A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



Americ Thebert, rector of Dalston, was promoted to the archdeaconry in 1 196, the revenues 

 of that church became contributory to the support of the office. By ordination of Bishop 

 Irton in 1285, a third portion of the fruits of Dalston was annexed to the archdeaconry propter 

 evidentem ipsius exilitatem,the amount in 1292 being as much as 15.' For some years the 

 pension continued to be paid, but it appears to have ceased after the church was appropriated 

 to the bishop's table in I3O7- 2 It is not known at what time the rectory of Great Salkeld, 

 granted to Bishop Walter on 27 September, i2T,j, 3 became annexed to the archdeaconry, 

 but there is no doubt that it had been enjoyed by the archdeacons of Carlisle from the close 

 of the thirteenth century till 1855, when a canonry in the cathedral was substituted by Order 

 in Council. 4 



Another source of revenue arose from the procurations paid by parish churches to meet 

 the expenses of the archdeacon's visitation. These parochial dues were of prescriptive obliga- 

 tion. The payment was a natural sequence of archidiaconal visitation. When the church of 

 Newton Arlosh was founded in 1 304, Bishop Halton made it clear in the deed of consecration 

 that the incumbent should pay the archdeacon forty pence by way of procuration. 8 The arch- 

 deacon of Carlisle was invested with a nominal or inquisitorial jurisdiction as ' the eye of the 

 bishop ' for the purpose of visiting churches and clergy and reporting to his diocesan what he 

 had seen and heard. His visitations came under the administrative surveillance of the dio- 

 cesan synod, which, as occasion required, laid down rules for his guidance. By a constitution 

 of the Carlisle synod in the fourteenth century, it was declared that procurations were due to 

 the archdeacon on the principle that ' the labourer was worthy of his hire,' but the clergy in- 

 sisted on the application of another maxim when that officer did not visit, namely, that no 

 procurations should be paid, ' for if a man did not work, he should not eat.' This synod 

 enacted that procurations in all cases should be moderate for man and beast, and that the arch- 

 deacon's retinue should not exceed what was allowed by the constitutions of the church. 6 

 The necessity for synodical supervision is evident from the proceedings of Archdeacon Richard 

 called ' de Lyth,' who was punished in 1291 for exacting immoderate procurations from the 

 rectors of the diocese, inasmuch as the number of persons who attended him consumed more 

 victuals than the amount of the legal dues. 7 



The collection of procurations was a constant source of trouble to the archdeacons of 

 Carlisle. Again and again did the bishop instruct his rural deans to exhort the clergy to 

 an immediate discharge of their obligations. 8 In some cases when they were too backward, 

 the archdeacon was authorized to proceed against them by the weapons of ecclesiastical censure, 

 suspension, excommunication, and interdict in the diocesan court. 8 But it should not be for- 

 gotten that all these things took place by the exercise of the bishop's authority alone. It was 

 the bishop who sent out his rural deans to warn the clergy of the archdeacon's visitation, 

 and it was he who dealt with them for the non-payment of their archidiaconal obligations. 

 Bishop Halton complained in 1318 that the archdeacon's procurations could not be recovered 

 because the churches were burnt and travelling was so perilous that no visitations could be 

 undertaken. 10 But a time came when there was an archdeacon who could visit, and who caused 

 a commotion in the diocese by claiming co-ordinate jurisdiction with the bishop. In many 

 respects the vagaries of Archdeacon William de Kendale are most interesting in diocesan 

 history. Provoked by the execution of a papal writ in negocio provisario without authority, 

 Bishop Kirkby wisely grappled with the situation by issuing a commission to review the ecclesi- 

 astical status of his subordinate, including his title to hold the church of Great Salkeld and to 



Reg. Abp. Romanus of York, MS. f. 131 ; Taxatio Eccl. (Rec. Com.), p. 318. 



a Archdeacon Appleby, in a return of the emoluments of his benefice in 1 366, reported to the bishop 

 that ' the portion of the archdeacon in the church of Dalston was taxed at 15, of which he had never 

 received anything, nor any of his predecessors, for forty years as he had heard ' (Carl. Epis. Reg. Appleby, 

 MS. f. 152). 



3 Chart. R. 21 Hen. III. No. 31, m. 2. In 1262 the patronage was in dispute between the bishop 

 of Carlisle and the King of Scotland (Close, 46 Hen. III. m. izd ; Rymer, Fcedera (ed. 1816), i. 417). 

 The bishop maintained his right to the patronage in 1292, when Richard de Whitby was persona im- 

 personata of Salkeld and archdeacon of Carlisle (Quo Warranto [Rec. Com.], p. 116). From 

 the latter date at least the rectory was annexed to the archdeaconry. 



* Carl. Epis. Reg. Villiers, MS. ff. 64-6. 



e Harl. MSS. (Reg. of Holmcultram), 3911, ff. 7-8, 3891, ff. 20-1. 



o Carl. Epis. Reg. Wei ton, ff. 135-6. 



' Cat. of Papal Letters, i. 538. Carl. Epis. Reg. Welton, f. 18. 



Ibid. ff. 25, 35. 10 Ibid. Halton, ff. 209-10. 



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