RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



to occupy them immediately. 1 The cloisters 

 were sometimes utilized as a storehouse for 

 the provisions of the army. It was one of 

 the complaints against Sir Andrew de Harcla 

 in 1319 that his brother John broke through 

 the wall of the ' lunge celer ' in the priory 

 and the doors of others, and took out twenty 

 tuns of the ' lite ' of the king's wine. 2 



The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

 was a conspicuous figure among the ' orna- 

 ments ' of the cathedral, as we should expect 

 in a church entitled in her name. If we con- 

 sider the ecclesiastical relation of the cathedral 

 to the diocese we can in a measure under- 

 stand the meaning of Bishop Welton's phrase 

 when he spoke of the people under his juris- 

 diction as ' the subjects of God and the glori- 

 ous Virgin Mary, His mother, in whose 

 honour the said church was erected.' 3 The 

 cult of the Virgin was a devotional instinct 

 of considerable power in the religious life of 

 the city and diocese of Carlisle. In 1363 

 Bishop Appleby obtained from the pope 

 indulgences extending over ten years for 

 penitents who visited the cathedral (which 

 had been burned) on the five feasts of the 

 Blessed Virgin, or who lent a helping hand 

 to the fabric. 4 When the Scots were 

 assaulting Carlisle in the time of Richard II., 

 a woman appeared to them and announced 

 the near approach of the king's army, but 

 that woman, said Henry of Knighton, 6 was 

 believed to be the glorious Virgin Mary, 

 the patroness of Carlisle, who had often 

 appeared to the inhabitants of that city. In 

 1380 Joan, wife of John de Dundrawe, be- 

 queathed a girdle wrought in silver for the 

 image of the Blessed Mary in the cathedral. 6 

 The prior and convent, inflamed with the 

 energy of pious devotion, made application to 

 Bishop Close and Archbishop Kempe in 1451 

 for an indulgence to aid them in procuring 

 a richly decorated statue of the Virgin for the 

 cathedral of Carlisle. Nothing would satisfy 

 them short of an image or statue covered with 

 plates of silver and overlaid with gold, gems, 

 precious stones, and many other costly orna- 

 ments, for the praise of God, the increase of 

 the veneration and honour of the most glori- 

 ous Virgin and for provoking the devotion of 

 Christ's faithful people daily flocking there on 

 pilgrimage. 7 In 1469 John Knoblow, parson 



Cal. of Doe. Scot. (Scot. Rec. Pub.), ii. 488. 

 Ibid. iii. 127. 



Carl. Epis. Reg., Welton, f. 109. 

 Cal. of Papal Petitions, i. 437. 

 Twysden, Decent Scriptures, col. 2675. 

 Carl. Epis. Reg., Appleby, f. 327. 

 7 The Priory of Hexham (Surtees Soc.), i. pp. 

 xcvii.-xcviii. 



of Lamplugh, gave a legacy to the prior and 

 convent that five candles might be lighted in 

 honour of the five joys of the Blessed Virgin 

 in front of her image in the conventual church 

 every night after compline when the antiphon, 

 Salve Regina, was sung. 8 This fervid devo- 

 tion to sumptuous imagery was general 

 throughout the diocese in the fourteenth and 

 fifteenth centuries. 9 



Though it was a special veneration for the 

 Blessed Virgin which was the chief cause of 

 making Carlisle a place of pilgrimage, its 

 possession of some relics of the saints contri- 

 buted not a little to its fame. According to 

 a statement of J. Denton, 10 Waldeve son of 

 Earl Gospatric brought from Jerusalem and 

 Constantinople a bone of St. Paul, and another 

 of St. John the Baptist, two stones of Christ's 

 sepulchre, and part of the Holy Cross, which 

 he gave to the priory. There can be no 

 doubt that Alan son of the said Waldeve gave 

 the Holy Rood which was in their possession 

 as late as the fourteenth century. But it is 

 not stated whether or not it was part of the 

 real cross of our Lord. 11 Waldeve and Alan 

 were great benefactors of the church of Car- 

 lisle in various other ways. As Hugh de 

 Morvill, one of the assassins of Archbishop 

 Becket, had a family connection with the 

 diocese, it is not to be wondered at that some 

 relics of the martyr should find their way to 

 Carlisle. In the early years of the thirteenth 

 century, when John de Courcy founded an 

 establishment of regular canons at Toberglorie 

 in the suburb of Downpatrick (Dun) in 

 Ulster, and made it a cell of Carlisle, the new 

 institution was entitled in the honour of St. 

 Thomas the martyr out of respect to the 

 canons of the mother house. 13 At that date 



8 Richmondshire Wills (Surtees Soc.), 7. 



9 When Bishop Bell rebuilt the chapel at Rose 

 Castle in 1489 he purchased three images at York 

 for its decoration (Compotus W. Skelton, MS.). 

 In 1359 Jhn Lowry made a bequest in his will 

 for painting the image of the Holy Rood in the 

 church of Arthuret, and in 1362 Robert de Why- 

 terigg expressed a wish to be buried in the choir 

 of Caldbeck before the image of St. Mary Mag- 

 dalene (Carl. Epis. Reg., Welton, ff. 60, 103). 

 Richard de Aslacby, vicar of St. Michael's, 

 Appleby, desired his body to be buried coram Cruce 

 in his own church, and Nicholas de Motherby 

 bequeathed the modest sum of izd. in 1362 for 

 the use of the Holy Rood in the church of 

 Soureby (ibid. ff. 102, 178). 



10 Cumberland, 99. 



11 Dugdale, Man. iii. 584-5 ; Cal. of Doc. Scot. 

 (Scot. Rec. Pub.), ii. 16. 



12 Pat. 12 Edw. II. pt. i. m. 19 ; Dugdale, Man. 

 vi. 145. Edward II. confirmed to the canons of 

 Carlisle all those donations ' quas Johannes de 



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