CHAPTER IV
HISTORY OF THE SEE
Ecgfrith, king of Northumbria, drove the Britons away from what is now the northern part of Lancashire, and the Lake district, 670-675. Some years later he granted Carlisle with a circuit of fifteen miles to St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne (685-687), and his successors. In 883 Chester-le-street was chosen as the seat of the bishopric on account of the Northmen's raids on Lindisfarne, and in 995 the see was finally removed to Durham. Carlisle thus formed part of the bishopric of Durham until the death of Flambard in 1128. This bishop had greatly displeased Henry I., and in order to curb the power of the bishops of Durham he reduced the size of the diocese. Carlisle, owing to its distance from Durham, and because of the laxity of ecclesiastical supervision in the surrounding district, was chosen as the seat of a new bishopric, and, with about half of the present counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, made independent of Durham. A further reason for the choice of Carlisle may have been the presence of the priory church begun by Walter, and finished by Henry I. William Rufus in his lifetime had definitely made the district of Carlisle part of the kingdom of England, and "Henry gave the special care of this last won possession of the English Crown to a prelate, whose name of Æthelwulf is sure proof of his English birth." Æthelwulf, the king's own confessor and prior of Carlisle, was accordingly consecrated bishop in 1133.
More than 400 years later, at the Reformation, the priory was dissolved (1547) and the cathedral re-dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
In 1856, on the death of Bishop Percy, a large part of Westmoreland was transferred to Carlisle, and the diocese now embraces all Cumberland (except the parish of Alston), Westmoreland, and Lancashire north of the Sands.
#Aldulf# (or #Æthelwulf#) (1133-1155), Prior of St. Oswald's (Nostell); Prior of Carlisle; Confessor to Henry I. He was one of those who elected Henry Murdac, Abbot of Fountains Abbey, to the archbishopric of York, although the election displeased Stephen; and received him as his metropolitan when he came to Carlisle on a visit to David, king of Scotland, in 1148. He died in 1155.
#Bernard# (1203), Archbishop of Ragusa. For more than thirty years there was no appointment made to the see, perhaps because "the bishop's revenues were so small that no able and loyal person would accept thereof." It is not known how long Bernard held the bishopric.
#Hugh of Beaulieu# (1218-1223), Abbot of Beaulieu, Hampshire, was constituted Bishop of Carlisle by Gualo the Pope's legate. Henry III. had complained to Honorius III. that the canons had elected a bishop against his will and in opposition to the legate, and had sworn fealty to the king of Scotland, at that time the enemy alike of Henry and Honorius. So the canons were banished, and Hugh made bishop. He died at La Ferté, Burgundy, while returning from Rome.
#Walter Mauclerk# (1223-1246). This bishop was a favourite of King John, and was employed by him on many missions; for instance, in 1215 he was sent to Rome to support the king against the barons; and in 1228 he went on an embassy to Germany to treat for the king's marriage with Leopold of Austria's daughter. He was made treasurer of England by charter in 1232. The following year he was deprived of the office by the machinations of the Bishop of Winchester, and fined £ 100. Mauclerk set out to appeal to the Pope, but was stopped at Dover by command of the king. The Bishop of London, happening to witness this ill-treatment, excommunicated all those who were hindering Mauclerk, and, proceeding to the king at Hereford, renewed the sentence, in which he was supported by all the bishops there present. This had the effect of gaining permission for the release of Mauclerk, and leave to go to Flanders. In 1234 the bishop was restored to favour. He resigned the bishopric in 1246, and became a Dominican friar at Oxford. When this order of friars first came into England he had stood their friend, presenting them with land and mills. He died in 1248.
#Sylvester de Everdon# (1247-1255), Archdeacon of Chester; Lord High Chancellor. Sylvester was among the bishops who supported the Archbishop of Canterbury in his opposition to the king's encroachments upon the liberties of the Church, particularly in the matter of electing bishops. He was killed in 1255 by falling from his horse.
#Thomas Vipont# (1255-1256). This bishop enjoyed the bishopric for less than a year. He died in October 1256.
Two years elapsed before the next appointment.
#Robert de Chause# (1258-1278), Archdeacon of Bath; Chaplain to Queen Eleanor.
