RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



valued at the small sum of seven marks. 1 

 The chief relic to which the monks of 

 St. Bees paid veneration was the bracelet 

 above mentioned, which St. Bega left behind 

 her on her flight from Cumberland. In the 

 legendary life of the saint several stories are 

 told of the power of this talisman. It had 

 been the means of convincing Walter Espec, 

 the great Yorkshire baron, that he was claim- 

 ing wrongfully some possessions of the abbey 

 of St. Mary, York ; and it brought destruc- 

 tion on Adam, son of Ailsi, who had forsworn 

 himself in favour of the lord of Coupland on 

 the subject of the Noutgeld to the detri- 

 ment of the people of that district. On one 

 occasion, when the holy bracelet was exhi- 

 bited in public on account of its great sanc- 

 tity, a certain perverse creature sacrilegiously 

 stole the precious cloth in which it had been 

 wrapped and hid it in his boot. By the ven- 

 geance of St. Bega the leg of the thief became 

 paralysed, and thus was his sin discovered. 

 Having been carried to the priory church, he 

 confessed his guilt, and his leg was restored to 

 its original soundness by the goodness of the 

 most merciful Virgin, who is wont to pity 

 those who are truly penitent. There can be 

 no doubt that the bracelet of St. Bega was a 

 powerful institution in Coupland. The monks 

 used it to give special sanction to their agree- 

 ments. Obligations were rendered pre-emin- 

 ently binding and sacred when they were 

 made on the bracelet. For instance, John 

 de Hale, for the greater security of faithfully 

 observing his obligation, bound himself and 

 his heirs on his corporal oath by touching the 

 holy relics et super armillam sancte Bege. The 

 touching of the relics was the usual mode of 

 taking an oath, but in matters of high im- 

 portance the bargain was made upon the 

 bracelet as the means of giving it the greatest 

 sanction. 



The priory appears to have had little deal- 

 ings with the ecclesiastical world in its papal 

 or diocesan aspect. There are few papal 

 documents in the register. Far removed 

 from the centre of the great diocese of York, 

 it pursued the even tenor of its way in soli- 

 tude. It is true there are some deeds of the 

 mother house of St. Mary and some com- 

 missions from the archbishop with the men- 

 tion here and there of an archdeacon of Rich- 

 mond, but they are comparatively few in 



1 Nine deeds connected with this transaction 

 have been printed in a summary by Dugdale 

 (Dugdale, Man. iii. 575-6) from the Cotton MS., 

 but they have been given more at length by 

 Reeves (Eccl. Antiq. of Down, 187-97). The Cotton 

 Roll is much mutilated, but Dr. Reeves has 

 deciphered the material parts of the charters. 



number. Unlike the religious houses or the 

 county within the bounds of the see of 

 Carlisle, episcopal authority was seldom in- 

 voked for the purpose of discipline or for the 

 confirmation of the acts of the convent. At 

 some date between 1154 and 1181 Arch- 

 bishop Roger of Pont 1'Eveque confirmed to 

 the priory all their churches, chapels and 

 tithes in Coupland, with the lands belonging 

 to them, viz. the churches of Workington, 

 Gosforth, Corney, Bootle, Whitbeck and 

 Whicham ; the chapels of Harrington, Clif- 

 ton, Loweswater, and the chapel and tithes 

 of Weddicar. He also freed the church of 

 St. Bees for ever from attendance on synods, 

 and from all aids to archbishop or archdeacon, 

 at the same time granting the priory dis- 

 ciplinary powers to deal with the clergy of 

 their appropriate churches. Except for the 

 short period during the reign of Stephen, 

 when David, King of Scots, exercised 

 sovereignty over Cumberland as far south as 

 the river Duddon, the kings claimed no royal 

 prerogative in confirming the charters of this 

 house. 



The priors of St. Bees did not take a pro- 

 minent part in the public affairs of church or 

 state. Some of them, like Alan de Nesse, 

 Roger Kirkeby and Edmund Thornton, rose 

 to high dignity on becoming abbots of York ; 

 but few of the others were known outside 

 their immediate surroundings. In 1219 Pope 

 Honorius III. appointed the priors of St. Bees, 

 Lancaster and Cartmel to determine a dis- 

 pute between the abbot of Furness and the 

 vicars of Dalton and Urswick about the right 

 of burial in the chapelry of Hawkshead ; they 

 delivered judgment in favour of the monas- 

 tery, and ordered the chapel yard to be con- 

 secrated for sepulture. At a later date 

 Gregory IX. delegated plenary authority to 

 the priors of the same houses as a sort of 

 ecclesiastical syndicate to dissolve sentences 

 of excommunication and interdict against the 

 Cistercian monasteries of the province of 

 York. 3 It will be seen from the list of 

 priors that we have been able to collect how 

 few of them had attained to anything like 

 distinction in the general history of the 

 county. Perhaps the geographical isolation 

 of the district had a depressing effect on the 

 chances to promotion of its leading eccle- 

 siastical magnates. 



John Matthew, who was prior while the 

 clouds were beginning to gather around the 

 monastic houses, was not a favourite with 

 his superior, William, abbot of York. In a 

 letter ascribed to the year 1533, the abbot 



181 



Beck, Ann. Furnes'unses, 43, 181, 185. 



