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 horse 3 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. 



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