Again there was an interval of two years before the appointment of
#Ralph Ireton# (1280-1292), Prior of Gisburne. He was elected by the prior and canons of Carlisle, in 1278, without royal licence; so the king (Edward I.) fined the chapter 500 marks, and refused his assent. Eventually Pope Nicholas III. quashed the appointment on the grounds that it had been technically wrong, and then nominated Ireton to the vacant see. Edward agreed to this, pardoned the prior on payment of £ 100, and restored the temporalities in 1280. Ireton was avaricious, and extorted money from the clergy. This he used for building a new roof to the cathedral. He died in 1292, and was buried in the cathedral; where, shortly after, his tomb and a great deal of his work was destroyed by the great fire which occurred in May that same year.
#John of Halton# (1292-1324), Canon and Prior of Carlisle; Custos of Carlisle Castle. He defended the city against Wallace. The diocese suffered so often from the ravages of the Scots that more than once he had to obtain remission of the Papal taxation levied on the clergy. He was employed many times in various negotiations with Scotland, his last embassy being in 1320. He died four years later, and was buried in the cathedral.
#John de Ros# (or #Rosse#) (1325-1332), Canon of Hereford. He was appointed by the Pope to Carlisle in 1325. During his episcopate he was frequently non-resident. He died in 1332.
#John de Kirkby# (1332-1352), Prior of Carlisle, was bishop during very troubled times, and took part in many raids made on the Scots. He helped to raise the siege of Edinburgh in 1337. Five years later he took part in an expedition to raise the siege of Lochmaben Castle. In 1345 the Scots made a raid into Cumberland, and were defeated. The bishop, while fighting valorously against them, was unhorsed and nearly taken prisoner. The following year he was one of the English leaders at the battle of Neville's Cross. He died in 1352.
#Gilbert Welton# (1353-1362). The chapter of Carlisle had, with the king's leave, elected John de Horncastle, but the Pope annulled the election, and made Gilbert Welton bishop. He was a very busy official of the king; amongst other matters he was one of the commissioners who treated for the ransom of David of Scotland, and was also a warden of the western marches.
#Thomas Appleby# (1363-1395), Canon of Carlisle. More than once during his episcopate he was a warden of the western marches. In 1372 he was required by the king, in conjunction with the Bishop of Durham, and others, to be ready to repel any invasion by the Scots. He was also one of the commissioners, in 1384, to treat with the king of Scotland for a renewal of the truce, and, in 1392, to execute that part of a treaty with France which concerned Scottish affairs. He died in 1395.
#Robert Reade# (1396-1397), a Dominican friar. In 1394 he was appointed by the Pope to the bishopric of Waterford and Lismore, and, in spite of the election of William Strickland by the canons, translated to Carlisle, whose temporalities he received in March 1396. In October, however, he was translated (by Papal bull) to Chichester, receiving the temporalities of that see May 1397.
#Thomas Merke# (or #Merkes#) (1397-1400). Educated at Oxford. The Pope, at the king's request, compelled the chapter of Carlisle to elect him in 1397. He is said to have been a boon companion of Richard II., and remained faithful to that king. He was one of the eight whose safety Richard demanded when surrendering to Bolingbroke. He is said to have made a strong protest in Henry IV.'s first parliament (October 1399) against the treatment which Richard had received. The following January he was tried for high treason, and, after being deprived of his bishopric, was committed to the Abbey of Westminster (23d June 1400). Pope Boniface IX. intervened in his favour, and, by translating him to a titular eastern see _(ad ecclesiam Samastone_), prevented his being degraded and handed over to the secular arm. He died in 1409, having, after his deposition, held benefices at Sturminster, Marshall, and Todenham, his eastern see affording him no revenue.
#William Strickland# (1400-1419), whose election (after the death of Bishop Appleby) had been annulled, was now made bishop. He rebuilt the tower of the cathedral, and provided the tabernacle work in the choir. He also furnished Penrith with water from the Petteril. He died in 1419, and was buried in the cathedral.
#Roger Whelpdale# (1420-1422). Educated at, and Fellow of, Balliol College, Oxford; Provost of Queen's College. He founded and endowed a chantry in the cathedral, and made various bequests to his old colleges at Oxford, dying in London 1422.
#William Barrow# (1423-1429), Chancellor of the University of Oxford; translated from Bangor. In 1429 he was one of the commissioners for the truce with Scotland which was concluded at Hawden Stank. He died in 1429, and was buried in the cathedral.
#Marmaduke Lumley# (1430-1450). Educated at Cambridge; Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of Trinity Hall. In 1447 he became Lord High Treasurer of England. Queen's College, Cambridge, was indebted to him for gifts of money towards its building, and books for its library. He was translated to Lincoln in 1450, and died in December of that same year.
