A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



and its abbot was for a time a lord of parliament/ The number of 

 monks varied according to the political state of the country. In 1379 

 the abbot and fourteen monks contributed to the royal subsidy, but at 

 the time of the dissolution the surrender of the abbey was signed by the 

 abbot and twenty-four brethren. All the houses on the border were 

 subject to vicissitude. In times of special distress, when the Scots were 

 successful in frequent raids, the revenues were found incapable of support- 

 ing the inmates, and orders had to be issued to houses in more peaceable 

 parts of the kingdom to admit brethren of the northern monasteries to 

 hospitality till the pressure was relaxed. 



It is a peculiar feature of monastic history on the border that the 

 heads of religious houses were not exempt from the international custom 

 of trial by battle which prevailed in the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 

 turies. In spite of condemnation by the highest authorities, 1 the duel 

 was observed among clerics as well as laymen. In 1216 Pope Inno- 

 cent III. issued his famous bull contra duellum religiosi to all the faith- 

 ful throughout the province of York and realm of Scotland, describing 

 ' the pestiferous custom ' then in fashion between the two kingdoms as 

 quite contrary to the law and honesty of the church. ' Even to this day 

 its observance is so far abused,' he said, ' that if a bishop, abbot or any 

 cleric happened to be prosecuted for an offence for which the duel was 

 wont to be fought between laymen, the religious man was compelled to 

 undergo the duel in person.' 8 Some years later, in 1237, the clergy of 

 England presented a list of grievances which they wished Henry III. to 

 redress. In one of the articles it is declared that by the command of the 

 kings of England and Scotland not simply clerics but also abbots and 

 priors in the diocese of Carlisle were forced to fight with lances and 

 swords the duel which was called Acra on the marches of the realms. 

 An abbot or prior, whatever his dignity or order, was obliged to 

 sustain the combat in person or to provide a champion. If the cham- 

 pion succumbed, he was slain, and the abbot or prior, who was a prisoner 

 on the scene of battle, was likewise beheaded. 4 Though the clergy 

 petitioned that so detestable an abuse should be no longer allowed with 

 respect to ecclesiastical persons, churchmen remained subject to the duel 

 in the border laws promulgated in 1249.' As late as 1279 we have an 

 instance of preparation for a duel at Appleby before the justices itinerant 

 between the champions of the abbot of Furness 8 and Roger son of Ralf 



1 Par/. Writs (Rec. Com.), i. I, 25, 72 ; ii. 37 ; Lords' Report on the Dignity of a Peer (Index 

 Summonitionum). 



" The ordeal by hot or cold water or hot iron was condemned by the Lateran Council of 1215 

 (Landon, Manual of Councils, i. 331). Henry III. instructed the justices itinerant in Cumberland and 

 Westmorland in 1219 to discontinue the custom 'cum prohibitum sit per ecclesiam Romanam judicium 

 Ignis et Aquae ' (Pat. 3 Hen. III. m. 5). 



3 Reg. Epis. Glasguensis (Bannatyne Club), i. 94. In 1176 a letter was obtained from Henry II. 

 in which he declared ' that no cleric should be forced to fight the duel' (Ralph de Diceto, Of era [Rolls 

 Ser.], i. 410). 



* Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i. 256-7. 



6 Nicolson, Leges Marchiarum, 8. 



6 For some churchmen's champions see Neilson's Trial by Combat, 503, which is considered the 

 standard authority on this subject. 



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