THE FOUR HOUSES OF FRIARS
9. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF CARLISLE
10. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF CARLISLE
11. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF PENRITH
THE CARMELITE FRIARS OF APPLEBY
The four orders of mendicant friars had
obtained settlements in the diocese of Carlisle
before the close of the thirteenth century.
The same year witnessed the coming of the
friars preachers, black friars or Dominicans,
and the friars minors, minorites, grey friars,
or Franciscans, to Carlisle while Walter was
bishop of the diocese. In 1233, says the
Chronicle of Lanercost, (fn. 1) the order of friars
minors came to the city of Carlisle about the
Feast of the Assumption, 15 August, and received a house (mansionem) within the walls of
the city; and the order of friars preachers
about the feast of St. Michael, 29 September,
without the walls. It is said that the friars
of St. Mary of Mount Carmel, Carmelites, or
white friars, were established in Appleby by
the Lords Vesey, Percy and Clifford in 1281, (fn. 2)
and it is known as a certainty that the friars
eremites of the order of St. Augustine, Augustinians, or Austin friars, were carrying on
their mission in Penrith before 1300. (fn. 3) These
religious communities occupied a prominent
ecclesiastical position in the district, and
though the black friars and grey friars exercised the greater influence, they were all
usually associated in the minds of the people
as the four orders of friars.
The friars minors, having obtained a settlement on the south-east side of the city of
Carlisle, were not long in starting to erect
their chapel and buildings. In July 1235
Thomas de Multon, keeper of the forest of
Carlisle, was instructed to supply them with
twenty oaks as the king's gift for the construction of their church, and in the following
November the king made them another present of twenty pieces of timber (fuste) for the
building of their houses. (fn. 4)
The friars preachers met with greater obstacles to a final settlement when they chose
an habitation without the walls. There can
be no doubt that the statement of the Chronicle
of Lanercost is correct upon this point. Soon
after their arrival, viz. on 12 March 1233-4,
it was stated that the friars preachers of Carlisle had petitioned the king for a place (placia)
in the public highway (strata publica) which
lay between their chapel on the one side and
their land on the other, and as the king had
learned by inquisition that it would be no injury to the city or loss of any one if he should
grant their request, the sheriff of Cumberland
was ordered to give them seisin of the said
'place' for the enlargement of their houses
and buildings. (fn. 5) But in June 1237 they were
obliged to remove the house they had erected
in the public highway without the city (extra
civitatem) on the ground that it was a nuisance. (fn. 6) At this time they must have gained a
footing within the walls, for in 1237, both
before and after the injunction to pull down
the house outside, they obtained leave to perforate the city wall, (fn. 7) or make an excavation
beneath it for the purpose of carrying the
water conduit of their chambers extra civitatem. (fn. 8) Their church was not completed
for several years after this date, for in 1239
and 1244 they had gifts of timber in Inglewood Forest for the purpose of its construction. (fn. 9)
After the establishment of the houses we
have only occasional notices of their existence for a long time, except as the recipients
of alms from public sources or of gifts of land
for the enlargement of their premises. In
1278 the king, hearing that Bishop Robert
de Chause before his death left a deposit in
the custody of the friars minors within the
city of Carlisle, ordered Thomas de Normanville, his steward, to repair thither in person,
and take it to the king's use in satisfaction of
the late bishop's debts to him. Two years
afterwards King Edward gave to the same
friars six oaks fit for timber out of his forest. (fn. 10)
The Augustinians of Penrith were active in
enlarging their borders early in the fourteenth
century. In 1318 John de Penrith granted
them a piece of land for the extension of
their habitation, (fn. 11) and in 1331 and 1333 John
de Crumbewell made them gifts of tenements
and land for a similar purpose. (fn. 12) In like
manner it was found by inquisition taken at
Carlisle on 4 February 1333-4 that Thomas
le Spencer, chaplain, might alienate to the
friars preachers there a piece of land 240 feet
in length and 7 feet in breadth to form a road
straight from the street to their dwellingplace. The land was held in chief by housegavel, and was worth 40d. a year in all issues. (fn. 13) No licence for the transfer has been
recorded on the patent rolls.
