ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



After this visitation the sacred instruments of divine service were sold 

 and put to profane uses. 1 



But the work of visitation was not given up wholly to destruction. 

 At his cathedral church, which he visited on 26 October 1571, he took 

 steps to institute a course of preaching throughout the year which in his 

 opinion would contribute to the augmentation of Christian knowledge 

 in that city. The visitation was held in the upper chamber (in solaria 

 eminentlorf) of the chapter house between the hours of nine and eleven 

 in the forenoon, where all the ministers of the church were preconized 

 and appeared, with the exception of Sir Thomas Smith, the dean, who 

 answered by proxy. After the delivery of the charge the Bishop pro- 

 ceeded to unfold his scheme for the greater increase of the church of 

 Christ under his pastoral care. Additional sermons were to be under- 

 taken by the Bishop himself, the dean, archdeacon and prebendaries on 

 stated* Sundays and holy days at different times of the year. 3 The 

 adults and children of the city were to receive systematic instruction in 

 the church catechism in the parochial churches of St. Mary and St. 

 Cuthbert on days set apart for that purpose. The lecturer of the cathe- 

 dral (sacre theologie pre lector) , who had his duties defined as catechist in 

 the choir, was required to supply the place of any of the preachers who 

 might be unavoidably absent when his turn came. All the ministers of 

 the church, including the dean, greater canons, lesser canons, school- 

 masters, choristers and bedesmen were counselled to receive the holy 

 Eucharist (sacram sanctamque synaxini) at least eight times a year, viz., 

 on the first Sunday of Advent, Christmas Day, the first Sunday of Lent, 

 Easter Day, Pentecost, and on the fifth, twelfth, and nineteenth Sundays 

 after Trinity. The Bishop enjoined the minor canons, who had been 

 suspected of papism (suspe ctos papismo) , to repeat the Articles of Religion 

 with an audible voice in St. Mary's church at the time of divine service 

 after the Apostles' Creed, as well as in the presence of the congregations 

 of the churches of which they were incumbents. That there might be 

 no shirking of the duty, appointed days were declared for the purpose. 



As yet no trace of nonconformity has been found in the diocese of 

 Carlisle. Within the womb of the church there was a struggle of 

 extreme elements, but their time of birth had not yet arrived. The 

 incumbents of Dacre, Melmerby and Crosby Ravensworth were deprived 

 in 1572 for refusing subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, 



1 William Fleming of Rydal wrote to his cousin William Lowther of ' Sewborwens,' on 4 June 

 1576, asking for the loan of plate, as he was expecting a great number of worshipful friends and strangers. 

 A ' chalice ' was enumerated in the memorandum of receipt, and Fleming was so pleased with it that he 

 asked for the ' patrone ' which belonged to it, in order to make a trencher (Hist. MSB. Com. [Rydal MSS.], 

 Rep. xii. App. vii. n). It is little wonder that so few examples of medieval Communion vessels have 

 survived to the present day. 



' The visitation took place in the presence of Barnard Aglionby, notary public and principal regis- 

 trar of the diocese, who made a notarial record of the proceedings, a copy of which will be found in the 

 Nicolson MSS. iii. 49-56, in the custody of the dean and chapter of Carlisle. 



3 Henry VIII. did not lay a heavy burden on the dean and canons in the matter of sermons. Each 

 canon was obliged by statute to preach personally or by deputy every year four sermons at least to the 

 people in the cathedral in the English tongue on certain specified Lord's days ; and the dean only three 

 sermons a year (Stat. of the Cathedral Church of Carl., ed. J. E. Prescott, pp. 41-2). 



ii 81 ii 