#Nicholas Close# (1450-1452), Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; Chancellor of the University; Archdeacon of Colchester. Translated to the bishopric of Coventry and Lichfield 1452, and died two months after his translation. He was a great benefactor to King's College.
#William Percy# (1452-1462), Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Died in 1462.
#John Kingscott# (1462-1463), Archdeacon of Gloucester.
#Richard Scroope# (1464-1468), Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
#Edward Story# (1468-77), Fellow of Pembroke Hall; Master of Michael House, Cambridge, and Chancellor of the University. He was translated to Chichester 1477.
#Richard Bell# (1478-1495), Prior of Durham. He died in 1495, and was buried in the choir of the cathedral, where there is a fine brass to his memory.
#William Senhouse# or #Sever# (1496-1502). Educated at Oxford; Abbot of York. He was one of the commissioners sent to negotiate the marriage of Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., with James IV. Translated to Durham 1502.
#Roger Leyburn# (1503-1508), Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge; Archdeacon of Durham. Died 1508.
#John Penny# (1509-1520). Educated at Lincoln College, Oxford; Abbot of St. Mary de Pratis, Leicester, 1496; Bishop of Bangor, 1504. Translated to Carlisle 1509. Died in 1520, at Leicester, and was buried there.
#John Kite# (1521-1537), "a creature of Wolsey." Educated at Eton, and King's College, Cambridge. He was appointed Archbishop of Armagh, by provision of Pope Leo X. 1513, and in 1521 translated to Carlisle. In 1529 he approved the action of Henry VIII. in calling in question his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, and in 1530 he signed the letter to the Pope which demanded Henry's divorce. Four years later he renounced the Pope's supremacy. His epitaph says that during his episcopate he kept "nobyl Houshold wyth grete Hospitality." He died in London 1537, and was buried in Stepney Church.
#Robert Aldridge# (1537-1556). He was educated at Eton, and King's College, Cambridge. Friend of Erasmus; Registrar of the Order of the Garter; Provost of Eton; and Almoner to Queen Jane Seymour.
Until the close of the year 1550 his opinion was much sought after on questions affecting the Sacrament and the mass, which at that period were much in dispute.
#Owen Oglethorpe# (1557-1559), Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. Living in the troublous times of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. he had, somewhat reluctantly, given his adhesion to the new order and form of service of the holy communion. He was raised to the bishopric of Carlisle by Mary in 1557. The following year she died, and the bishop being called upon to say mass before the new queen, elevated the Host, although she had expressly forbidden it. "A good-natur'd man, and when single by himself very plyable to please Queen Elizabeth," he crowned her queen when the rest of his order refused to perform the ceremony. But "when in conjunction with other Popish Bishops, such principles of stubbornness were distilled into him" that he refused to take the oath of supremacy, and was accordingly deprived of his bishopric the following May. His death, which occurred 31st December 1559, is said to have been hastened by his remorse at having crowned Elizabeth--an enemy of the "true Church"--queen of England.
#John Best# (1560-1570). After the death of Oglethorpe, the bishopric was offered to "the excellent and pious" Bernard Gilpin, "the apostle of the north," but he refused it.
John Best was then consecrated. He was educated at
Oxford. At the beginning of Queen Mary's reign he had given up all his preferments and lived privately and obscurely. Four years after his consecration he had permission from the queen "to arm himself against the ill-doings of papists and other disaffected persons in his diocese." He died in 1570, and was buried in the cathedral.
#Richard Barnes# (1570-1577), Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford; Suffragan-Bishop of Nottingham 1567; translated to Durham 1577. In a letter dated 1576 Barnes alludes to Carlisle as "this poore and bare living."
#John Maye# (1577-1598), Master of Catherine Hall; Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge. He died in February 1598 while the plague was ravaging Carlisle, and was buried in the cathedral.
#Henry Robinson# (1598-1616). Educated at Queen's College, Oxford, of which college he became Provost 1581. He took part in the Hampton Court Conference 1603, and was a great benefactor to his college. He died of the plague in 1616, and was buried in the cathedral, where his brother placed a brass to his memory.
#Robert Snowden# (1616-1621), Prebendary of Southwell. Died 1621.
#Richard Milburn# (1621-1624), Dean of Rochester. Translated from St. David's. He died 1624.
