodaries Surveys (Court of Wards) Feudal Aids Folio Foreign Rolls Forest Proceedings Genealogical, Genealogica, etc. George Gloucestershire or Gloucester Guild Certificates (Chancery) Richard II. Hampshire Harley or Harleian Henry Herefordshire or Hereford Hertford Hertfordshire Hilary Term History, Historical,Historian, Historia, etc. Historical MSS. Commission Hospital Hundred Rolls Huntingdon Huntingdonshire Inquisitions ad quod dam num Inquisitions post mortem Institute or Institution Inventory or Inventories Ipswich Itinerary James Journal Lambeth Library Lancashire or Lancaster Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII. Lansdowne Land Revenue Records Leicestershire or Leicester Le Neve's Indices Library Lichfield Lincolnshire or Lincoln London Membrane Memorials Memoranda Rolls Michaelmas Term Middlesex Ministers' Accounts Misc. Bks. (Exch. K.R., Exch. T.R. or Aug. Off.) Mon. Monm. . Mun. . . Mus. . . N. and Q. . Norf. . . Northampt. Northants . Northumb. . Now. . Nott. N.S. Off. . . Orig. R. Oxf. . P Palmer's Ind. . Pal. of Chest. . . Pal. of Dur. . . Pal. of Lane. . Par Parl Parl. R Parl. Surv. . Partic. for Gts. . Pat P.C.C Peterb Phil Pipe R Plea R Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.) P.R.O Proc Proc. Soc. Antiq. . Pub R ..... Rec. . . . Recov. R. . . Rentals and Surv. Rep ..... Rev ..... Ric ..... Roff. . . . Rot. Cur. Reg. Rut. . Sarum Ser. . Sess. R. Shrews. Miscellaneous Book (Ex- chequer King's Remem- brancer, Exchequer Trea- sury of Receipt or Aug- mentation Office) Monastery, Monasticon Monmouth Muniments or Munimenta Museum Notes and Queries Norfolk Northampton Northamptonshire Northumberland Norwich Nottinghamshire or Notting- ham New Style Office Originalia Rolls Oxfordshire or Oxford Page Palmer's Indices Palatinate of Chester Palatinate of Durham Palatinate of Lancaster Parish, Parochial, etc. Parliament or Parliamentary Parliament Rolls Parliamentary Surveys Particulars for Grants Patent Roll or Letters Patent Prerogative Court of Canter- bury Peterborough Philip Pipe Roll Plea Rolls Pope Nicholas' Taxation (Re- cord Commission) Public Record Office Proceedings Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Part Publications Roll Records Recovery Rolls Rentals and Surveys Report Review Richard Rochester diocese Rotuli Curis Regis Rutland Salisbury diocese Series Sessions Rolls Shrewsbury TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS Shrops .... Soc Soc. Antiq. . Somers Somers. Ho. S.P. Dom. . . . Staff. .... Star Chamb. Proc. Stat Stcph Subs. R. . . . Suff. Surr Suss Surv. of Ch. Liv- ings (Lamb.) or (Chan.) Topog Trans Shropshire Society Society of Antiquaries Somerset Somerset House State Papers Domestic Staffordshire Star Chamber Proceedings Statute Stephen Subsidy Rolls Suffolk Surrey Sussex Surveys of Church Livings (Lambeth) or (Chancery) Topography or Topographi- cal Transactions Transl Translation Treas Treasury or Treasurer Trin Trinity Term Univ University (Rec. Valor Eccl. Com.) Vet. Mon. . V.C.H. . . Vic Victoria vol. Volume Valor Ecclesiasticus (Record Commission) Vetusta Monumenta Victoria County History Warw. . Westm. . Will. . Wilts . Winton. Wore. Yorks Warwickshire or Warwick Westminster William Wiltshire Winchester diocese Worcestershire or Worcester Yorkshire xvn ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY I early ecclesiastical history of the county of Cumberland is enveloped in a dark cloud which the efforts of modern research are unable to penetrate. In the absence of satisfactory evidence, the story of the early missions, as far as it relates to our district, must be accepted with considerable hesitation. The monumental remains of the Roman occupation, though of great variety, give no indication that Christianity was accepted by the Roman legions or the auxiliary forces which guarded the great wall and colonized the country in the immediate vicinity. About the time of the departure of the Romans, it is said that Ninian pushed his evangelical mission beyond the Solway. As bishop of the nation of the Picts who dwelt south of the Grampians, his missionary sphere extended throughout the south- west of Scotland, and his cathedral church was built at Whithern or Candida Casa on the south coast of Galloway.1 Bede tells us that he was a most holy man of the British nation who had been instructed at Rome in the faith, by whose instrumentality the Picts on this side of the mountains were led to forsake idolatry.* Though the historian gives no hint that he ever preached in the dales of Cumberland, the opinion of Geoffrey Gaimar cannot be overlooked when he identifies the Picts baptized by Ninian with the people of Westmorland.3 If Ninian was born on the shores of the Solway,4 the saint must have passed through Cumberland along the great military roads on his way to and from Gaul and Rome. As his father was a Christian, and as Ninian was baptized in infancy, the faith must have been accepted in the neighbourhood of Carlisle at an early date. When the protection of the Roman power was withdrawn the Britons were torn asunder by internal dissensions and hardly pressed by external invasion. For a century and a half all matters connected with the religious history of the district are in hopeless confusion. The events which led up to the battle of Ardderyd in 573 bring upon the 1 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Rolls Series), i. 31-2. 1 Hist. Eccles. iii. cap. 4. » Man. Hist. Brit. (Rec. Com.), 776. * The life of Ninian by Ailred, abbot of Rievaulx, written between 1147 and 1167, contains little of value in addition to the well-known passage in Bede with which he opens his narrative. It may be taken, however, as the tradition prevalent in the twelfth century that the coast of the Solway was the birthplace of the saint. II II A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND scene the great apostle of the Cumbrian region. When we come to the labours of St. Mungo or Kentigern we catch a glimpse of what appears to be genuine history. In the opinion of Jocelyn, one of his biographers,1 Kentigern was the prominent figure in the revolution which evangelized the district. Some portions of the scenery of Kentigern's life can be identified in districts of modern Cumberland. Flying from Glasgow to escape the persecution of the pagans, he resolved to seek refuge among the Christian Britons of Wales, and arriving at Carlisle, where he heard that many among the mountains were given to idolatry, the saint turned aside, says his biographer, and, God helping him, converted to the Christian religion very many from a strange belief and others who were erroneous in the faith. For some time he remained in a thickly wooded place, and he erected a cross, from which the place took the English name of Crossfield — that is, Crucis Novak — where a new basilica was erected in Jocelyn's time and dedicated in the name of the blessed Kentigern. When his work in Cumberland was accomplished the saint pursued his journey by the seashore, scattering the seed of the Divine word where- ever he went till he reached Wales.2 It was in 573, during Kentigern's absence, that the establishment of Christianity was secured by battle at a place which has been identified as the plains of the Esk near Arthuret. The new king, who had been brought up as a Christian in Ireland, recalled the saint. On his return the people flocked to meet him at Hodelm or Hoddom in Dumfriesshire, where he placed his see for a time till he transferred it to his own city of Glasgow. For many years he ruled his vast diocese, which is said to have stretched far enough south to include the present counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. In tracing the footsteps of St. Kentigern on his missionary journey through Cumberland the churches entitled in his name have been pointed out as witnesses of his triumph over the paganism of the dis- trict. Within the modern county there are eight such dedications, seven of which belong to parish churches which date at least from the twelfth century. The narrative of Jocelyn, compiled about the year 1 185, agrees with the distribution of Kentigern churches in the county, and from it we may gather that these dedications were in Jocelyn's mind when he discoursed on the saint's wanderings in the neighbourhood of Carlisle. The churches of Irthington and Grinsdale are on the line of the Roman wall, the supposed route taken by Kentigern on his flight from Glasgow. Of the others, Caldbeck, Mungrisdale, Castlesowerby and Crosthwaite lie at the roots of the mountains which form the northern boundary of the Lake District. It was to the people living among the mountains that he is said to have directed his steps after his arrival in Carlisle. The two remaining churches of Aspatria and Brom- 1 Two biographies of St. Kentigern are known to have been compiled in the twelfth century. A portion only of the earlier, written by an unknown author at the suggestion of Herbert, bishop of Glas- gow, remains to us, and has been printed in the Registrum Episcopates Glasguensis by Mr. Cosmo Innes. The complete Life, written about the year 1185 by Jocelyn, a monk of Purness, exists in two manuscripts : one in the British Museum, and the other in Archbishop Marsh's Library in Dublin. 3 Historians of Scotland, v. 74. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY field are within short distances of the sea, situated in locis maritanis^ to which the saint was obliged to digress from the direct route to his de- stination in Wales. It has been claimed that these churches occupy sites hallowed by the presence of Kentigern.1 None of them are men- tioned in Jocelyn's biography with the exception of Crossfield, which must be Crosthwaite. A church was built in Jocelyn's day on the site where it was believed that Kentigern erected the cross as the sign of salvation and as a witness to its triumph in the district. As no other Kentigern dedications are known in England, the tradition which ascribed the evangelization of Cumberland to his agency is deserving of the highest respect. Nothing seems to be known for a long period of Kentigern's suc- cessors or the fortunes of the Christian church in the diocese of Glas- gow, which he founded and over which he ruled. The Inquest of David,2 a document ascribed to the year 1 1 20, which deals with the history of the see, so far as it could be ascertained by ' the elders and wise men ' of Cumbria at that date, points to a serious state of affairs. The narrative of the Inquest is worthy of attention. The king of the province, the jurors said, co-operated with the magnates of the kingdom in founding, in honour of God and of St. Mary the Blessed Mother, the church of Glasgow as the pontifical seat of the bishop of the Cumbrian region. That church flourished in the holy faith, and by divine direc- tion received Kentigern as its first bishop. But after Kentigern and his many (plures) successors were gathered to God, insurrections, arising everywhere, not only destroyed the church and its possessions, but wasted the whole country and drove the inhabitants into exile. When a con- siderable time had elapsed, tribes of different nations poured in and took possession of the desolated region. These tribes, differing in race and language and custom, clung to heathenism rather than the worship of the faith. Looking back from the beginning of the twelfth century on the early history of the diocese of Glasgow, the Cumbrian jurors could see nothing but anarchy and confusion after the death of Kentigern. Several successors the saint is said to have had in his diocese, but neither their names nor the dates at which they lived have come down to us. The district was the battle ground of conflicting races — Britons, Picts, Scots and Angles. Until the middle of the seventh century the con- fusion lasted, when the Anglian race obtained the mastery and absorbed at least the southern portion of the country into the kingdom of Northumbria. When we pass from the dark period during which the Britons 1 Bishop Forbes first called attention to the dedications in Cumberland in connexion with Kenti- gern's missionary journey (Historians of Scotland, v. pp. Ixxxiii.-lxxxv.). Others have followed in the Bishop's steps (Trans. Cumb. and Westmorl. Arctxeol. Soc. vi. 328-337, vii. 124-127). But such methods of argument are very unsafe. Jocelyn evidently constructed his narrative from the Kentigern dedica- tions existing in his time. a Registrum Episcopates Glasguensis, No. I., printed at the joint expense of the Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs in 1843. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccles. Doc. ii. 17. In 1901 it was issued in facsimile as a tract in Glasgow. 3 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND struggled for their independence, we obtain a few glimpses of real his- tory. The first light comes from the pages of two historians to whom we are indebted for much of our knowledge of the early history of northern England. Bede comes first in point of time, and it must have been from his pages that the anonymous author erroneously identified with Symeon of Durham, some centuries later, wrote the first authentic chapter of the religious history of Carlisle and the country around it. From these well-known and trustworthy authorities we learn that it was about the year 685 that the Church of the English became established beyond the Pennine range on the shores of the western sea. It is not known at what precise date Cumbria had been severed from British dominion, but in the year above mentioned Ecgfrid, king of North- umbria, gave to St. Cuthbert, who had been recently consecrated bishop of the Anglian diocese of Lindisfarne,1 the city of Luel, that is, Carlisle, and the country for fifteen miles around it as a portion of the territory with which he endowed the see.2 In that city Cuthbert placed a community of nuns under the rule of an abbess and founded a school. From Bede 3 we learn that the abbess was a sister of the Northumbrian king. When Ecgfrid set out on his fatal expedition against the Picts, Cuthbert came to Lugubalia, which was corruptly called Luel by the English, to speak to the Queen, who was there in her sister's monastery awaiting the result of the war. It was during that visit that the citi- zens of Carlisle conducted him to see the walls of the town and the remarkable fountain built by the Romans. It is of importance to notice the condition of the church within the borders of Cumberland at this date, so far as it can be ascertained from these northern chronicles. That some portion of it, if not all, was included in an organized diocese is undoubted. Cuthbert was bishop of Lindisfarne, a diocese which had been in existence for half a century with a succession of Scottish or Irish bishops. The points of difference between the English and Celtic rites had been fought out at the famous conference of Whitby in 664, when the Celtic Church was dispossessed of its hold on Northumbria. Lindisfarne was an English diocese from this time onwards, and Carlisle was included as an outlying portion of it, in which the royal family of Northumbria took a special interest. The bishop of the ecclesias- tical province in which the city was situated paid occasional visits to this part of his spiritual charge. While Cuthbert was in Carlisle pre- paring the Queen for the disaster which he foresaw on the moors of Nectansmere he was called to a neighbouring monastery to dedicate a church.4 The name of the church consecrated has not been recorded, i Bede, Hist. Eccles. iv. 28. Bishop Stubbs dates St. Cuthbert's consecration on 25 March 685 (Reg. Sacrum Anglicanum, Ed. 1897, p. 7). _ » Symeon of Durham, Historia de S. Cutbberto, p. 141 ; Relatio de Sancto Cuthberto, pp. 230-1 , Surtees Society. The Lives of St. Cuthbert ascribed to Symeon are by an earlier author, probably in the tenth century. 3 Vita S. Cutbberti, cap. xrvii. It is clear from the language of Bede that the Abbess of Carlisle was Ecgfrid's sister, and not the sister, but the sister-in-law, of the Queen. Freeman has taken this view of the passage (Trans. Cumb. and Westmorl. Archaol. Soc. vi. 256). 4 Bede, Vita S. Cutbberti, cap. xxviii. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY but we know that it was not far from Carlisle, as he had undertaken to rejoin the Queen next day. Not long after he was called to the same city to ordain priests and to give benediction to the Queen herself, who had taken the veil in that monastery. It was on the occasion of this visit that the venerable priest and friend of St. Cuthbert, Herebert by name, came from his seclusion in an island of the large marsh in which the Derwent rises, the lake now called Derwentwater, as he used to do every year to receive from the saint admonitions in the way of eternal life. Bede's narrative supplies a beautiful picture of the state of the Church as it existed in the district towards the close of the seventh cen- tury, and rests on the surest historical basis, for Bede was recording events which had happened in his boyhood, and his account of St. Cuthbert was submitted for revision to men who had been well ac- quainted with what had taken place. It was political wisdom on the part of the Northumbrian rulers to use the organization of the church as the basis on which the many races of the kingdom might be united into one nation. For this reason, no doubt, local usages, such as the incidence of the Easter festival and the mode of tonsure, were abandoned in favour of a more universal custom. Whatever sort of submission was involved by the compromise at Whitby in 664 it did not obliterate the essential features of the Scottish Church. The whole tone of the church in the northern kingdom was Celtic. The early associations of the bishops of Lindisfarne, the train- ing of St. Cuthbert in the Celtic monastery of Melrose, the well-known objections of the King and Queen to the claims of Wilfrid, need not to be repeated here. The old features of the Celtic Church were retained, and chief amongst them was missionary monasticism. We have no trace of a parochial system in this portion of Cumbria before the Norman settlement in the twelfth century. The centres of ecclesiastical work were monastic rather than parochial while the district remained under English rule. The monastery of Carlisle and its school were centres of educational effort, in which clergy no doubt were trained, and from which they were sent forth to minister in the surrounding district. In Bede's day there was also a monastery near the river Dacore or Dacre,1 not far from Penrith, which was ruled by Abbot Thridred. The Celtic character of the Church in Cumberland about the eighth century is still further illustrated by the legendary life of St. Bega, who is said to have landed in a certain province of England called Coupland, and to have taken up her abode in a dense forest, where she spent many years in solitary devotion." 1 Hist. Eccles. iv. c. 32. There seems to be no doubt that the Dacre in Cumberland is the place meant here, and that it was a monastery of considerable importance. It must have been in existence as late as 926, in which year it appears to have been the scene of the famous agreement between the three kings, when Eugenius, Ewen or Owen, king of the Cumbrians, and Constantine, king of Scots, made submission to king Athelstan. William of Malmesbury calls the place of meeting Dacor (Gesta Regum [Rolls Series], i. 147), but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (i. 199) says that the peace was con- firmed at a place called Eamont. The collocation of names, seeing that Dacre and Eamont are so close together, is sufficient to identify the place as belonging to Cumberland. * Cotton MS. Faustina B. iv. ff. 122-39. 5 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND By the defeat of Ecgfrid the kingdom of Northumbria was de- prived of some of its dependencies, for Bede1 states that the strength of the English Crown from that time began to waver, insomuch that the Picts recovered their land and some of the Britons their liberty ; but it must not be taken that the ecclesiastical relations of our district with the see of Lindisfarne were disturbed by the catastrophe. Though the events which followed are shrouded for a long time in darkness, so late as 854, when Eardulf was consecrated bishop, Carlisle was a portion of that diocese.2 During this episcopate came the Danish invasion, which swept every organization in church and state into the abyss of paganism. The whole kingdom of Northumbria was overrun and desolated by the Danes. The church was in dire jeopardy and its rulers hesitated whether to stand their ground or to flee. Eardulf on consultation with his clergy determined on flight. He summoned Eadred, abbot of Carlisle, surnamed Lulisc, from Luel the ancient name of the city, with whom he took counsel about the shrine of St. Cuthbert.3 After an exchange of views it was deemed more agreeable to St. Cuthbert's wishes that his bones should not be left to the danger of desecration. Raising the holy and uncorrupt body of the father, says Symeon,4 they placed beside it the relics of the saints, such as the head of St. Oswald, some of the bones of St. Aidan, together with the bones of those revered bishops Eadbert, Eadfrid and Ethelwold, successors of St. Cuthbert, and fled, abandoning the mother church of the Bernicians, which had been the residence of so many saints. No sooner had Bishop Eardulf departed with his sacred burden than a fearful storm burst over the whole province of Northumbria. Every- where did the Danes burn down the monasteries and churches, and carry fire and sword from the eastern to the western sea. For this reason the bishop of Lindisfarne and those who were guardians of St. Cuthbert's relics found no place of repose, but going now forward, now backward, hither and thither, they fled from the face of the heathen invader. Crossing into Cumbria they made their way to the mouth of the Derwent at Workington, with the hope of taking ship to Ireland. But as a storm prevented them leaving the haven, they bent their steps towards Gallo- way, where they stayed till the death of Halfdene, the Danish king, emboldened them to return. 1 Hist. Ecdes. iv. cap. 26. 2 Symeon of Durham (Surtees Society), i. 67. 3 Ibid. i. 73. Ancient Monuments, Rites and Customs of Durham (Surtees Society), pp. 55-6. 4 The story of the translation of St. Cuthbert's relics has been handed down as a precious tradition in the northern church. To the writings of Symeon (Of era et Collectanea (Surtees Soc.), i. 162-4), and Reginald (Libellus, Surtees Soc. pp. 16-19, 20-1), two of the historians of Durham, we are chiefly indebted for the details. Attempts to trace the course pursued by the fugitives, who carried the sacred burden, have been often made. John de Wessington, prior of Durham from 1416 to 1446, compiled a list of places where they rested, and hung it over the choir door of the church of Durham. The original compilation in the prior's handwriting has been found (Eyre, History of St. Cuthbert, pp. 98-9). The list includes as resting-places in Cumberland and Westmorland such parishes as St. Cuthbert's, Carlisle, Edenhall, Great Salkeld, Plumbland, Embleton, Lorton, and Cliburn, to which have been added, from other versions, Bewcastle and Dufton. In recent years all of the sixteen churches in the two counties which bear the dedication of St. Cuthbert have been added to the list (Trans. Cumb. and Westmorl. Archteol. Soc. ii. 14-20 j vii. 128-31). ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY It has been supposed that the country lay in ruins after the inroad of the Danes, and that no remnant of church organization was allowed to exist for two centuries from that date. The ecclesiastical history of the period from the Scandinavian invasion till the conquest of the district in 1092 is confused and uncertain. Florence of Worcester tells us that the city of Carlisle which Rufus conquered in 1092, like some other cities in these parts, had been destroyed by the pagan Danes two hundred years before, and had remained deserted up to the time of its recovery ; but we cannot think that the Christian faith was totally obliterated from a district in which it had once taken so deep root, as we know it had done in the neighbourhood of Carlisle while the Northumbrian kings ruled from sea to sea. Whatever may have been the vicissitudes through which it passed, no history exists.1 The state of the church of Cumbria south of the Solway between the invasion of the Dane and the conquest of the Norman is one of the great puzzles of our early history.2 When the district of Carlisle was added to English dominion by William Rufus in 1092, as a matter of course it would fall under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan to whose province it was adjacent. Twenty years before the annexation, a compact was made between the two archbishops at the council of Windsor in 1072, whereby the primacy over Scotland was assigned to York.3 In these circumstances, whatever pleas were put forward by way of claim to the ecclesiastical oversight of the new province, the metropolitan had the determining voice in its ultimate bestowal. As a matter of fact the land of Carlisle became an integral part of the metropolitan diocese from the date of its conquest4 till the time arrived for the creation of a new see in the northern pro- vince. It will be seen that subsequent events assume this to have been the case. No certain information has been preserved to tell us the nature of the plans employed for the ecclesiastical organization of the district during the remaining years of William's reign. It is perhaps too much to expect. The first act for the supply of ecclesiastical institutions in the district has been ascribed to one of the followers of the Conqueror, who is said to have been placed in Carlisle by William Rufus shortly after the annexation. A story of the origin of diocesan institutions, which has been handed down by tradition from a remote period, is worth consideration, though we may not be able to accept it. It is 1 It would be a mere romance to build up a narrative from the remains of Christian monuments with which the modern county abounds. From these lapidary evidences only one conclusion can be drawn. The Church had embraced the seaboard and penetrated the plains. Beyond this nothing more definite can be said. For these monumental remains, see V .CM. Cumb. i. 253-84. 2 Freeman, William Rufus, i. 315. 3 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccles. Doc. ii. 12, 159. By this agreement the jurisdiction of York extended from the boundaries of the diocese of Lichfield over the whole region northwards ' usque ad extremes Scotiae fines,' including the bishopric of Durham or Lindisfarne. 4 Rival claims to the spiritual sovereignty of the new district were put forward by the bishops of Durham and Glasgow, but they were disallowed. For a discussion of these matters, see Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccles, Doc. ii. 10-27. 