ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



the Oath of Supremacy, and was deprived on 21 June 1559. But he 

 did not long survive the final overthrow of the papal jurisdiction, for he 

 died on the last day of that year and was buried in the church of St. 

 Dunstan in the West. 



When steps were taken to put into operation the Acts of Supremacy 

 and Uniformity as the legislative basis for the settlement of religion, the 

 diocese of Carlisle was bereft of the guidance of its bishop. 1 On the 

 very day that the Prayer Book was to come into use, 24 June, three 

 days after Bishop Oglethorpe's deprivation, letters patent were issued for 

 the royal visitation of the northern province by virtue of the powers 

 vested in the Crown by the Act of Supremacy. 3 The Queen held the 

 English clergy in the hollow of her hand. But it was thought advisable, 

 after the resistance of the episcopate, to proceed prudently and to treat 

 the consciences of the general body of the clergy with as much leniency 

 as possible. The chief duty of the visitors was to enforce the settle- 

 ment of religion as it was set out in the Prayer Book of 1559. It was 

 the acknowledgment of the suscepta religio that played the most prominent 

 part in the visitation of the diocese of Carlisle. Coming so soon after 

 the Marian reaction, when the reforming movement suffered a temporary 

 check, the liturgical changes made so many of the clergy to wince that 

 no one could forecast what would be the result of the visitation. But 

 the unrivalled diplomacy of Cecil in dropping for the present the Oath 

 of Supremacy and fastening attention on the Prayer Book probably 

 averted an ecclesiastical revolt. 



The commission which exercised the powers of visitation in the 

 diocese of Carlisle consisted of only three members, Edwin Sandes, S.T.P., 

 Henry Harvey, LL.D., and George Browne, esquire. The first act was 

 to visit the cathedral, and for this purpose the whole capitular body was 

 summoned to the chapter house on Tuesday, 3 October 1559. Prayers 

 having been said and the word of God having been sincerely preached 

 to the people by master Edwin Sandes, the aforenamed visitors, as it is 

 related in the record, 3 sat judicially, and solemnly exercised the royal 



1 We have good authority for assuming that Archdeacon Neville was in favour of the liturgical 

 changes then in progress. Soon after the Queen's accession, the following letter was addressed to Cecil 

 by the Earl of Westmorland on the archdeacon's behalf : ' After my vearye hartie comendacons, wheras 

 George Nevell, doctor in devinitie, archedeacon of Carlell, is desirous to be one of the Quenes Ma ts 

 chaplins ordenarye to attende one quarter in the yere, thiese are to assure you that notwithstandinge he 

 is of my howsse and kindred, yet if I did not knowe the man to be of honeste conversacon and therwith 

 so well inclined and disposed to set fourthe, in his Cures and ells wheare, all suche good and vertuous 

 doctrine as by the quene her highnes aucthoritie shalbe from time to time set fourthe, so as the procurers 

 of his preferment shall susteine no lack therby, I wolde not voughtsafe this comendacon of him. But 

 consideringe and trusting his service maye be acceptable to that respect, I am bold to desire you to further 

 his sute, wherin yow shall binde me, besides hartie thankes to doo yow the like plesure. And thus fare 

 you well.' .Frome London this xviith daye of December, 1558, by youre asseuryd ffrend, H. Westmir- 

 land ' (S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. i. No. 36). 



2 Ibid. iv. 33. 



3 The record of the Northern Visitation, embodied in a book of 400 pages, is a document of great 

 importance. It is officially known at the Public Record Office as S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. x. It opens with 

 the commission to the visitors, and contains an account of the visitation of the four dioceses of the nor- 

 thern province (ff. 1-108). Then follow the ' acta et processus habiti et facti coram commissariis in 

 causis beneficiatorum et restitutionis beneficii, etc.' (ff. 121-205). Further on in the book we get a sum- 

 mary of the Detectiones et Comperta and schedules of the absentees from the visitation. As the various 



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