The houses of friars in Carlisle had a share
in all the vicissitudes which go to make up
the chequered history of that city. From
their situation close to the walls, the preachers
on the west and the minorites on the southeast, their buildings occupied dangerous positions in times of siege and assault. In the
great fire of 1292, when the whole city including the abbey and the houses of the friars
minors were reduced to ashes, the preachers
alone, says the historian, were saved with the
greatest difficulty. (fn. 14) Another chronicler, lamenting in verse over the unspeakable calamity,
has told us that amid all the ruins of 'the renowned vill' only the Jacobins, the French
name for the friars preachers, survived the
catastrophe. (fn. 15) During the panic occasioned
by the fire two thieves escaped out of prison,
one of whom took sanctuary in the cathedral
church and the other in the church of the
friars minors. In consequence the citizens
were amerced in a fine of £16 to the Exchequer, but the king pardoned them on condition that they should recognize that they
were bound to the safe custody of felons flying for sanctuary to churches within their
city. (fn. 16)
During the progresses of the king or members of the royal family through the country,
the religious houses on the route, at which
they called or stayed, were the recipients of
royal bounties in consideration of the outlay
made by the religious men on their behalf, or
as gifts in alms to meet their immediate wants.
When the kings were in the north on their
various military expeditions against Scotland,
the local houses were often called upon to
provide accommodation for them in person or
for members of the court. In 1300 Edward I.
stayed occasionally with the friars preachers
and friars minors in Carlisle, and made complimentary gifts to them by way of acknowledgment of their hospitality. Sometimes he
gave them alms for their food, or for the
performance of some religious act like the
celebration of mass for the soul of the Count
of Holland or the Earl of Cornwall. Similar
oblations were offered to the friars of St.
Augustine of Penrith and the friars of Mount
Carmel of Appleby, with the former of whom
he stopped two days and with the latter one
day on his journey south. The wardrobe
accounts of the first three Edwards contain
many items of gifts and offerings made to the
four houses of friars in the diocese of Carlisle
by these kings or by members of their households on their journeys through the district. (fn. 17)
In other ways also the kings were benevolent
in dealing with these institutions. In 1334
the friars minors of Carlisle purchased victuals
to the value of £8 from Robert de Barton,
the king's receiver, for their maintenance, but
the king ordered the debt to be discharged
and the brethren acquitted in the following
year as an act of grace. (fn. 18) Edward III. must
have had pleasant memories of the happy
Christmas he spent with the minorites of
Carlisle in 1332, when the commonalty of
the city and neighbourhood displayed in a
marked degree evidences of loyalty and affection. (fn. 19)
Few things betoken the popularity of the
friars among the laity of every grade more
than their success with 'the dead hand' in
the matter of testamentary bequests. There
was no attempt to gain possession of real
property in lands or houses, like the monks
and nuns, beyond what was necessary for
their habitations and chapels or immediate
convenience, their vows of poverty forbidding
them to hold such possessions. But gifts of
money or in kind kept flowing in at their
solicitation. It is a striking feature of medieval wills that the four orders of friars as a
class or one of the orders in particular usually
figured as a beneficiary in testamentary dispositions. It would be difficult to decide
whether the Dominicans or Franciscans were
most popular with the dying man. The
churchyards in Carlisle seem to have been
often used as places of burial by people in the
neighbourhood. When it is remembered that
the secular priest of the parish in which the
testator lived invariably claimed the mortuary
due to him wherever the body of his parishioner was laid, it will be seen that burial in
the churchyards of the mendicant orders
involved a double burden to the deceased
man's estate. But financial considerations
did not prove a barrier to the persuasion of
the friars. In 1356 Matthew de Redman,
dating his will at Carlisle, bequeathed his
body to be buried in the churchyard of the
friars preachers of Carlisle with his best beast
as a mortuary to his parish church; to the
friars preachers he left 20s.; and a like sum to
the friars minors; also 6s. 8d. to Brother
Robert Deyncourt. A great local dignitary
like Sir Robert Tilliol of Scaleby desired his
body to be laid among the friars preachers of