7 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND related that a certain chaplain called Walter, a Norman who came to England with the Conqueror, had obtained possession of the church of Carlisle and the church of Stanwix with their chapels and the vills around Carlisle. Walter being a wealthy man began to build within the walls of the city a noble church in honour of Blessed Mary the Virgin, but while the work was still in progress both Walter the chap- lain and William the king had died. On the accession of Henry, that king constituted Regular Canons in the great church, which Walter had founded, and gave them the churches and lands which belonged to the deceased chaplain as well as six churches in Northumberland with their chapels, namely, the churches of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Newburn, Warkworth, Rothbury, Whittingham and Corbridge. This having been done, Henry appointed Adelulf prior of the new institution and en- riched it with many dignities. After several years Archbishop Thurstin came to visit the district, and understanding that the Archdeacon of Richmond had no right in these parts he prevailed on the king to create a bishopric in Carlisle, the archbishop having given compensation to the archdeacon for the loss of jurisdiction over Cumberland, West- morland and Allerdale. By decree of Pope Innocent and licence of King Henry, the canons elected Adelulf their prior as first bishop of the new see, and Archbishop Thurstin consecrated him at York1 in 1133. Before we go further it would be well to notice the earliest date at which the foundation of the priory can be fixed. A few years are not of great consequence in an undertaking of this kind, which must have taken a long period to complete. The accepted date, supported by a long series of local historians, has been fixed by one of the Scottish chroniclers, Abbot Bower of Inchcolm, the continuator of the chronicle of Fordun," who tells us that Henry, by the persuasion and counsel of his Queen, constituted regular canons in Carlisle in the year 1102. If the district was in the king's hand at that date, it is very clear proof that Ranulf Meschin had not yet arrived as its political ruler. In that case, as we might reasonably expect, no grant had been made either by Rufus or his successor till some definite steps had been taken for the ecclesias- tical settlement of the new province. That an effort had been made in the early years of Henry's reign to found the priory of Carlisle there can be no question. By the judgment of a jury delivered at Carlisle in » Lansdowne MS. 721, ff. 54-5 sb. This document is headed, 'Ex Registerio patris Willelmi Strickland episcopi Carliolensis,' and appears to be in the handwriting of the early years of the seven- teenth century. From this source probably arose the tradition which we identify with the names of Tonge (Visitation of the Northern Counties in 1530 [Surtees Soc.], 102), Leland (Collectanea [ed. Hearne], i. 120-1), and Godwin (De Presul. Anglic [ed. Richardson], 761-2). > Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, i. 289. It should be pointed out that Abbot Bower has jumbled up two distinct events in this passage, viz., the foundation of the priory in 1102 and the introduction of canons regular in 1133. The canons regular were brought to Carlisle long after the foundation. The Annals of Waverley say it was ' Adulf ' who ' put canons regular in the church of his See ' (Annales Monastici [Rolls Series], ii. 223). Matthew Paris tells the same story, that ' Athelulph, having been created a bishop, placed canons regular in the church of his see and endowed it with many honours ' (Historia Anglorum [Rolls Series], i. 245-6; Chronica Majora [Rolls Series], ii. 158). Other chroniclers, like Bartholomew de Cotton (Hist. Anglicana [Rolls Series], pp. 62, 417), and Thomas Rudborne (Anglia Sacra, i. 282) follow in the same line. 8 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 1278-9 it is alleged that the site of the priory was ancient demesne of the Crown, and that Henry I had founded the priory in pure and per- petual alms about one hundred and eighty years before, as the jury found by an inspection of that king's charter.1 In view of these statements it may be taken that the first ecclesiastical movement in the new district was the project of establishing a religious house in Carlisle, for which purpose the king, before any vassal was appointed for its civil adminis- tration, had appropriated by his charter a site suitable for the require- ments. If for no other reason than that he had a Scottish wife,3 King Henry manifested a real interest in the frontier provinces of his king- dom in the early years of his reign. Soon after his accession he placed one of his chaplains, Richard d'Orival (de Aurea Valle), on the eastern border, and endowed him for life with the four churches of Warkworth, Corbridge, Whittingham and Rothbury, situated on four Northumbrian manors, in the King's hand. At a later date, while the chaplain still lived, the same monarch granted to the priory of Carlisle a reversion of these churches, and added as a direct gift the churches of Newcastle- upon-Tyne and Newburn in the same county.3 Throughout the reign of Henry I such rapid progress was made for the supply of religious institutions that at his death the district had been formed into a fully equipped diocese with a bishop at its head. The intensity of religious feeling was so marked that no fewer than four religious houses were founded during his reign within so small an area as the modern county. This is all the more remarkable when we re- member that the ecclesiastical movement was forced to keep pace with political progress. For this reason, perhaps, the King's project of com- pleting the priory of Carlisle, for which the site had been appropriated, was obliged to wait for several years. Ranulf Meschin, the new ruler appointed by King Henry, instead of supplementing the work of his sovereign in Carlisle, laid the foundation of a new institution at Wetheral,4 as a cell of the great abbey of St. Mary, York. During Ranulfs con- sulate the district must have settled down to some extent and become reconciled to English rule, for after his departure about 1 120, we meet with more manifest signs of ecclesiastical progress. We do not know as a matter of certainty the chronological sequence of ecclesiastical events as they took place during the first twenty years of Henry's reign. 1 Cumberland Assize Roll, No. 132, m. 32. * Edith, daughter of Malcolm, king of Scotland, who after her marriage changed her name to Maud in compliment to her husband's mother. 3 The two charters of Henry I. relating to the Northumberland churches have been often printed (Nicolson and Burn, Hist, of Cumb. ii. 540 ; Dugdale, Monasticon, vi. 144 ; Raine, The Priory of Hexbam i. App. No. v.). They are included in the confirmation charter of 6 Edward III., the original of which is still preserved in the diocesan registry of Carlisle. It should be noted that the grant of the four churches to Richard d'Orival, the royal chaplain, must have been made before 1107, when William de Werelwast, one of the witnesses, became bishop of Exeter (Registrum Sacrum Anglic, p. 41, new edition). From the witnesses to the charter granting the churches to the priory of Carlisle, the date must lie between 1116 and 1129. 4 Reg. of Wetherhal, pp. 1-5. The editor, Archdeacon Prescott, says that the witnesses to the foundation charter of this institution would seem to agree with ' the first twelve years of Henry I.' There is little doubt of it. II A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND Important steps had been taken to supply two centres of religious enter- prise during that period, but little else seems to have been done. The completion of these institutions was the work of later years. When we examine the evidences one conclusion only can be arrived at, that the ecclesiastical reconstruction of the district according to Norman methods must be ascribed to the period 1 120-35 while the King had the govern- ment of the conquered province in his own charge. When we inquire for the agents upon whose shoulders fell the burden of church organization two names appear to whom the merit must be attributed. For the founding of monasteries or the creation of a bishopric the King needed the co-operation of wealthy men. While the district was ruled by a great vassal ecclesiastical progress was but slow. Ranulf at an early period of his rule set a good example by starting a religious house at Wetheral, and there is a strong presumption that his feoffee at Burgh-by-Sands had founded a parochial church within that barony.1 But we have no proof that any serious effort at ecclesi- astical organization had been made till after Ranulfs succession to the earldom of Chester. Then almost immediately two men appear upon the scene whose names must be inscribed on the foundations of the ecclesi- astical edifice raised by Norman liberality in this portion of ancient Cumbria. To Walter the priest as the munificent benefactor of the priory, and to Adelulf, the first bishop of the diocese, must be ascribed the distinction of being the earliest pioneers in the ecclesiastical work of the district. Walter the priest, about whose antecedents we know practically nothing, stands out conspicuously as the agent in resuscitating the priory which Henry had founded in the city of Carlisle. There is no early authority, that we are aware of, to connect Walter with the land of Carlisle before the departure of Ranulf Meschin. In the sheriff's in- quisition of 1212* we have the trustworthy information that it was Henry I, and not William Rufus, who enfeoffed Walter with the manors of Linstock and Carleton at the annual cornage rent of 37^. 4^., and that it was by the licence of the same King that he assumed the religious habit in the priory of St. Mary, Carlisle, and endowed his adopted home with his worldly possessions. When we turn to King Henry's confirmation of Walter's benevolence, we get some more light on the extent of his possessions, and the date when his decision was made to become an inmate of the priory, and to bestow his property for the benefit of the institution. King Henry, addressing the Arch- bishop of York and all his barons of Cumberland and Westmorland, in- timated that he had confirmed to God and St. Mary and the canons of Carlisle all the churches and all the land which belonged to Walter the priest, free from the geld of cows and all other customs.3 It was probably 1 Harleian MS. (Reg. of Holmcultram), 3911, f. z8b. » V.C.H. Cumb. i. 422. 3 Henricus, Rex Angliae, Archiepiscopo Eborfacensi] et omnibus Baronibus et Ministris suis et fidelibus suis de Cumbrelanda et Westmarialanda, salutem. Sciatis me dedisse et concessisse deo et sancts Mariae et Canonicis de Cairlolio omnes ecclesias et totam terrain qux fuit Walteri IO ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY about the same time that the six churches in Northumberland before mentioned were set aside for their benefit. While thinking of his own foundation in Carlisle, the King did not forget Ranulf's at Wetheral, for on that house also he conferred both lands and privileges.1 The monarch's example was soon followed by the feudal tenants among whom he had parcelled the conquered territory. William Meschin, who had the same ecclesiastical sympathies as his brother, founded the priory of St. Bees,* outside Ranulf's fief, as a cell of St. Mary's, York, and some years later Ranulf his son established a Cistercian house at Calder.3 We can scarcely review those critical years between the re- covery of the country in 1092 and its cession to Scotland in 1136 with- out being forced to the conclusion that little progress was made in its settlement or development while Ranulf acted as vicegerent and ruled the land. As soon as the King took over the administration, the district was split up into baronies and apportioned among trusty tenants, who co-operated with him in the establishment of missionary centres for civilizing and educating the inhabitants. But the crowning work of Henry's life in his northern dominions was the creation of the new territory into a diocese in 1133. Little could be done to wean the minds of the inhabitants from their Scottish sympathies while the district remained an isolated portion of the vast archdeaconry of Richmond. It was sound policy on the part of the King's advisers to constitute it into a bishopric, and to place it under immediate supervision. At that time the contest between Thurstin, archbishop of York, and the Scottish church continued to rage, the archbishop's claim to jurisdiction over the diocese of Glasgow having been asserted with especial vigour. There is little doubt that Fordun was right when he pointed to Thurstin as the true instigator of the scheme for a Carlisle bishopric. When Henry, probably on his visit to Carlisle in 1122, had seen John, bishop of Glasgow, performing ponti- fical offices in Cumberland, though he neither recognized him as his sovereign nor the Archbishop of York as his prelate, the King, on the advice of Thurstin, placed as his rival in the district ' Eadwald ' by force and violence, with the title of Bishop of Carlisle, because there was no one who dared to resist him. Bishop John was so mortified at seeing his bishopric thus dismembered without sanction of law or protest from presbiteri, et volo et firmiter precipio ut ipsi Canonici eas teneant in elemosinam bene et in pace et quiete de geldo vaccarum et de omnibus aliis consuetudinibus. Tfestibus] Nigfelo] de Albin[iaco] et Waltero Espec et Pag[ano] filio Johannis. Apud Wirecestriam (Chart. R. 6 Edw. III. pt. i. No. 30, by inspeximus). The division of the province into the two districts of ' Cumbreland ' and ' Westmarialand ' at this early date is very interesting and may be compared with the Pipe Roll of 1130, where the same division is recognized. In 1248 Pope Innocent IV granted his protection and con- firmation of possessions to the prior and convent of St. Mary, Carlisle, and specially of the chapel of the church of Carlisle, with all offerings, tithes, and parish rights belonging to the said church, except the offering at Whitsuntide, and all the land formerly belonging to Walter the priest, which King Henry gave and confirmed by his charter (Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 250). This papal confirmation marks an im- portant point in the ecclesiastical position of the parish of St. Mary's, Carlisle, in its relation to the priory. ' Reg. of Wetherhal, pp. 14-19, 22-27. i Reg. of St. Bees (Harleian MS. 434), lib. i. 1-3. » Dugdale, Man. v. 339-40. II A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND the King of Scotland that he retired in disgust to a monastery.1 Thurstin had no difficulty in satisfying the interested parties as far as English law was concerned. The archdeacon of Richmond was compensated for the loss of jurisdiction by the bestowal of such privileges as the right of in- stitution to and the custody of vacant churches within his archdeaconry, these privileges having been granted at the request and by the confirma- tion of the King. In fact many of the ecclesiastical immunities, which the famous archdeaconry enjoyed, may be traced to this period when a new diocese was carved out of its ample limits.3 In furtherance of the scheme for a new bishopric Henry had re- course to his old policy, when he set about the completion of the priory, of selecting a rich man as the first bishop. Among the royal chaplains he had a wealthy Yorkshire landowner,3 Adelulf by name, who had taken the religious habit, and had become prior of St. Oswald's, Nostell, an Augustinian house near Pontefract. The difficulties of founding the bishopric were not insuperable when little or no provision had to be made for the maintenance of the office. The poverty of the see of Carlisle for the first century after its creation is well known. When Adelulf died in 1156 the bishopric remained derelict and vacant for about fifty years till adequate provision could be found for the support of the dignity. At first the separate endowment was ridiculously small. Though the priory of Carlisle was first founded, gifts of real property came in but slowly till the new foundation was raised to the dignity of a cathedral church in 1133. For some years after that date political events were not favourable to religious enthusiasm among the local magnates. Three years after its foundation the diocese passed under the sovereignty of the Scottish king while it remained subject to the 1 Fordun, Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, i. 449-50 ; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccles. Doc. ii. 27. 3 When John of Hexham was describing the limits of the bishopric which Henry I had set up at Carlisle, he assumed the York oversight when he stated that the churches of Cumberland and West- morland which belonged to a York archdeaconry (quae adjacuerunt archidiaconatui Eboracensi) were bestowed on the new creation (The Priory of Hexham [Surtees Soc.], i. 109, 1 10 ; Twysden, Decem Scriptores, col. 257). In 1201 Honorius in his appeal to Pope Innocent about the archdeaconry of Richmond stated ' quod cum inclytae recordationis primus Henricus, rex Angliae, apud Car- leolum sedem episcopalem vellet de novo creari, quia ex hoc archidiaconatus Richemundiae laedebatur, rex ipse a bonae memoriae quondam Eboracensi archiepiscopo postulavit, ut in recompensationem cuiusdam partis, qua; subtrahebatur archidiaconatui memorato, ei predictas concederet dignitates ' (Hoveden, Chronica [Rolls Series], iv. 177-8). Whitaker has described the privileges of this archdeaconry in some detail (Hist, of Richmondshire, i. 34-6). From a description of the archbishopric of York in an Arundel manuscript Hinde has quoted the following statement about the diocese of Carlisle : ' Alterum Cardolensum, scilicet Carduel vel Carlel, qui fuit subtractus ab Eborascensi, non tamen demptus ab episcopatu ' (Symeon of Durham [Surtees Soc.], i. 221). In his ' mappa mundi,' Gervase of Canterbury has enumerated such places as ' Holm Cotram,' ' Woderhall,' ' Egremunt,' ' Carduil," and ' Ingelwde ' under ' Richemuntsire ' for ecclesiastical purposes (Gtsta Regum [Rolls Series], ii. 441). 3 Selden has printed a charter out of his own collection whereby Bishop Adelulf, while Henry I still lived, endowed the deanery of York and William the dean and all his successors in the deanery with the tithes of the mills of Pokelinton and of his domain and of all his soch (decimas molendinorum de Pokelinton et de dominio meo et de iota socha), for so it had been provided and appointed by King Henry (Historie of Tithes, ed. 1618, pp. 337-8). The inference is obvious. Had Adelulf been exercising the right as prior of St. Oswald, the deed of gift would not have run in the name of ' Ael. Dei gratia, Carleolensis episcopus.' Besides, we have yet to learn that the priory of Nostell owned the manor of ' Pokelinton ' at this date. It is certain that the manor did not belong to him as bishop of Carlisle. 12 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY metropolitical jurisdiction of York. It is this which makes the early history of the church of Carlisle so unique. For almost the whole of his episcopate Adelulf was an English bishop beneficed in the kingdom of Scotland. After his death in 1156, though the district reverted in the following year to English sovereignty,1 no successor was appointed for almost half a century. During this long vacancy the diocese was reckoned a unit of the northern province administered by an archdeacon, with the assistance of a suffragan of York for the performance of ponti- fical offices.2 While Adelulf lived he must have resided at his cathedral church, of which he was the head and in which he had his ' stool ' or ' cathedra.' Owing to the peculiar vicissitudes of the see at this time, the early growth of the capitular institution at Carlisle is involved in no little obscurity. But there can be no question, as we shall learn from subsequent proceedings, that throughout the first episcopate the endow- ments of the bishopric and the priory were held to be indivisible, and that the bishop had no real property distinct from his cathedral church.3 The King of England was fortunate in his choice of the first bishop of Carlisle. Of all the prelates who have ruled the northern diocese Adelulf is pre-eminent, not only as a great churchman gifted with the will and the power to organize the new foundation, but also as a wise statesman and diplomatist capable of reconciling the many conflicting interests arising from his political position. Before he was raised to the see he was a personage of considerable influence at the English and Scottish courts. It is said by Eadmer that Henry I would not put an English- man even at the head of a monastery ; but if it be true that Adelulf was not a Norman, as we may fairly infer from his name, the historian's rule may be regarded as affording the usual exception. In any case it must be confessed that his qualifications eminently fitted him to fill with dis- tinction the difficult post to which he had been nominated. Though his diocese had been incorporated with the kingdom of Scotland, he was often employed on English affairs, and attended the English court on its peregrinations in various parts of England and on the continent. It is, however, a matter of doubt whether Adelulf was able to take up the administration of his diocese immediately after his consecration. The retirement of John, bishop of Glasgow, to the monastery of Tyron as » Roger de Wendover (Rolls Series), i. 16. 2 Though there was no bishop of Carlisle, the district retained a separate existence as a diocese, and did not become an archdeaconry of Carlisle within the archdiocese of York. When Uctred, son of Fergus, conferred the church of Torpenhow on the abbey of Holyrood, the canons of that place were empowered to hold it as freely ' sicut aliqua ecclesia in toto episcopatu Karloliensi ' (Liber Cartarum Sancte Cruets [Bannatyne Club], pp. 19, 20). Christian, bishop of Candida Casa, often ministered in the diocese of Carlisle, while it was vacant, as suffragan of York. He was present at the foundation of the priory of Lanercost about the year 1169 (Reg. of Lanercost, MS. i. i). In 1159 and 1160 the sheriff of Cumberland allowed him 14*. Sd. in each year, no doubt as a reward for his services (Pipe Rolls [Cumberland], 5 and 6 Hen. II.). Bishop Christian died at Holmcultram in 1186 (Chron. de Mailros [Bannatyne Club], 95). 3 There were of course endowments of a spiritual nature which belonged to the bishop alone. For example, Archbishop Thurstin gave him the prebend of St. Peter's, York (Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 91). The Pipe Roll of 1188 gives an account of the episcopal revenues apart from those of the priory at that date. 13 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND a protest against the creation of the bishopric is significant. As soon as Stephen had seized the throne, Pope Innocent II reminded him of the project of raising ' the place of Carlisle to the rank of episcopal dignity which Henry his royal predecessor had laboured to accomplish till his decease,' at the same time urging the King to supply what was lacking in the original foundation.1 Whatever may have been the obstacles in the way of completing the formation of the see they were surmounted in 1138 when Alberic, the papal legate, held a provincial council of Scottish bishops at Carlisle. David, king of Scotland, was present with the bishops, abbots and barons of his kingdom. The council was also attended by Robert, bishop of Hereford, and Adelulf, bishop of Carlisle, who formed the legate's suite as he journeyed through England. By this synod John, bishop of Glasgow, was ordered to leave his retirement and return to his cure, and Adelulf was admitted to the favour of King David and established in his diocese.2 When the diocese had become finally absorbed into the English kingdom in 1157 the ecclesiastical sympathies of the local magnates upon whom the church depended for the support of its ministrations were not completely diverted into English channels. The church in the twelfth century was not insular or national, belonging to one race or one kingdom : it claimed an universal sovereignty over all nations. For this reason no doubt the political frontier which marked off the English from the Scottish kingdom was scarcely recognized at the outset among the benevolent landowners who first endowed religious institutions in this part of the country. But apart from religious considerations there was a community of feeling as well as an identity of aim among the people on both sides of the national boundary. By ties of property, in- termarriage and old associations, the inhabitants of ancient Cumbria remained practically one people for a long period after they had become politically separated. The needs of the church knew no political barriers. Religious houses in Scotland received grants from the lords of Cumberland after the severance of the diocese from Scottish rule. National prejudice did not hinder Scottish laymen from extending their benevolence to institutions on the English side of the Border. Turgis de Russedale, the baron of Liddel, appropriated the church of Kirkan- 1 The Priory of Hexkam (Surtees Soc.) i., Appendix No. viii. This letter of Pope Innocent II to King Stephen, taken from the Great White Register of York, is dated at Pisa on 22 April, and as the Pope was there on that day in 1136, and apparently not in that month of any later year, Haddan and Stubbs say that 1 1 36 is almost certainly the date (Councils and Eccles. Documents, ii. 30). In this letter Innocent reminded Stephen that the see had been created ' ex dispensatione Apostolica.' Prynne had overlooked this fact when he took the formation of the diocese of Carlisle as the basis of his argument to show that the King had an inherent power without the Pope to create new bishoprics, alter dioceses, and curtail the privileges of archbishops, bishops, and archdeacons, so as to bind their successors thereby (Chrono- logical Vindication, ii. 232). 2 The two Hexham historians, Richard and John, give identical accounts of this provincial council of Scottish bishops under Alberic the legate in 1138, John adding that ' Aldulf ' the bishop was received to the favour of King David and admitted to his bishopric by the intercession of the legate (The Priory of Hexham, i. 96-100, 121). The chronicle of Melrose, under date 1138, mentions Alberic's visit to David at Carlisle. CUMBERLAND SEALS : EPISCOPAL I WALTER MALCLERC (1224-1246). WALTER MALCLERC (1224-1246) COUNTERSEAL. SYLVESTER EVERDON (1247-1254). SYLVESTER EVERDON (1247-1254) COUNTERSEAL. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY drews or Arthuret1 to the abbey of Jedburgh, a monastery which was also enriched with the church of Bassenthwaite by the gift of Waldef son of Gospatric.' The church of Torpenhow ' was granted to the abbey of Holy Rood, Edinburgh, by Uctred son of Fergus in right of Gunnild, daughter of Waldeve, his wife. The abbey of Kelso enjoyed a pension issu- ing out of the church of Lazonby4 by the gift of Hugh de Morvill. The favours conferred on Scottish monasteries by Cumberland landowners were reciprocated from the other side. On the western border alone many instances might be given wherein the great lords of Annandale and Galloway were equally considerate to English institutions. No small portion of the endowments of the abbey of Holmcultram was situated in Galloway and on the northern shore of the Solway.5 The family of Brus, the owners of the great fief of Annandale, were among the foremost benefactors of the priory of Gisburn in Yorkshire.6 The priory of Lanercost had rent charges in Dumfries.7 It is true that family ties or national sentiment had much to do with several of these endowments. One might expect that the abbey of Holmcultram should possess strong claims upon Scottish liberality, seeing that it was of Scottish foundation and the only institution left in the district as a relic of the Scottish occupation. Making due allowance for considerations of this sort, we should not forget the strong international sentiment which pervaded the people of both kingdoms,8 and which had done so much to forward the interests of the church in the diocese of Carlisle. Though the establishment of churches cannot be ascribed exclu- sively to Norman agency, we are not left altogether in ignorance of the progress that church extension had made under the first Norman settlers in the new province. If we take the barony of Burgh by Sands, there is a strong presumption that the church of that place was founded by one of its early Norman owners. At the close of the twelfth century, when Hugh de Morvill made a grant of the church to the abbey of Holm- cultram, a schedule was drawn up of the lands with which it was endowed. From the circumstances of the transaction, it is clearly seen that the origin of the institution was a matter of common knowledge. The foundation of the church was spoken of; the first priest was named; the portion of land with which the church was endowed ' at its first foundation ' was set out. If Swain, the first priest, on his appointment 1 Facsimiles of National A/SS. of Scotland, No. 38 ; Morton, Monastic Annals of Teviotdale, pp. 57-9 ; Carl. Epis. Reg. Ross, MS. f. 262 ; Inq. ad quod damnum, 2 Edw. III. No. 3. 2 Ped.es Finium (Rec. Com.), 10 John, p. 10. 3 Liber Cartarum Sanctae Crucis, Bannatyne Club, 19-20. 4 Liber de Calcbou, Bannatyne Club, ii. 351 ; Reg. of Lanercost, MS. xiii. 25, 26 ; xiv. I. 6 Reg. of Holmcultram MS. ff. 66-7, 91-125. 6 Cart. Prioratus de Gyseburne (Surtees Society), ii. 340-52. 7 Reg. of Lanercost, MS. ix. 13. See also a grant of Robert de Brus, lord of Annandale, of pasture in Gamelsby and Glassonby (Ibid. xiv. 4). 8 The close communion between the canons of Carlisle and the canons of Holyrood in Edinburgh may be estimated by the ' confederacio ' for the purposes of prayer which existed amongst them on the death of one of their number (Liber Cartarum Sanctte Crucis, Maitland Club, p. cxxxv. ; Liber Vitce Eccl. Dunelm. (Surtees Society), p. xvi. The ' confederation ' is written in a comparatively modern hand in the Ritual Book of Holyrood. 15 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND to the new church, had only one acre of land on the south side of the village for his support, the worldly possessions of his benefice were not destined to remain long at that figure. As other gifts of real property soon came in, it cannot be said of the landowners of Burgh that they were backward in making suitable provision for the maintenance of religious ministrations in that parish.1 But we are not dependent on the example of Burgh alone to support the view that the parochial system was not fully established in Cumberland at the period when charter evidence furnishes us with guidance. If we look from the north to the south angle of the county as it now is, we shall find that a church was founded there and a parish formed so late as the pontificate of Henry Murdac, archbishop of York, that is, between 1 147 and 1153. Copsi, the first lord of Corney on record, founded a church in his manor and gave it with its appurtenances at the date named to the priory of St. Bees, to which house it was confirmed by Roger, his son, and by other members of his family at a later date.2 It was owing, no doubt, to the wildness and isolation of the place that provision had not been already made, for the parish is situated on the side of a ridge of fells which forms the eastern boundary of that portion of the county and terminates in Black Comb. Of the ancient parish churches, that is, of those founded before the close of the twelfth century, Corney occupies the singular position that it is the only church in Cum- berland whose founder's name is at present known. Church extension throughout the county can be more easily under- stood by reference to its progress in the royal forest, which had not been split up into parishes till a late date. This is what might be expected, for in many places the need could not have been pressing : with the exception of the officers of the forest, the population within its bounds must have been very small. Penrith, on the southern limit, had its church at an early period, no doubt of royal foundation, as the King transferred it to the bishop when he created the diocese in 1 133." As all the churches within the forest were in the gift of the Crown in the first instance, we may take it that the King was in no way behind his subjects in making spiritual provision for his tenants in proportion to the property held in his own hand. All the unenclosed land in the forest was extra-parochial. When assarts were made and became inhabited, the tithes accruing from the cultivated land were the right of the Crown. Upon this point a notable case was heard in 1290 in a dispute about the tithes arising in certain enclosed lands called Linthwaite and Curthwaite. The King's attorney claimed them because these places were within the bounds of the forest, where the King alone could enclose lands, build » Harleian MSS. (Reg. of Holmcultram), 3911, f. a8b, 3891, f. 32b. 3 Reg. of St. Bees MS. (Harl. MS. 434), ii. 3. In the same Register are preserved the confirmation charters of Roger son of Copsi, Orm son of Roger, Benedict de Pennington, and Christina de Coupland and Waldeve her husband (Ibid. ii. 2). Christina de Coupland was probably the daughter of Copsi (Pipe Roll [Cumberland], 31 Hen. II.). 