#Richard Senhouse# (1624-1626). Educated at Trinity College, and St. John's College, Cambridge. Dean of Gloucester. He preached at the coronation of Charles I. His death, which was caused by a fall from his horse, took place in 1626, and he was buried in the cathedral.
#Francis White# (1626-1629), Dean of Carlisle; translated to Norwich 1629. He brought himself into notice by preaching against popery; by a book written in antagonism to Fisher, the Jesuit; and, further, by holding a disputation with the same man in the presence of James I.
#Barnaby Potter# (1629-1642). Educated at, and Provost of Queen's College, Oxford; Chief Almoner of Charles I. Potter was one of the four bishops who advised Charles upon the attainder of Strafford. He died in London 1642.
#James Usher# (1642-1656). Educated at Trinity College, Dublin; Bishop of Meath; Archbishop of Armagh. He visited England in 1640, and was consulted by the Earl of Strafford in preparing a defence against his impeachment. Charles I. also consulted him as to whether he should sanction the death of the Earl. Usher was present at the execution of Strafford, and ministered to him in his last moments. In 1641 Archbishop Usher suffered severe losses from a rebellion in Ireland; and this is no doubt the reason why he never returned to that country. About this time Charles I. gave him the bishopric of Carlisle _in commendam_, but the Archbishop does not seem to have obtained much revenue therefrom, as the district was greatly impoverished through the English and Scottish troops being alternately quartered there. A few years later Parliament seized on his lands and voted him an annual pension of £ 400, which, however, he probably did not receive more than twice. During the troubles of these times he resided at Oxford and Cardiff. He came to London in 1646, and the next year, through his friend's endeavours, he was allowed to preach. He visited Charles at Carisbrooke in 1648. He died in 1656, and was buried, by order of Cromwell, in Westminster Abbey. He wrote "On the Original State of the British Churches," "The Ancient History of the British Churches," and his great work on sacred chronology, "The Annals of the Old Testament." It is said that Baxter wrote his famous "Call to the Unconverted" at the Archbishop's suggestion.
#Richard Sterne# (1660-1664). Educated at Trinity College; Master of Jesus College, Cambridge. He sided with the king on the outbreak of civil war, and was arrested by Cromwell in 1642 for endeavouring to send the college plate to Charles, and imprisoned in the Tower till the January following. He was kept prisoner in various places until 1645. He regained his Mastership at the Restoration, and soon after was made Bishop of Carlisle. He was translated to the archbishopric of York, leaving his bishopric in a very impoverished state. Sterne the novelist was his great-grandson.
#Edward Rainbow# (1664-1684). Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Magdalene College, Cambridge; he became Master of the latter in 1642-3. Dean of Peterborough 1661. He was very hospitable and liberal. He did not hesitate in years of scarcity (after he had exhausted his own stores of provisions) to buy corn which he gave away to the poor day by day. He died in 1684, and was buried at Dalston.
#Thomas Smith# (1684-1702). Educated at Queen's College; Prebendary of Durham; Dean of Carlisle. He was a very generous benefactor to Queen's College, Oxford, the Carlisle Grammar School, the chapter library, and the cathedral treasury. He died in 1702.
#William Nicolson# (1702-1718). A very learned antiquary. Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, and Archdeacon of Carlisle. His most noted work is the "Historical Library" (1696-1699), which at one time "afforded a guide to the riches of the chronicle literature of the British empire." He was translated to the bishopric of Derry in 1718.
#Samuel Bradford# (1718-1723). Educated at St. Paul's School, the Charterhouse, and Corpus Christi, Cambridge. He was elected Master of Corpus Christi College in 1716. Dean of Westminster. Translated to Rochester 1723.
#John Waugh# (1723-1734). Educated at, and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford; Dean of Gloucester. Died 1734.
#Sir George Fleming#, Bart. (1735-1747). Educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford; Dean of Carlisle. During his episcopate the Young Pretender entered Carlisle (1745) and it is said that he installed one Thomas Coppock, or Cappoch, a Roman Catholic, as bishop. Coppock was captured, and executed at Carlisle the following year. Sir George Fleming died in 1747, and was buried in the cathedral.
#Richard Osbaldeston# (1747-1762). Educated at St. John's College, Cambridge; Dean of York. He was chiefly a non-resident bishop, and, on his translation to London in 1762, his successor complained bitterly of the state of dilapidation and decay into which Rose Castle, the bishop's residence, had been allowed to fall.
