Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Carlisle Part 11

#William Barrow# (1423-1429), Chancellor of the University of Oxford; translated from Bangor. In 1429 he was one of the commissioners for the truce with Scotland which was concluded at Hawden Stank. He died in 1429, and was buried in the cathedral.

#Marmaduke Lumley# (1430-1450). Educated at Cambridge; Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of Trinity Hall. In 1447 he became Lord High Treasurer of England. Queen's College, Cambridge, was indebted to him for gifts of money towards its building, and books for its library. He was translated to Lincoln in 1450, and died in December of that same year.

#Nicholas Close# (1450-1452), Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; Chancellor of the University; Archdeacon of Colchester. Translated to the bishopric of Coventry and Lichfield 1452, and died two months after his translation. He was a great benefactor to King's College.

#William Percy# (1452-1462), Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Died in 1462.

#John Kingscott# (1462-1463), Archdeacon of Gloucester.

#Richard Scroope# (1464-1468), Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

#Edward Story# (1468-77), Fellow of Pembroke Hall; Master of Michael House, Cambridge, and Chancellor of the University. He was translated to Chichester 1477.

#Richard Bell# (1478-1495), Prior of Durham. He died in 1495, and was buried in the choir of the cathedral, where there is a fine bra.s.s to his memory.

#William Senhouse# or #Sever# (1496-1502). Educated at Oxford; Abbot of York. He was one of the commissioners sent to negotiate the marriage of Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., with James IV. Translated to Durham 1502.

#Roger Leyburn# (1503-1508), Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge; Archdeacon of Durham. Died 1508.

#John Penny# (1509-1520). Educated at Lincoln College, Oxford; Abbot of St. Mary de Pratis, Leicester, 1496; Bishop of Bangor, 1504. Translated to Carlisle 1509. Died in 1520, at Leicester, and was buried there.

#John Kite# (1521-1537), "a creature of Wolsey." Educated at Eton, and King's College, Cambridge. He was appointed Archbishop of Armagh, by provision of Pope Leo X. 1513, and in 1521 translated to Carlisle. In 1529 he approved the action of Henry VIII. in calling in question his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, and in 1530 he signed the letter to the Pope which demanded Henry's divorce. Four years later he renounced the Pope's supremacy. His epitaph says that during his episcopate he kept "n.o.byl Houshold wyth grete Hospitality." He died in London 1537, and was buried in Stepney Church.

#Robert Aldridge# (1537-1556). He was educated at Eton, and King's College, Cambridge. Friend of Erasmus; Registrar of the Order of the Garter; Provost of Eton; and Almoner to Queen Jane Seymour.

Until the close of the year 1550 his opinion was much sought after on questions affecting the Sacrament and the ma.s.s, which at that period were much in dispute.

#Owen Oglethorpe# (1557-1559), Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Living in the troublous times of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. he had, somewhat reluctantly, given his adhesion to the new order and form of service of the holy communion. He was raised to the bishopric of Carlisle by Mary in 1557. The following year she died, and the bishop being called upon to say ma.s.s before the new queen, elevated the Host, although she had expressly forbidden it. "A good-natur'd man, and when single by himself very plyable to please Queen Elizabeth," he crowned her queen when the rest of his order refused to perform the ceremony.

But "when in conjunction with other Popish Bishops, such principles of stubbornness were distilled into him" that he refused to take the oath of supremacy, and was accordingly deprived of his bishopric the following May. His death, which occurred 31st December 1559, is said to have been hastened by his remorse at having crowned Elizabeth--an enemy of the "true Church"--queen of England.

#John Best# (1560-1570). After the death of Oglethorpe, the bishopric was offered to "the excellent and pious" Bernard Gilpin, "the apostle of the north," but he refused it.

John Best was then consecrated. He was educated at

Oxford. At the beginning of Queen Mary's reign he had given up all his preferments and lived privately and obscurely. Four years after his consecration he had permission from the queen "to arm himself against the ill-doings of papists and other disaffected persons in his diocese."

He died in 1570, and was buried in the cathedral.

#Richard Barnes# (1570-1577), Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford; Suffragan-Bishop of Nottingham 1567; translated to Durham 1577. In a letter dated 1576 Barnes alludes to Carlisle as "this poore and bare living."

#John Maye# (1577-1598), Master of Catherine Hall; Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge. He died in February 1598 while the plague was ravaging Carlisle, and was buried in the cathedral.

#Henry Robinson# (1598-1616). Educated at Queen's College, Oxford, of which college he became Provost 1581. He took part in the Hampton Court Conference 1603, and was a great benefactor to his college. He died of the plague in 1616, and was buried in the cathedral, where his brother placed a bra.s.s to his memory.

#Robert Snowden# (1616-1621), Prebendary of Southwell. Died 1621.

#Richard Milburn# (1621-1624), Dean of Rochester. Translated from St.

David's. He died 1624.

#Richard Senhouse# (1624-1626). Educated at Trinity College, and St.

John's College, Cambridge. Dean of Gloucester. He preached at the coronation of Charles I. His death, which was caused by a fall from his horse, took place in 1626, and he was buried in the cathedral.

#Francis White# (1626-1629), Dean of Carlisle; translated to Norwich 1629. He brought himself into notice by preaching against popery; by a book written in antagonism to Fisher, the Jesuit; and, further, by holding a disputation with the same man in the presence of James I.

#Barnaby Potter# (1629-1642). Educated at, and Provost of Queen's College, Oxford; Chief Almoner of Charles I. Potter was one of the four bishops who advised Charles upon the attainder of Strafford. He died in London 1642.

