ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



subtle, and very greedy, using his visitations as the means of wringing 

 contributions from the simple-minded clergy of his diocese. 1 In the 

 latter years of his life the bishop was often employed by his 

 sovereign on political and other missions, chiefly in connection with 

 Scottish affairs. 2 But the end was drawing near. In April 1291 he 

 received a faculty from Pope Nicholas IV. to dispose by will of his 

 personal property (not belonging to the service of the altar or to the 

 Augustinian order of which he was a member) in funeral expenses and 

 remuneration of servants and kinsmen, his debts being first paid. 3 On 

 the last day of February 1292 he died at his house of Linstock after 

 the fatigue of a journey in deep snow from London, where he had been 

 attending Parliament, and was buried in his cathedral church. 4 



A most dreadful calamity befell the city of Carlisle a few months 

 after Bishop Ireton's death, the desolation of the flock following closely 

 on the removal of the pastor, as the chronicler of Lanercost pathetically 

 described it. For the space of a whole day and night towards the end 

 of May 1292 a tempest raged on sea and land. The winds blew with 

 such terrific fury that travellers on foot and horseback were overthrown 

 or driven from the track ; the sea was forced inland to a greater distance 

 than ever was known by the oldest inhabitant, inundating the maritime 

 districts and destroying crops and cattle. When the hurricane was at 

 its highest, an incendiary, in a moment of malicious rage against his 

 father for disinheriting him, set fire to certain houses without the city 

 walls to the west of the cathedral, that a stranger might not enjoy his 

 inheritance. The city and neighbourhood were soon in flames, and the 

 devastation was universal. The chronicler of Lanercost, who was an eye- 

 witness of the conflagration, has left behind him a vivid picture of the 

 destruction. Streets, churches, municipal buildings, houses, muniments, 

 organs, bells, wood, glass and stalls were burnt to ashes. The only 

 houses of note left standing were the conventual buildings of the 

 Jacobins or Black Friars on the west walls, which were saved with the 

 greatest difficulty. It was particularly noted that the flames devoured 

 the tomb of Bishop Ireton in the cathedral, mausoleum improbi exactoris, as 

 the chronicler, retaining his old grudge against the bishop, referred to it, 

 though that of his predecessor, Robert de ' Chalix,' escaped untouched. 

 The culprit, at least the young man on whom suspicion had fallen, was 

 taken, tried and hanged. 8 The destruction of the city was not altogether 

 an unmixed evil. The fire taught the citizens the dangers to which 

 they were exposed by the employment of wood in the construction of 

 their houses. With the co-operation of the King, who granted them 

 charters in place of those that were burnt, and in supplying stone for 



1 Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 102-6. 



3 Rymer, Foedera, new edition, i. 734-6, 738, 762, 766-8, 774. 



3 Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 534-5. 



4 W. de Hemingburgh, Chron. (Eng. Hist. Soc.), ii. 40; Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 143-4. The 

 latter authority puts the bishop's death on the following day, I March. 



5 Chron. de Lanercost, pp. 144-5, 147; Walter de Hemingburgh adds that the culprit was found, 

 tried, and hanged (Chron. ii. 40). 



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