A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



It was in Bishop Egerton's time that the dean and chapter of Durham 

 Cathedral ordered a survey of the building. This revealed a condition of 

 such insecurity and rapid decay that repairs were begun in 1776, which pro- 

 ceeded with little intermission for many years to come at considerable annual 

 expense. 550 The period is otherwise remarkable as having witnessed the last 

 instances of public penance which have been recorded by tradition. 661 



Bishop Thurlow presided over the see for only four years (1787-91), 

 having won his way to Durham through the good offices of his brother, the 

 Lord Chancellor. He seems to have carried on the easy-going and hospitable 

 traditions of his two predecessors, but nothing that illustrates the church 

 history of his episcopate has been preserved. The one fact that the centenary 

 of the landing of William III was celebrated in all the large towns of the 

 county without riot or disorder goes to prove that the violence of religious 

 dissension had entirely died out at this time, and testifies to the truth of 

 Major Floyd's observations as quoted above. 



With Bishop Barrington (1791-1826) we reach a period which some of 



the oldest inhabitants of the county can just remember. It forms in several 



ways a connecting link with the still older generation that passed away with 



the eighteenth century, and a real point of transition from the old to the new. 



Bishop Barrington came to Durham in the critical days of the French 



Revolution. His charges reflect the excitement and unrest, both religious 



and political, which are characteristic of the years that followed. To meet 



what he considered to be the chief dangers which threatened England in 



consequence of the Revolution he addressed himself with great assiduity to 



a vigorous Protestant campaign and to the improvement of the clergy. 



Son of the first Viscount Barrington, he had inherited his father's strong 



Protestant feeling. His view was that the doctrines and practices of the 



Church of Rome were among the chief causes of the Revolution. To this 



he gave expression in various charges and sermons. At the same time he 



professed himself willing to grant Romanists ' every degree of toleration short 



of political power and establishment.' It was also characteristic of one of 



the most generous of men that he helped the emigrant bishops and clergy of 



France with money and hospitality. One or two of his tracts on the Roman 



question became standard treatises in the religious world, where they long 



maintained their popularity. As to his measures for the improvement of the 



clergy, he set himself to work to introduce into the diocese men of some 



prestige and position who might prove an elevating influence upon the rank 



and file of the clergy throughout the diocese. He brought Archdeacon 



Paley into the diocese in 1795, and made him rector of Bishopwearmouth, 



which was then worth at least >C3>5 a year. Paley's Moral Philosophy, 



published in 1790, was already a Cambridge text-book, and his Evidences 



of Christianity was, in all probability, the immediate cause of his preferment 



by the bishop. Despite ill health in his new home Paley was able to 



complete his Natural Theology whilst rector of Bishopwearmouth. George 



Stanley Faber held more than one benefice by Barrington's collation, and 



550 From Sykes's Loc. Rec. sub anno. 



551 The tradition has been preserved in a footnote by Dr. Barmby, Surtees Soc. Publ. xcv, 1 60. Instances 

 of penance in Durham in the reign of Queen Anne and long after are quoted above. A paper in Arch. del. 

 ii, 59, refers incidentally to contemporary change in the cathedral ceremonies on 29 May. For the blowing 

 in of the east window, ibid, vii, 131. 



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