3 Close, 3 Hen. III. m. lid ; Pat., 3 Hen. III. m. 5d ; Prynne, Chronological Vindication, ed. 1665, ii. 376. 16 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY houses, found churches,1 and assign the tithes to whom he pleased. The prior of Carlisle based his claims on former royal grants ; the parson of Thursby asserted that the enclosures were within his parish ; the Bishop of Carlisle put forward the singular plea that they were in the parish of Aspatria, the advowson of which belonged to him.2 After much litiga- tion the tithes were awarded to the King, who afterwards granted them to the prior.3 The church of Carlisle had many chartered privileges * in the forest of Inglewood, and the burden of providing spiritual ministra- tions eventually devolved upon the prior and convent. The practice of founding chapelries or district churches arose gradually as the need began to be felt in large parishes. It was usual for the owner of property at some distance from the parish church to obtain the bishop's licence to have an oratory in his house or to build a chapel on his estate, due regard being had to the rights of the mother church. The method of founding a chapel of ease differed but slightly from that of the parish church, except in the ecclesiastical status of the establishment. As far back as records carry us in Cumberland, the custom of erecting chapels was contemporaneous with the founding of parish churches. One of the earliest and most interesting of these foundations is the chapelry of Treverman in the parish of Walton, founded by Gilmor, son of Gilander, during the episcopate of ' Edelwan,' the first bishop of Carlisle, 1133—56. As lord of Treverman and Torcrossoc he caused a chapel to be constructed of wattlework (de virgis) at the former place and appointed his kinsman Gillemor to the chaplaincy, at the same time assigning him a certain parcel of land, afterwards called Kirkland, for his sustenance. It is particularly noted that the inhabi- tants had the benefit of all divine offices of religion, with the exception of baptism and burial, before the parish church on which it was dependent had been appropriated to the priory of Lanercost.8 In later instances the ecclesiastical authorities were more particular in 1 In the lordship of Penrith, which belonged to the Crown, a chaplain was maintained out of the revenues issuing from that place. Richard III. directed a warrant to his receiver ' of the lordship of Penryth in Cumberland that now is or for the tyme shalbe to content and paye yerely unto the same Sr William (Bellendre, priest) the sum of fourty shillinges to thentent that the same Sr William shall syng masse in the chapell of or lady of grace at Amotbrigge. Yeven etc. at Notingham the xxth day of Marche a° primo ' (Harleian MS. 433, f. i66b) 3 Rot. Parl. (Rec. Com.), i. 37, 38, 48 ; ii. 44-5 ; Ryley, Placita Parliamentaria, ed. 1661, pp. 49-51. A compressed account of this suit was cited by Sir Edw. Coke in support of his explanation of the word ' assert ' or ' assart ' (4 Institutes, ed. 1648, p. 307). 3 Pat. 22 Edw. I. m. 27. 4 These privileges originated with the following charter of Henry I. : ' Henricus, Rex Angliz, justiciariis, vice-comitibus, baronibus, forestariis et ministris suis et fidelibus de Cumberlanda, salutem. Precipimus quod Canonici sanctz Mariae de Karlfeolo] bene et in pace et quiete habeant et teneant diuisas suas de foresta sicut eis dedi et concessi in elemosinam et sicut eis perambulari et demonstrari precepi et omnia aisiamenta sua in bosco et pascuis et omnibus rebus sicut in suo dominio. Et nullus eos vel homines siue res eorum inquietet super hoc super foris- facturam meam, set omnes res eorum in pace sint sicut elemosina mea. T[este] Nig[elo] de Albpniaco] apud Waltham ' (Chart. R. 6 Edw. III. pt. i. No. 30, by insfeximus). This charter, together with the grant of the lands of Walter the priest, was recited and confirmed by Henry II. 6 Reg. of Lanercost MS. ff. 260-1. The internal evidence of this deed is conclusive that the bishop referred to by the jurors was Adelulf of Carlisle, and not ^Ethelwin of Durham (1056-1071). ii 17 3 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND defining the relationship of the district chapel to the parish church. When Patric, son of Thomas de Workingto^n, founded the chapel of Thornthwaite about the year 1240, the abbot aVnd convent of Fountains, rectors of the parish of Crosthwaite, in which tlrve new chapel was built, made a stipulation that all the chaplains should g*rive obedience to the mother church and relinquish all claim to tithes, gre/it and small, and to all oblations and obventions, due and accustomed.1 Tvhough the rights of the parish church were always jealously safeguarded, ii* did not prevent the occurrence of parochial troubles. When Thomas, rector of Dean, induced the inhabitants of Clifton to bury their dead in h; is churchyard, the rector of Workington, in whose parish the chapelry was situated, appealed in 1219 and forced the rector of Dean to disi continue the practice.2 J In course of time chapels attained to a position of independence, but it was frequently a long process. For various causes, a^ the need was felt, parochial rights were granted by the ecclesiastical authorities. The right of burial in the chapel yard was a crucial stage in the' develop- ment, and the concession was considered of such high moment tfriat every precaution was taken to maintain the supremacy of the mother Vchurch. The chaplain on his appointment was obliged to swear subjectionV to the rector, by whose will he was always removable ; the inhabitants emtered into an agreement to continue their contribution to the repairs oSf the mother church as well as to keep the chapel and all its belongingrs at their own charges. In all cases the consecration of the chapel yard «was a necessary feature of the transaction ; in some cases the dedication i of the chapel is mentioned. In 1534 the right of burial was granted ito the chapel of Ennerdale by reason of its distance from St. Bees and tine great inconvenience occasioned at funerals by the badness of the roads.3 About the same time a similar privilege had been given to the chapel of Loweswater on the petition of Henry, earl of Northumberland, the good friend of the church in that neighbourhood. In a deed of extra- ordinary length 4 the relative position of chapel and mother church w/as set out with a minuteness which showed what a firm grip the moniks kept over their subordinate churches. It was given with its endowment of two oxgangs of land to St. Bees by Randulf de Lindesay and Hectreda his wife soon after the foundation of the priory.5 Many of the indepen- dent cures in Cumberland have attained their present position by this process of development from district chapels. » Reg. of Fountains (Cotton MS. Tiberius, C. xij), ff. 97-8. Patric son of Thomas had a grant of ' Tornthayt in Derwentfelles ' from Alice de Rumelli, daughter of William fitz Duncan, in the early part of the thirteenth century, which place he undertook to assart and cultivate. It is noteworthy that as soon as the estate became inhabited, the owner set about at once to provide a chapel for his tenants, A late copy of the deed, by which Patric was enfeoffed, remains with his descendant at Workington Hall. " Reg. of St. Bees (Harl. MS. 434), ii. 15. In the Register of Glasgow there are several documents illustrating the origin and privileges of parish churches, and the jealousy with which their incumbents watched the tendency of chapels to interfere with the offerings and dues of the mother church which were only of inferior importance to its tithes (Reg. Epis. Glasguensis (Bannatyne Club), i. pp. xxiii. 41, 48, 61, et passim). 3 Reg. of St. Bees MS. viii. 13. 4 Ibid. ix. 6. B Ibid. i. 12, 29. 18 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY The prolonged vacancy of the see, extending over nearly fifty years after the death of Bishop Adelulf in 1 156, was so unprecedented that writers of distinction were driven to hazard various guesses to account for it. The tradition among the antiquaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that a certain Bernard, indiscriminately styled Archbishop of Ragusa and Archbishop of Sclavonia, immediately suc- ceeded Bishop Adelulf, was transmitted to our own day and accepted without hesitation till recent years. In fact, two Bernards in succession were often conjured from the shades to supply the missing links and preserve the continuity in the roll of bishops. But the witness of the chronicles alone, without the aid of charter evidence, is conclusive that no bishop had accepted the see of Carlisle during the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I., though the former king, notwithstanding his well-known habit of keeping the ecclesiastical revenues of vacant dignities in his own hand, made a genuine attempt to remedy the scandal in Carlisle. So great was the injustice to the diocese that Gervase of Tilbury, a chronicler who wrote at the close of the reign of Richard I., while describing the condition of the northern province, stated that the archbishop of York had only two suffragan sees, Durham, which enjoyed so many privileges from the Roman church, and Carlisle, which by reason of its prolonged vacancy was relegated to oblivion more than to subjection.1 When Robert de Torigni was accounting for the absence of some of the bishops from Prince Henry's coronation in 1170, he mentioned this fact among others that Adelulf, bishop of Carlisle, was dead and that his cathedra up to that date had remained without an occupant.2 In 1 186 the king, being in Normandy, dismissed Hugh, bishop of Durham, from his attend- ance on the court, and sent him back to his diocese to celebrate the Easter festival, as there was no bishop in the northern province at the time, York with many other bishoprics in England being vacant, one of which was Carlisle, which had been without a bishop for almost thirty years.3 There can be no question about the sincerity of Henry's intention in 1 1 86 to fill the vacancy by the appointment of a bishop. Many things occurring at that time contributed to bring about this desirable work. Christian, bishop of Whithern, who had been acting as suffragan to the archbishop in his administration of the diocese of Carlisle, had died at Holmcultram in that year.4 The King reached Carlisle about the same time on his expedition to punish Roland, lord of Galloway. There is reason to believe that Archdeacon Robert, the local head of 1 The words of Gervase, in his Otia Imperialist, are important in this connexion — ' Eboracensis Archiepiscopus hos duos tantum habet suffraganeos : Durhamensem, qui tot gaudet privilegiis Romanse ecclesis, quod jam in plenam se recepit libertatem : et Carleolensem, qui saepissime 'tanto tempore vacat, quod oblivioni potius datur quam subjection! ' (Leibnitz, Scriptores Rerum Brunsvicensium (Han- over, 1707), i. 917). * Chron. of Stephen, Henry II. and Richard I. (Rolls Series), iv. 245. » Benedict Abbas, Gesta Hen. II. et Ric. I. (Rolls Series), i. 344. < Chron. de Mailros (Bannatyne Club), 95 ; Pipe Rolls (Cumberland), 5 and 6 Hen. II. ; Reg. of Lanercost, MS. i. i. 19 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND the diocese during the vacancy, had died also in 1186, or had become so hopelessly crippled with debt that he was obliged to resign his charge. The occasion was opportune, as the King was in Carlisle, and as the need was urgent the canons of St. Mary's petitioned him for licence to elect a bishop. The choice of the chapter fell upon Paulinus de Ledes, master of the hospital of St. Leonard's, York, who was known as an honest, prudent and accomplished man. The election was very popu- lar in the city and diocese, and great rejoicing was manifested every- where, for the see had been so long bereft of the consolation of a chief pastor, the vacancy having continued since the death of Adelulf, the first bishop, in 1156. But unfortunately Paulinus was not willing to accept the nomination, though the King urged him to it by the offer of an annual rent charge of three hundred marks issuing from the churches of Bamborough and Scarborough, from the chapel of Tickell, and from two of the royal manors near Carlisle.1 It may be taken that King Henry did not despair of ultimately filling the vacancy, in spite of the abortive attempt in 1 186, for a revei«- sion to the old condition of ecclesiastical government by means of an archdeacon was not permitted for at least two years. The custody of the bishopric was kept in his own hand, and no archdeacon was ap- pointed to the office vacated by Robert during that period. On no other supposition can be explained the singular entry in the Pipe Roll of 1 1 88 when the sheriff accounted to the Exchequer for the issues of the archdeaconry as well as the bishopric for the two years in question. The sheriffs return gives a welcome insight into the episcopal revenues at this early period. The sources of receipts from ' the bishopric of Carlisle for two years' are set out as the fees of two synods in the dio- cese and archdeaconry, oblations at Whitsuntide, issues of the churches of Carleton, Melburn, Dalston and the school of Carlisle, besides the pleas and perquisites of the diocesan court. It will be seen that at this date the bishopric, as distinct from the priory, was not endowed with any real property, the total revenue, which amounted in two years to £52 IO..T. 6d. being exclusively of spiritual obligation. While the cus- tody remained with the King, the whole of the issues, with the excep- tion of a balance of 50.;., was spent on building operations, then in pro- gress at the great altar and pavement in the cathedral church and the dormitory of the canons. The only expenses of a purely episcopal or archidiaconal nature amounted to the small sum of 14.?., which was the cost of holy oil for the Easter sacrament and its carriage from London, the archbishopric of York being then vacant. The King's attempt to fill the bishopric having failed, the old system of administration through an archdeacon was revived in 1 188-9, when Peter de Ros was appointed ' Benedict Abbas (Rolls Series), i. 349, 360 ; Hoveden (Rolls Series), ii. 309 ; Walter of Coventry (Rolls Series), i. 340. Paulinus de Ledes was afterwards mixed up in an interesting plea about the advowson of the church of Clifton between Richard de Marisco and the Canons of Wartre in 1199 (Rot. Curiae Regis [Rec. Com.], ii. 32-3). 20 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY to the archdeaconry and also to the custody of the See.1 For this reason, there is little doubt, the sheriff ceased to account for the revenues. It is probable that the archdeacon was appointed shortly before or soon after the death of Henry II. on 6 July 1189, when the project of an immediate filling of the vacancy was abandoned. The fateful journey of King Richard from the Holy Land in 1 192 seems to have been the indirect cause of bringing the long vacancy in the diocese to a close. Touching at Ragusa 2 on the shores of the Adriatic, the King made the acquaintance of Bernard, the archbishop of that district, who perhaps befriended him in his sorry plight. Bernard came to England with King Richard,3 or if he did not actually attend him on his homeward journey, it is known that he was in England a few years after the King's return. Bernard, archbishop of Ragusa, was present at the coronation of King John in 1199, and witnessed the homage of the King of Scots at Lincoln in the same year.4 For some time after this date he was in constant attendance at the English court, with the probable intention of obtaining preferment in England. Mean- while, Pope Innocent was unable to account for the truancy of the arch- bishop, who, with characteristic temerity, had forsaken the church of Ragusa. In 1202 he directed a bull to the chapter of that place, in- forming them, as their pastor had been absent for more than four years and had not returned to his cure notwithstanding frequent expostulation, that they should proceed to elect a successor within one month from the date of receiving his licence.8 The position of Archbishop Bernard was critical, as his tenure of the church of Ragusa had determined and no charge had been found him in his adopted country. The bishopric of Carlisle was still vacant, and though it possessed few attractions, even for a needy archbishop, Bernard was induced at last to accept it. The archbishop of York did not relish the prospect of importing another archbishop into his province, as if two suns could not be ex- pected to shine in the same firmament. The pope, however, disarmed the prejudice of Archbishop Geoffrey by the undertaking that Bernard should lay aside his archiepiscopal dignity, exercise the episcopal office in the diocese of Carlisle without the use of the pall, and pay due 1 Errors about Robert's tenure of the archdeaconry have arisen from a misunderstanding of the ways of the Exchequer. The archdeacon was a debtor to the estate of Aaron the Jew of Lincoln, who died before 1189 (Mag. Rot. Pip. I Ric. /. [Rec. Com.], 219, 226). These debts appear in the sheriff's accounts of Cumberland from 1191 to 1195, the Jew's estate being in the King's hand. From the continued mention of Robert's indebtedness, it has been concluded that he remained archdeacon of Carlisle. Peter de Ros was archdeacon in January, 1190 (Reg. of Holmcultram MS. f. 51), and held that office till his death in 1196 (Hoveden, Chron. [Rolls Series], iv. 14). > Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Series), iii. 185-6. " Annales Monastics (Rolls Series), iii. 450. 4 Hoveden, Chron. iv. 89, 141. « Migne, Patrologiae, ccxiv. 970-1. By all accounts Bernard was very unpopular in his diocese of Ragusa, and Innocent III. was glad to get rid of him. He told the archbishop of York, when he was begging the see of Carlisle for him, that Bernard had been unable to live safely at Ragusa, and if he re- turned again, ' mortis sibi periculum imminebat ' (ibid. ccxv. 58-9). William of Tyre, who brought up his Historia Rerum to 1184, has drawn a woeful picture of the inhabitants of Ragusa at this period — ' populo ferocissimo, rapinis, et caedibus assueto inhabitata ' (ibid. cci. 266-7). 21 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND reverence and obedience to his metropolitan.1 On 10 January 1203—4 King John intimated to the archbishop of York that he had confirmed the arrangement, and at the same time he had directed his letters to the clergy of the diocese of Carlisle to receive Bernard and obey him as their bishop.2 Thus closed one of the strangest chapters in the history of the northern church, for from this date the irregularity in the episcopal succession may be said to have ceased. Perhaps there is no diocese in England which presents so many curious features of ecclesiastical vicissitude. If we consider the political difficulties which confronted the first bishop, the lengthy vacancy which followed his death owing to the poverty of the see, the attempts which were made to remedy the deficiency, the personality of the second bishop as primate of a foreign province whose allegiance to the papal chair was so slender that he forsook his charge without permission, we can in some measure estimate the early struggles of our ancestors in building up the church in this portion of the kingdom, and the sacrifices they were called on to make before such a glorious heritage could be handed on to their children. Soon after the episcopate of Bishop Bernard it was found possible to put the tenure of the diocese on such a financial basis that a return to the old state of things which existed before his arrival was not likely to occur. The time had come for a partition of the property of the church of Carlisle between the priory and the bishopric. During the i This letter of Innocent III. to the archbishop of York is interesting. In the first place the pope expressed the fear that Bernard's poverty would bring the ministerial office into disrepute. He acknow- ledged also the source from which the grant of the bishopric of Carlisle was derived, for it was conferred on Bernard, not by the pope himself, but ' de munificentia et liberalitate clarissimi in Christo filii nostri, Johannis regis Anglorum illustris,' for his maintenance. It is important, too, in explaining Bernard's future position in the diocese of Carlisle, that is, the tenure of a suffragan see by an archbishop. Ber- nard's ecclesiastical status in relation to his metropolitan is thus set out — ' Nos enim ei de sedis aposto- licae benignitate concessimus, ut in ipso episcopatu, absque usu pallii, officium episcopale valeat exercere, tibi tanquam metropolitano reverentiam et obedientiam impensurus ' (Migne, Patrologiae, ccxv. 58-9). Bishop Stubbs must have overlooked this letter, as he does not acknowledge him to have been one of the bishops in regular succession. In one place he says that the see had not been ' filled up until 1219, although administered for a time by Bernard, ex-archbishop of Ragusa' (Benedict Abbas, i. 344) : in other places he calls him 'the administrator of Carlisle' (Registrum Sacrum, p. 51, new edition; Hoveden, iv. 89). It is evident that Stubbs had been misled by the phraseology of some writs of Henry III. For instance, on the restitution of the temporalities to Bishop Hugh in 1218, the sheriff is commanded to give such seisin as ' Bernardus, Archiepiscopus Sclavonic, quondam custos ejusdem Episcopatus inde habuit cum custodiam inde recepisset per dominum Johannem Regem patrem nos- trum ' (Rot. Liu. Claus. [Rec. Com.], i. 369). There can be no doubt that Bernard was as much bishop of Carlisle as any of his successors. 2 Rot. Litt. Pat. (Rec. Com.), pp. 3/b, 38 ; Rymer, Fcedera, new edition, i. 90 ; Migne, Patrologiae, ccxvij. no-Il ; Prynne, Chronological Vindication, ii. 241. But Bernard must have had the offer of Carlisle some years before 10 January 1203-4, ^e date of his nomination and acceptance, for King John granted the see to the archbishop of Sclavonia in 1200 till he could provide him with a better bene- fice (Rot. Chart. [Rec. Com.], i. 96b). Bernard was evidently holding out in hope of more important preferment, for in 1202 the diocese was still vacant (Rot. Litt. Pat. [Rec. Com.], i. 7), and in 1203 Alex- ander de Lucy had the archdeaconry and custody of the bishopric (ibid. i. 306, 35b). King John en- deavoured to supplement the slender income of the northern diocese. In 1206-7, he granted to ' Bernard, bishop of Carlisle,' an annual pension of twenty marks for life (Rot. Litt. Claus. [Rec. Com.], i. 67b ; Rot. Litt. Pat. [Rec. Com.], i. 76). As the bishopric was again vacant in 1214 (ibid. i. 118, 1380, 142, I42b), Bernard ruled the diocese from 1204 to 1214. Fordun states that in 1212 he was ' aetatis decrepitae, et infirmitatis continuae, sicque mortem in januis ei cerneret imminere,' and that he afterwards died as bishop of Carlisle — ' episcopo Karliolis mortuo ' (Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, ii. 12-13). 22 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY long period while the diocese was without a bishop the endowments were at the sole arbitrament of the prior and convent, and the canons came to regard them as belonging exclusively to the priory. In due course they were disillusioned. While the nation was torn asunder by the indefensible conduct of King John, political feeling in Cumberland was on the side of the barons, who invited the Scottish king to espouse their cause, and offered to deliver up the city of Carlisle and the castles of the county to him.1 When Alexander seized the county the bishopric was vacant by the death of Bishop Bernard. The canons not only re- ceived the King to communion, though he was in a state of excommuni- cation, but also committed the dark deed of electing a Scotsman to the vacant bishopric at Alexander's suggestion/ The act of treason brought a doom on the priory. On complaint of King John and the bishops to Rome, the papal legate in England was instructed to take extreme measures for the punishment of the offenders. The canons were forth- with expelled from Carlisle in 1218 and placed in other regular churches ; their election of a bishop was declared void ; and other canons, faithful to the English king, were appointed in their room.3 It is evident that the treason of these unfortunate churchmen was made the occasion of effecting a radical change in the relation of the bishop of Carlisle to his chapter. The time was opportune, as the see was vacant. Not only were the offending canons to be sent into exile, but the possessions and rents of their church were to be distributed between the bishop and the new canons, the complainants having urged that such measures would tend to tranquillity, as the priory, being near the Border, exercised much influence either for or against the King and realm. The papal mandate came into force soon after the consecration of Bishop Hugh de Beaulieu, which took place in February 1218-9. From this time onward through the episcopates of Hugh, Walter and Silvester de Everdon, a sordid controversy raged between those bishops and the canons on the division of the property of the church. Two legates in succession, Gualo and Pandulf, were arbitrators between the parties, with the assistance of local commissioners to arrange the details. The burden of the partition fell chiefly on the abbot of Holmcultram and the prior of Hexham, but various officials, lay and clerical, from the sheriff of the county to the rural deans, were employed from time to time to bring about an amicable arrangement.4 It is unfortunate that 1 Ayloffe, Calendar of Ancient Charters and Scottish Rolls, pp. 327-8 ; Chron. de Lanercost (Maitland Club), pp. 17-18, 25. 3 Chron. de Lanercost, p. 27. a Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 48, 57, 68, 81. The King's complaint to the pope will be found on Pat. I Hen. III. m. 3d. The pope's mandate for the expulsion of the canons has been printed by Rymer (Fotdera [new edition], i. 147). * Honorius III., in May 1223, confirmed to Bishop Hugh and his successors, 'in accordance with letters of Popes Innocent and Adrian, the bishopric and parish of Carlisle, as defined by Turstin, archbishop of York, at the request of the chapter, with the consent of King Henry; namely the episcopal see in St. Mary's church, Carlisle, called of old ' Lugubalia,' in which are to be observed all the customs of other bishoprics in England ; the prebend of St. Peter's, York, granted by Turstin ; the church of Meleburn ; the land of Barou-on-Trent ; 5.1. daily by gift of the said King ; and all other lands, houses, and goods granted or that shall be granted by kings of .England or others ; also the ordinance of possessions and 23 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND the first award made by Gualo has not been found, though fairly accurate schedules could be compiled from the evidences of later history. The second distribution made by Pandulf the legate while Hugh was bishop and Bartholomew was prior, and the final agreement between Bishop Silvester and Prior Ralf, are happily on record by inspeximus in a Charter Roll of 1 290.* The unpleasantness of this thankless duty fell chiefly to the lot of Bishop Hugh. For this reason we can well understand the acrimonious language used by the author of the 'Chronicle of Lanercost' in reference to this bishop, for that anonymous scribe took the side of . the canons throughout the dispute, alleging that they were coerced by fear diO death into celebrating divine offices with the King of Scotland. When Bikhop Hugh met with a fatal accident at the abbey of Ferte in Burgundy on , his return from the Roman court in 1223, the chronicler saw in his deatH ..the just judgment of God for the expulsion of the canons and the fraudulent jdi.vision of their property.* The name of Walter Mauc:lerk will rank among the foremost of the early bishops of Carlisle who have^( contributed by their exertions and influence to the endowment of the biLhopric. As a young man he was appointed one of the king's clerks in the -reign of John,8 and was often employed on the King's business in that andVJie succeeding reign. His connexion with Cumberland commenced before his consecration as bishop of Carlisle. He had been constable of Carlisle castle and sheriff of Cumberland in 1222, and was engaged in that year vOn the special business of the King in the district.4 It is probable that h^ was a canon of Carlisle as well as a canon of Southwell when he was elected to the see in 1223, for the King intimated to the archbishop of Yoirk that he had not assented to the election, and until that assent was &iven the archbishop was forbidden to confirm the choice of the canons.8 During his episcopate the division of the property between the bishopric and the priory had advanced almost to completion. In 1244 Bishop Walter made an important concession* to the prior and convent of ii-ertain rents made by G(ualo) cardinal of St. Martin's, papal legate, and their divisions made between tha bishop and the prior and convent of Carlisle ' (Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 91). In 1 226, by order of the saml p0pe) another report was made on the local conditions of the ordinance (ibid., i. 112). i Charter Roll 18 Edw. I. (83) No. 26. The date of the first ordinance by Pandulf is about j22O> and the final agreement was made in 1249. Innocent IV. issued a bull, 17 January, 1248, on the Catena qutstionis between Bishop Silvester and his chapter about the division of the possessions of the Cjhurch of Carlisle (Add. MS. 15,356, f. 239 ; Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 256). » Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 27, 30. Bishop Silvester, also concerned in the division of the prc^pertVj ' transit eciam sed horribiliter ex hoc mundo, equo lapsus et fractus cervicibus ' (ibid. p. 62). Mlttbew Paris (iii. 333, ed. Madden) tells the same story that on 13 May 1254 this bishop died ' supinvls cor. ruens de equo et ossium dissolutis compagibus expirans.' Bishop Walter did not fare so badly, -hough he had many troubles. a Rot. Lift. