RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



a similar commission over the whole order of 

 friars preachers for the purpose of visiting the 

 houses of all friars of whatever order through- 

 out the kingdom, viz. the friars minors of 

 the order of St. Francis, the friars preachers 

 of the order of St. Dominic, the friars her- 

 mits of the order of St. Augustine, the 

 Carmelite friars of the order of St. Mary, 

 and the crossed friars, and making inquiry 

 concerning their lives, morals and fealty to 

 the king. If needful, they were authorized 

 to instruct them how to conduct themselves 

 with safety, to reduce them to uniformity, 

 calling in the aid of the secular arm as occasion 

 required. 1 This visitation was the precursor 

 of their destruction. 



In the spring of 1539, the task of sup- 

 pressing the northern houses of friars was en- 

 trusted to the capable hands of Richard, Bishop 

 of Dover. Writing from Lincoln on the first 

 Sunday in Lent, he conveyed to Cromwell 

 the sentence of their impending doom in these 

 words : ' I trosteyd to a made an ende of the 

 vesytacyon : but I am certefyyd that yet ther 

 be stondeyng in the north parte above xx 

 placeys of freyrs, as in Grantham, in Newarke, 

 in Grymsseby, in Hull, in Beverley, in Schar- 

 borow, in Carlehyll, in Lancaster, and in 

 dyverse placeys more, for the which howseys 

 I well serge so that I trost to leve but fewe 

 in Ynglond before Ester, and I thyngke yt 

 woll be ner Ester or that I can make an ende, 

 besecheyng yower lordschyp to be good lorde 



for the pore ffreyrs capacytes : they be very 

 pore and can have lytyll serves withowtt ther 

 capacytes. The byschoyppys and curettes be 

 very hard to them, withowtt they have ther 

 capacytes.' 3 Pursuing his way northward 

 and finding nothing but ' povertye and lytyll 

 lefte scarce to pay the dettes, so that in these 

 houses the king's Grace shall have butt the 

 lede,' he arrived at Grimsby, from which he 

 intimated to the Lord Privy Seal on 'thys 

 xxix day off February ' (i March) that he was 

 riding ' to Hull, and so to Beverlaye and to 

 Skarborrowe and Karlehyll, and to Lancaster, 

 and other houses as I shall here off by the 

 waye.' 4 Before the close of 1539, the four 

 houses of friars were swept away and their sites 

 leased or sold, with the exception of the buildings 

 of the black friars in Carlisle, which were re- 

 tained in the king's hand, enclosed with a paling, 

 and converted into a council chamber, maga- 

 zine and storehouse for the convenience of 

 the garrison. Nothing now remains but the 

 name to tell of their former occupation. 

 Blackfriars Street on the west walls preserves 

 the name and indicates the site of the friars 

 preachers, as Friars Court behind Devonshire 

 Street marks the locality of the minorites or 

 grey friars in Carlisle. In Penrith the 

 Augustinians are commemorated in a house 

 called the Friary and a street known as Friars 

 Gate. The name and the site of the Car- 

 melites in Appleby have altogether dis- 

 appeared. 



HOSPITALS 



12. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. 

 NICHOLAS, CARLISLE 



The vicissitudes of the hospital of St. 

 Nicholas, Carlisle, the best known house in 

 the county, display many features of great 

 interest in the history of eleemosynary institu- 

 tions. It was of royal foundation at some 

 period before the reign of King John, but the 

 name of the founder or the date of the foun- 

 dation has not been preserved. Hugh Todd, 

 a former canon of Carlisle, ascribed the foun- 

 dation to William Rufus, 8 the most unlikely 

 of all the kings. As its records and muni- 

 ments perished after the outbreak of the wars 

 of Edward I. with Scotland, when the hos- 

 pital was plundered and burnt, its early history 

 must remain in comparative obscurity. Only 

 two deeds of endowment, which are of any 



1 Pat. 25 Hen. VIII. pt. ii. m. 6d ; L. and 

 P. Hen. nil. vii. 587 (18). 



2 Notitia Eccl. Cath. Carl. (Cumb. and Westmld. 

 Arch. Soc.), 35. 



199 



value, are known to exist, and these are on 

 record in the register of Bishop Kirkby. 



The first reference to the hospital that has 

 as yet come to light is a letter of protec- 

 tion from King John sent in 1201 to the 

 lepers of Carlisle. 8 About the same date we 

 have a charter from Hugh de Morvill endow- 

 ing the hospital of St. Nicholas outside the 

 city of Carlisle with a ploughland of his de- 

 mesne in the village of Hoff near Appleby, 

 the land and goods of Richard the smith of 

 Burgh, his villein, 40*. of land in Thurston- 

 feld, and other lands and rents elsewhere on 

 the condition of finding one chaplain to 

 celebrate divine offices for the souls of the 

 faithful, and maintaining, with the consent of 

 the master and brethren, three infirm brothers 



B.M. Cott. MS. Cleopatra E, iv. f. 212 ; 

 Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (Camden 

 Soc.), 191-3. 



' L. and P. Hen. 7111. xiv. (i.), 413; Ellis, 

 Original Letters, ser. 3, iii. 179-81. 



6 Rot. Chart. 2 John (Rec. Com.), loib. 