#Charles Lyttelton# (1762-1768). Educated at Eton, and University College, Oxford; Dean of Exeter. In 1765 he was president of the Society of Antiquaries. He wrote numerous articles, some of which are included in the first three volumes of the "Archæologia." He was very genial and hospitable, and had a remarkable knowledge of antiquities. He died in London 1768, and was buried at Hagley.
#Edmund Law# (1769-1787). Educated at St. John's College, Cambridge; Fellow of Christ's College. He was an earnest student, and zealous for Christian truth and Christian liberty. He believed that the human race progresses in religion equally with its progress in all other knowledge. He is said to have been "a man of great softness of manners, and of the mildest and most tranquil disposition." He died in 1787, and was buried in the cathedral.
#John Douglas# (1787-1791). Educated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, and Balliol; Dean of Windsor; translated to Salisbury 1791. He wrote many political pamphlets.
#The Hon. Edward Venables Vernon# (1791-1808), Canon of Christ Church, Oxford; translated to York 1808. He assumed the name of Harcourt in 1831.
#Samuel Goodenough# (1808-1827). Educated at Westminster, and Christ Church, Oxford; Canon of Windsor, and Dean of Rochester.
In 1809 a sermon preached before the House of Lords gave rise to the following epigram:--
'Tis well enough that Goodenough Before the Lords should preach; But, sure enough, full bad enough Are those he has to teach.
He died in 1827, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
#Hugh Percy# (1827-1856). Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; Bishop of Rochester, whence he was translated to Carlisle. During his episcopate he established a Clergy Aid Society (1838), and a Diocesan Education Society (1855). He died in 1856, and was buried at Dalston.
#Henry Montague Villiers# (1856-1860). Translated to Durham 1860.
#Samuel Waldegrave# (1860-1869). Educated at Oxford; Canon of Salisbury. Author of "New Testament Millenarianism" (the Bampton Lectures, 1854). Died 1869.
#Harvey Goodwin# (1869-1891). Second Wrangler, Cambridge; Dean of Ely. A very politic bishop. In one of his sermons he used words to the effect that "he was as high as the church was high, as low as the church was low, and as broad as the church was broad." Died 1891.
#J.W. Bardsley# (1892). Translated from Sodor and Man.
LIST OF PRIORS AND DEANS
PRIORS
Æthelwulf (Aldulf) Walter John Bartholomew Ralph Robert Morville Adam de Felton Alan John Halton (Bishop, 1292) John Kendall Robert Adam Warthwic (resigned 1304) William Hautwyssel Robert Helperton Simon Hautwyssel (about 1325) William de Hastworth. 1325 John Kirby (Bishop, 1332) Galfrid John de Horncastle (resigned 1376) Thomas Hextildsham Richard de Rydale John de Penrith (resigned 1381) William de Dalston Robert de Edenhall. 1386 Thomas de Hoton Thomas Elye Thomas Barnaby. 1433 Thomas de Haythwaite Thomas Gondibour. 1484-1507 Simon Senhouse. 1507 Christopher Slee Lancelot Salkeld. 1532. (Last Prior and 1st Dean)
DEANS
Lancelot Salkeld. 1542 Sir Thomas Smyth, LL. D. 1547 Lancelot Salkeld. 1553. Sir Thomas Smyth, LL.D. 1559 Sir John Wooley, M.A. 1577 Christopher Perkins, LL.D. 1596 Francis White, S.T.P. 1622 William Patterson, S.T.P. 1626 Thomas Comber S.T.P 1630 (Vacant 18 years) Guy Carleton, D.D. 1660 Thomas Smith, D.D. 1671 Thomas Musgrave, D.D. 1684 William Graham, D.D. 1686 Francis Atterbury, D.D. 1704 George Smallridge, D.D. 1711 Thomas Gibbon, D.D. 1713 Thomas Tullie, LL.D. 1716 George Fleming, LL.D. 1727 Robert Bolton, LL.D. 1734 Charles Tarrent, D.D. 1764 Thomas Wilson, D.D. 1764 Thomas Percy, D.D. 1778 Jeffrey Ekins, D.D. 1782 Isaac Milner, D.D. 1792 Robert Hodgson, D.D. 1820 John Anthony Cramer, D.D. 1844 Samuel Hinds, D.D. 1848 Archibald Campbell Tait, D.D. 1849 Francis Close, D.D. 1856 J. Oakley, D.D. 1881 W.G. Henderson, D.D. 1884