ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



some and difficult. Though the new bishop met with many obstacles, 

 something was done during his short episcopate to bring order out of 

 chaos and to equip his diocese with the necessary agencies. Much of 

 his attention at the outset was engrossed with the arrangement of the 

 revenues and temporal concerns of the see ; but it cannot be said that 

 the spiritual wants of the people were overlooked. The bulk of the 

 incumbents returned to their episcopal allegiance, but those who had 

 been made ministers according to the rites which obtained during the 

 Commonwealth were objects of sympathy and concern. Few of these 

 ministers awaited the passing of the Bartholomew Act in 1662 to 

 be driven from their parishes. The tide of adversity had set in, and 

 nobly bowing to the inevitable they retired without compulsion. 

 Dr. Gilpin quietly relinquished the cure of Greystoke to William 

 Morland, the former rector, who had been ejected in 1650. Some 

 of the leaders among the presbyterians and independents followed his 

 example. When Bishop Sterne put the Act of Uniformity into 

 force he found a general inclination to accept it. As the organization 

 and visitation of the diocese proceeded the bishop introduced a moderate 

 system of ecclesiastical discipline ; he pressed the obligation of the 

 festivals and fasts of the church on the observance of the faithful l ; and 

 he took steps ' to afford the rite and benefit of Confirmation by prayer 

 and imposition of hands upon all such people as shall come duely prepared 

 for the receiving of the same.' It may be said that while Bishop Sterne 

 ruled the diocese of Carlisle, he gave no indications of possessing those 

 untoward qualities of popery, sourness, and ill-temper with which 

 Burnet * has loaded his memory. 



The attention of Bishop Rainbow, during the early years of his 

 episcopate, was directed to the supply of spiritual ministrations and the 

 lawful performance of divine service in the parish churches. The 

 diocese had not yet recovered from the devastation of the Cromwellian 

 period. In many parishes little provision was made for the due celebra- 

 tion of the sacraments. To remedy these defects he bent all his energies. 

 Visiting the dean and chapter on 6 September 1666, he found the 

 cathedral staff to consist of thirty-six persons a dean, four prebendaries, 

 six minor canons, a master of choristers, six choristers, six lay singing 

 men, a verger (virgtfer), a subsacrist, six almsmen, a gate-keeper, a 

 butler, a cook (who seems to have been considered a person of some 

 consequence in the community), and an assistant cook. It then trans- 

 pired that the necessary instruments for the performance of divine 

 service had been provided with the exception of ornaments such as copes, 

 etc., which were promised in a short time. The chapter also reported 

 to the bishop that ' some of the church utensils were imbezilled in the 

 late times of usurpation, as the brazen eagle upon which ye chapters 

 were read.' 3 For the purpose of meeting the wants of the parish 



Carl. Epis. Reg. Sterne, ff. 199, 257-8. 



Hist, of His Own Time, Oxford, 1823, ii. 427. 



Carl. Epis. Reg. Rainbow, ff. 410-1 ; Chapter Minute Books, MS. viii. 468. 



n 97 13 



