A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



functions when the see was vacant or in cases of illness or absence. On 

 several occasions during the latter portion of the twelfth century the 

 bishop of Whithern, probably under commission from the archbishop, 

 was employed in Carlisle, and remunerated for his services out of the 

 Exchequer. 1 When Bishop Appleby was unable, owing to illness, to 

 cope with the work entailed on him in preparation for the Eastertide of 

 1371, he issued a commission to William, bishop of Sodor, solely for 

 the consecration of holy oil and the confection of chrism, naming 

 Maundy Thursday and Dalston church as the time and place for the 

 performance of the function. 3 If a considerable time elapsed between 

 the death or translation of one bishop and the enthronement of another, 

 the services of a suffragan were requisitioned to do what was necessary. 

 When William Raa, diocesan registrar, rendered his account to Bishop 

 Story in 1464-5, he reported that he had nothing to answer in the 

 matter of dimissory letters, as they had been issued without charge, no 

 suffragan having been engaged before his incoming. The costs of em- 

 ploying a suffragan during a vacancy were charged to the revenues of 

 the bishopric. In 1478-9 Robert Whelpdale, the registrar, paid to the 

 lord suffragan of York 2os. in part of a greater sum due to him by 

 Bishop Bell. The same prelate, through his registrar, Richard Stanley, 

 paid a sum of 4o.r. on 27 August 1489 for a like purpose. 3 It may be 

 taken that the institution was not known in the diocese before the 

 Reformation, and that when outside bishops were employed they were 

 remunerated according to the services rendered. 4 



The frequent mention in the episcopal records of the occurrence of 

 bloodshed and violence in churchyards arose partly no doubt from the 

 practice of holding fairs and markets in such places during the medieval 

 period. 5 Though the statute of 1285 (13 Edw. I. st. 2. cap. 6) alleged 

 ' the honour of the church ' as the reason for prohibiting the custom, 



1 Pipe R. 5 and 6 Hen. II. An allowance of 141. Sd. was made by the sheriff of Cumberland in each 

 of these years, 1159 and 1160, to this bishop, 

 a Carl. Epis. Reg. Appleby MS. f. 247. 



3 Accounts of the diocesan registrars, MS. 1464-90. 



4 The parliament of Henry VIII. (26 Hen. VIII. cap. 14), providing for the appointment of suffra- 

 gans, specified the names of several towns which should ' be taken and accepted for the sees of Bishops 

 Suffragans to be made in this realm and in Wales.' As ' Pereth ' is one of the towns mentioned in the 

 Act, it was confused with Penrith in Cumberland, a pardonable error when it is remembered that the 

 Cumbrian town was often written ' Perith,' and is often so pronounced at the present day. At no 

 period, perhaps^was the confusion more inconvenient than in 1888, when the bishop of Ripon selected 

 the town of Penrith as the titular see of his suffragan. The consecration led to a protest from the dio- 

 cese of Carlisle, which contributed to the change of title to that of Richmond by Royal warrant in 1889. 

 To this controversy we owe the 'Suffragans Nomination Act' (51 & 52 Victoria, c. 56) and the sub- 

 sequent consecration of the Rev. H. Ware, on 11 June 1889, as the first bishop suffragan of Carlisle with 

 the title of Bishop of Barrow-in-Furness. 



6 For the origin of fairs and markets in churchyards, see Spelman, Glossarium, s.v. Feria. Causes 

 of blood were forbidden to be heard in churches or churchyards by a constitution of Archbishop Langton 

 in 1222 (Lyndwood, Provincial, Oxford edition, p. 270). Markets were prohibited in churches (and in 

 churchyards according to the gloss of John of Athon) by the constitution of Othobon in 1269 (Lyndwood, 

 Constitutions Legatinae, p. 136). The penalties for striking or drawing weapons in sacred places are 

 set out in the statute of 5 Edw. VI. cap. 4. The 88th canon of 1603 rigidly insisted on the inviolate 

 character of churches and churchyards. Breaches of the seventh commandment or other uncleanness 

 as well as the shedding of blood, were held to cause desecration (Carl. Epis. Reg. Welton MS. f. 5). 



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