A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



on the death of Edward Mitchell, one of the prebendaries. 1 As 

 time went on, the dawn on the ecclesiastical horizon began to break 

 before the bishop's eyes, and though he often complained of failing 

 health and ' paynfull travails,' he lived to see a certain measure of suc- 

 cess to crown his efforts. The poor opinion that Bishop Best enter- 

 tained about the intellectual equipment and administrative ability of his 

 prebendaries was not altogether justifiable. Charges so sweeping are 

 seldom upheld. It is true that the state of the capitular body was bad 

 enough, but we must not overlook the sentiments of Sir Thomas Smith, 

 the dean, about the conduct of his diocesan and the effect of his inter- 

 meddling in capitular affairs. In a letter to Cecil from Toulouse on 

 10 February 1564-5, he complained of 'that busy Bishop of Carlisle' 

 who had made such turmoil among the prebendaries of the church 

 there, and pointed out that the bishop had more ' tongue ' than wisdom 

 and goodwill. The dean did not wish to excuse the prebendaries, ' as 

 they have done, so let them have ' ; but there was one Mitchell there, 

 whom he had left as his vice-dean, who almost alone had held up that 

 church by his worldly policy, so as to bring it out of debt. Every 

 prebendary, the dean reminded Cecil, was catching for himself and 

 his friends what he could in these days of religious changes. He 

 knew the fashion of these countrymen well enough, that if the presence 

 of Mitchell was withdrawn from the cathedral, the church would not 

 stand long ; but what betwixt the bishop and the prebendaries, the 

 dean was unable to get a penny out of them for a twelvemonth or 

 more. 2 



The bishop had his diocese in some state of organization at this 

 period so far as it could be expected from one in his difficult position. 

 From a memorandum which he supplied to the Privy Council in July 

 1563 in answer to certain articles of inquiry, we get a good idea of the 

 condition and characteristics of the ecclesiastical area over which he 

 ruled. In answer to the first article he replied that the diocese of 

 Carlisle contained two shires, Cumberland and Westmorland ; but out 

 of the former Coupland was exempted as being in the diocese of Chester, 

 and out of the latter the barony of Kendal was exempted, being in the 

 same diocese. By the second article the Council inquired ' into what 



i Among the refugees at Frankfort in 1554, Strype enumerates ' the Scotch preacher, John Make- 

 bray, who was the first that preached the Gospel to the English there for about a year, and then went 

 to another church in the Low Country (Mem., edition 1721, iii. 146-7). Makebray appears also in the 

 list of exiles given by Whitehead in his Brief Survey of the Troubles begun at Frankfort, printed in 1575. 

 In the same list we have the names of such north country men as Edmond Grindal and Edwin Sandes 

 (Dodd, Church Hist., ed. Tierney, ii. 67). In July 1564 Lord Scrope, reporting to Cecil his conferences 

 with the Scottish warden at Dumfries, stated that ' a chaplin of the Bishop of Carlisle, called Mawbraye, 

 and two of the prebendaries of the same church, preached there several days to great audiences who liked 

 their sermons and doctrine' (Foreign Papers, Elizabeth, 1564-5, No. 558). In the record of his collation 

 to the prebend, to which he was inducted by Sewell, he is described as ' magister Johannes Maybraye, 

 verbi Dei minister.' Mitchell, who preceded him, was ' in legibus bacchalarius ' (Carl. Epis. Reg., 

 Best, f. 20). 



2 S.P. Foreign, Eliz., 1564-5, No. 980(7). Strype has much to say on the ' unreasonable leases 

 in the church of Carlisle ' and the efforts that were made ' to redress the mischiefs the Popish spoilers 

 of the church now reformed had done, as well out of malice as covetousness ' (Annals, ed. 1709, i. 510-1). 



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