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i. 2ob. * Ibid. i. 49ob, 5O2b, 513. « Chron. de Lanercost, p. 31 ; Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 57 ; Reg. of Abp. Gray (Surtees S^)Ciety)) 134 ; Rot. Litt. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i. 56ob, 573b ; Pat. 7 Hen. III. m. ad. The profession of subjection made by Bishop Walter to Archbishop Gray of York is as follows : ' Ego Walterus, Carleolensis eiectus episcopus, profiteer sanctae Eboracensi ecclesiae, et tibi, Waltere, Ebor. archiepiscope et Angliae primaS) et successoribus tuis canonice substituendis subjectionem et canonicam obedientiam, et propna manu confirmo et subscribe ' (Reg. of Gray [Surtees Soc.], p. 144). 8 Bishop Walter's concession to the canons of Carlisle is recited in the Inspeximus charter Of 5 Edw. III., the original of which still remains among the archives of the bishop of Carlisle. The deed w,s dated at Carlisle on 3 April, in the twenty-first year of his pontificate. 24 ( ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY liberties and privileges which had been previously granted to them jointly by Henry III. From the same king he obtained the manor of Dalston1 in 1230, which has afforded the principal residence of the bishops of Carlisle almost from that date. The grant was afterwards extended by the addition of ample privileges in the neighbouring forest. As patron and benefactor of the Friars from their first coming to Eng- land, he was instrumental in importing colonies of the Dominicans and Franciscans into his cathedral city.2 As a courtier and diplomatist the fortunes of Bishop Walter shared in the vicissitudes of success and defeat according as he pleased or dis- pleased his royal master. At one time he held the highest offices in the state, and at another he was under arrest or in flight. In 1233 he went into exile beyond the sea for no other reason, in the opinion of the chronicler of Lanercost,3 than for the wrong done by the King to him and his church of Carlisle. The quarrel must have been acute, for on his flight the diocese was put under an interdict on the first Sunday in Advent, and the regular and secular clergy were obliged to say the divine offices in a low voice with closed doors. The estrangement, however, did not last long, for in 1234 the same authority reported that the bishop had become reconciled to the King. There can be little doubt that Bishop Walter had been harshly treated. The King gave him the treasurership of the Exchequer in 1232 to hold during life, but by the influence of Peter de Roches, bishop of Winchester, he was dismissed in a summary manner.4 Intending to cross the channel from Dover, with the view perhaps of laying his grievances before the pope, he was seized by the King's messengers. The bishop of London, being an eye-witness of the indignities inflicted on the distressed bishop, threatened to excommunicate all who had laid violent hands on him, and repaired immediately to the court to submit the matter to the King.5 The bishop again visited the court and took part in the baptism of Prince Edward in 1239." Though he was joined with some of the other bishops in a commission to discuss the affairs of the church in 1 24 1,7 his relations with the King were not as cordial as they were before the rupture. King Henry sent him a reprimand in 1243 com- manding him not to intermeddle in affairs of state, as it was high time that he attended to the health of his soul.8 Galling as the rebuke must have been to the old favourite, it was not till three years afterwards 1 Chart. R. 14 Hen. III. pt. ii. m. 10. » Chron. de Lanercost, p. 42. We are told in the Annals of Bermondsey that in 1206 St. Francis instituted the rule of the Friars Minors, and in that year was made the translation of the first prior, Petreius, by the lord Bernard, formerly archbishop of Ragusa, who had come to England with King Richard, from whom he had received custody of the bishopric of Carlisle (Annales Monastici [Rolls Series], iii. 450). 3 Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 42-3. 4 Charter 16 Hen. III. m. 4 ; Madox, History of the Exchequer, 1711 edition, pp. 568-9 ; M. Paris, Chronica Majora (Rolls Series), iii. 240. 6 M. Paris, Chronica Majora, iii. 248 ; Historia Anglorum, ii. 358. 6 Ibid. iii. 539-40 ; Historia Anglorum, ii. 422. 7 Chronica Majora, iv. 173. 8 Close 27 Hen. III. pt. i. (Vase.) m. I3d. n 25 4 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND that he took the King's hint and retired from the see of Carlisle. Divinely inspired, as it was thought at the time, Bishop Walter resigned his bishopric in 1246, and took refuge among the Friars Preachers at Oxford, where he did many memorable things before his death.1 Matthew Paris puts a different complexion on the cause of his resigna- tion, ascribing it to qualms of conscience, as the bishop feared his entry on the episcopate in the first instance had not been legitimate.2 It would be nearer the truth perhaps to accept the bishop's own statement that the causes of his retirement were old age and weakness of body, which rendered him incapable of doing his work. Archbishop Walter Gray, before releasing him from the pastoral care of the diocese, bore a willing testimony to his loyalty to the church of York and to his dili- gence in the exercise of the episcopal office.3 Before he left the diocese the King gave him licence to make his will.4 He died at Oxford in 1 248,° in the religious society of those whom he favoured and endowed before he had embarked on the stormy sea of temporal affairs. Few striking events of diocesan interest took place during the episcopates which covered the latter portion of the thirteenth century. Like Bishop Walter, his predecessor, Bishop Silvester de Everdon had held high office in the state before his election to the see of Carlisle. Matthew Paris, who always spoke in admiration of this bishop, in de- scribing his nomination in 1 246, said that he had been king's clerk and sometime chancellor of England, a man of great fame and conversation, well versed in legal forms, specially in matters relating to chancery, but that he was unwilling to accept the proffered honour, not so much on account of his riches, as his reluctance to undertake the burden of the episcopal office.6 At last, under pressure, though he considered himself unworthy, he consented. During the few years of his episcopate he was much engaged in legal7 and political affairs, and took part in the stirring contests between the church and the crown. The memorable struggle on the right of free election to bishoprics is well known. Bishop Silvester was one of the four prelates chosen by the lords spiritual to wait on the King at the parliament held in London in 1253 f°r t^ie purpose of demanding those liberties he had sworn to maintain, the most fundamental of which and the most pressing at that moment was the right of election. It was only on that condition they would consent to supply him with the money he asked for. The King turned upon the prelates, and with an unusual display of indignation asked them in- dividually where they would have been had he not exercised his discre- » Annales Monastici, ii. 337 (Annals of Waverley) ; iii. 170 (Annals of Dunstable) ; iv. 94 (Chronicon Thomae Wykes). 2 M. Paris, Chronica Majora, iv. 564 ; Historia Anglorum, iii. n. Reg. of Abp. Walter Gray (Surtees Society), 98. Nicolson and Burn have printed this licence (Hist, of Cumberland, ii. 255-6). Chronica Majora, v. 16; Historia Anglorum, iii. 40. Chronica Majora, iv. 569-587 ; Historia Anglorum, iii. 30, 302. Bishop Silvester was a justice itinerant with Roger de Thurkelby at York at Michaelmas, 1251 (Cal. Doc. Scot. [Scot. Rec. Pub.], i. 336 ; Foss, Biographia Juridica, p. 242). See also Fine Rolls (Rec. Com.), ii. 130 ; and the Guisbro' Chartulary (Surtees Society), i. 216. 26 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY tion in the filling of their sees. His ironical reference to the bishop of Carlisle, as he addressed him, was bitter in the extreme. ' And you, Silvester of Carlisle,' he said, ' who have been licking my chancery as the clerkling of my clerks, I have raised to a bishopric, and I have made you a somebody at the expense of many divines and great men whom I have passed over in your favour.' But personal rebuke was not enough. The King called on them to resign, as they had been so unjustly elected, and promised that his partiality in their favour would put him on his guard in future, and prevent him from preferring any person to a bishopric without due merit. The bishops pleaded, in their embarrassment, that the past might well be overlooked, if security for the future was guaranteed. It was a drawn battle. The King obtained his subsidy, and the bishops were satisfied with the assurance that the liberties of the church would be respected.1 Bishop Silvester was killed by a fall from his horse3 in 1254. The effect of the bishops' remonstrance with the King was visible on the election of a successor to Bishop Silvester. The choice of the canons of Carlisle fell on Master Thomas de Vipont, rector of Greystoke, no doubt a member of the well-known local family of that name, though the King urged the claims of the prior of Newburgh. The canons, however, maintained their right, and Thomas was consecrated in February 1255 by the bishop of Durham.3 As his short episcopate terminated in October 1256,* little remains of his episcopal acts in the diocese except a few confirmation charters to the religious houses of no general interest.5 On his death, Walter de Kirkham, bishop of Durham, successfully pleaded his right to the sequestration of the benefices in his diocese belonging to the bishopric of Carlisle while that see was void. After inquiry in the king's court, the profits arising at that time and also on the previous vacancy were assigned to him by the King's writ, for which the bishop paid a thousand marks.8 Again and again in after years the same claim was made and the same decision was given. In 1279, on the avoidance by the death of Bishop Robert de Chause, when the custody of vacant bishoprics formed one of the articull cleri proposed before the King in parliament, the King acknowledged his charter to Bishop Walter above mentioned, and awarded the fruits of the bishop of 1 Cbronica Majora, v. 374. Bishop Silvester joined with the other bishops on this occasion in pro- nouncing the sentence of excommunication on all violaters of charters (Rymer, Foedera, i. 289-293 ; Hemingburgh, Chron. (Eng. Hist. Soc.), i. 285 ; Stubbs, Select Charters, edition 1870, pp. 364-5. A corrupt version of the ' sentence ' is on record in The Whitby Chartulary (ii. 509-10), which has led Canon Atkinson into grievous miscalculations. * Chron. de Lanercost, p. 62 ; Chronica Majora, v. 431 ; Historia Anglorum, iii. 333. 3 Chronica Majora, iv. 455 ; Historia Anglorum, iii. 337 ; Chron. de Lanercost, p. 62. * Chronica Majora, v. 588. 5 Reg. of Wetherhal (Cumbld. and Westmorld. Archaeol. Soc.), p. 61 ; Reg. of Holmcultram MS. f. 25. One of the earliest acts of Bishop Vipont was a licence to Alan de Berwise to build a private chapel in Berwise. The deed is dated ' Apud la Rose vij Kalend. Marcij, pontificatus nostri anno primo,' i.e. 23 February 1255 (Machel MSS. v. 255 ; Reg. of Wetherhal, p. 319). He had been consecrated only sixteen days (Chron. de Lanercost, p. 62). 8 Nicolson and Burn have printed the King's writ (Hist, of Cumberland, ii. 257-8) from Prynne (Chronological Vindication, ii. 970). The letters patent will be found OR Pat. R. 44 Hen. III. pt. i. m. 5. 27 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND Carlisle's churches in the diocese of Durham to Bishop Robert of Durham, and a writ was issued to Robert de Avenel to make livery accordingly and not to meddle with them further.1 A different rule was applied to the custody of the spiritualities situated within the vacant bishopric ; these were adjudged to the primate of the province by order of Parlia- ment. A test case arose in 1328 after the death of Bishop Halton, when Robert de Barton, keeper of the bishopric, was ordered by Edward III. to cause the fruits and obventions of the churches of Penrith and Dalston, which were appropriated to the bishopric, to be delivered to William, archbishop of York, then keeper of the spiritu- alities, in accordance with the agreement in the late Parliament at Westminster, that the keepers of void archbishoprics, bishoprics, abbeys, and priories should only intermeddle with the temporalities and not with appropriated churches, prebends and other spiritual things.8 Pre- cisely the same mandate was sent to the prior and convent of Carlisle, who had been appointed keepers of the temporalities on the death of Bishop Ross in 13 32." But this did not touch the right of the bishop in whose diocese the spiritualities of other bishops were situated. It was natural that these should revert to his custody and not to that of the primate. The bishop of Durham had custody of the churches within his diocese in the patronage of the bishop of Carlisle ; the spiritualities within the diocese of Carlisle were the perquisites of the archbishop of York. If this distinction be borne in mind, much con- fusion will be avoided. A new type of bishop succeeded on the death of Silvester de Everdon, not a politician engaged in statecraft, not a justice on circuit, but a bishop who devoted his energies to the duties of his office. When Robert de Chause4 was elected by the canons in 1257, Archbishop Sewall, who, according to the annalist of Dunstable, made him fair promises and ill returns, temporized in confirming the choice, with the supposed intention of securing the appointment of a certain master John, thus causing a delay which obliged the bishop designate to appeal to the pope for redress.8 On taking over the charge after two short episcopates, Bishop Chause was confronted with many difficulties, occa- 1 The date of the articuli cleri found in the register of Archbishop Wickwaine (Letters from the Northern Registers [Rolls Series], 70-8) must be about the year 1279, the only possible year to make Article xiij intelligible. The see of Carlisle was vacant from 1278 to 1280. In 1279 the King addressed letters to his northern officers to deliver the sequestration to Bishop Robert de Insula (Close, 7 Edw. I. m. 3 ; Pat. 7 Edw. I. m. 5). » Close, 2 Edw. III. m. 20. a Ibid. 6 Edw. III. m. 23. 4 Though this bishop is found under various names, we have adopted that of Robert de Chause, the name given to him by Matthew Paris (Chronica Mafora [Rolls Series], v. 678). As Robert de Chauro he was rector of Stanton in the diocese of Ely in 1254, when by request of the Queen, whose clerk he was, permission was given him to hold additional benefices (Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 307) ; he was dispensed by Pope Innocent IV. on account of illegitimacy, and while Archdeacon of Bath, as Robert de Chaury, an indult was granted in 1257 that he might receive episcopal dignity (ibid. i. 347). A local chronicler, who ought to know best, calls him Robert de Chalize or Chalise (Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 101, 145). In the annals of Dunstable he is named Robert de Chawre (Annal. Monast. [Rolls Series], iii. 205). His name was given as Robert Chaury in 1290 by one of the clerks in the Court of Chancery (Pat. 1 8 Edw. I. m. 20), and he was styled ' archbishop ' of Carlisle by another (ibid. 5 Edw. I. m. 3). • Annales Monastici (Rolls Series), iii. 205. 28 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY sioned probably by a previous slackness in the administrative work of the diocese. During the whole term of his episcopate from his consecra- tion in 1258 till his death in 1 278, his life was engrossed with a succession of disputes, sometimes acting as mediator in local differences, often standing out in defence of the rights and traditions of his see. As a reformer he met with determined opposition in the highest quarters. Yielding in his dispute with the abbey of St. Mary, York, in 1266, he relinquished his claim to the custody of the priory of Wetheral during a vacancy, as well as to the institution and removal of the priors, in exchange for the remission of an annual pension due to that priory from one of the churches in his patronage.1 The King of Scotland failed to deprive him of the church of Great Salkeld2 in 1261, though he was not so fortunate in his defence of the patronage of the church of Roth- bury in Northumberland, claimed by King Edward.3 Richard de Crepping, who succeeded the bishop as sheriff of the county in 1272, unjustly charged him before the lord chancellor with urging his tenants to refuse the oath of fealty to the young king, a groundless allegation, which caused much bitterness in the district.* The last four years of the bishop's life were troubled by a long and expensive suit promoted by Michael de Harcla, who claimed that the manor of Dalston and the advowson of the church were his by right of hereditary succession, a suit which was still undecided at the bishop's death." He did not flinch from what he conceived to be the duties of his calling on account of the frowns of kings and magnates, but steadily worked for the rights of his diocese and the welfare of his spiritual subjects. With Robert de Chause the series of bishops who resided in the diocese and gave them- selves wholly to local administration may be said to commence. The chronicler of Lanercost has left us a beautiful picture of the piety and amiability of the bishop's character, his zeal for the honour of God, and the good of His people, which he said would never fade while the world lasted.6 The informalities attending the election of a successor to Bishop Robert involved the prior and convent of Carlisle in serious trouble with the Crown. In due course two of the canons were deputed to carry the news to London and obtain the necessary conge d'elire for the election of a new bishop.7 The choice of the house fell on William de Rothelfeld, dean of York, who renounced the election and died soon after. With- > Reg. of Wetberbal, pp 73-7. 1 Close 46 Hen. III. m. izd ; Rymer, Fcedera, i. 417. ' Close, 6 Edw. I. m. I5d ; Pat. 18 Edw. I. m. 20; Chron. de Lanercost, p. 102; Rot. Parl. (Rec. Com.), i. 6b, 22b. 4 Nicolson and Burn, Hist, of Cumberland, ii. 258. 6 De Banco Rolls No. 6 Mich. 2 and 3 Edw. I. m. 6^d ; No. n, 3 and 4 Edw. I. m. 77d ; No. 17, 4 and 5 Edw. I. m. 3d ; No. 36, 8 and 9 Edw. I. m. 43d. An account of this interesting series of pleas will be more appropriately given under the manorial history of Dalston. • Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 101-2. ? Pat. 6 Edw. I. m. 3. The licence to elect is dated 27 October, 1278. The name of the prior of Carlisle in 1282 was Robert (Carl. Epis. Reg. Halton MS. f. 14), though perhaps not Robert de Everdon as stated in Nicolson and Burn (Hist, of Cumberland, ii. 259). 29 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND out petitioning for a fresh licence, the canons appointed a committee of the convent to proceed to election, and they chose Ralf de Ireton, prior of Gisburn in Yorkshire, and apparently a member of the well-known family of Ireton in Cumberland, and presented their choice to William, archbishop of York, who died before confirming it. The chapter of York refused confirmation, and the King also withheld his consent in high indignation that a second election should have been made without his licence. The convent appealed to the pope, and Prior Ralf repaired to Rome to support the petition. The pontiff appointed three cardinals to examine the election, and on account of the informality that they discovered, he cancelled it. Then on his own authority, in con- sideration of the character and learning of Prior Ralf, as he said, he appointed him bishop of Carlisle, and had him there and then consecrated by the bishop of Tusculum. Without further parley he intimated what he had done to the prior and convent of Carlisle, to the clergy and people of the diocese, to the archbishop of York and to the King.1 Though the King compromised with the pope for the sake of peace and accepted the provision,2 he did not forgive the convent for the second election, for they were forced to pay the greater part of five hundred marks, of which they had been amerced in satisfaction of the irregu- larity.3 Bishop Ireton lost no time in taking up the threads of diocesan work, which had fallen from the fingers of his predecessor. It would appear that building or improvement was in progress at his cathedral, and that money was needed to complete it. Bending his energies at once in this direction, he summoned his clergy in synod for consultation, and made request for a subsidy. Though he only landed in England on 30 May, the synod was held in the following October, when the clergy granted him a tenth of their ecclesiastical revenues payable in two years on the basis of the true valuation. It was a drastic measure for a new bishop, and gave rise, of course, to much grumbling. The levy on the monastic house in which the chronicler of Lanercost was domiciled amounted to £24 of the new money for one year, and drew from the poet of the establishment a caustic screed of Latin verse on the ill-doings of the shepherd who ought to feed rather than fleece the flock so long bereft of a pastor's care. As the chronicler distinctly says that funds were needed ad fabricam culmims majoris ecclesiae suae sedis, we should not wonder at the poor estimation in which the bishop was held by some of those who were called upon to supply them. In their eyes he was crafty, 1 Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 461. The dean of York was elected 13 December, 1278 (Chron. de Laner- cost, p. 102). Nicolson and Burn notice an assize roll quoted by Prynne (Chron. V 'indie, iii. 1230), in which the prior of Carlisle pleaded that he and his convent did not understand that they had done any contempt or prejudice to the King by the second election, for that having obtained leave to elect and the person elected disagreeing thereto, they thought it was res integra, and that they might proceed to choose again; but if it was contempt, they submitted themselves to the King (Hist, of Cumberland, ii. 258-9). The annalist of Dunstable was in error when he stated that the prior of Gisburn appealed to the pope against the metropolitan (Annales Monastics [Rolls Series], iii. 283). 2 Pat. 8 Edw. I. m. 10. 3 Ibid. 10 Edw. I. m. 18 ; Close 10 Edw. I. m. 7. 30 CUMBERLAND SEALS : EPISCOPAL II RALPH IRETON (1280-1292). RALPH IRETON (1280- 1292) COUNTERSEAL. JOHN HALTON (1292-1324). JOHN Ross (1325-1332). .••s I •!•''•< Sr' mr' THOMAS APPLEBY (1363-1395). THOMAS APPLEDY (1363-1395). JOHN KIRBY (1332-1352). THOMAS APPLEBY (1363-1395) COUNTERSEAL. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY subtle, and very greedy, using his visitations as the means of wringing contributions from the simple-minded clergy of his diocese.1 In the latter years of his life the bishop was often employed by his sovereign on political and other missions, chiefly in connection with Scottish affairs.2 But the end was drawing near. In April 1291 he received a faculty from Pope Nicholas IV. to dispose by will of his personal property (not belonging to the service of the altar or to the Augustinian order of which he was a member) in funeral expenses and remuneration of servants and kinsmen, his debts being first paid.3 On the last day of February 1292 he died at his house of Linstock after the fatigue of a journey in deep snow from London, where he had been attending Parliament, and was buried in his cathedral church.4 A most dreadful calamity befell the city of Carlisle a few months after Bishop Ireton's death, the desolation of the flock following closely on the removal of the pastor, as the chronicler of Lanercost pathetically described it. For the space of a whole day and night towards the end of May 1292 a tempest raged on sea and land. The winds blew with such terrific fury that travellers on foot and horseback were overthrown or driven from the track ; the sea was forced inland to a greater distance than ever was known by the oldest inhabitant, inundating the maritime districts and destroying crops and cattle. When the hurricane was at its highest, an incendiary, in a moment of malicious rage against his father for disinheriting him, set fire to certain houses without the city walls to the west of the cathedral, that a stranger might not enjoy his inheritance. The city and neighbourhood were soon in flames, and the devastation was universal. The chronicler of Lanercost, who was an eye- witness of the conflagration, has left behind him a vivid picture of the destruction. Streets, churches, municipal buildings, houses, muniments, organs, bells, wood, glass and stalls were burnt to ashes. The only houses of note left standing were the conventual buildings of the Jacobins or Black Friars on the west walls, which were saved with the greatest difficulty. It was particularly noted that the flames devoured the tomb of Bishop Ireton in the cathedral, mausoleum improbi exactoris, as the chronicler, retaining his old grudge against the bishop, referred to it, though that of his predecessor, Robert de ' Chalix,' escaped untouched. The culprit, at least the young man on whom suspicion had fallen, was taken, tried and hanged.8 The destruction of the city was not altogether an unmixed evil. The fire taught the citizens the dangers to which they were exposed by the employment of wood in the construction of their houses. With the co-operation of the King, who granted them charters in place of those that were burnt, and in supplying stone for 1 Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 102-6. 3 Rymer, Foedera, new edition, i. 734-6, 738, 762, 766-8, 774. 3 Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 534-5. 4 W. de Hemingburgh, Chron. (Eng. Hist. Soc.), ii. 40; Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 143-4. The latter authority puts the bishop's death on the following day, I March. 5 Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 144-5, 147; Walter de Hemingburgh adds that the culprit was found, tried, and hanged (Chron. ii. 40). 31 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND the building of their houses, the city again rose to its ancient dignity and importance.1 It was fortunate that a prelate of the courage and resource of Bishop Halton ruled the diocese at the close of the thirteenth century. His election took place about the time of the calamity which laid the cathedral in ashes.2 Four years afterwards the war with Scotland broke out with all its attendant miseries and disasters to the inhabitants of the Border counties. For almost three centuries from this date the history of the diocese, owing to Scottish invasions, is coloured by the troubles and devastations arising from its geographical position. The bishops of the period in question were sometimes military commanders, mostly north-country born, often natives of the county, not unfrequently cadets of great feudal families. Some of them, like Halton and Kirkby, con- trolled the garrison of Carlisle Castle, and, not content with acting on the defensive, went into Scotland more or less in a military capacity, at one time as diplomatists to effect a peace, and at another to carry fire and sword into the enemy's territory. Bishop Kirkby was held in particular detestation (summo odio) by the Scots for commanding in person on various expeditions in 1 337, and the enemy was not slow in retaliating on the bishop and all his belongings.3 A visit to the bishop was a feature of almost every Scottish invasion. They sacked Rose Castle again and again, killed his deer, and emptied his fishponds.4 Nearly all the bishops before the Reformation were employed in the adjustment of diplomatic relations and the arrangement of truces between the two kingdoms, and sometimes little thanks they got for their pains. After nearly thirty years of conspicuous service to the State, Bishop Halton on one occasion in 1321, after a period of unexampled suffering among his tenants and dependants, petitioned the Crown for relief, and asked that his expenses should be allowed for the nine weeks he spent at New- castle-upon-Tyne with other magnates on an embassy to the Scots, but it seemed to the King and the council that since the bishop went for the good of the realm in general and his own diocese in particular, and since his journey from Carlisle to Newcastle was not far, he must bear his own expenses." 1 On the petition of the citizens of Carlisle in 1304, the King granted leave to take stone without hindrance in the forest of ' Inglewode ' for the building of their houses and the restoration of the same vill after the late fire (Rot. Parl. [Rec. Com.], i. i66b ; Ryley, Placita Parliamentaria, p. 255). In their petition for a new charter with all their former privileges, the citizens stated ' quod carte sue per quas eandem villam tenuerunt combuste fuerunt ' (ibid. i. 166-7). A new charter was granted in 1293, wherein it is testified that their late charters were burned by misadventure in a fire in the city of Carlisle (Pat. 21 Edw. I. m. 8). This confirmatory charter has been printed (Royal Charters of Carlisle, ed. R. S. Ferguson, pp. 10-11). 