#James Usher# (1642-1656). Educated at Trinity College, Dublin; Bishop of Meath; Archbishop of Armagh. He visited England in 1640, and was consulted by the Earl of Strafford in preparing a defence against his impeachment. Charles I. also consulted him as to whether he should sanction the death of the Earl. Usher was present at the execution of Strafford, and ministered to him in his last moments. In 1641 Archbishop Usher suffered severe losses from a rebellion in Ireland; and this is no doubt the reason why he never returned to that country. About this time Charles I. gave him the bishopric of Carlisle _in commendam_, but the Archbishop does not seem to have obtained much revenue therefrom, as the district was greatly impoverished through the English and Scottish troops being alternately quartered there. A few years later Parliament seized on his lands and voted him an annual pension of 400, which, however, he probably did not receive more than twice. During the troubles of these times he resided at Oxford and Cardiff. He came to London in 1646, and the next year, through his friend's endeavours, he was allowed to preach. He visited Charles at Carisbrooke in 1648. He died in 1656, and was buried, by order of Cromwell, in Westminster Abbey. He wrote "On the Original State of the British Churches," "The Ancient History of the British Churches," and his great work on sacred chronology, "The Annals of the Old Testament." It is said that Baxter wrote his famous "Call to the Unconverted" at the Archbishop's suggestion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REDNESS HALL. _A. Pumphrey, Photo._]

#Richard Sterne# (1660-1664). Educated at Trinity College; Master of Jesus College, Cambridge. He sided with the king on the outbreak of civil war, and was arrested by Cromwell in 1642 for endeavouring to send the college plate to Charles, and imprisoned in the Tower till the January following. He was kept prisoner in various places until 1645. He regained his Mastership at the Restoration, and soon after was made Bishop of Carlisle. He was translated to the archbishopric of York, leaving his bishopric in a very impoverished state. Sterne the novelist was his great-grandson.

#Edward Rainbow# (1664-1684). Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Magdalene College, Cambridge; he became Master of the latter in 1642-3. Dean of Peterborough 1661. He was very hospitable and liberal. He did not hesitate in years of scarcity (after he had exhausted his own stores of provisions) to buy corn which he gave away to the poor day by day. He died in 1684, and was buried at Dalston.

#Thomas Smith# (1684-1702). Educated at Queen's College; Prebendary of Durham; Dean of Carlisle. He was a very generous benefactor to Queen's College, Oxford, the Carlisle Grammar School, the chapter library, and the cathedral treasury. He died in 1702.

#William Nicolson# (1702-1718). A very learned antiquary. Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, and Archdeacon of Carlisle. His most noted work is the "Historical Library" (1696-1699), which at one time "afforded a guide to the riches of the chronicle literature of the British empire."

He was translated to the bishopric of Derry in 1718.

#Samuel Bradford# (1718-1723). Educated at St. Paul's School, the Charterhouse, and Corpus Christi, Cambridge. He was elected Master of Corpus Christi College in 1716. Dean of Westminster. Translated to Rochester 1723.

#John Waugh# (1723-1734). Educated at, and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford; Dean of Gloucester. Died 1734.

#Sir George Fleming#, Bart. (1735-1747). Educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford; Dean of Carlisle. During his episcopate the Young Pretender entered Carlisle (1745) and it is said that he installed one Thomas Coppock, or Cappoch, a Roman Catholic, as bishop. Coppock was captured, and executed at Carlisle the following year. Sir George Fleming died in 1747, and was buried in the cathedral.

#Richard Osbaldeston# (1747-1762). Educated at St. John's College, Cambridge; Dean of York. He was chiefly a non-resident bishop, and, on his translation to London in 1762, his successor complained bitterly of the state of dilapidation and decay into which Rose Castle, the bishop's residence, had been allowed to fall.

#Charles Lyttelton# (1762-1768). Educated at Eton, and University College, Oxford; Dean of Exeter. In 1765 he was president of the Society of Antiquaries. He wrote numerous articles, some of which are included in the first three volumes of the "Archaeologia." He was very genial and hospitable, and had a remarkable knowledge of antiquities. He died in London 1768, and was buried at Hagley.

#Edmund Law# (1769-1787). Educated at St. John's College, Cambridge; Fellow of Christ's College. He was an earnest student, and zealous for Christian truth and Christian liberty. He believed that the human race progresses in religion equally with its progress in all other knowledge.

He is said to have been "a man of great softness of manners, and of the mildest and most tranquil disposition." He died in 1787, and was buried in the cathedral.

#John Douglas# (1787-1791). Educated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, and Balliol; Dean of Windsor; translated to Salisbury 1791. He wrote many political pamphlets.

#The Hon. Edward Venables Vernon# (1791-1808), Canon of Christ Church, Oxford; translated to York 1808. He a.s.sumed the name of Harcourt in 1831.

#Samuel Goodenough# (1808-1827). Educated at Westminster, and Christ Church, Oxford; Canon of Windsor, and Dean of Rochester.

In 1809 a sermon preached before the House of Lords gave rise to the following epigram:--

'Tis well enough that Goodenough Before the Lords should preach; But, sure enough, full bad enough Are those he has to teach.

He died in 1827, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

#Hugh Percy# (1827-1856). Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; Bishop of Rochester, whence he was translated to Carlisle. During his episcopate he established a Clergy Aid Society (1838), and a Diocesan Education Society (1855). He died in 1856, and was buried at Dalston.

#Henry Montague Villiers# (1856-1860). Translated to Durham 1860.