Carlisle in 1367, as Robert del Shelde, a
humble citizen, had done ten years before
among the friars minors. Secular priests often
came under the same spell. In the same
year, 1362, two incumbents in distant parts of
the diocese disposed of their bodies in this
fashion: John de Seburgham, vicar of Walton,
desiring to be buried in the church of the
friars minors, and Richard de Ulnesby, rector
of Ulnesby or Ousby, in the church of the
friars preachers; John de Dundrawe of Carlisle,
in bequeathing his body to be laid among the
friars minors in 1380, made arrangements for
the payment of 15 marks to two chaplains
for one year, or to one chaplain for two years,
to celebrate for his soul at Our Lady's altar in
their church, adding a jug and a mazer bowl
as a personal gift. (fn. 20) These benefactions were
not confined to testators in the immediate
vicinity of Carlisle. The friars had a wider
field of missionary enterprise which knew no
frontier of county or diocese. Sir Brian de
Stapilton was not forgetful of the friars of
Carlisle in 1394, and Sir Richard le Scrop,
lord of Bolton, bequeathed 20s. in 1400 to
every house of friars in Carlisle, Penrith and
Appleby. (fn. 21) whereas John Knublow, rector of
Lamplugh, in the archdeaconry of Richmond,
singled out the friars preachers and friars
minors of Carlisle as the objects of his generosity when he was making his will in 1469. (fn. 22)
The friars were not backward in looking after
their own interests, in cases where executors
neglected to pay the amounts left to them by
will. A curious case arose in the diocesan
court of Carlisle in 1340, in which the
Dominican prior was complainant and Agnes
widow of William Hare of Derham was the
defendant. After much litigation the bishop
decided that the friars were entitled to the
benefaction of five marks sterling bequeathed
by the deceased, and ordered Agnes the executrix to pay that sum within six days together
with 20s. 1d. as costs. (fn. 23)
The relationship of the friars to the corporate life of the church should not be misunderstood. It was the bishop who conferred
holy orders on the inmates of their houses,
and it was under his licence that they exercised their vocation in his diocese. In the
ordination lists on record in the diocesan
registers, the names of friars admitted to
successive degrees will be found. To
William de Eyncourt, a friar preacher, Bishop
Ross committed in 1330 the faculty to preach
throughout his whole diocese, to hear the
confessions of all who were willing to confess
to him, to give absolution, and to enjoin salutary penance except in cases reserved by the
canons to the bishop himself. (fn. 24) The same
licence was given to Brother Thomas de
Skirwyth in 1356 on the recommendation of
Robert de Deyncourt, a friar preacher of
Carlisle. (fn. 25) On 24 February 1354-5, Brother
William de Croft of the order of the Blessed
Mary of Mount Carmel in Appleby, having
been presented by the prior provincial iuxta
capitulum super cathedram, was admitted by
Bishop Welton to the office of preaching and
the hearing of confessions in the place of
John de Haytefeld of the same order. (fn. 26) In the
licences, the cases reserved to the bishop were
often set out by name. When William de
Dacre, lector of the convent of friars minors in
Carlisle, in whose integrity of conscience the
bishop of the diocese was fully confident, was
admitted to exercise his office in foro penitencie, (fn. 27)
cases of the violators of nuns, perjurers in
assizes or indictments, matrimonial causes,
divorces and crimes involving the loss of life
or limb were specially excepted. In the
faculty which Thomas de Thornton of the
Augustinian Order in Penrith received in 1365
for one year, Bishop Appleby added to the
reservations the practice of usury and breaking
and entering his parks of Rose or Beaulieu to
take anything away. (fn. 28) It is evident that the
Bishops of Carlisle exercised an effective
jurisdiction over the acts of the mendicant
orders within the diocese.
It is not to be expected that the friars, established in the three different centres of the diocese,
would be popular with the parochial clergy if we
have regard to the nature of their vocation and
method of life. At every turn they were
apt to intrude on the office and tread on the
toes of the secular priest. They had a roving
commission to enter parishes, to preach, hear
confessions, solicit alms, and to perform various
ecclesiastical functions which in many instances
must have brought them into conflict with
the country clergy. As a matter of fact,
much unpleasantness had arisen and complaints
were numerous about the intrusion of the
friars. The privileges of the parochial clergy
were violated to such an extent that they
appealed to the pope for redress in 1300.
