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 



