RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



parish churches was preserved and perpetuated 

 by an annual homage made by the parish 

 priests during the week after Pentecost. 

 Though the practice was not confined to the 

 church of Carlisle, it is interesting to notice 

 how jealously the bishops of that see insisted 

 on its observance. In 1372 Bishop Appleby, 

 on the complaint of the prior and sacrist that 

 some of the rectors and vicars failed to put 

 in an appearance, issued a mandate to the 

 official of the diocese to proceed against the 

 truants. The clergy were bound, the man- 

 date continued, to visit the cathedral church 

 once a year and to join in the procession in 

 their surplices with the cross carried before 

 them (pracessiona liter in superpelliciis crucem ante 

 se deferri facientes), and to do other things 

 requisite to show the reverence due from them 

 to the bishop's seat. This custom which had 

 been observed ab antiquo should on no account 

 be allowed to fall into disuse. It was one of 

 the most beautiful and instructive phases of 

 medieval ritual in its assertion of the corporate 

 life and work of the church. From a sub- 

 sequent mandate in 1386 we learn that the 

 procession wended its way up to the high 

 altar when the clergy made their oblations due 

 to God as a sign of their subjection to the 

 cathedral church. 1 In this way annually, on 

 some appointed day in Whitsun week, the 

 clergy paid the cathedraticum due from every 

 benefice in token of subjection to the bishop's 

 jurisdiction and of allegiance to the church 

 which represented the unity of the diocese. 



Processions of various descriptions were not 

 of unfrequent occurrence at the cathedral, 

 inasmuch as it usually led the way in all 

 matters affecting the welfare of the district. 

 It was to the prior and official of Carlisle that 

 the bishop addressed himself in 1365, when 

 he instituted special processions with the sol- 

 emn chanting of the seven penitential psalms, 

 the litany and other suitable prayers to be 

 undertaken in the cathedral and all churches 

 collegiate and non-collegiate throughout the 

 diocese, for good weather. The autumn of 

 that year was remarkable for violent storms 

 of wind and rain and the crops were much 

 injured by the rains and floods. 3 Much the 

 same procedure took place when processions 

 were ordered as propitiatory ceremonies for 

 the averting of a threatened pestilence or for 

 success of the English arms against the Scots. 3 

 Another great day in the Christian year at 

 Carlisle was Ash Wednesday, when penitents 

 flocked from places far and near to receive 



i Carl. Epis. Reg., Appleby, ff. 250, 361. 

 a Ibid. ff. 144, 203. 

 Ibid. Kirkby, f. 371. 



the sacrament of reconciliation in the mother 

 church of the diocese. It was the privilege 

 of the bishop to attend personally on these 

 occasions, but in his absence the duty was 

 assigned to the prior. It was by the bishop's 

 licence or commission that the prior was able 

 to introduce penitents into the cathedral and 

 reconcile them to the church ut est moris.* 



A peculiar privilege was enjoyed by the 

 prior and convent on very high authority. 

 Pope Alexander IV. granted them an indult 

 in 1258 to wear birettas or caps in the choir 

 on account of the cold, provided they were 

 removed at the Gospel and the elevation in 

 time of mass. 5 At a subsequent period, when 

 the utilitarian convenience of the privilege 

 was forgotten, the canons of Carlisle were 

 collated to their prebends by the delivery of a 

 biretta (per byretti nostri traditionem) from the 

 bishop, perhaps, like the verge or rod in civil 

 life, as a symbol of seisin. This custom was 

 in force at Carlisle throughout the reign of 

 Elizabeth." 



From an early period the enclosure of the 

 priory or monastic precinct at Carlisle has 

 been called ' The Abbey,' though the church 

 had never an abbot distinct from the bishop. 

 Freeman 7 has pointed out that the same 

 peculiarity existed at Bath and Durham. 8 



Ibid. Welton, ff. 1 6, 25. 

 Cal. of Papal Letters (Rolls Ser.), i. 361. 

 " Carl. Epis. Reg., Barnes, ff. 35, 61, 84, 93, 

 etc. ; Letters of Bp. Nicolson (ed. J. Nichols), 335-6. 



7 William Rufus, i. 139. 



8 As the antiquity of the usage at Carlisle has 

 been called in question, it may be convenient to 

 trace it back far enough to show that it is not of 

 modern introduction. At the time of the eccle- 

 siastical survey in 1535, via abbathie was the name 

 of the street whith connected the north-west gate 

 of the precincts with the Caldew gate of the city 

 (Valor Ecd. [Rec. Com.], v. 277). In 1488 the 

 bishop was said to be in abbatbia (Diocesan MS. 

 3 and 4 Hen. VII.). In 1388 the priory is de- 

 scribed as St. Mary's Abbey (Cal. of Doc. Scot. iv. 

 75) ; and in 1299 it is again referred to as the 

 abbey (ibid. ii. 285). Hemingburgh, describing 

 the destruction of Carlisle by fire in 1292, particu- 

 larly noted that the city cum tola abbatia was burnt 

 and consumed (Chron. [Engl. Hist. Soc.], ii. 40). 

 It is generally supposed that the name had origin- 

 ated from the peculiar position which the bishop 

 is alleged to have occupied as the abbot of his 

 cathedral. The bishop's seat on the south side of 

 the choir, as distinct from his throne, is pointed 

 out as an evidence of the immemorial usage. But 

 no good authority in support of the statement has 

 been found. Local custom gives the bishop the 

 seat of dignity on the south side as the head of the 

 church, and to the dean, as successor of the prior, 

 the corresponding seat on the north side as head 

 of the chapter. By charter of William the Con- 



135 



