A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



The bishops of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the Border 

 diocese were as a rule men of action, either as soldiers and diplomatists 

 or as prelates and pastors. Bishop Halton, not merely by reason of the 

 duration and strenuousness of his episcopate, but on account of his re- 

 markable individuality, may be truly regarded as one of the greatest 

 bishops that has ever adorned the northern see. His untiring energy 

 during the early severities of international troubles, his attentive super- 

 vision of the diocese, his independence of papal dictation, 1 his tact as a 

 diplomatist, as well as his courage as a soldier, the trusted counsellor of 

 his sovereign and the resolute defender of his clergy, the rebuilder of 

 his cathedral and the impartial dispenser of justice among his people, 

 qualities such as these shed a lustre on his episcopate and make it 

 memorable for all time. Bishop Ross, his successor, was a prelate of 

 different mould, a mere puppet of the papacy, who was wont to describe 

 himself as bishop of Carlisle * by divine permission and by favour of the 

 apostolic see.' a A local historian called him a man from the south 

 (homo australis] imposed on the diocese by the pope. 3 From his subse- 

 quent quarrels with the prior and convent about their appropriated 

 churches * we may infer that the cathedral body never forgot the 

 manner of his appointment when their own nominee was rejected in 

 his favour. In many respects Bishop Kirkby's tenure of the see was 

 the stormiest on record. When he was not fighting with the Scots in 

 the open field, he was engaged in feuds with the pope, the chapter of 

 York, or his own archdeacon ; B but he appeared to care as little for the 

 threats of excommunication from Rome as the actualities of invasion 

 from Scotland. When some of his officers were assaulted at Penrith in 

 1337 and at Caldeustanes in the suburbs of Carlisle in 1341, he issued 

 in each case a general sentence of outlawry against the assailants, and 

 afterwards ordered the body of one of them to be exhumed and cast 

 out of the churchyard. Before the mandate was carried out, however, 

 he was induced to relent on the intercession of Robert Parvynk and to 

 absolve the corpse. 8 His firmness in the exercise of disciplinary powers 

 during a period of unexampled laxity caused by the Scottish wars pre- 

 pared the diocese for the quiet episcopates which followed. There is 



Bishop Halton was a signatory to the non-allowance of a papal provision in 1305. Hugh, bishop 

 of Byblus in Syria, presented letters from Benedict XL, appealing to the King for a provision, as Hugh 

 had been harassed by the Saracens and was unable to maintain his dignity. The privy council of King 

 Edward, of which Bishop Halton was a member, replied that the papal request was ' manifestly preju- 

 dicial to the king and his royal crown, and therefore could not be granted ' (Rot. Parl. [Rec. Com.], i. 

 lySb, 179). It was at Carlisle that the first anti-papal statute was passed by the English Parliament, 

 35 Edw. I. cap. 2 (Ingram, England and Rome, p. 99). In 1318 Bishop Halton was selected as one of the 

 peers to be in close attendance on Edward II. (Close 12 Edw. II. m. 2zd ; Rot. Parl. i. 4S3b). He 

 was present at the great council of Vienne in 1311-12 when the Templars were suppressed (Milman, 

 Latin Christianity, ed. 1867, vii. 298-302). His arrangements for the administration of the diocese, 

 while he was ' in remotis,' and several of his acts, while he sojourned ' apud Viennam,' are recorded in 

 his Register, MS. ff. 142-3. 



" Carl. Epis. Reg. Ross MS. f. 253. 



Cbron. de Lanercost, p. 253. 



Car!. Epis. Reg. Ross MS. f. 258. 



Ibid. Kirkby MS. ff. 358-9, 362, 367, 453-5, 458, etc. 



Ibid. ff. 355, 427, 431. 



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