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. 



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