A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



Cumberland, it would cause him to weep. By the hand of a trusty 

 friend he sent him a copy of certain articles in the French tongue 

 which had been circulated in the diocese, causing much talk and great 

 rejoicing among the papists, with such wishing and wager making about 

 the alteration of religion, such rumours and tales of the Spaniards and 

 French landing in Scotland and in the west marches of England for the 

 reformation of the same, alienating the people's hearts which were 

 quieted before. Little wonder that the people, after their experience of 

 the rapid changes in religion under Edward VI. and Mary, were becom- 

 ing bewildered, and were slow to accept the Elizabethan settlement ' for 

 feare of a shrewid torne.' l Time only could give them confidence and 

 wean them from their old ways. 



When we turn to Bishop Best's relations with the members of the 

 capitular body of the diocese, we shall find that little help or encour- 

 agement could be gained from that quarter. As a matter of fact 

 this good prelate was obliged to fight the battle of the Reformation 

 single-handed ; his greatest enemies were the men of his own house. 

 Writing to Cecil on 15 April 1563, he complained that owing to the 

 absence of Dr. Smith, the dean, the church of Carlisle was going to 

 decay ; their woods were almost destroyed ; the leases of their farms 

 were made to kinsmen for three or four score years, though the limit 

 was twenty-one years by their statutes, 2 the canons themselves taking 

 the profits ; where ten pounds were allowed yearly for repairs, nothing 

 was done ; almost as little was done where thirty pounds were allotted 

 for the poor and the mending of highways ; no residence was kept, no 

 accounts ; the prebendaries turned everything to their own gain. The 

 bishop was unable to bring about reform by his visitation, for they 

 were confederate together, and the losses were their own. Three of the 



nexte cominge to you to discourse more largely off the state theroff which godde wyllynge shall be shortly. 

 I have no more to saye for this matter, butt only to praye you yff yor graunte be nott fullye paste to 

 take order bothe for the goode education off the Warde and nott to leave the poore tenantes subiecte to 

 the expilation off these countrey gentlemen without some choyse ' (Lansd. MS. vi. 51). Twenty years 

 after this date he founded the Grammar School of St. Bees in the ' litle Angle ' of Cumberland where 

 he was born. 



1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxi. 13. The articles in French, which were circulated in the diocese and 

 caused Bishop Best so much disquietness, were called ' Articles of the Religion,' scheduled under several 

 heads (S.P. Foreign, Eliz. 1561-2, No. 771). 



1 The seventh statute contains the following restriction on leases : ' We will also that no lands shall 

 be let on lease beyond twenty-one years, nor from time to time, as from three years to three years, or 

 from seven years to seven years, or by way of renewal of any term after it shall have expired. Neverthe- 

 less, we permit, that houses or buildings in cities and villages may be let on lease for a term of fifty years 

 or at the most of sixty years ' (Stat. of the Cathedral Church of Carl., ed. J. E. Prescott, p. 34). These 

 leases were afterwards the source of much trouble. From a statement by Attorney-General Gilbert 

 Gerard, called the ' Case of the Colledge of Carlisle,' drawn up in 1568, we learn that most of the judges, 

 but not all, thought that the leases were valid, though issued by the dean and chapter of Carlisle with 

 a variation from the proper style and title. An authoritative decision in the courts was much needed 

 (S.P. Dom. Addenda, Eliz., xiv. 31, 38). When 'Mr. Wolley, her Highnes' secretary for the Latyn 

 tounge,' was appointed to the deanery of Carlisle in January 1577-8, he was instructed ' to understande 

 the state of that churche, to th'ende that such thinges as were a misse might be reformed.' Certain of 

 the same College remained in deep arrearages to the church ; the accounts should be looked into ; the 

 tenants backward with their rents should be urged to pay [Acts of P. C. (new series), x. 131-2]. There 

 are three interesting writs from Charles I. on the subject of leases made by the bishop and the dean and 

 chapter of Carlisle in Carl. Epis. Reg. Potter, ff. 286-8. 



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