3 Hemingburgh states that Bishop Ralf de Ireton died on the last day of February and the burning of the cathedral took place on the feast of St. Dunstan the archbishop (May 19) 1292 (Chronicon, [Eng. Hist. Soc.], ii. 40). Another account of the fire fixes the date on 30 May (Chron. de Lanercost [Maitland Club], 144). As the election of John de ' Halghton,' canon of Carlisle, to the vacant see was made on 9 May, and the King's confirmation was given on 26 May (Nicolson and Burn, Hist, of Cumberland, ii. 262 ; Pat. 20 Edw. I. m. 12), it may be taken that the calamity to the cathedral church had no influence on the choice of the canons. 3 Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 291-3. « Close, 13 Edw. II. m. 19, m. 21. • Ancient Petition, No. 5117. 32 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY A few words will be sufficient to indicate the miserable condition of the diocese during the progress of hostilities between the two kingdoms. Seldom had the land absolute rest from the fear of invasion. There is little occasion to turn to the pages of chronicles for adequate language to describe the sufferings of clergy and laity on both sides of the Border in those barbarous struggles. From the pens of the Bishops of Carlisle pictures of woe and desolation have been handed down to us which no chronicler could imitate, unless he was a witness of the miseries he described and a sufferer in the spoliation. In pleading for an indul- gence in the payment of a royal tenth in 1301, Bishop Halton pointed to the miserable state of the diocese for the past four years and more, owing to the depredations of the treacherous Scots. Some of the religious were scattered, as their monasteries were destroyed, and several of the churches with their parishes were reduced to ashes, insomuch that the clergy were unable to live on the fruits of their benefices, but were forced to beg alms from place to place.1 In 1318 the same bishop bewailed the dreadful injuries which his diocese had suffered for more than twenty-four years from cruel invasions. The Scots had slain men and women, old and young, orphans and widows, burnt nearly all the churches, houses and buildings, driven off their cattle, carried away their treasure, ornaments and every movable of value, and destroyed the whole country, so that the lands of the bishopric lay uncultivated, the sources of his revenues were wasted, and he himself was reduced to a state of indigence and want. For the relief of his urgent need he begged the pope to sanction the appropriation of the church of Horncastle in Lincolnshire to his see.2 Afflictions of this nature afforded a common theme of complaint to the bishops of Carlisle in the fifteenth century as well as the four- teenth, though of course the frequency of hostilities and the amount of damage depended on the recurrence of international disputes. Few indeed of the medieval bishops escaped losses or troubles from the Scots. The remains of the ancient defences at Rose Castle, their official residence, about seven miles to the south-west of Carlisle, are a witness to the present day of its former strength.3 The poverty of the diocese, caused chiefly by the Scottish wars, drove the bishops and the monastic corporations to cast covetous eyes on the wealthier of the parish churches, with the view of encompassing their appropriation. It was no new policy, for the religious houses had ample experience of this method of increasing their revenues. Priories, like Carlisle, Wetheral and St. Bees, were endowed with advowsons and 1 Carl. Epis. Reg. Halton MS. f. 59; Letters from the Northern Registers (Rolls Series), 151. In 1309 Bishop Halton excused his attendance at parliament ' propter distanciam, temporis brevitatem, timorem invasionis Scottorum, necnon corporis infirmitatem qua affligimur ' (Carl. Epis. Reg. Halton MS. f. 120). 1 Carl. Epis. Reg. Halton MS. f. 211 ; Letters from the Northern Registers, 282-3. The bishop had obtained licence from the Crown to appropriate the church in 1314 (Pat. 8 Edw. II. pt. i. m. 17). 3 John de Kirkby, the warrior bishop, had a licence to crenellate his house of ' La Rose ' in 1336, and the same liberty was repeated to Bishop Welton at a subsequent date (Pat. 10 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 27, 29 Edw. III.). 11 33 5 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND had obtained rectories as early as the reign of Henry I. All the early bishops granted licences for appropriations, though the custom of the ordination or taxation of vicarages was not completely established till the reign of Henry III. and the episcopate of Walter, the fourth bishop. If we glance at the process by which the revenues of a parish church became the property of a religious house, it will be seen how step by step the monks gained their end. The advowson of the church of Crosthwaite, for example, was granted to the monastery of Fountains by Alice de Romelli, daughter of William fitz Duncan, about the year 1212. Bishop Bernard confirmed the appropriation of the whole of the revenues, except an annual stipend of one hundred shillings, which he reserved for a vicar who should be elected by the monks and presented to the bishop for institution, the said vicar being answerable for all episcopal dues and having the cure of souls. The appropriation had the sanction of the pope, the metropolitan, and the prior and convent of Carlisle, but its completion was delayed by the resignation of the rector, who retired on an annual pension of five marks. Though this arrange- ment lasted through two episcopates and received the confirmation of Bishops Hugh and Walter, it was not brought to a successful issue till Henry de Curtenay had resigned his pension in 1227, an(^ ^ Adam de Crosthwaite, the first vicar, had died some years afterwards. All the complications, however, were cleared away in 1250, when Bishop Silvester made a definite ordination of the vicarage by declaring particu- larly the various sources of the vicar's stipend, assigning him a vicarage house, certain tithes and other revenues.1 In the taxation of vicarages after appropriation, unless the sources of the vicar's stipend were care- fully set out, quarrels with the impropriators were likely to ensue. When Adam, son of Adam de Levington, granted the church of Kirk- andrews on Eden to the nuns of St. Andrew of Marrig, though Bishops Bernard and Hugh in succession confirmed the appropriation of the church to their use, Ralf the chaplain succeeded in forcing a composition in 1263 whereby the nuns should receive a pension of sixty shillings a year, and that he and his successors should have peaceable possession of the residue nomine personatus* But ordinations were drawn up with the greatest care, so that the vicar was independent of the individual or corporation to whom the appropriation belonged. The division of the parochial revenues was so arranged that the incumbent was answerable to the bishop in spiritualities and to the impropriator in temporalities, yielding to the latter no other service than that which was due from any tenant of a lay fee. This policy of robbing parishes for the support of religious corpora- tions, some of which had no connection with the diocese or the county, though it had fallen to some extent into decay towards the close of the thirteenth century, was resuscitated after the outbreak of the Scottish wars and the impoverishment of the local monastic houses by the con- 1 Reg. of Fountains MS. ff. 101, 323-330. * Collectanea Topografhica tt Genealogica, v. 235-6. 34 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY centration of the national host on the Border for the invasion of Scotland. Edward I. was often the guest of the bishop and the local monasteries. The expenses of entertainment of the King and his court were a severe burden on their resources. But for a couple of centuries the losses caused by Scottish incursions were the reasons pleaded for the appro- priations.1 In 1230 Henry III. had bestowed the manor of Dalston with the advowson of the church on the see,2 but none of the bishops, though resident within the parish, had intermeddled with the fruits of the rectory till Bishop Halton had obtained a royal licence in 1301 for its appropriation,3 and in later years he had no difficulty in getting the sanction of successive archbishops of York, when the way was made clear by the death or cession of the rector in possession.4 The arch- bishop gave elaborate reasons for his consent, such as the burning of the cathedral church, the losses caused by the international troubles, the daily goings and comings of magnates on the Border, and the crippling expenses incurred by affording hospitalities on these occasions.6 He contented himself by sketching out the broad principles on which the appropriation should be carried out, and the bishop of Carlisle filled in the lines. The last attempt at appropriation that need be mentioned was made by Bishop Lumley, who obtained a licence in 1441 to annex to his table the churches of Caldbeck and Rothbury on the old pretext that he was unable to support his episcopal dignity owing to his losses from the daily inroads of the Scots," but this appropriation never took place. One of the first chantries in the diocese was founded in 1300 at Bramwra by Thomas de Capella, vicar of Kirkbystephen. With the King's licence the founder alienated three messuages and seventy-two and a half acres of land in Newbiggin, Raughton, and Bramwra, for the purpose of maintaining one priest to celebrate in a chapel de novo con- 1 On 8 July 1304 the King issued licences to the prior and convent of Carlisle for the appropri- ation of the churches of Addingham and Edenhall ' in compensation of the burning of their houses and churches, and divers plundering by the Scots,' both churches being of their own patronage (Pat. 32 Edw. I. m. ii ; Inq. p.m. 32 Edw. I. No. 130). When the same king gave his consent for the appro- priation of Castlesowerby in 1307, the grant was made 'out of devotion to the Virgin Mary, and in consideration of the relics of Thomas the Martyr and other saints being in the church of St. Mary, Carlisle, and of the losses of the prior and convent by invasions and burnings of the Scots ' (Pat. 35 Edw. I. m. 17). The appropriation took place on the death of the rector, Henry de Ritter, in 1309 (Carl. Epis. Reg. Halton MS. f. 124). » Chart. R. 14 Hen. III. m. 10. ' Pat. 29 Edw. I. m. 29. 4 The ordination of Archbishop Corbridge, which recites the licence of King Edward, was made on 29 March 1301, ' cedente vel decedente rectore ipsius ecclesiae qui nunc est,' but the rector held out for some years. Archbishop Greenfield completed the ordination on 19 February 1306-7. In the record it is entitled ' Acceptacio et approbacio W. Archiepiscopi Eboracensis super appropriacione eccle- sie de Dalston.' The deed by which Bishop Halton assigned the stipend to the vicar — ' Assignacio vicario de Dalston '—is dated 4 July 1307 (Carl. Epis. Reg. Halton MS. ff. 107-9). 5 These were the reasons alleged by Bishop Kirkby in 1334 why his diocese was unable to pay the royal tenth demanded from the clergy (Carl. Epis. Reg. Kirkby MS. f. 308). In 1341 the same bishop absolved the diocese ' ab onere visitationis ' in consequence of their impoverishment by the Scottish wars, and pleaded his great charges in guarding the Marches, in which their churches were situated, that the clergy might give him a subsidy, specially as he foresaw a renewal of hostilities (ibid. f. 430). 8 Pat. 21 Hen. VI. pt. 2, m. 22 ; Tanner, Notitia Monastica, ed. J. Tanner, p. 75 ; Nicolson and Burn, Hist, of Cumberland, ii. 273. 35 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND struenda at the latter place for the souls of himself and his ancestors.1 But the fashion did not take hold of the public mind till a much later date, when it became a rule to found chantries in parish churches. We have a notable example of this when it became necessary to transplant the chantry of Bramwra to the church of Hutton in 1361. Owing to the depreciation in the value of land caused by the scarcity of tenants and labourers after the great pestilence,2 the endowments of the chantry were quite insufficient to maintain a chaplain at Bramwra. The chapel had been vacant for a long time and no priest was willing to undertake the duty. In these circumstances Thomas de Hoton in the Forest, upon whom the right of the founder had devolved, reconstituted the chantry in the church of St. James in Hutton, and gave, in addition to the old endowment, land in the vill of Hutton to sustain a perpetual chaplain to celebrate at the altar of the blessed Mary there for the souls of himself and his wife, Isabel, and for the souls of their parents and all their pre- decessors. It was stipulated that the advowson and patronage of the chantry should be vested in Thomas de Hoton and his heirs. In giving confirmation to the transference of the institution, Bishop Welton ordained that the chantry priest should sing or say (dicat cum nota ve/ sine nota] the Canonical Hours daily with the rector or parish chaplain of Hutton and celebrate at St. Mary's altar on Sundays with special commemoration of all souls above mentioned, using on other days of the week the office of the dead with Placebo and Dirige. It should be mentioned that the chaplain of the chantry was subject to the rector in all canonical and lawful demands.3 The subjection of the chaplain to 1 Inq. p.m. 28 Edw. I. No. 133. On 20 October 1302 a writ ad quod damnum was issued to the sheriff to inquire if Thomas de Capella may alienate to the bishop of Carlisle a messuage and forty acres of land in Newton Reigny (Carl. Epis. Reg. Halton MS. f. 62). The founder made an addition to the endowment of the chantry in 1310-1311 (Orig. R. 4 Edw. II. m. 19 ; Inq. ad quod damnum, 4 Edw. II. No. 66), and the bishop of Carlisle obtained the appropriation of the chapel in the following year (Orig. R. 5 Edw. II. m. 21). John de Capella, a burgess of Carlisle, founded a chantry in St. Katherine's chapel in the church of the Blessed Mary, Carlisle, the chaplain of which was obliged to celebrate for his soul and for the souls of all the faithful departed for ever. In 1366 some of the tenants of the burgages, with which the chantry was endowed, withheld the rents from J. de Galwidia, the perpetual chaplain, to ' the peril of their souls and the prejudice of the said chaplain and chantry ' (Carl. Epis. Reg. Appleby MS. f. 156). 2 We have little local information about the havoc made among the clergy by the great pestilence or Black Death of 1349 in this diocese. There is an ominous gap in the diocesan registers between 1347 and 1352. When the plague attacked the province of York, the pope sent the archbishop an indulgence allowing every one to choose his own confessor with a proviso that the privilege should not be abused. A copy of this brief was sent to the bishop of Carlisle on 28 April, 1 349 (Letters from the Northern Registers [Rolls Series], 399-400). There is more explicit evidence of the devastation among the clergy caused by the second visitation, which was the cause of the removal of the chantry from Bramwra to Hutton. In 1363 Bishop Appleby complained to the pope of the lack of priests in his diocese owing to the late pesti- lence, and prayed for the necessary faculties to promote forty persons, secular and regular, of the age of twenty to all the holy orders that they might minister in the same, and also to dispense twelve persons of illegitimate birth and six others being sons of priests or illegitimate sons of married men, so that they might be ordained and hold benefices with cure of souls (Cat. of Papal Petitions, i. 437). 3 Carl. Epis. Reg. Welton MS. ff. 78-9. There is an account of a very curious dispute about the patronage of a chantry in the church of Brigham in 1532. Sir John Lamplugh had the King's letters to induct one Richard Robinson, clerk, but the church was held by force in the interests of the Earl of North- umberland. The parish priest was obliged to go ' to his chamer to say his mattens ' as ' the chirche dorrys was shett upe ne culd hawe entres in the chirche bot at such tymys as he was lattyne in.' The earl's servants abode day and night in the church ' and hawd meytt and drynke and a bed within the sayd 36 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY the rector or vicar of the church in which the chantry was established was a prevailing feature of these foundations. When Lady Margaret de Wigton conferred the rectory of Wigton on the monastery of Holm- cultram in 1332 on condition that four monks should be added to the inmates of the convent and two secular priests should be maintained by the monastery in Wigton church for the purpose of celebrating masses for the souls of her ancestors and all the faithful departed, the Bishop of Carlisle in ordaining the chantry made provision that the chaplains should be under the control of the parochial vicar.1 The bishop presided in the diocesan synod 2 unless prevented by sufficient cause, in which case he commissioned a deputy, often the official or the prior of Carlisle, to act in his place. Though several of these commissions are recorded, one only need be mentioned. Bishop Welton, wishing to have counsel and advice from his clergy on arduous business, issued a mandate in 1353 to the Abbot of Holmcultram, recently made his official, and John de Welton, learned in the law, empowering them to summon together the prior and chapter of the cathedral church, abbots and priors exempt and not exempt, the arch- deacon, rectors, vicars, and other ecclesiastical persons within the diocese, and to expound to them when so assembled the business in hand. At the Michaelmas synod in the following year, the prior of Carlisle was commissioned to convocate the clergy, and to preside in the bishop's absence ; also to certify by his letters the result of their deliberations.3 By virtue of their appropriate churches, abbots and priors of religious houses not situated in the diocese were obliged to attend the Carlisle synod in person or by proxy unless the obligation was remitted by special grace. Bishop Welton was very considerate in granting these remissions. In 1354 he issued licences to Richard, prior of Wartre ; Thomas, abbot of Whitby ; and John, prior of Connishead, excusing their personal presence in synod during their tenure of office.4 Mulcts (multe] were not unfrequent for non-appearance. In 1402 the abbot of Whitby was amerced in 2OJ-. because ' in no manner ' did he appear in the synod held after the feast of Michaelmas, and the abbot of Fountains was fined IQJ. in 1469 for a like offence. The mulcts of the parochial clergy were naturally smaller than those of abbots and priors, and varied considerably, perhaps according to the richness of the benefice or the contumacy of the offender. The rector of Greystoke had to pay 6s. 8 Archdeacon Byrbanke appears to have been of Cumbrian extraction (Trans. Cumbld. and Westmorld. Archaeol. Soc. xv. 38). We find him as early as 1488 in the service of Bishop Richard Bell as his chaplain. In 1508 he was nominated by the Austin priory of Conishead in Lancashire as one of their proctors to the diocesan synod of Carlisle by virtue of the appropriation of the church of Orton in Westmorland to that house (Hist. MSB. Com. Rep. [Rydal MSS.], xii. App. vii. 5). He accompanied Archbishop Bainbridge to Rome as one of his secretarial staff. In Rome he made the acquaintance of Erasmus, which afterwards ripened into a life-long friendship. In 1512 he was appointed prebendary of Fenton in the church of York, which he held till he resigned in 1531 (Hardy, Le Neve, iii. 185). On the death of Cardinal Bain- bridge, he acted as one of his executors, and wrote some letters to Henry VIII. accusing the Bishop of Worcester of poisoning the cardinal (Cotton MS. Vitellius, B. ii. ff. 94-97 ; Ellis, Orig. Letters, 1st ser. i. 99-108). Bishop Silvester rewarded his traducer by defaming him in turn among his friends as ' that scoundrel Burbanke,' or again that ' he does not know under heaven a greater dissembler ' (Ibid. Vitellius, B. iii, f. 172). Pope Leo X. acted as peacemaker, absolving the bishop sub plumbo of all knowledge of the crime, and creating Byrbanke a prothonotary apostolic with a strong recommendation, on his departure from Rome, to the King's favour (L. and P. of Henry. VIII., vol. ii. 13 ; Dep. Keeper, Rep. ii. App. p. 190). At least six impressions of his seal exist, and all of them of the same date in February, 1524-25. They are attached to the deeds of survey and surrender of certain monastic houses taken by Byrbanke as com- missioner for Henry VIII. and Wolsey (L. and P. of Henry V '111. vol. iv. 1137). The illustration of this archdeacon's seal given above is the only seal of an archdeacon of Carlisle known to exist, and has been reproduced from the impression attached to the Tonbridge surrender. The seal now used by arch- deacons of Carlisle is a side vacante seal of uncertain date, procured at some date for the keeper of the see, when vacant, and has no connexion with the archdeaconry (Trans. Cumbld. and Westmorld. Archaeol. Soc. xv. 35-42). 4 Erasmi Epistolae, lib. xvi. 3, p. 725 ; xviii. 41, p. 806 ; xxi. 57, p. 1 1 24 ; Jortin, Life of Erasmus, i. 150 ; L. and P. of Henry Vlll., vols. ii.-iv. passim. 47 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND But events travelled fast in these days. The church was not left to recover herself in her own way. The clouds were gathering around the monastic institution, not for the purpose of purgation but of extinction. When the storm broke, reform was not mentioned. The destruction of the monasteries was not conceived, matured and carried out in a day. The actual suppression was the outcome of long years of agitation, distress, calumny, bitterness, in which the sacred name of religion itself was imperilled. There is no trace in the diocese of Carlisle at this time of any opposition to the exercise of the traditional rights of the Crown in ecclesiastical affairs. The renunciation of papal authority was an easy matter in the diocese. The parish clergy followed their bishop,1 and none of the regulars are known to have dissented either in Convocation or elsewhere. But the agitation and unrest which led up to all this had a serious effect on monastic communities. At this juncture cases arise in one of our local houses which throw out as in a mirror a picture of what was going on in the nation at large. In 1533 a monk of Holmcultram, Thomas Grame by name, was possessed of a procuratorial office in the neighbouring church of Wigton, a church appropriated to that monastery. As the profits of the office were spent on his own amusements to the detriment of the house, the seal was called in, but the monk remained obdurate and appealed to the Roman pontiff, who ' without consent or counsel of our chapter nor yet having licence from the visitors of the Cistercian Order ' pronounced him capax beneficii and overruled all objections. The monks must have felt now, if they had never felt before, the inconvenience of a foreign authority exercising jurisdiction in the internal affairs of English houses. At all events, the attachment of this monastery to Rome must have been very slender indeed, when the secular arm was invoked to set aside the papal decree.2 In the same year much more serious matters were brought to light in the monastery of Holmcultram, which caused no small stir among the friends and enemies of the monastic order. A short time before, Gawyn Borudall or Borradale, an inmate of the house, was a candidate for the vacant abbacy, but he was rejected in favour of Matthew Deveys, whose election was duly confirmed. In a brief space Abbot Deveys died after a short illness, which recalled to the monks the threats of Borradale in the hour of his defeat. Foul play was freely discussed, and the suspicion of poison rested on the rejected candidate. Borradale was arrested and confined in the dungeon of Furness Abbey, where he lay for nearly six months.3 The uproar brings out many things which show us how matters were working up to the desired end. The Abbot of Furness,4 the monk's gaoler, told Cromwell, the minister who had the King's business in hand, that Borradale was a ' masterful man ' with 1 Bishop Kite's declaration of the Royal Supremacy in 1534 is one of those still surviving at the Record Office (Chapter House, Acknowledgments of Supremacy, s/a i. 27, Bp. of Carlisle). It is in beautiful condition with an undamaged impression of his seal. 2 L. and P. of Henry Fill., vol. vi. 781. 3 Ibid. vi. 986. 4 Ibid. vi. 1557. 48 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY ' secret bearers.' The notorious Dr. Legh, the future scourge of the monasteries, one of the secret bearers of the accused monk, interceded in his behalf and reminded Cromwell that he was capable of doing the King good service in that house and on the Border.1 When we know that this was the monk, who was subsequently chosen Abbot of Holm- cultram for the purpose of surrendering the monastery into the King's hands, the scandal assumes a new magnitude and the intrigues of the royal agents come into view. We can now understand why it was that Borradale's name was omitted in after years from the infamous charges which blackened the characters of the rest of his brethren, when Legh and his associates made their reports to the King and Parliament on the eve of the suppression. Cromwell was now master of the monasteries. Every religious house in England was entangled in his net. There was no room in his system to distinguish between their virtues and their vices ; the hour for their complete overthrow had come. But the tales of his agents must be arranged in formal language and invigorated with official sanction. With this view, royal commissioners2 were despatched to visit the monasteries and bring back a report for the information of the King and Parliament. It is of some interest to know that Thomas Legh, the most diligent of these visitors, was a native of Isell in Cum- berland. His associate, Richard Lay ton, was also north country born. These two men were the chief commissioners for the north. In their petition 3 to Cromwell begging for the post, it is stated that they knew ' the fassion off the countre and the rudenes of the pepull ' and that through ' owre frendes and kynsfookes dispersyde in thos parties ther ys nother monasterie, selle, priorie nor any other religiouse howse in the north but other doctor Lee or I have familier acqwayntance ' with it. Ready tools like these could not be disregarded by a minister who was a matchless judge of men. With astonishing quickness they accomplished their task. From a study of their movements, not more than a few days could have been devoted to the visitation of all the houses in Cumberland and Westmorland. It is absurd to suppose that the commissioners had any intention to make a bona fide report on the condition of individual monasteries. There was no time to hold a serious investigation, and there is no evidence that any court of inquiry was held or witnesses called. By 28 February 1536, it was announced to Cromwell that ' a clean booke of the compertes ' was made and sent to his honourable mastership ' bye yor commissaries Doctor Layton and Doctor Lee ' and * a duble thereof would be brought to him shortly.* 1 L. and P. of Henry V III., vol. vi. 985, 986. 2 The instructions to the commissioners for the county of Westmorland have been printed in Trans. Cumbld. and Westmorld. Archaeol. Soc., xiii. 385-8, from the original book (L. and P. of Henry VIII., vol. v. 721 (2). General instructions will be found in Burnet (Collection of Records, Oxford, 1816, i. pt. ii. 24-26). 3 Layton's petition on behalf of Legh and himself has been printed by Wright (Suppression of the Monasteries, Camden Soc., pp. 156-7) from Cotton MS. Cleopatra, E. iv. f. 10. The business he was so desirous to undertake appeared so light, that he proposed ' to ryde downe one syde ' of England ' and cum up the other.' « L. and P. of Henry VIII., vol. x. 363. ii 49 7 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND Notwithstanding the indignation with which the King's declaration on the contents of the ' Black Book Jl was received in parliament, the arts of diplomacy counselled prudence in framing the Act of Suppres- sion. In order to allay the fears of the bishops and mitred abbots in the House of Lords, it was resolved to suppress only the smaller monasteries with a revenue under £200 a year. The preamble of the Act (37 Henry VIII. cap. 28) sets out the reason for parliamentary interference with the property and organization of the church. The monasteries, marked out for destruction, are stated to have been guilty of ' manifest synne, vicious, carnall and abhominable lyvyng ' on the evidence of ' the compertes * of the late vysytacions as by sondry cred- yble informacions.' But the larger houses, which were for the present exempted, were equally plunged in nameless infamy by the ' compertes ' of the late visitation, though, according to the same Act, ' relygyon is right well kept and observed, thankes be to God, in the great solempne monasteryes of this realme.' It is manifest that the statutory reasons for parliamentary action were fraudulent and that the court party had got up the alleged irregularities for the purpose of passing the Bill through both houses. In our own district the exemption of the Act affected only the abbey of Holmcultram and the priory of Carlisle, but all the other smaller communities, Lanercost, Wetheral, St. Bees, Calder and Shap, the nunneries of Armathwaite and Seton, and the friaries of Car- lisle, Penrith and Appleby were swept away. The dissolution of the smaller houses of religion caused unrest and indignation throughout the country. Insurrection broke out in Lincoln- shire and soon spread to the north. The rising in Yorkshire assumed such alarming proportions that the King was advised to treat with the rebels in a conciliatory spirit. An account of the Pilgrimage of Grace, as the rebellion was called, may be read in any history. But the notable feature of the rebellion in Cumberland was the entire absence of men of position from the movement. The rabble had no leaders. Even the parish clergy stood aloof. It is probable that the monks secretly fomented the disaffection ; but if so, with the exception of the abbot of Holm- cultram, they did not show themselves in the open field. The indiffer- ence of the clergy provoked the commons to a white heat of exasperation. It was openly discussed ' that they shuld never be well till they had striken of all the priestes heddes, saying they wold but deceave them.' A special grudge was felt against two or three of them. Chancellor Towneley, who was rector of Caldbeck, though his parishioners were i The Black Book does not exist in its entirety, but supposed fragments of it may be found at the Record Office and British Museum (L. and P. of Hen. VIII., vol. x. 364 ; Cotton MS. Cleopatra, E. iv. 147 ; Lansdowne MS. 988, f. l). The portion relating to Cumberland and Westmorland has been often printed (Trans. Cumbld. and Westmorld. Archaeol. Soc., iv. 88-90 ; Monasteries of Cumb. before Dissolution, PP- 45-7)- 3 For various reasons some writers have doubted whether the contents of the Black Book were ever read in parliament. There is now no doubt upon the point. Bishop Latimer says that ' when their enormities were first read in the parliament-house, they were so great and abominable that there was nothing but " down with them " ' (Sermons, Parker Soc., p. 123). In the Act of Suppression ' the com- pertes of the late vysytacions ' hold a prominent place. 