ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



may be regarded as characteristic of northern ecclesiastical life and 

 morals. The constitutions on the decline in popular esteem of the feasts 

 of St. Cuthbert and on the prevalence of perjury in the diocese may be 

 taken as examples of independent legislation. Few will withhold a word 

 of admiration for their high religious tone and far-reaching usefulness. 

 No one can read these diocesan constitutions without the conviction 

 that the public worship of God had been conducted with a reverent 

 solemnity and magnificent splendour capable of engaging the senses and 

 impressing the hearts of the people of that distant age. 1 



There does not appear to have been any ritual uniformity in 

 Cumberland and Westmorland before the promulgation of the Book of 

 Common Prayer as the national use in the sixteenth century. By an 

 enactment of the diocesan synod in the fourteenth century the Arch- 

 deacon of Carlisle was obliged, when on visitation, to inquire whether 

 the canon of the mass was celebrated in churches correctly and dis- 

 tinctly according to the use of York or Sarum. 2 From this it may be 

 gathered that either * use ' could be selected according to the predilec- 

 tion of individual incumbents. When Sir Robert Parvyng attempted 

 to found a college in the church of Melmerby in 1342, it was ordained 

 that the master and chaplains, vested in surplice, amice and black cope, 

 should sing matins and prime daily at sunrise according to the use of 

 the church of Sarum. 3 On the other hand, in 1 369, Richard de Aslacby, 

 vicar of St. Michael, Appleby, bequeathed to his son John a psalter and 

 a breviary of the use of York. 1 In this respect Carlisle seems to have 

 followed the custom of the metropolitan diocese of York, where the 

 uses of York and Sarum were employed at discretion. 



The diocese of Carlisle was too compact to need the permanent 

 employment of a bishop suffragan. Neighbouring bishops, or some- 

 times the suffragans of York, were called in to perform the necessary 



1 For a century and a half after the Submission of the Clergy in 1534, when the diocesan synod was 

 emptied of its legislative functions, the bishops of Carlisle continued to call their clergy together twice 

 a year as aforetime, viz. soon after Easter and about Michaelmas, the traditional dates on which synods 

 had been held in previous centuries. Bishop Robinson celebrated his sacnsancta synodos in 1606, the 

 record of which still exists. At the Easter session, Chancellor Dethick presided, and at Michaelmas the 

 bishop presided in person. In 1627, during the episcopate of Bishop White, there were ' two Synods 

 in the yere on Thursdaies after Low Sunday and Michaelmas.' The total of the synodals paid at each 

 session was 6 gs. 8d., of which sum js. 6d. was ' due to the fouer Rural Deans ; to the archdeacon, 

 l igj. <)d. So there remains due to the Lo. Bishop every synod, 4 2s. $d. So this is pd. twice in the 

 yere, scilicet, yerely, 8 4*. lod.' (Rental of Dp. White, MS.). In 1686 Bishop Smith issued a monition 

 for holding a synod. He intimated to his apparitor-general that he purposed doing so for the whole of 

 the diocese on Thursday, 19 August, in the consistorial place (loco consistorialf) of his cathedral church 

 at nine o'clock in the forenoon. To this holy synod were called the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, and 

 all rectors, vicars, curates, and stipendiaries who were wont to be summoned ab antiquo. The clergy 

 were required to pay ' the annual synodals and all other sums of money due and payable to us by reason 

 of the said synod ' (Carl. Epis. Reg. Smith MS. ff. 87-8). Records of the diocesan synod should be care- 

 fully distinguished from those of synods ad eligendum, that is, meetings of the clergy of the archdeaconry 

 to elect proctors for convocation (ibid. ff. 186-7). 



Carl. Epis. Reg. Welton MS. f. 135. 



3 Ibid. Kirkby MS. f. 459. 



Ibid. Appleby MS. f. 178. In 1342 the Vicar of Morland, vultum lugulrem exhibens, complained 

 to Bishop Kirkby that on his way from Morland to Penrith he lost his book, called a Journal, which he 

 carried with him for the purpose of saying the Canonical Hours either on the road or in the vill of 

 Penrith (ibid. Kirkby MS. f. 451). 



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