The bull of Boniface VIII. contra Fratres is
on record. (fn. 29) It was not by any means entirely
in favour of the secular clergy, though regulations were laid down to restrain the friars in
their aggressions on the parochial office. The
pope prescribed the cases in which they might
preach and hear confessions, and at the same
time recommended the parish priests to receive
them kindly for the sake of the apostolic see.
In 1352 the clergy of Carlisle moved Bishop
Welton for relief. It was represented to
him that the mendicant orders, not content
with their own bounds, were in the habit of
betaking themselves frequently to divers
churches and chapels, not for the sake of
preaching the word of God, but in the same
churches and chapels on Sundays and Festivals
during the solemnity of mass, when a great
multitude of people were present, to the impediment of divine culture and the stirring up
of tumult, with vain and heedless displays of
excessive indulgences and plenary remission,
sought quest of money and not gain of souls
with open books in their hands like questors,
contrary to canonical sanctions and the rules
of their orders and the customs anciently
observed, for which reason uproars among the
people and injurious reports were almost of
daily occurrence. The bishop, wishing to
remedy these abuses, sent his mandate to all
deans, rectors, vicars and parish chaplains, forbidding them under pain of the greater
excommunication to permit any friar of the
mendicant orders, even when licensed by him
in the form of the constitution, to exercise a
quest of any sort in their churches or chapels,
and specially in time of divine service, unless
on production of special letters. (fn. 30)
The Augustinians of Penrith had recourse
to various devices for the maintenance of the
house. It appears that the voluntary alms of
the people of that district were not sufficient.
Bishop Welton assisted them in some measure by appointing the prior in 1360 during
pleasure to the church of Newton Reigny,
which had been vacant for some time, and
allowing him to discharge the cure of souls
by some fit brother of the community. (fn. 31) The
same consideration was shown by Bishop
Appleby in 1365, when R. the sacrist of the
house was appointed to the same charge for
four years. (fn. 32) The brothers contrived a new
expedient in 1360, from which they expected
a substantial addition to their encumbered
finances. In that year they started and intended to continue a light at mass in the conventual church at Penrith in honour of the
Nativity of the Saviour and the blessed Mary,
so that when the divine office was sung the
light should burn on the feast of the Nativity
every year. But they were unable to continue this without the alms of the faithful.
In order to promote such a praiseworthy
devotion, the bishop issued a firm indulgence
for forty days to all in his diocese who went
to the conventual church in a contrite and
penitent spirit for the purpose of hearing mass
on that day or who contributed of their goods
for the keeping up of the said light. (fn. 33)
It may be regarded as a testimony of the
estimation in which the prior of the friars
preachers was held that he was sometimes
employed in important and delicate negotiations or he was present at great functions.
The prior of the Carlisle preachers was a
witness to the award made in 1289 for the
settlement of a dispute between the Augustinian priory of Pontefract and the Cluniac house
of Monk Bretton. (fn. 34) In 1329 he was appointed
in a commission with the abbot of Holmcultram and the archdeacon of Carlisle by Pope
John XXII. to hear a cause between the
Bishop of Durham and the Archbishop of
York, but they refused to undertake the task
owing to the scarcity of lawyers in the district
and their distance from York. (fn. 35) Dr. Saunderson was one of the last wardens of the grey
friars in Carlisle, having been in possession of
that dignity in 1523. (fn. 36) When the end of the
religious houses was drawing nigh, the king
made what use he could of the preaching
capacities of the friars in upholding the
authority of a general council (fn. 37) and belittling
the power of the pope, but no allegiance to
the national policy could avert their fall. In
1534 was begun the royal visitation with a
view to their extinction. George Browne,
prior of the Augustinian hermits in London,
was appointed by the Crown to the office of
provincial prior to the whole order of friars
hermits in England, and John Hilsey received
a similar commission over the whole order of
friars preachers for the purpose of visiting the
houses of all friars of whatever order throughout the kingdom, viz. the friars minors of
the order of St. Francis, the friars preachers
of the order of St. Dominic, the friars hermits 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. (fn. 38) This visitation was the precursor
of their destruction.
In the spring of 1539, the task of suppressing the northern houses of friars was entrusted 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 Scharborow, 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.' (fn. 39) 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' (1 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.' (fn. 40) 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 retained in the king's hand, enclosed with a paling,
and converted into a council chamber, magazine 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 Carmelites in Appleby have altogether disappeared.