50 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY up, did not join the insurgents till a missive was sent threatening to hang him on the highest tree of the diocese. Roland Threlkeld, the pluralist vicar of Melmerby, Lazonby and Dufton, was treated in a similar fashion.1 Rumours were current in London implicating the bishop of Carlisle, the prior of Lanercost, the vicar of Penrith, and others, but without sufficient reason. The Duke of Norfolk corrected the mistake about the vicar of Penrith, and Chancellor Towneley exculpated his diocesan from any knowledge of the rebellion. As for the prior of Lanercost, there is no evidence of his treason.1 The only cleric of consequence, who took a prominent part, was Robert Thomson, vicar of Brough under Stainmore, a demented individual, who was regarded as a prophet among the people. When Norfolk ' tied up ' his threescore and fourteen of the rebels in the various towns and hamlets of the county, only one ecclesiastic 3 was among the number, a chaplain in Penrith, all the rest being of the labouring or agricultural class. In many ways the rebellion was an unexpected piece of good luck to the King and his advisers. It furnished them with a pretext to demolish the monasteries root and branch, and they were not long in setting about it. There was no talk now that ' religion was right well kept and observed ' in them as the Act of 1536 declared ; many of the monks were compromised by siding with the rebels, and the King was determined not to let the opportunity slip. The exemption of the statute in the first instance did not blind the abbot of Holmcultram to the ultimate intention of the legislature. When he joined the insurrec- tion and urged his tenants to follow his example, it was with the con- viction that the existence of his abbey was the stake for which he was about to play at the risk of his own life. On the day before the com- mons laid siege to Carlisle he sent the brethren in solemn procession for a blessing on the enterprise, praying the ' All myghty God prossper them, for yffe they sped not this abbe ys lost.' The King's agents forwarded to Cromwell indisputable proof of » In the confession of Chancellor Towneley and the examination on oath of Robert Thomson, vicar of Brough under Stainmore, two lengthy documents, we get a good account of the insurrection in Cum- berland (L. and P. of Henry Fill., vol. xii. pt. i. 687 (i, 2). These and other documents have been printed in Monasteries of Cumb. before Dissolution, pp. 50-94. 1 One of the county histories (Nicolson and Burn, Hist, of Westmorland, i. 569) contains a letter from the Duke of Norfolk to the King, correcting the rumour with regard to the vicar of Penrith. This letter is important, as the original does not now exist among the State Papers. It is said to have been procured ' from the lords' answer to the tenants concerning tenant right ' — a manuscript in the hands of the editors in 1777. The cock-and-bull-story about the bishop of Carlisle was transmitted by Sir Thomas Wharton to Cromwell (L. and P. of Henry fill., vol. xi. 319), and demolished by Chancellor Towneley (ibid. xii. 687). There is no evidence known to the writer against the prior of Lanercost, except that he is mentioned in a despatch from the King to Norfolk, ordering him ' to be tyed up ' with a number of others. This is not the only mistake made by the King in that despatch. The document has been printed in full by the Surtees Society (The Priory of Hexham, vol. i. pp. cl.-cliii.). 3 It is stated in a document ascribed to 1539 that ten men, chiefly coiners and thieves, were con- demned at the Carlisle assizes in the December of that year, but two of them ' for high treason, because they had bruted in those parts that the Comons were up in the South countrey.' One of these was Richard Howthwaite, sub-prior of Carlisle (Cotton MS. Caligula, B. iii. 156 ; Monasteries of Cumb. before Dissolution, pp. 92-4). The name of the ecclesiastic who was ' tied up ' with the others was Edward Penrith (L. and P. of Henry fill., xii. 498). 51 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND Abbot Carter's treason/ The tenants of the lordship of Holmcultram testified to overt acts of rebellion. Thomas Grame, the monk who had, on the recommendation of Sir Thomas Wharton, previously intrigued for the abbacy on the death of Abbot Ireby, and who had so recently, with the connivance of the pope, defied the monastery in the matter of the Wigton office, came forward to tighten the noose on the neck of his late superior, and did not leave a single loophole through which the doomed man could escape. Before the King's pardon after the first in- surrection, and after the King's pardon at the second insurrection, the abbot was at the head of the insurgents. In dealing with the abbot, when his treason was so public, one would have expected at least the ordinary formalities of a regular trial. But justice did not suit the tor- tuous methods of the royal agents. Sir Thomas Wharton repaired ' sekerethly ' with his confederates to the abbey, examined some witnesses procured by Dan Thomas, and afterwards boasted to Cromwell that he was able to depart from the abbey without the abbot's knowledge of his proceedings.1 As the King had as yet no legal authority to dissolve the abbey, notwithstanding the abbot's treason, Holmcultram being one of the larger houses exempted by the statute, Gawyn Borradale, the late suspect for poisoning Abbot Deveys, was appointed the last abbot with the object of making a free surrender. The final act was not long de- layed. There was little now to be done but to take possession of the houses and granges of the expelled monks. Before the royal commissioners started on their visitation, Cromwell was flooded with applications from all parts of the country for a share of the spoils. To these he paid little heed as long as the King's affairs sped to his liking. When it became necessary, as he told the King, ' to clinch the business and make the settlement irrevocable ' — that is, to pass a confirmatory Act and to make legal the surrender of the greater monasteries — the most useful of the large landowners had their applications graciously entertained. To write of the dismantling of the monastic nouses in Cumberland, the stripping of the lead roofs, melting the bells, the sale of the contents of dormitories and kitchens, the desecration of the altars, the holy vest- ments and all the instrumenta ecclesiastica of the conventual churches, would be a melancholy chapter of diocesan history. The church of Holmcultram was spared on the supplication of the inhabitants of that district. It was their parish church, they pleaded, and little enough to hold them all, being eighteen hundred ' houselynge' people; and it was their place of refuge as well, their only defence against their Scotch neighbours.3 Dr. Legh, with infinite magnanimity, allowed the church to stand till the King's pleasure was known.4 The property of the 1 Cotton MS. Caligula, B. iii. 285, 286. 2 L. and P. of Henry Fill., vol. xii. pt. i. 1259 (i.). > Cotton MS. Cleopatra, E. iv. 243 ; Ellis, Original Letters, 1st ser., ii. 90. 4 It does not appear that the fabric of the conventual church was hurt in any way at the suppression of the abbey. The dilapidation of the chancel or choir in 1602 was the occasion of certain negotiations between the bishop and the University of Oxford for its repairs. In 1724 a faculty was issued to rebuild 52 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY priories of Carlisle and Wetheral was still retained in the service of religion, but the monastic features of the one and the bulk of the build- ings of the other went down in the general devastation. Perhaps the most pathetic scene in the last act of this drama was the condition of the religious men who were driven from their houses. There is little doubt that all of them, or nearly all of them, had received patents for an annual pension, varying from £6 to a few marks accord- ing to station or age. It did not suit the royal policy to permit the use of the religious habit for the remaining life of the disestablished clergy. Writing of the surrender of Holmcultram, Dr. Legh told his employers * that ' the monks, arrayed in secular apparel, having honest rewards in their purses, are dispersed abroad in the country.' It was a high offence on the part of William Lord Dacre, in the eyes of the court hack who expected the grant of Lanercost, that the expelled monks were allowed to revisit their old home 3 in their ' chanons cotes.' These priests were forbidden to wear the ecclesiastical habit as well as to exercise the sacred function. A whole brood of them was scattered broadcast in the land in laymen's apparel, but unable to do laymen's work. The Duke of Norfolk reported to the King, after the suppression of the monasteries in the northern counties, that he had 300 monks on his hands wanting capacities. A few who had served the King were accommodated here and there, like Thomas Grame, the betrayer of his master, who was appointed by Dr. Legh to ' the chapel called St. Thomas' chapel to make him a chamber there ' — one of the several chapels now extinct in the parish of Holmcultram. Some, like Edward Mitchell and Hugh Sewell of the priory of Carlisle, were selected to fill vacancies on the new foundation in order to save their pensions. But the mass of the dispossessed monks remained mere pensioners without clerical employment to the end of their days. They were required to show their patents periodically to their paymasters, as returned convicts are obliged to report themselves to the police. If they left the district where they were known, it was at the risk of losing their pensions. The lists of these pensioners appear year after year with monotonous regularity ; each year they grew fewer in num- ber ; some of them survived the collapse of their houses for almost half a century. The ecclesiastical legislation of Edward VI. added an important contingent to the multitude of the pensioners. One of the first acts of his reign was to seize the lands and endowments of the chantries, free chapels, stipendiary curacies and collegiate churches throughout the kingdom. It is true that the revenues of many of these institutions had been granted to Henry, his father (37 Hen. VIII. cap. 4) ; but the the nave and sell the materials to be got by dismantling the chancel ; at which date the church took its present shape ; or rather the shape as shown in Buck's print of 1739 with the groins of the chancel arches in situ. 1 L. and P. of Henry VIII., vol. xiii. pt. i. 547, 551. * Ibid. xiii. pt. i. 304. 53 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND spoliation was not complete when that monarch died.1 The new Act (i Edw. VI. cap. 14) annexed their lands, goods and chattels to the Crown on a pretext of the ' superstition and errors in the Christian re- ligion, brought into the minds of men by devising and phan- tasying vain opinions of purgatory and masses satisfactory to be done for them which be departed, the which doctrine and vain opinion by nothing more is maintained and upholden than by abuse of trentals, chantries and other provisions made for the continuance of the said blindness and ignorance.' In order to allay public apprehension, there was a sort of promise held out that the money should be used for founding grammar schools, helping the Universities and making pro- vision for the poor ; but these pious intentions were never wholly fulfilled.2 As the Act was passed on 4 November 1547, and the commission to survey the spoils was issued on 14 February 1547—8, it cannot be said that much time was lost in putting the new law in force. The commissioners for Cumberland were authorized to survey and examine all colleges, chantries, free chapels, fraternities, guilds, stipendiary curacies, and other spiritual promotions within the county, the revenues of which had been given and ought to come to the King. In a certi- ficate 3 delivered into court on 6 December 1 548 by the hand of Allan Bellingham, the surveyor, the commissioners reported on the religious institutions of sixteen different places in Cumberland. Kirkoswald, a 1 The commission for this survey, dated 14 February, 1546, consisted of Robert, bishop of Carlisle, Thomas lord Wharton, Sir John Lowther, knight, and Edward Edgore, esquire. The survey for the two counties was returned on six membranes written (save the last) on both sides, giving in detail the possessions of each chantry with the names of tenants and annual rent. The first three membranes comprise the chantries in the ' Countie of Cumbrelonde,' and the remaining three comprise those in ' Westmerlonde.' The list for Cumberland begins with the ' Rood Chantry ' in the cathedral church of Carlisle. It had a total yearly rent of £4 I$s. $d. from tenements, a sum which agrees exactly with the subsequent survey of Edward VI. The ' goodes and cattalles belonginge to the same,' valued at £3 5/. zd. in the Edwardian survey, are here set forth in detail thus : ' Furst, one messe booke, 3*. \d. ; foure aulter clothes, I2d. ; thre vestementes, 3^. q.d. ; two aubbes, izd. ; two candelstykes of brasse, zd. ; and challes of silver (55*.) parcell gylte weynge 15 ounces at y. 8d. the ounce ; a corporal with case, 4 The Rev. H. Whitehead, a most diligent and painstaking antiquary, has printed the instructions of the commissioners for Cumberland and the full text of the survey from the ' Exchequer Q. R. Church Goods 3*5 and -fa 6 Edward VI.' (Cumbld. and Westmorld. Arcbaeol. Soc. Trans, viii. 186-204). 3 Mr. Whitehead has written a very interesting appendix on ' Queen Mary's commission of inquiry as to church goods ' in Old Church Plate in the Diocese of Carlisle (pp. 316-8) from the original documents ii 57 8 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND If all the parishes of Cumberland felt the scourge when the valu- able portion of their church furniture was confiscated, several of them were notoriously wronged in the matter of religious ministrations after the dissolution of the chantries and endowed curacies. The district of Mosser, which had its own chapel and priest, was absorbed into the extensive parish of Brigham. The staff of clergy which served Grey- stoke and the outlying chapelries, comprising an area of nearly eighty square miles with a population of 3,000 communicants, was reduced from seven priests to three. Of the eight clergy who ministered in the associated parishes of Kirkoswald and Dacre only two were left. The two parishes of Carlisle, embracing large areas around the city, were stripped naked of religious services except what could be afforded by two minor canons of the cathedral. Three stipendiary curacies in Torpenhow and three in Wigton were abolished ; in fact every endow- ment for the maintenance of assistant clergy in the larger parishes of the county was gathered into the royal treasury.1 The religious changes during the reign of Edward do not appear to have troubled the consciences of the clergy of the diocese. At least there is not much evidence to show that they warmly favoured or violently opposed the new Prayer Book. The progressive party was fortunate in securing the compliance of Robert Aldridge, bishop of Carlisle, for though he was not in sympathy with many of the liturgical innovations 2 we may well believe that his scholarly abilities exerted a moderating influence on the extravagances of some of the reformers. There can be little doubt that the bishop reflected the general attitude of the clergy of Carlisle. In 1540 King Henry had ordered him home to his diocese ' there to remain for the feeding of the people both with his preaching and good hospitality,' * and if he continued to cultivate in mature age the charm of eloquence which in his earlier years had captivated Erasmus,4 we may be sure that his advocacy of the Reforma- tion on the old lines must have produced an impression on the northern clergy. We have not met with any cases of deprivation for resistance to the Second Book, but there was one notable figure in the diocese, Lancelot Salkeld, the last prior and first dean of Carlisle, who was unable to accept the new ecclesiastical position. As soon as the religious policy of Edward's reign became manifest, he took the wise step of resigning his deanery. At Christmas 1548, Sir Thomas Smith . was appointed to succeed him with the obligation to pay the late dean ' in the Public Record Office. The Marian inquiries went back to the spoliation of the lead and bells of cathedrals and monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. » The Survey of the chantries (Augmentation Office, Chantry Certificate, No. II, Cumberland) should be compared with Bishop Best's report on the clerical staff of his diocese in 1563 (Harl. MS. 594, f . 9), in order to see how the number of the parochial clergy had been reduced in the intervening period. 2 Strype, Memorials, ii. 466. 3 Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council (Rec. Com.), vii. 88. 4 Erasmus was much attached to Aldridge when he was master of Eton. In his letters he used such terms as ' Mi Roberte in Christo charissime,' and spoke of him as the ' blandae eloquentiae juvenis ' (Erasmi Epistolae, edition 1642, xxi. 26, 55, xxiii. 8). The two friends visited together the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham (Life and Letters of Erasmus, ed. Froude, p. 229). 58 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY a pension of £40 a year.1 But none of the prebendaries followed Dean Salkeld into retirement. The reaction under Queen Mary was attended with few inconveniences. In 1554 Dean Salkeld was restored to the deanery, though Sir Thomas Smith was very loth to yield it to him. ' About May,' he said, ' I gave up quasi sponte the provostship of Eton and the deanery of Carlisle, and I had a pension from the queen of £100 a year.' As Dean Smith had never visited his deanery, the return of Salkeld to his old home must have been welcome to his former col- leagues. With the exception of a couple of the clergy,2 who were deprived because they were married men, we have met with no other cases of mishap during Mary's reign. The atrocity of the stake and the faggot, thanks perhaps to the enlightened instincts of Bishop Aldridge, had not gained an entry into the diocese of Carlisle. Owen Oglethorpe who succeeded in 1557 was not the style of prelate, if we may judge him by the part he took in the theological discussions of the late reign, who would willingly consent to the penalty of death as a punishment for doctrinal aberrations.3 The intentions of Queen Mary to restore to the church what had been confiscated by the legislation of the late reigns, that is from 20 Henry VIII., are matters of general history. When she could not pre- vail on her subjects to relinquish the spoils of the religious houses, she determined to set them an example by making a full restitution of all the church property vested in the Crown. With the masterly firmness of Tudor resolve, the Queen informed the privy council that her con- science would not suffer her to retain it, but with all her heart, freely and willingly, she surrendered all the said lands and possessions that order and disposition might be taken of them to the honour of God and the wealth of her realm.4 Parliament was prevailed upon to pass an Act 5 for this purpose as far as the Crown was concerned. By it, under the direction of Cardinal Pole, all rectories, impropriations, tithes, glebe lands, and other ecclesiastical possessions, which had been perquisites of the Crown since the twentieth year of Henry VIII., were to be employed 1 Archaeologia, xxxviii. 97-127. In this paper Mr. J. G. Nichols has collected many additional particulars about the life of Sir Thomas Smith. Writing to the Duchess of Somerset in 1550, Smith stated among other things that the revenue of ' the deanery of Carlisle, paieing 40 /»'. pencion to him that resigned it to me, is 8o/.' (Harl. MS. 6989, f. 141). Nichols questions the truth of Strype's statement that Sir Thomas ' repaired to his deanery of Carlisle,' as the order of the Council, which he quoted, does not support the inference that Smith ever visited the church of which he was nominally dean. 3 The names of these incumbents were Thomas Atkinson, rector of Ormside, and Percival Wharton, vicar of Bridekirk, but they were restored by the royal commissioners at the accession of Elizabeth (S.P. Dom. Elizabeth, x. ff. 147, 149). ' Fuller, the historian, accounted for the absence of martyrs in Cumberland during Mary's reign by the facts that the people were ' nuzzled in ignorance and superstition,' and that those who favoured the Reformation were connived at by Owen Oglethorpe, the courteous bishop of Carlisle ' (Worthies of England, ed. S. Jefferson, p. 8). If we can believe Fox, Isabel Foster, wife of John Foster, cutler, of the parish of St. Bride's in Fleet Street, London, who was burnt on 27 January 1556, was a Cumberland woman — ' This foresaid Isabel was born in Greystock, in the diocese of Carlisle ' (Ac ts and Monuments, Ch. Hist, of England, vii. 748). * Fox, Acts and Monuments, Ch. Hist, of England, vii. 34. B 2 & 3 Philip and Mary, cap. 4. This Act was repealed by I Elizabeth, cap. 4, as that queen had intentions somewhat different from those of her deceased sister. 59 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND in the augmentation of small livings, the maintenance of preachers, and the provision of exhibitions at the Universities for poor scholars. The cardinal lost no time in carrying out the intention of the statute and relieving the conscience of his royal mistress. The royal warrant, which restored these ecclesiastical possessions to Bishop Oglethorpe, is still pre- served in the diocesan registry of Carlisle/ As the document is dated 14 November 1558, its provisions were never carried into effect. The Queen and Pole were dead and the Act was repealed not many months after the arrival of the warrant at the registry of Carlisle. But the Queen has left at least one memorial of her benevolent intentions which is still exercised in the diocese. It was by her gift that the bishops of Carlisle had obtained the right of advowson and collation to the four prebendal stalls in the cathedral,2 a privilege which experience has proved to be of great moment in diocesan administration. The legislative changes for the settlement of the church introduced into the first parliament of Elizabeth were vigorously opposed by Bishop Oglethorpe of Carlisle, one of the most moderate and enlightened prelates on the episcopal bench at that time. Though he was the only bishop in England who could be induced to act at the Queen's corona- tion,3 his papal sympathies were robust enough to enable him to join in the general resistance of the episcopate to the new departure in ecclesias- tical reform. For some reason not specified, he was obliged to enter into recognizance with certain other bishops to appear daily before the lords of the Council, and not to depart from London without licence. In addition he had to pay a fine of £250 f°r ' contempt of late com- mitted against the Queen's Majesty's Order.' It is a curious circum- stance, showing the bishop's hostility to the proposed changes, that day by day as he appeared before ' Lord Great Seal ' in obedience to the conditions of his recognizance, he had been most assiduous in his attend- ance in the House of Lords, opposing the passage of the two great measures, the Supremacy and Uniformity Bills, then before the House.* When these measures became law, the bishop of Carlisle refused to take > The warrant is endorsed ' A graunte to Bishop Oglethorpe and his successors in the See of Carlisle of certain benefices and advowsons by King Phillip and Queene Mary, viz. : Bampton, Crosby, Millom, Irton, Dereham, Kirkoswald, etc., in Cumberland by Letters Patent ; date 5 & 6 Phil, and Mary,' a copy of which has been entered on the Patent Roll of that year. The cord, composed of mixed strands of green and white silk, still hangs from the vellum sheet,but the seal which it once carried is completely gone. The document has been printed by the present writer in Trans. Cumbld. and Westmorld. Archaeol. Sac., xv. 21-6. 2 Pat. 4 & 5 Philip and Mary ; Tanner, Notitia Monastica (ed. J. Tanner, 1744), p. 75. 3 The coronation of the Queen was solemnized with all the ceremonies of the ancient ritual. Bishop Oglethorpe had the use of Bonner's vestments for the occasion. A letter was sent by the Privy Council (Acts [New Series], vii. 42) ' to the Bishop of London to lende to the Busshopp of Carlisle, who is ap- poynted to execute the solempnitye of the Quenes Majesties Coronacion, universum apparatum pontificium quo uti solent Episcopi in hujusmodi magnificis illustrissimorum regum inaugurationibus.' The Queen con- tinued to hold Bishop Oglethorpe in kindly remembrance, for she told Bishop Robinson, when he did fealty for Carlisle in 1598, that she was resolved to furnish that see with a worthy man for his sake who first set the crown on her head (Fuller, Worthies of England, edition 1684, p. 135). * Compare Acts of P. C., vii. 79, 80, 81, etc., with D'Ewes, Journ. of the House of Lords, pp. 19, 21, 23, 26-7, etc. The events of this period have been narrated in chronological order by Rev. Henry Gee (Elizabethan Clergy and the Settlement of Religion, 1558-1564). 60 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY the Oath of Supremacy, and was deprived on 21 June 1559. But he did not long survive the final overthrow of the papal jurisdiction, for he died on the last day of that year and was buried in the church of St. Dunstan in the West. When steps were taken to put into operation the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity as the legislative basis for the settlement of religion, the diocese of Carlisle was bereft of the guidance of its bishop.1 On the very day that the Prayer Book was to come into use, 24 June, three days after Bishop Oglethorpe's deprivation, letters patent were issued for the royal visitation of the northern province by virtue of the powers vested in the Crown by the Act of Supremacy.3 The Queen held the English clergy in the hollow of her hand. But it was thought advisable, after the resistance of the episcopate, to proceed prudently and to treat the consciences of the general body of the clergy with as much leniency as possible. The chief duty of the visitors was to enforce the settle- ment of religion as it was set out in the Prayer Book of 1559. It was the acknowledgment of the suscepta religio that played the most prominent part in the visitation of the diocese of Carlisle. Coming so soon after the Marian reaction, when the reforming movement suffered a temporary check, the liturgical changes made so many of the clergy to wince that no one could forecast what would be the result of the visitation. But the unrivalled diplomacy of Cecil in dropping for the present the Oath of Supremacy and fastening attention on the Prayer Book probably averted an ecclesiastical revolt. The commission which exercised the powers of visitation in the diocese of Carlisle consisted of only three members, Edwin Sandes, S.T.P., Henry Harvey, LL.D., and George Browne, esquire. The first act was to visit the cathedral, and for this purpose the whole capitular body was summoned to the chapter house on Tuesday, 3 October 1559. Prayers having been said and the word of God having been sincerely preached to the people by master Edwin Sandes, the aforenamed visitors, as it is related in the record,3 sat judicially, and solemnly exercised the royal 1 We have good authority for assuming that Archdeacon Neville was in favour of the liturgical changes then in progress. Soon after the Queen's accession, the following letter was addressed to Cecil by the Earl of Westmorland on the archdeacon's behalf : ' After my vearye hartie comendacons, wheras George Nevell, doctor in devinitie, archedeacon of Carlell, is desirous to be one of the Quenes Mats chaplins ordenarye to attende one quarter in the yere, thiese are to assure you that notwithstandinge he is of my howsse and kindred, yet if I did not knowe the man to be of honeste conversacon and therwith so well inclined and disposed to set fourthe, in his Cures and ells wheare, all suche good and vertuous doctrine as by the quene her highnes aucthoritie shalbe from time to time set fourthe, so as the procurers of his preferment shall susteine no lack therby, I wolde not voughtsafe this comendacon of him. But consideringe and trusting his service maye be acceptable to that respect, I am bold to desire you to further his sute, wherin yow shall binde me, besides hartie thankes to doo yow the like plesure. And thus fare you well.' .Frome London this xviith daye of December, 1558, by youre asseuryd ffrend, H. Westmir- land ' (S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. i. No. 36). 