ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



prebendaries were unlearned and the fourth unzealous. In a word, ' the 

 Citie is decaid by theym, and Codes truth sclanderyled.' As a new 

 warden of the western marches was about to be appointed, he recom- 

 mended that some wise and grave men of experience should be joined 

 with him in the commission, for it was hard to find a man that should 

 not be quickly corrupted there and buy and sell poor men's goods and 

 lives. The sheriff was vexing him so much about the affairs of the 

 late Bishop Oglethorpe that his estates were of little value to him. 1 

 Soon after this terrible indictment was delivered, Barnaby Kirkbride, 

 one of the ' unlearned ' prebendaries, was gathered to his fathers, and a 

 vacancy in the capitular body was created. The bishop did not spare 

 ' horseflesshe ' in order that his own nominee might be appointed. 

 Gregory Scott was posted up to London with a letter to Bishop Grindal 

 in furtherance of his candidature. In a letter to Cecil, begging the 

 appointment of Scott, Bishop Grindal stated that the bishop of Carlisle 

 had often complained to him of the want of preachers in his diocese, 

 having no help at all from his cathedral church. Sir Thomas Smith, 

 his dean, was occupied in the Queen's affairs, as he knew ; all his 

 prebendaries (Sewell only excepted, who was discredited by reason of 

 his inconstancy) were ' ignorante preistes or olde unlearned monkes.' 

 One of the said unlearned prebendaries had lately departed, and the 

 bishop of Carlisle was anxious to obtain the void prebend for Gregory 

 Scott, ' beinge thatt countrie man borne, well learned and off goode 

 zeale and synceritie,' as Bishop Grindal partly knew by his own ex- 

 perience. The prebend was in value just 20 as he had been informed. 2 

 It is satisfactory to know that Scott, with the help of such distinguished 

 patrons, obtained the appointment and was installed on 2 May 1564, in 

 the presence of Thomas Tukie, the official principal of Carlisle, and six 

 of the minor canons, but none of the prebendaries assisted at the func- 

 tion. 3 Bishop Best, being an advanced reformer of the Helvetian type, 

 kept about him as private chaplains certain refugees, who had returned 

 to England on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and gradually slipped 

 them into benefices or prebends as they became vacant by the death of 

 the old priests. One of these, a Scotsman called John Mawbraye, 

 Maybraye, or Makebray, a noted preacher at Frankfort in Queen 

 Mary's days, was installed in the cathedral on 18 January 1565-6, 



1 Lansd. MS. vi. (Burghley Papers, 1562-3). 



2 Ibid. vi. 86. Bishop Grindal's letter is dated ' frome my howse att Fulham, 27 Decemb. 

 1563,' and endorsed ' B. of London for Mr. Scott to be a prebendary of that church.' It has been printed 

 by the Parker Society in the Remains of Abp. Grindal, pp. 285-6. Strype has explained that from the 

 bishop's allusion to Sewell's inconstancy we may infer that he was ' a compiler under the late religion ' ; 

 indeed Sewell changed his religion on every demise of the Crown. But the same writer misunderstood 

 the reference to the departure of 'one of the said unlearned prebendaries,' as Kirkbride had died, and 

 not ' fled abroad, perhaps to Louvain or some other place, as many of the papists now did ' (Strype, Life 

 of Grindal, edition 1710, p. 85). 



3 Carl. Epis. Reg., Best, f. 14. Gregory Scott, the new prebendary, was a writer of verses and 

 published ' A briefe Treatise agaynst certayne Errors of the Romish Church, etc. Very plainly, notably 

 and pleasantly confuting the same by Scriptures and auncient writers. Compiled by Gregory Scot, 1570. 

 Perused and licensed according to the Quene's Maiestie's Iniunction, 1574.' There can be no doubt 

 about the strong Protestant flavour of the poet's sentiments. 



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