ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



is made of the erection of pews, their lease to houses or to individuals, 

 graves in the church, the use of incense for purposes of fumigation. Holy 

 Communion was celebrated at the important parish church of St. Oswald's at 

 rather rare intervals, despite the attempt of Bishop Barnes thirty years before 

 to increase its frequency in the diocese." 9 There was, however, a great 

 annual communion at Easter. The vestry seems to have been duly elected. 

 Mention is made of a church flock at Pittington, 860 of the churchwardens' 

 attendance at visitation, of the payment of rogue money." 1 



Bishop Neile (1617-27) had gained favour with the king in 1614, and 

 accompanied him to Scotland in the tour alluded to above. He was not the 

 least conspicuous in a long line of repairers of the breach, and built much at 

 Auckland, Durham and elsewhere. To him was due the restoration of some 

 of the see houses, notably the castle of Durham. The king made him 

 lieutenant of the bishopric and county of Durham, an office recently instituted 

 and of comparatively brief existence. In the time of Bishop James it had 

 been held by the favourite Somerset. But Neile's importance lies not so 

 much in the general eclat of his episcopate as in the great ceremonial and 

 doctrinal changes with which his name is connected. He came from Lincoln 

 to Durham at the very moment that the new Arminian school of thought 

 was making itself felt in England. The friend and patron of Laud, Neile 

 was now the chief spirit of the new movement, as also an abettor of the 

 king's growing views of the prerogative. As bishop of Durham he had a 

 unique opportunity of spreading ideas which he had conceived during days 

 of rapid promotion and wide experience. Some little sign of sympathy with 

 the rising school had been seen, perhaps, in the transference of the altar in 

 Durham cathedral from its position in the nave to the east end, where it soon 

 became a cause of offence. 8 " This was in 1617 during the vacancy of the 

 see, when a lay dean, Adam Newton, allowed the affairs of the cathedral to 

 fall into neglect through his own non-residence, and probably suffered the 

 prebendaries to do much as they pleased. We can almost trace the formation 

 of the two parties Arminian and Protestant. To the one belonged the 

 Prebendaries Morecroft, 1614, and Burgoyne, 1617, who were joined rather 

 later by Laidsell, 1618, Birkhead, 1620 (when a new dean, Dr. Hunt, 

 appeared on the scene), Marmaduke Blakiston, 1620, Newell (Bishop Neile's 

 half-brother), 1620, James, 1620, and also the archdeacon of Durham, Gabriel 

 Clark, 1621, formerly of Northumberland, 1619."' John Cosin, who joined 

 the capitular body in 1624, was brought into the diocese by Bishop Neile 

 first as master of Greatham Hospital. 8 



354 



** Bishop Barnes enjoined a monthly communion. Surtees Soc. Publ. Izxxiv, p. xiv. 



10 The ' church flock ' is the name given to sheep kept not for pasturing the graveyard (ibid. 4), but as 

 a means of profit to the parish. Their wool was regularly sold. 



11 This yearly payment for the maintenance of prisoners is explained, ibid. 19. 



151 Some information as to the position of the communion table in the diocese is given by Mr. Longstaffe 

 in a paper on the ' Screen of Darlington Church,' Arch. Atl. vii, 248. 



*" The best source of information as to the little coterie of men who made such changes at Durham is 

 the first volume of Bishop Cosin' i Correspondence (Surtees Soc.), 52, where the familiar letters of Cosin, 

 Morecroft and others enable us to catch the spirit of the proceedings. The literature connected with Smart 

 (see below) gives a mass of detail in an unchronological sequence. 



144 Cosin, famous in English church history for his connexion with the Prayer Book of 1662, is a very 

 prominent figure in Durham history. His name will recur. At this point he begins to come forward as 

 the leader of the Arminian movement. He held many preferments in the bishopric, and must be regarded 

 at the Keble of the new school of thought so far as the north was concerned. 



43 