2 Ibid. iv. 33. 3 The record of the Northern Visitation, embodied in a book of 400 pages, is a document of great importance. It is officially known at the Public Record Office as S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. x. It opens with the commission to the visitors, and contains an account of the visitation of the four dioceses of the nor- thern province (ff. 1-108). Then follow the ' acta et processus habiti et facti coram commissariis — in causis beneficiatorum et restitutionis beneficii, etc.' (ff. 121-205). Further on in the book we get a sum- mary of the Detectiones et Comperta and schedules of the absentees from the visitation. As the various 61 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND visitation. The venerable dean, Lancelot Salkeld, the last prior of the old foundation, who had passed through all the vicissitudes of this eventful period, appeared personally and subscribed isoluntarie et bono animo to the articles of the received religion (suscepte religionis). Then the commissioners charged him on oath to make a return to the articles of inquiry on the morrow at noon. The four prebendaries also volun- tarily and willingly subscribed. Seven out of the eight minor canons appeared and did likewise. The other minor canon was detained in the country by reason of bad health. The commissioners found little to complain of in the internal affairs of the capitular body. The only presentations recorded among the detectiones et comperta of the visitation were 'that the Dean, Edward Mytchell and Richard Brandlynge, preb- endaries ther, have not byn resident as often as they oughte, nether have theye kepte their quarter sermones accordyng to the statutes. Item, Hugh Sewell, prebendary ther, hath not byn so often resydent as he oughte. Item, Barnabye Kyrkebride hath not byn resident nether kepte his quarter sermones as he oughte to have don.' The success of the visitors in reconciling the dean and chapter to the Prayer Book was a good omen for the rest of the diocese. On the following day, 4 October, the visitors sat in the choir of the cathedral to which the clergy and people of the deaneries of Carlisle and Allerdale were summoned. All the clergy who did not appear were pronounced contumacious. The visitation was continued on Friday in the parish church of Penrith, for the deaneries of Cumberland and Westmorland. During this session the commissioners ordered the fruits, tithes and other emoluments of the rectory of Marton (Longmarton) which William Burye, clerk, then possessed, to be sequestrated, and committed the power of sequestration to John Dudeley, gentleman.1 Nearly a third of the parish clergy of the diocese absented themselves from the visitation, and were pro- nounced contumacious. By one of the provisions of the letters patent directing the visita- tion, the commissioners were authorized to restore incumbents who were unlawfully deprived during the late reign. Only two cases of restitution to benefices were made by the visitors in the diocese of Carlisle. In the case of the benefice of Ormside (Ormysyde), moved by Thomas Atkynson, rector, against Percival Yates, the commissioners at their session in Penrith on 6 October 1559, adjudged the benefice to Atkinson, and decreed that Yates should be removed from the same. But Atkinson did not enjoy his recovered rectory long, for we read soon after that the church of ' Ormysshed' had been vacant for a whole year by the resigna- sub-sections of this record have been used for the account of the royal visitation of the diocese of Carlisle, it has not been thought necessary to indicate the folio for each statement. The arrangement of the manuscript makes it easy to consult. Strype made use of this book, for he says : ' This commission I saw in the Queen's Paper House bound up in a volume in folio, containing all the inquisitions and matters done and found in this large Northern visitation ' (Annals, ed. 1709, i. 167). 1 Bury was not deprived, for he died rector of Longmarton ; and was succeeded by Mr. George Bury, M.A., on 17 April 1562, on the presentation of Henry, Earl of Cumberland (Carl. Epis. Reg., Best, MS. f. 5). 62 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY tion of the last incumbent.1 Marriage was the cause of the deprivation in the other case. The motion was made by Percival Wharton, the former vicar of Bridekirk, against William Graye, the vicar in possession. Both parties appeared before the visitors in the parish church of Kendal on 10 October. Graye stated 'that the sayde Percyvall Wharton was instituted and inducted in the sayd benefice and beynge in possession was depryved for that he was maryed and as to the statutes he doth refer himself to the same.' The benefice was adjudged to Wharton, who enjoyed it till 1563, when he became vicar of Kirkbystephen.2 The detections or comperta presented against the laity were neither specially characteristic of the time nor of a very serious nature. The church- wardens and parishioners of Morland, Great Salkeld, Shap, and Skelton presented that they had no register book ; the church of Great Salkeld was in decay ; the parishioners of Warcop lacked a Paraphrase, though they had a box for the poor ; the churches of Skelton and Kirkandrews had no curates ; presentations for breaches of morality were made only by the churchwardens of Cliburn and Newbiggin. When we remember that these detections were made in answer to the Articles of Inquiry, the churchwardens having first touched the most holy Gospels of God, it cannot be said that the diocese of Carlisle was in an unsound condition. The notable feature of the visitation was the alacrity with which the main body of the clergy subscribed to the Prayer Book, for though the number of absentees swells to a formidable list, the figures are deceptive, as several of the incumbents were pluralists or non-resident and subscribed in other places.3 At a later date we shall be able to estimate the value of this conformity to the majority of the clergy and how much of it was due to fear. The conformity of Dean Salkeld was a great blow to a distinguished personage who was anxiously expecting to obtain his place. For more than two centuries it has been maintained that the dean of Carlisle was deprived by the visitors of 1559, but we have already shown that no fault was found in him at that time. As the error has been so often repeated * it may be convenient if we state the efforts that were un- successfully made to bring about his ejectment. The following letter 1 ' Item quod ecclesia de Ormysshed in comitatu Westmorland, Carliolensis Dioceseos, vacat in presenti et vacavit per annum integrum per resignacionem ultimi incumbentis ' (Exch. Cert. Bishops' Inst. Carl., No. i). On 20 July 1565 Richard Towlson was collated to the rectory on the. death of Christopher Parker, the last incumbent (Carl. Epis. Reg., Best, f. 19). a Percival Wharton was appointed to the free chapel in the castle of Penrith in 1552 (Memo. R. Recorda, East., 5 Edw. VI. m. 33). He vacated the incumbency in 1554, when he had an exonera- tion of £23 exacted from him for the fruits of the said chapel (ibid. Mich., I and 2 Phil, and Mary, m. 194). 3 For instance, George Nevell, rector of Bolton in Alderdale, was preconized at Carlisle, and, as he did not appear, was pronounced contumacious, but he must have appeared and subscribed at Penrith as rector of Great Salkeld, for his name does not find a place in the black list for the deanery of Cumberland in which his benefice was situated. * It seems that Hugh Todd was the first to start the theory of Dean Salkeld's ejection in 1559 for refusing the supremacy (Notitia Ecclesie, p. 8). To Todd may be traced the error in Le Neve (Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 246), and in all the local histories. It is worthy of note that early controversialists like Nicholas Sander, Bridgwater and Dodd did not claim Dean Salkeld as a papist, for his name does not appear on their lists. 63 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND from Sir Thomas Smith, addressed to Cecil and dated 9 September 1560, throws a much needed light upon a very strange transaction. Sr As I have bene ever so I praye yow let me be now bolde to treble yow in my small cawses. How be it I do not thinck this small. Ye know in Quene Maries tyme, as from diverse other whome they did not favor they toke away all spirituall livinge, so from me they toke the provostshippe of Eaton and the Deanery of Carleill. Eaton in dede I was content quasi nolens volens to resigne and did resigne. But the deanerie of Car- leill I never did resigne nor was therof deprived, and to saie the truth they never made matter of yt, but gave it streight to one Sr Launcelot Salkeld. Now in this tyme emongs other I partlie at your advice put my peticon up before my Lord of Caunter- burie and other the Commissioners to be restored. Citacon was decrede and sent downe and not aunswerid, for the waye beinge so farre and those contrey men have all the shiftes in the worlde to avoide the lawe. Well, another was decreed and sent downe, enclosed within a Lettre directed from my Lords the Commissioners to the Maior of Carleill to se it servid. Yet wolde he not aunswer nor make a procter, but sent to me another excuse of sicknes, and that he wold either come or sende one to me to satisfie me out of hande. Now this Salkeld is dede, and I know nothinge dothe let whie I shold not enioie my Deanery of Carleill as frelie as ever I did. And therefore I am so bolde as to declare this unto yowe, that if eny labor be made to the Quenes Majes- tic for it, ye wold be so good as to show my right unto it, and to requier hir Highnes to be so gracious unto me as to let me enioie that wch is myne owen, and wch no man can take fro me by the lawe. Or if ye will be so good, though no labor be made, yet to shew this to hir Highnes lest it shold be graunted unwares, for if it shold be given to eny other (as I trust her highnes, being enformid of my right, will not) I must enter my sute against hym as an usurper, as I did against this Launcelote Salkelde, who, although he did enioie it all Quene Maries tyme, yet being now cited, neither wold nor could have aunswerid me. And after all kiend of delaies, now this Michaelmas I dowted not to have had hym deprivid and removid, one of the prebendaries there, a verie honest man, and whom the said Salkeld did sende unto me to entreate me to staie the sute against hym for a tyme, sent his man unto me with certaigne word of the said Salkeld's deth, wch was on Tewisday the thirde of this moneth, willinge me to tak the Deanery uppon me and to declare the same with som open doeinge to the hole Chapitre. Which thinges I did miende to do, but not before I had made yow privie unto it and had furst your aide and advise. I praye yow let me be so bolde as to crave an aunswere of yow by this bearer my servaunt, if it be not to moche treble unto yow. I wold have waited uppon yow myself, but my rewme is now so sore uppon me that it puttith me in feare of an agew, but I trust with good guidaunce it shall rather be feare than daunger. Thus I committ yow to God From Theydon Mount in Essex the ixth of September, 1560. Yowres allwais to commaund, T. Smith.1 Amazement is scarcely the word to express our feelings at the audacious perversion of the truth which this pillar of the Reformation had made with regard to Dean Salkeld's connection with the capitular body. But a new anxiety was before him. There was another candi- date for the vacant deanery in the person of Hugh Sewell, one of the prebendaries. We must, however, allow Sir Thomas to tell his story to the end. There is another letter from him c to the right honorable Sr WilP Cicill, knight, principall secretarie to the Quenes Majestic.' It is as follows : — Sr. When I cam fro the Cowrte havyng reposed my trust and confidence in yow after so gratious words of the quenes Majestic, I did so quiet myself that I thought this mater at an eand and me happy. Now I understand by my freend Michel that there is still a broile in it, and that there should be a commission derected out, w"* » S.P. Dom. Eliz. xiii. 30. 64 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY wherfore it should be I can not gesse. Yf for restitucon, I am in possession of the Deanery and so taken and reputed at Carliell as Deane, ffor there thei all know my right. And agayne for that mater it is all ridie before the Commissioners in the consistorie and two citacons were sent from my l(ord) of Cant(erbury) and the rest of the Commissioners to the lat usurper therof in his lief tyme t'apere and shew cawse whie he should not be avoided and I restorid, afore whom, if eny man have eny thyng against me, he may obiect it. Yf ye enquire of Sewell's habilitie, both my l(ord) of London and my l(ord) of Worcester and all the rest of the quenes Majesties visitors there knowes hym well enough, a man most unworthie not onely that but eny such rowme. And even in Quene Maries tyme when I had not myche favor as ye knowe, and mater was so right agaynst me, and partlie as the compleyning of Barnaby Kirkbride and hym, we were all callid before the cownscell. And when I was fownd innocent, there aperid such fowle matr agaynst them two for spoilyng of the churche and devidyng the goodes therof amonge them selves, and other wise misusyng of the revenues therof that the were comytted to the Flet. But what hath he to do with the Deanery now except to resigne it ? I still must crave of you, seyng I beg no new thyng, but to enioy myne owen, and desire nothyng so myche as quietnes to contynewe as ye have bene myn earnest freende and help that such one as he be not borne agaynst me to make contro- versie in my right where he hath none. For as I am contente with my pore livyng, so methynks in this world I should not feare that it should be demynisshed. Thus ones agayn and still beyng bolde to treble yow, I comyt yow to God. From Mounthall the xxiii of October, 1560. Yr allwais assuridlie, T. Smith.1 It is quite true that Sewell and Kirkbride appeared before the Council on 23 October 1555, in answer to summons, and the charges against them were committed on ro November following to Sir Edward Hastings, master of the horse, and Bourne, one of the secretaries, for examination, with power to send them to prison if they thought good till the matter was further investigated.2 Though Bishop Sandes selected Sewell to preach at the Penrith session of the visitation in 1559, he can have had little respect for a man who was a zealous papist in Mary's reign and an ardent reformer as soon as Elizabeth came to the throne. Bishop Grindal, the other prelate to whom Sir Thomas Smith referred, informed Cecil three years afterwards that Sewell was ' discreditted by reason of his inconstancie.'3 The importunity of the worthy knight at last prevailed, for Lancelot Salkeld died on 3 September 1560, and Sir Thomas Smith was installed in the deanery on the twentieth of the same month.4 The clergy of the diocese had a little breathing time to reflect on the ordeal through which they had just passed before they were again called upon to renew their allegiance to the religious settlement. Mean- while the see had to be supplied with a bishop. As yet Bishop Ogle- thorpe was the only clergyman of the diocese of Carlisle who suffered by the legislative changes made in the first parliament of the Queen. Though there was no legal impediment in the way of filling up the bishopric rendered vacant by the bishop's deprivation, no appointment i S.P. Dom. Eliz. xiv. 27. > Acts of the P. C. [new series], v. 1 88, 192. a Lansd. MS. (Burghley Papers, 1562-3), vi. 86. Hugh Sewell was appointed canon of the cathedral on 20 August 1547, on the death of William Florence (Rymer, Fcedera, xv. 190). The dean and chapter made him vicar of St. Lawrence, Appleby, in April 1559, and he was instituted to Caldbeck in Decem- ber 1560 (Exch. Cert. Bishops' Inst. Carl., No. i). 4 Exch. Cert. Bishops' Inst. Carl., No. I. II 65 o A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND had been made for over a year after his death. It was probably about the time of the northern visitation that Edwin Sandes was nominated to Carlisle, but he gave no reasons for declining it except a general reluct- ance to undertake the responsibilities of the episcopal office.1 In urging Bernard Gilpin, the Apostle of the North, to accept the nomination early in the following year, Sandes reminded him that there was no man in that part of the kingdom fitter than himself to be of service to religion. He informed him also that by the Queen's favour he should have the bishopric just in the condition in which Dr. Oglethorpe left it ; nothing should be taken from it, as had been the case with some others. Gilpin is said to have replied that if any other bishopric but Carlisle had been offered to him, he might possibly have accepted it, but in that diocese he had so many friends and acquaintances, of whom he had not the best opinion, that he must either connive at many irregularities, or draw upon himself so much hatred, that he should be less able to do good there than any one else.2 Ultimately, the see was filled by the conse- cration of John Best on 2 March 1561," a man who had been a select preacher for the northern visitors, and who had been instituted by them to the benefice of Romaldkirke,4 in the diocese of Chester, void by the deprivation of Bishop Oglethorpe. There can be little doubt that Sandes was the instrument of his preferment. In a few months after the see was filled by the consecration of Bishop Best, steps were taken to bring those clergy to conformity who had refused subscription to the suscepta religio during the royal visitation of 1559. Early in 1561 the lord president of the north was ordered to inquire into certain secret conventicles of recusants which were reported to have been held in Cumberland and Westmorland and the other northern counties. In the following May a commission, consisting of the civil and ecclesiastical rulers of the northern province, was issued » Zurich Letters (Parker Society) 1558-1579, No. xxxi. : Burnet, Coll. of Rec., iii. 382-3. In this letter, Sandes told Peter Martyr, on I April 1560, that he had returned to London fatigued in mind and body after his labours in the northern parts of England. The see of Worcester had been thrust upon him by the Queen, though he had wished to decline it, as he had done that of Carlisle, to which he had been nominated before. He relates his action in the northern visitation in taking down and burning ' all images of every kind.' Then he adds significantly : ' Only the popish vestments remain in our church, I mean the copes, which, however, we hope will not last very long.' This hope of the good bishop was never realized. The dean and chapter of Carlisle, replying to Bishop Rainbow's articles of visitation in 1666, stated that ' necessary utensils for the performance of Divine Service we have, and ornaments, as copes, etc., we intend shortly to have. But some of the Church utensils were imbezilled in the late times of usurpation, as the brazen Eagle, upon which ye chapters were read ' (Statutes of Carlisle Cathedral, ed. J. E. Prescott, p. 30). In an inventory dated I February, 1674, belonging to the same church, there are mentioned ' two wrought and embroidered copes ' which the dean and chapter still possess (ibid. p. 35). 2 Memoirs of Bernard Gilpin, ed. C. S. Collingwood, pp. 122-5 5 £'/* °f Bernard Gilpin, ed. William Gilpin, pp. 58-60 ; Fuller, Church Hist., bk. ix. 63-4. 3 Strype, Life of Parker, edition 1711, p. 67 ; Machyn's Diary, Camden Soc., p. 252. Sir John Hayward gives the surname of ' Beast ' to this bishop, the way in which ' Best ' was probably pronounced in the sixteenth century (Annals of Eliz., Camden Soc., p. 27). John Best had been deprived of his benefice in I555i and afterwards went about privately from place to place in Lancashire and the adjoining counties preaching the Gospel to select companies assembled by assignation, and sometimes giving the Communion (Strype, Mem., ed. 1721, iii. 222, 471). * S.P. Dom. Elizabeth, vol. x. 66 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY with the view of tendering the Oath of Supremacy to the clergy.1 Bishop Best, who was a member of this commission, undertook the first visita- tion of his diocese, backed up by its protection and armed with its powers. It was during this visitation that the real trial of strength between the Old and New Learning was made in the diocese. The year 1561 marks a memorable period in the history of the reforming movement in which the church of Carlisle passed once and for all from the papal jurisdiction. From the bishop's own pen we have an account of the reception he met with from the clergy and laity of the diocese. After three sermons in the cathedral church, the common people, with much rejoicing, affirmed that they had been deceived. The same thing happened for the next two weeks throughout all his visitation; the gentlemen of the country received him in every place with much civility. He was unable to express his obligations to Lord Wharton and Lady Musgrave, his daughter, who had entertained him ' for ye Gospell's sake.' Lord Wharton was a worthy, wise man, and very well beloved in the country, in whose time, as the Bishop had heard, the country was never so well governed. But he had a very poor opinion of the clergy. 'The preistes,' he reported to Cecil, are wicked ympes of Antichrist, and for ye moste parte very ignorante and stubburne, past measure false and sotle : onlie feare maketh them obedient. Onlie three absentid themselves in my visitacon, and fled because they wolde not subscribe, of ye which two belonge to my Lorde Dacres and one to ye Earle of Cumberland. Unto which I have assigned dayes undre danger of deprivation. Aboute xii or xiii churches in Gylsland, all undre my Lorde Dacre do not appeare, but bearyng themselves apon my Lorde refuse to come in, and at Stapilton and sondrye of ye other have yet masse openly, at whome my lorde and his officers wynke ; and althoughe they stande excom- munycate, I do no furdre medle with them untill I have some aide frome my lorde president, and ye consaile in ye northe, lest I myght trouble ye contrey withe those yt in maner are desperate, and yet I doubte not but by pollycie to make them obedient at my lorde Dacre commyng into ye contrey. The bishop perceived that Lord Dacre was something too myghtie in this contrey and as it were a prynce and ye lorde warden of ye West marches of Scotland and he are but too great frendes. It was the prevalent opinion in the district that the lord warden suffered the Scots to do harm in England with impunity and put off the days of march and justice on offenders for the purpose of drawing home Lord Dacre, who had been too long detained in London in the opinion of his friends.3 As the bishop had been only four months consecrated when he commenced his visitation, he had little opportunity of making the personal acquaintance of his clergy or judging of their feelings and difficulties. At all events, it was determined to make an example of one 1 In the commission it is stated that as certain ecclesiastical persons had absented themselves from the late visitation, the commissioners were appointed to administer the oath to all ecclesiastical persons in the northern province and to certify the reception and refusal thereof into Chancery. The text of the commission has been printed by Dr. Gee (The Elizabethan Clergy, pp. 172-3) from Pat. 3 Eliz. pt. 10, m. 34d. 2 S. P. Dom. Eliz. xviii. 21. This letter has also been calendared under Foreign Papers, Elizabeth, 1561-2, No. 323. 67 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND of those ' wicked imps of Antichrist ' without further delay, and for this purpose the aid of the Council in the north was invoked. The bishop's success in bringing most of the recalcitrant clergy to a state of passive conformity must have exceeded his expectations. Much had taken place in the two years that elapsed since the royal visitation. There had been sufficient time to discuss the ecclesiastical changes and to make up their minds about their future attitude. It is noteworthy that only two of the clergy of the whole diocese, who had absented themselves from the bishop's visitation, pushed their resistance to the extreme limit and refused to acknowledge the legislative settle- ment of religion. These men were Hugh Hodgson, rector of Skelton, and Robert Thompson, rector of Beaumont, both churches being in the patronage and under the protection of Lord Dacre, who, as we have seen, was a resolute opponent of the reforming party. As Hodgson had been deprived of his provostship of Queen's College, Oxford, by the royal visitors in 1559, little compunction was felt in proceeding against him at once. Bishop Best had no power as yet to deprive for nonconformity, but as he was a member of the Northern Commission his duty was clear. Hodgson was arrested early in August at Kirkoswald, the house of Lord Dacre,1 his patron, by the authority of the president and council of the north, and conveyed to York, where the oath was tendered to him, and by him peremptorily and obstinately refused. On 2 1 August the sentence of deprivation was pronounced,2 and on 26 November Henry Dacre, bachelor of arts, was instituted to Skel- ton on the nomination of Lord Dacre, warden of the march.3 The case of Thompson, rector of Beaumont, did not come on at that time. It was not, however, long delayed, for on 5 May 1562 Henry Hasel- head was instituted to the rectory, vacant by the deprivation of Robert Thompson, the last incumbent, who had obstinately refused to take the oath contained in the Act of Parliament. This nomination was also made by Lord Dacre.4 There can be little doubt that these two recu- sants were influenced in their resistance by the shelter of the great name of Dacre, a nobleman who, in the words of Bishop Best, was ' some- thing too mighty in this country and as it were a prince.' These were the only victims of the Elizabethan settlement of religion in a diocese which contained at least 1 20 cures of souls,5 including curates in quasi- sole charge. If we sum up the whole loss which the diocese sustained by the enforcement of the Act of Uniformity, we cannot count on more deprivations than those of the bishop and two parish priests. It cannot be said that the clergy as a body embraced the liturgical changes with alacrity, but none except those mentioned persisted in their refusal to work the new ecclesiastical system. > Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. (Rydal MSS.), xii. App. vii. 10. Dacre's influence may be gathered from the fact that the lord president wrote to him, after Hodgson's deprivation, that Richard Dudley might not forfeit his favour in consequence of his having arrested the priest in his lordship's house. » Carl. Epis. Reg., Best, f. 3. 3 Ibid. f. 4. « Ibid. f. 5. « Harl. MS. 594, f. 9. 