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 legal 7 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. 



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