RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



choose the ablest and fittest of the candidates 

 and induct him to the office. 1 A similar 

 custom was observed in 1338-9, when Bishop 

 John de Kirkby was residing at Horncastle, 

 with respect to the vacant office of sub-prior. 

 The official of the diocese was commissioned 

 to select the fitter of two canons, R. Paule 

 and T. de Stanlaw, submitted to him for the 

 post. 3 In 1379 the tenure of the office of 

 cellarer came before Bishop Appleby for his 

 decision. For some reasons not stated, Prior 

 John de Penreth removed Robert de Clifton 

 from his office without the consent of the 

 majority of the chapter, which caused dis- 

 sension and discord in the house. Both 

 parties submitted the dispute to the bishop, 

 who ordered the restoration of the cellarer to 

 his office as he had been irregularly deposed. 3 



In no instance have we met with the de- 

 privation of a prior of Carlisle, 4 though Bishop 

 Halton was obliged to deliver stern injunctions 

 to Prior Adam de Warthwyk, and Bishops 

 Ross and Appleby were reduced to the ex- 

 tremity of excommunicating Priors John de 

 Kirkby and William de Dalston respectively. 

 Many examples of resignation are on record. 

 Pensions were allowed to the retiring priors 

 and suitable provision was made in accord- 

 ance with their exalted station for the rest of 

 their lives. These pensions were voted by 

 the canons as a charge upon their revenues 

 and approved by the bishop. In cases, of 

 course, where the voidance arose from pre- 

 ferment, no pension was assigned. 



The bishops of Carlisle possessed an undis- 

 puted power of visitation of the convent, which 

 they exercised as occasion called. Individual 

 bishops as a rule took an early opportunity 

 after their appointment to make a general 

 visitation of the diocese, in which not un- 

 frequently the priory of Carlisle was included. 

 At other times they visited when a cause of 

 dispute or some irregularity in the house was 

 brought to their notice. The results of some 

 of these visitations are not devoid of interest. 

 In 1301, after Bishop Halton had visited by 

 his ordinary authority the convent as well in 

 head as in members at the request of Adam de 

 Warthwyk the prior, and inspected the state 

 of the institution within and without, he de- 

 livered a series of injunctions to the prior 



1 Carl. Epis. Reg., Ross, f. 265. 



' Ibid. Kirkby, f. 390. 



3 Ibid. Appleby, ff. 319-20. 



* Bishop Nicolson stated in his ' Case of the 

 Bishop of Carlisle ' that his predecessors had ' cor- 

 rected and sometimes deprived the priors for mis- 

 application of the common revenues ' (Letters of 

 Bp. Nicolson, pp. 341-2), but we have been un- 

 able to verify the statement. 



which show us how indispensable was the 

 episcopal oversight to the internal discipline 

 of the capitular body. By the depositions of 

 certain canons of the said monastery examined 

 according to custom, a copy of which was 

 sent to Prior Warthwyk, the following charges 

 were preferred against him : negligence and 

 remissness in the discipline of his house con- 

 trary to the statutes of the order ; his house- 

 hold was much too expensive in those days 

 (familia vestra est nimis honerosa bits dtebui) ; 

 in preferring and removing obedientiaries and 

 in other matters affecting the house, he con- 

 sulted only with Brothers Robert Karlile, 

 William de Hautwysil, and William de Mel- 

 burne, the advice of the rest of the chapter 

 having been wholly omitted and despised con- 

 trary to the decrees of the holy fathers ; in- 

 competency to rule the priory, inasmuch as, 

 owing to his failings, order was not preserved 

 among the brethren, the business of the house 

 was not transacted, and its goods were wasted 

 beyond measure by his expensive entourage ; 

 by appropriating the perquisites of his court he 

 had received the gressoms and profits of the 

 green seal (gersummas et appruyamenta viridis 

 cere], had held in his own hand for three years 

 and more the grange of Newbiggin, whereof 

 he received the issues and spent it at his own 

 free will without consulting the majority of 

 the convent, had returned no account con- 

 trary to the statute of the Legate ' de rat- 

 iociniis reddendis,' and worst of all he had 

 converted the proceeds to his own private 

 uses contrary to the vow of his profession ; 

 misappropriation of the profits of the trade in 

 wine and other merchandise which Brother 

 W. de Melburne carried on with his conniv- 

 ance without rendering any account ; holding 

 back money due from the tenants of the 

 monastery and converting it to his own use, 

 till the treasurer and barons of the Exchequer 

 made a levy on the common goods of the 

 house to its great damage and loss ; the em- 

 ployment for a long time of W. the clerk, as 

 a sower of discord between the brethren in his 

 own interest ; improvident concession of a 

 corrody to Stephen, rector of Castle Carrock, 

 for 4 without converting the money to the 

 use of the house ; letting to farm the houses 

 and courts of his manors of Corbridge and 

 Wyden without the knowledge or consent of 

 the convent to its great detriment ; failure 

 to account for 100 marks paid to him by 

 Master W. de Lowther in the name of the 

 monastery, and 200 of old money and 40 

 marks of new money left in the treasury by 

 Robert the late prior ; appropriation to his 

 own use of the profits of a ship made at the 

 costs of the house ; by reason of his negli- 



133 



