ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



exist. The last entry in the diocesan register of Bishop Usher is dated 

 3 November 1643.' 



There was no serious disturbance of the clergy in their benefices 

 till the city of Carlisle received a Scottish garrison on 28 June 1645, a f ter 

 a protracted siege, during which the inhabitants made a gallant stand, 

 and suffered many privations for church and king. Taken as a whole 

 the clergy and gentry of Cumberland were royalists, and managed to 

 hold their ground till the capital was forced to surrender. The county, 

 says the youthful historian of the siege, was generally free from the 

 seeds of schism and untainted with the present rebellion. 2 Before the 

 city was given up to General Lesley it was stipulated that a livelihood 

 out of the church revenues should be allowed to every member of the 

 cathedral body then resident, until the parliament had determined other- 

 wise, and that no church should be defaced. But the terms of surrender 

 were not observed. In a moment of fanatical fury, the cloisters, part of 

 the deanery, the chapter house and prebendal buildings were pulled 

 down, and the materials were sacrilegiously used to build a main guard 

 and repair the fortifications of the city. The west portion of the 

 cathedral was also demolished, leaving only three bays of the venerable 

 Norman structure standing, and the parliamentary officers were so 

 moved with zeal and something else against magnificent churches that 

 they had intended to pull down the whole cathedral, and to have no 

 church but St. Cuthbert's. 3 Fortunately the intention was not carried 

 out. Though Cumberland was far removed from the headquarters of 

 the destructive party, it had its full share of sufferings in other ways. 

 The Scots had not forgotten their old methods of harrying the country. 

 Hugh Todd told Walker in after years that the clergy suffered more 

 from the Scots than from other people. 4 So great was the destruction 

 about the cathedral that the charters of the capitular body were sold to 

 make a tailor's measures. 5 From the Border church of Rocliffe the 

 parish register and other church requisites were taken away by the 

 Scottish army in 1648." For several years little else but anarchy pre- 

 vailed in the county, as the fortunes of the opposing forces fluctuated in 

 favour of the King or the parliament. In the sequestrations which 



1 The acts of Bishop Usher were made by commission consisting of the archdeacon and one of the 

 canons, though they ran in his own name ; ' James, by divine pity, archbishop of Armagh and primate 

 and metropolitan of all Ireland, also commendatory bishop of the diocese of Carlisle ' (Carl. Epis. Reg. 

 Usher, ff. 314-7). Very few of his acts are on record, and only those between 15 April and 3 November 

 1643. 



2 Narrative of the Siege of Carlisle in 1644 and 1645, ed. S. Jefferson, pp. 1-48. 



3 The articles of surrender have been preserved by Hugh Todd (Account of the City and Diocese of 

 Carlisle (Cumbld. and Westmorld. Arch. Soc.), pp. 23-6). Todd's account of what took place during 

 the Civil War may be accepted as satisfactory, inasmuch as he lived so near the times which he described. 

 He was a Cumberland man, and must have been acquainted with many of the actors in these great events. 



* Sufferings of the Clergy, i. 51. 



6 Nicolson, English Hist. Library, second ed. p. 127. 



8 On the fly-leaf of the register of that parish we find the following memorandum in a neat bold hand : 

 ' Cumberland, Roecliffe, at Easter, 1679. John Litle and Jeff. Urwin being ch[urch]wardens. This 

 register book was bought at ye instigation of Mr. Tho. Stalker, Mr. A. Coll. Reg. Oxon., curate yn of 

 this ch. of Roecliffe, lect'. of St. Cuthberts, Carlile, and minor canon of ye cathed". ch. in yt citty. 

 There was not one yr before for many yeares, being taken away, with other utensills of ye church, by 

 Scotts armyes, and last of all by Ld. Duke Hamilton's in ye year 1648.' 



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