68 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY When Bishop Best had finished his first visitation and had come to an understanding with his clergy, his difficulties were not by any means surmounted. There was a deep underlying current of disaffection which caused him considerable anxiety for the ultimate triumph of the cause he had espoused. As far as the clergy of the diocese were con- cerned, the battle of uniformity was fought and won : the papal juris- diction was shattered : the supremacy of the Crown was treated with toleration : the book of Common Prayer was installed in the churches : the Injunctions were generally accepted and observed. But the clergy alone did not constitute the church ; the laity had still to be reconciled. If it were true, as the Bishop informed Cecil, that the common people heard him gladly, and that some of the gentry had entertained him for the Gospel's sake, yet there was a wide-spread opposition to the principles of the reformed religion among the great magnates of the two counties which forced him to proceed with the utmost caution. Six months after his visitation, on 14 January 1561—2, he opened his mind to Cecil again, and informed him by a secret message of the perilous position in which he stood. First, he said, there are here such rumours, tales and lies secretly blown abroad, partly by writings in French and partly by evil-disposed papists, secretly whispered in corners, that every day men look for a change and prepare for the same. The people desirous of it openly say and do what they wish concerning religion without check or punishment. The rulers and justices of the peace wink at all these things and look through their fingers. When the bishop pointed out these irregularities he only provoked private displeasure. Before the great men came into these parts, he could do more for Christ's Gospel in one day than he could do now in two months. He only wished to punish and deprive certain evil men, who would neither do their office according to the good laws of the realm, nor acknowledge the Queen's supremacy, nor obey him as ordinary. Such men as these were not only supported and tolerated, but also re- tained as counsellors and brought into open place, whereby those of evil religion were encouraged to be stubborn, and those who embraced the true doctrine were defaced and ignored. These men were kept in private households contrary to the orders of the archbishop of York, the lord president and the commissioners. The bishop dared not to say it was wrong, as he knew the danger thereof; but he assured Cecil that as long as this state of things lasted God's glorious Gospel could not take root there. If he were present to see the rule of Cumberland and Westmorland under the two heads thereof,1 Lord Dacre and the Earl of 1 Bishop Grindal, writing to Cecil on 21 January 1562-3, besought him to be good to the bishop of Carlisle. There were marvellous practices to deface him ' in my lawless country,' and by him to destroy the cause of religion. If the two noblemen of whom he complained were touched by the authority of the Privy Council, it would be a terror to the rest (Lansd. MS. vii. 57 ; Remains of Abp. Grindal, Parker Soc., pp. 267-8). Grindal always maintained a lively interest in the county of his birth, though he had not a very high opinion of its religious condition. In another letter to Cecil, dated 17 May 1563, he said that ' I have offte thowghte to make a generall sute to you for regarde for that litle Angle wher I was borne, called Cowplande, parcell off Cumberlande, the ignoranteste parte in Religion and moste oppressed off covetouse landlordes off anie one parte off this realme to my knowlege. I entende att my 69 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND Cumberland, it would cause him to weep. By the hand of a trusty friend he sent him a copy of certain articles in the French tongue which had been circulated in the diocese, causing much talk and great rejoicing among the papists, with such wishing and wager making about the alteration of religion, such rumours and tales of the Spaniards and French landing in Scotland and in the west marches of England for the reformation of the same, alienating the people's hearts which were quieted before. Little wonder that the people, after their experience of the rapid changes in religion under Edward VI. and Mary, were becom- ing bewildered, and were slow to accept the Elizabethan settlement ' for feare of a shrewid torne.' l Time only could give them confidence and wean them from their old ways. When we turn to Bishop Best's relations with the members of the capitular body of the diocese, we shall find that little help or encour- agement could be gained from that quarter. As a matter of fact this good prelate was obliged to fight the battle of the Reformation single-handed ; his greatest enemies were the men of his own house. Writing to Cecil on 15 April 1563, he complained that owing to the absence of Dr. Smith, the dean, the church of Carlisle was going to decay ; their woods were almost destroyed ; the leases of their farms were made to kinsmen for three or four score years, though the limit was twenty-one years by their statutes,2 the canons themselves taking the profits ; where ten pounds were allowed yearly for repairs, nothing was done ; almost as little was done where thirty pounds were allotted for the poor and the mending of highways ; no residence was kept, no accounts ; the prebendaries turned everything to their own gain. The bishop was unable to bring about reform by his visitation, for they were confederate together, and the losses were their own. Three of the nexte cominge to you to discourse more largely off the state theroff which godde wyllynge shall be shortly. I have no more to saye for this matter, butt only to praye you yff yor graunte be nott fullye paste to take order bothe for the goode education off the Warde and nott to leave the poore tenantes subiecte to the expilation off these countrey gentlemen without some choyse ' (Lansd. MS. vi. 51). Twenty years after this date he founded the Grammar School of St. Bees in the ' litle Angle ' of Cumberland where he was born. 1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxi. 13. The articles in French, which were circulated in the diocese and caused Bishop Best so much disquietness, were called ' Articles of the Religion,' scheduled under several heads (S.P. Foreign, Eliz. 1561-2, No. 771). 1 The seventh statute contains the following restriction on leases : ' We will also that no lands shall be let on lease beyond twenty-one years, nor from time to time, as from three years to three years, or from seven years to seven years, or by way of renewal of any term after it shall have expired. Neverthe- less, we permit, that houses or buildings in cities and villages may be let on lease for a term of fifty years or at the most of sixty years ' (Stat. of the Cathedral Church of Carl., ed. J. E. Prescott, p. 34). These leases were afterwards the source of much trouble. From a statement by Attorney-General Gilbert Gerard, called the ' Case of the Colledge of Carlisle,' drawn up in 1568, we learn that most of the judges, but not all, thought that the leases were valid, though issued by the dean and chapter of Carlisle with a variation from the proper style and title. An authoritative decision in the courts was much needed (S.P. Dom. Addenda, Eliz., xiv. 31, 38). When 'Mr. Wolley, her Highnes' secretary for the Latyn tounge,' was appointed to the deanery of Carlisle in January 1577-8, he was instructed ' to understande the state of that churche, to th'ende that such thinges as were a misse might be reformed.' Certain of the same College remained in deep arrearages to the church ; the accounts should be looked into ; the tenants backward with their rents should be urged to pay [Acts of P. C. (new series), x. 131-2]. There are three interesting writs from Charles I. on the subject of leases made by the bishop and the dean and chapter of Carlisle in Carl. Epis. Reg. Potter, ff. 286-8. 70 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY prebendaries were unlearned and the fourth unzealous. In a word, ' the Citie is decaid by theym, and Codes truth sclanderyled.' As a new warden of the western marches was about to be appointed, he recom- mended that some wise and grave men of experience should be joined with him in the commission, for it was hard to find a man that should not be quickly corrupted there and buy and sell poor men's goods and lives. The sheriff was vexing him so much about the affairs of the late Bishop Oglethorpe that his estates were of little value to him.1 Soon after this terrible indictment was delivered, Barnaby Kirkbride, one of the ' unlearned ' prebendaries, was gathered to his fathers, and a vacancy in the capitular body was created. The bishop did not spare ' horseflesshe ' in order that his own nominee might be appointed. Gregory Scott was posted up to London with a letter to Bishop Grindal in furtherance of his candidature. In a letter to Cecil, begging the appointment of Scott, Bishop Grindal stated that the bishop of Carlisle had often complained to him of the want of preachers in his diocese, having no help at all from his cathedral church. Sir Thomas Smith, his dean, was occupied in the Queen's affairs, as he knew ; all his prebendaries (Sewell only excepted, who was discredited by reason of his inconstancy) were ' ignorante preistes or olde unlearned monkes.' One of the said unlearned prebendaries had lately departed, and the bishop of Carlisle was anxious to obtain the void prebend for Gregory Scott, ' beinge thatt countrie man borne, well learned and off goode zeale and synceritie,' as Bishop Grindal partly knew by his own ex- perience. The prebend was in value just £20 as he had been informed.2 It is satisfactory to know that Scott, with the help of such distinguished patrons, obtained the appointment and was installed on 2 May 1564, in the presence of Thomas Tukie, the official principal of Carlisle, and six of the minor canons, but none of the prebendaries assisted at the func- tion.3 Bishop Best, being an advanced reformer of the Helvetian type, kept about him as private chaplains certain refugees, who had returned to England on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and gradually slipped them into benefices or prebends as they became vacant by the death of the old priests. One of these, a Scotsman called John Mawbraye, Maybraye, or Makebray, a noted preacher at Frankfort in Queen Mary's days, was installed in the cathedral on 18 January 1565-6, 1 Lansd. MS. vi. (Burghley Papers, 1562-3). 2 Ibid. vi. 86. Bishop Grindal's letter is dated ' frome my howse att Fulham, 27 Decemb. 1563,' and endorsed ' B. of London for Mr. Scott to be a prebendary of that church.' It has been printed by the Parker Society in the Remains of Abp. Grindal, pp. 285-6. Strype has explained that from the bishop's allusion to Sewell's inconstancy we may infer that he was ' a compiler under the late religion ' ; indeed Sewell changed his religion on every demise of the Crown. But the same writer misunderstood the reference to the departure of 'one of the said unlearned prebendaries,' as Kirkbride had died, and not ' fled abroad, perhaps to Louvain or some other place, as many of the papists now did ' (Strype, Life of Grindal, edition 1710, p. 85). 3 Carl. Epis. Reg., Best, f. 14. Gregory Scott, the new prebendary, was a writer of verses and published ' A briefe Treatise agaynst certayne Errors of the Romish Church, etc. Very plainly, notably and pleasantly confuting the same by Scriptures and auncient writers. Compiled by Gregory Scot, 1570. Perused and licensed according to the Quene's Maiestie's Iniunction, 1574.' There can be no doubt about the strong Protestant flavour of the poet's sentiments. 71 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND on the death of Edward Mitchell, one of the prebendaries.1 As time went on, the dawn on the ecclesiastical horizon began to break before the bishop's eyes, and though he often complained of failing health and ' paynfull travails,' he lived to see a certain measure of suc- cess to crown his efforts. The poor opinion that Bishop Best enter- tained about the intellectual equipment and administrative ability of his prebendaries was not altogether justifiable. Charges so sweeping are seldom upheld. It is true that the state of the capitular body was bad enough, but we must not overlook the sentiments of Sir Thomas Smith, the dean, about the conduct of his diocesan and the effect of his inter- meddling in capitular affairs. In a letter to Cecil from Toulouse on 10 February 1564-5, he complained of 'that busy Bishop of Carlisle' who had made such turmoil among the prebendaries of the church there, and pointed out that the bishop had more ' tongue ' than wisdom and goodwill. The dean did not wish to excuse the prebendaries, ' as they have done, so let them have ' ; but there was one Mitchell there, whom he had left as his vice-dean, who almost alone had held up that church by his worldly policy, so as to bring it out of debt. Every prebendary, the dean reminded Cecil, was catching for himself and his friends what he could in these days of religious changes. He knew the fashion of these countrymen well enough, that if the presence of Mitchell was withdrawn from the cathedral, the church would not stand long ; but what betwixt the bishop and the prebendaries, the dean was unable to get a penny out of them for a twelvemonth or more.2 The bishop had his diocese in some state of organization at this period so far as it could be expected from one in his difficult position. From a memorandum which he supplied to the Privy Council in July 1563 in answer to certain articles of inquiry, we get a good idea of the condition and characteristics of the ecclesiastical area over which he ruled. In answer to the first article he replied that the diocese of Carlisle contained two shires, Cumberland and Westmorland ; but out of the former Coupland was exempted as being in the diocese of Chester, and out of the latter the barony of Kendal was exempted, being in the same diocese. By the second article the Council inquired ' into what i Among the refugees at Frankfort in 1554, Strype enumerates ' the Scotch preacher, John Make- bray, who was the first that preached the Gospel to the English there for about a year, and then went to another church in the Low Country (Mem., edition 1721, iii. 146-7). Makebray appears also in the list of exiles given by Whitehead in his Brief Survey of the Troubles begun at Frankfort, printed in 1575. In the same list we have the names of such north country men as Edmond Grindal and Edwin Sandes (Dodd, Church Hist., ed. Tierney, ii. 67). In July 1564 Lord Scrope, reporting to Cecil his conferences with the Scottish warden at Dumfries, stated that ' a chaplin of the Bishop of Carlisle, called Mawbraye, and two of the prebendaries of the same church, preached there several days to great audiences who liked their sermons and doctrine' (Foreign Papers, Elizabeth, 1564-5, No. 558). In the record of his collation to the prebend, to which he was inducted by Sewell, he is described as ' magister Johannes Maybraye, verbi Dei minister.' Mitchell, who preceded him, was ' in legibus bacchalarius ' (Carl. Epis. Reg., Best, f. 20). 2 S.P. Foreign, Eliz., 1564-5, No. 980(7). Strype has much to say on the ' unreasonable leases in the church of Carlisle ' and the efforts that were made ' to redress the mischiefs the Popish spoilers of the church now reformed had done, as well out of malice as covetousness ' (Annals, ed. 1709, i. 510-1). 72 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY maner of regimentes ' the diocese was divided ; whether the same be archdeaconries, deaneries or such like ; how many there were with their distinct names ; ' who occupieth the same roomes at this present and wher they are to your understanding ? ' The bishop answered that the dio- cese had but one archdeaconry, and that the archdeacon's name was Mr. George Nevell, who was not resident within the diocese, but lived at a place in Richmondshire called Well ; the diocese was divided into one deanery of the cathedral church and four rural deaneries, viz. Cumberland, Westmorland, Carlisle and Allerdale ; the dean of the cathedral, who was always absent by dispensation as he alleged, had under him four prebendaries of the same church, of whom none kept residence there, but lay upon their benefices abroad in the diocese. In reply to the third question he reported that as yet he knew not of any ' exempte or peculiar places ' within the circuit of his diocese where he had not full jurisdiction as ordinary. The fourth and fifth articles were concerned with the number of churches within each archdeaconry, deanery or other regiment, which of these churches were parochial, how many of them had parsons, vicars or curates ; ' and wheras the parishes are so large as they have divers chappells of ease which have or ought to have curates or ministers in them, to certifie howe manye be of that sort in everie suche parishe, with the names of the townes or hamletts, where the same churches or chapells are so scituate,' and also to state how many households were within every parish or member of any parish that had such churches or chapels of ease. In the bishop's return of over one hundred parishes, there is no indication that any of the benefices were destitute of curates, or that there was any lack in the supply of clergy. Extensive parishes like Crosthwaite, Holmcultram and Kirkbystephen had the largest populations, exceeding those of the two Carlisle parishes, and such places as Kirkandrews-on-Eden, Grins- dale, Denton and RoclifFe were very sparsely populated.1 The attention of the second parliament of the Queen was turned to the enforcement of the Royal Supremacy among the clergy and laity alike. The chief provisions of the penal Act2 of 1563 were concerned with the repression of papal sympathy and the acceptance of the oath of allegiance. Under this new legislation the justices of the peace were directed to search out defenders of papal authority and certify the pre- sentments into the Queen's Bench under penalty. Before the justices could be employed on this delicate business, it was necessary to have satis- factory assurances of their loyalty to the religious settlement and their capabilities to administer the Act. From Bishop Best's return of the justices, dated 18 November 1564, we get an insight into the condition of conformity among the educated portion of the laity of his diocese. As soon as the bishop had received the Council's letter he had a con- ference with such ' grave wyttye men, good in relligion as favourers of the policie of the realme nowe established,' but with men of contrary 1 Harl. MS. 594, f. 9. Compare also ibid. 595, f. 85. 2 5 Eliz. cap. i. n 73 10 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND religion he durst have no conference. A great obstacle to the good success of the ' policies established ' was the perpetual continuance of the sheriffwick of Westmorland, by which means there was always some one in office who by no means favoured ' the true way.' Sus- picious people were allowed to pass through the country unapprehended, and some had ' in the wyld mountaynes preached in chappells.' The Queen's receivers and other officers of the lower sort, not being good in themselves, often discouraged such as dared not displease them. The tenants of noblemen in the two counties were afraid to declare them- selves in favour of ' that way ' for fear they should lose their farms. The justices of assize, though they made ' a good face of relligion in gevinge of the charge,' in all their talks and acts showed themselves not favour- able towards any man or cause of religion, which the people marked and talked much of. The bishop enclosed the names of all the justices of the peace of the two shires within his diocese, with notes of religion, learning and wisdom, both according to his own knowledge, and from what he could learn by conference with trustworthy men ; also the names of such as in religion were sincere and favourable to the settle- ment, ' most fytt men to be appoynted in place of some of the other.' The value of the bishop's opinions on the religious sympathies of the chief laymen of his diocese at this early period of Elizabethan uni- formity cannot be exaggerated in point of interest. Of the justices of the peace already in office he reported as follows : ' My Lord Dacre, butt especially my lady his wyfe, are to be reformed in relligion : Sir Thomas Dacre of Lannercost, knight, Gustos Rotulorum within the countie of Cumberland, to be admoneshed in relligion, and verie unfytt for that office ; Henrye Curwen of Workington, armiger, William Pennington of Muncaster, armiger, John Lampleugh of Lampleugh, armiger, Thomas Myddleton of Skyrwith, armiger, in relligion good and meat to contynue, and the said Myddleton lerned somethinge in the lawes; John Aglionby of Carlill, armiger, Richard Blannerhasset, deade, armiger, not staid in relligion, but to be admoneshedd, and within the lyberties of the Cetie of Carlill none other able but poore men ; Richard Salkeld of Corby or Rosgill, armiger, not good in relligion ; William Myddleton, gentleman, William Pyckringe, gentleman, in relligion evell and not meatt.' The bishop recommended the following to be appointed : ' Henry lord Scroope, lord warden, Mr. George Scroope his brother ; George Lampleughe of Cockermouth, armiger, Henry Towsone of Brydekyrk, armiger, Thomas Layton of Dalemayne, armiger, Mr. Anthony Twhattes of Unerigg, clerk,1 men of wysedome and good relli- gion, experyent and learned but not in the lawes ; Thomas Carleton of Carleton, gentleman, Andrewe Huddlestone, gentleman, in relligion good and wyttye men.' In the bishop of Chester's return for the parcel of 1 Anthony Thwaites, S.T.P., was the only clerical justice recommended. He was an early sup- porter of the reforming policy of Bishop Beft, and was present at Rose Castle on 29 September 1561, when that bishop held his first ordination in the diocese. He was appointed to the vicarage of Aspatria in December 1565, a benefice in the bishop's patronage (Carl. Epis. Reg., Best, ff. 3, 20). 74 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Cumberland within his diocese he stated that William Pennington of Muncaster was favourable and Henry Curwen of Workington and John Lamplugh of Lamplugh were unfavourable to the established religion, but that so far as he knew there were no other persons in that district fit to be made justices.1 It cannot be denied that the reformed doctrine had met with some acceptance among the educated laity of the north- western counties ; and though there is evidence of a strong opposition, active resistance was destined to decline as the new ideas made progress among the clergy, and men became more assured that the settlement of religion was permanent and irreversible. The uncertainty which prevailed about the permanence of the settlement had a serious effect on the supply of a good class of clergy in the northern diocese. Throughout the years of Bishop Best's episco- pate, when the strain of the Reformation was greatest, few men were admitted to holy orders by him for work in his own diocese. Two deacons and one priest make up the sum of his ordinations for the first eight years of his episcopate, 1561-8. The educational equipment of candidates for ordination during the episcopates of his successors, Bishops Barnes and May, appears deplorable in the extreme. The mention of a graduate in long lists of deacons and priests is of very rare occurrence. As a rule the clergy had little education except what they received at the village school. It was no uncommon thing for a candidate to be admitted to the diaconate on one day and to be instituted to a benefice on the day following. Early in the struggle for uniformity, when the want of clergy was most acute, the bishops constituted a new order of ' Reader ' to tide over the dearth of the right sort of men. These readers were placed in parishes destitute of incumbents, and were obliged to live according to certain rules laid down by the bishops. The new order was not allowed to preach or interpret, but only to read what had been appointed by authority. The ministration of the sacraments and other public rites was forbidden, except the burial of the dead and the churching of women. To the constitution of this new departure in ecclesiastical order Bishop Best gave his adhesion.2 The influence of such a staff of parochial clergy for the Christian edification of the mass of the people can be well imagined. From the pen of Bishop Henry Robinson, a native of the parish of St. Mary, Carlisle, successively Fellow and Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, we get an authoritative account of the moral condition of the diocese the year after his conse- cration to its oversight. Writing from Rose Castle on 26 December 1 These letters are now at Hatfield in the possession of the Marquess of Salisbury, and have been calendared by the Hist. MSS. Com. (Hatfield House MSS., i. 306-312) as ' A Collection of Original Letters from the several Bishops, etc., to the Privy Council, with Returns of the Justices of the Peace and others, within their respective Dioceses,' 1564. Miss Mary Bateson has printed those letters in full for the Cam- den Society in the Camden Miscellany, vol. ix. " This is a very interesting document of date not earlier than 1561. It is called ' Injunctions to be confessed and subscribed by them that shalbe admytted Readers,' and bears the signatures of the two archbishops and nine bishops, including Bishop Grindal of London and Bishop Best of Carlisle (Add. MS. 19,398, f. 59). Strype says that its provisions were enjoined in 1559 and confirmed by the Convocation of 1562 (Annals of the Reformation, ed. 1709, i. 306-7). 75 A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 1 599, the bishop told Cecil that the most part of the gentlemen of the country gave good tokens of soundness in religion, and the poorer sort were generally willing to hear, but withal they were pitifully ignorant of the foundations of Christianity, of the corrupt state of man, of the justice of God against sin, the grace of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. As they were without knowledge, so many of them were without all fear of God, adulterers, thieves, murderers. The chief spring of all this wofulness came principally of the weakness and care- lessness of the ministry. In divers places of the Borders, the bishop continued, the churches had walls without covering, and they had none to celebrate divine service, save only certain beggarly runners, who came out of Scotland, neither could men of worth be induced to live there, because their maintenance was withholden and their lives were in con- tinual danger. In the more peaceable parts of the diocese there were some clergymen of very commendable parts both for knowledge and conscience, but their number was very small. Others there were that might do much good if they had half that delight in discharging their function which they had in idleness, vain pleasures and worldly cares. The far greatest number is utterly unlearned, unable to read English truly and distinctly. One great occasion thereof was the great facility of his predecessor in committing the charge of souls to such as were presented by those who cared not how silly the clerk was, so long as they themselves enjoyed the fat of the living. But that was not all, for there were divers churches appropriated and served only with stipendiary curates, divers chapels of ease served at the charges of poor people, be- cause the parish churches were too far from them. These places must be wholly unserved, and so let the people grow from ignorance to brutishness, or else such must be tolerated as will be entertained for five marks or four pounds ; the greatest annual stipend that any of the clergy had was twenty nobles towards all charges. It was a heavy but too true description of these poor churches, for redress whereof the bishop submitted himself and his service to Cecil's direction.1 This was not the peevish complaint of a partizan like Bishop Best when he called the Marian clergy of his diocese ' wicked imps of Antichrist,' but the sober judgment of an earnest prelate taking a dispassionate survey of his charge, and estimating the results of what forty years of the new church policy had wrought upon the manners and sentiments of the people. A new force was about to be introduced which was destined to upset the calculations of those who were working steadily for uni- formity throughout the church. The political action of the papacy in denouncing O^ueen Elizabeth marked a turning point in the history of conformity to the established doctrine and worship. A body of foreign theologians, sitting at Trent, declared unanimously that it was a grievous sin for Englishmen to attend the prayers and sermons of the English church, and the pope, acting on the decision, published his well-known » S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxiii. 56. 76 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY bull excommunicating and deposing the Queen. On 15 May 1570 a copy of this document was found on the gates of the house of the Bishop of London, placed there by a man named Felton. It was the casting of the die. The pace of the reforming movement was quick- ened and developed into a struggle between England and Rome. We shall not stop to notice the precautions taken on the English side to protect the Queen and to safeguard the future of the established religion. But one cannot help expressing compassion for the men who were not altogether dissatisfied with the national policy, and yet unable to disso- ciate themselves from the fascination of the old worship. A new situa- tion was created. Civil allegiance was now declared to be incompatible with papal sympathies. Though Felton's act was known and discussed in Cumberland very soon after the excommunication was set up, and was producing disastrous results in places so near as Lancashire, Bishop Barnes of Carlisle could write on 27 October 1 570 that he was most hopeful of his work in his new diocese. Of a truth, he told Cecil, he never came to a place in the land where more attentive ear was given to the Word than in Carlisle, and that if he could receive the aid of the civil power, he could promise ' as faythfull, paynefull (and if God will) effectuall travell as ever poore Bisshoppe did performe within his cure.' For ten years he had acted as bishop in those north parts, and knew the disposition of the people right well, as he persuaded himself. To tell the truth he had found the commonalty of Cumberland and West- morland far more conformable and tractable in all matters of religion than ever he found in the better sort in Yorkshire. All will most quietly and reverently hear, ' none will reclayme nor feare by deede,' except the lowland men and certain gentlemen, but attentively and gladly seem to hear and yield to the truth. The bishop was sanguine of great and good success in this ' so rude a countrie,' and yet not by far so rude as the people of many places in the south, nor so far from God's religion as they had been thought. But the publication of the papal bull, though it had not the effect its authors expected, was a real danger, and unless precautions were taken in time, a papal reaction might set in which would prove disastrous to the commonwealth. As a preliminary, he enclosed ' a brefe note ' of the gentlemen of his dio- cese as they showed themselves, and as he found them, in order that the authorities might know how to act in the case of emergency.1 1 The bishop's ' brefe note ' is as follows : ' Comb'. Simon Musgrave, miles, licet evangelium profiteatur circa religionem tamen negligens, vanus, atheist,' etc. Henricus Curwen, miles, vir multum jurans, nee timens Deum nee religionem ullam curans : domi nescio quid monstri alit. Christoferus Dacre, armiger, pauperum insignis oppressor, ceterum in partes evangelii inclinare potius videtur quam papismi. Cuthbertus Musgrave de Crokedake, armiger, vanus, inconstans, supersticiosus, ac sanguin- arius papista. Johannes Dalston, armiger, vir vafri ingenii, tempori serviens, etqui maxime extinctum cuperet evangelium. . . . Lee, armiger, licet fautor avitas religionis, corrigibilis tamen ac mansuetus papista, ingenuzque naturae, virtutis ac justiciz amans. Anthonius Barwis, armiger, jurisperitus, evangelio inimicus capitalis in quo signa ir