Bishop of Carlisle

“ There is a tablet to the memory of William Goodenough, formerly rector, Archdeacon of Carlisle (the benefice formerly being in the patronage of the Bishops of Carlisle) , who died 13th Dec., 1854; and commemorating his wife Mary Anne, daughter of Dr. Samuel Goodenough, Bishop of Carlisle; she dying 3rd Jan., 1847, aged 75. The memorial was erected by their only surviving child, Mrs. Hawkins.
The choir sittings are of carved modern oak; the pulpit is also of the same, on a stone base, and the lectern. The chancel arch is lofty, the modern side columns having richly carved capitals. ”

“ After his ordination he was instituted to the family living of Sudbury. He became a canon of Christ Church, Oxford, 13 Oct. 1785, and a prebendary of Gloucester on 10 Nov. in the same year; he resigned his prebendal stall in 1791, but held his other appointments to 1808. On 18 Aug. 1791 he was nominated bishop of Carlisle in succession to Dr. John Douglas, and was consecrated on 6 Nov. following. For sixteen years he administered the affairs of the see of Carlisle with good sense and discretion, spending more than the whole income of the see upon the wants of his diocese. ”

“ Carlyle was appointed chaplain by Lord Elgin to the embassy at Constantinople in 1799, and prosecuted his researches in Eastern literature in a tour through Asia Minor, Palestine, Greece and Italy, collecting in his travels several valuable Greek and Syriac MSS. for a projected critical edition of the New Testament, collated with the Syriac and other versions—a work, however, which he did not live to complete. On his return to England in 1801 he was presented by the bishop of Carlisle to the living of Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he died on the 12th of April 1804. ”

“ In contemporary journals Coppock is seriously spoken of as ‘the titular bishop of Carlisle.’ It has been said that Coppock led a very irregular and immoral life; but no reliance can be placed on these statements. They emanated from his political enemies, and are to be found in the following pamphlets: ‘An Authentic History of the Life and Character of Thomas Cappoch, the rebel-bishop of Carlisle,’ London, 1746, 8vo, reprinted in the ‘Carlisle Tracts,’ 1839; ‘The Genuine Dying Speech of the Rev. Parson Coppock, pretended Bishop of Carlisle,’ Carlisle [1746] , 8vo. ”

“ He was buried in the cathedral of Carlisle, where the inscription on his monument commemorates his zeal alike for Christian truth and Christian liberty, adding 'religionem simplicem et incorruptam nisi salva libertate stare non posse arbitratus.' His biographer, who knew him well, describes the bishop as 'a man of great softnesse of manners, and of the mildest and most tranquil disposition. ”

“ In October 1869 he accepted Gladstone's offer of the bishopric of Carlisle, which see he held till his death. At Carlisle the bishop brought to bear on the work of the diocese the energy and ability which had made him a man of mark from his early Cambridge days. He infused a new spirit and vitality into all the existing organisations within the diocese, and he also found time to preach frequently in London and to attend the meetings of the great church societies, where he was always a welcome speaker. ”

“ Know that we, by the guidance of God, and for the health of our soul, and of the souls of our ancestors and descendants, have granted, and confirmed by this present charter, to God, and the church of the blessed Mary of Carlisle, and to the Venerable Father, Walter, Bishop of Carlisle," &c. It then goes on to specify, among other privileges, that the bishop shall have "all chattells of felons and fugitives, all amerciaments and fines from all men and tenants of the manor and soke; that the bishop and his successors shall be quit for ever to the king of all mercies, fines (&c.) ”

“ Law, son of the bishop of Carlisle, to whom Paley was indebted for much of his subsequent preferment in the church. In 1776 Paley married, and of course vacated his fellowship; but in lieu of it he had got the livings of Mosgrove and Appleby in Westmoreland, and of Dalston in Cumberland. In 1782 he obtained the archdeaconry of Carlisle, and a prebendal stall in the cathedral of that city. ”

“ At the Restoration he was reinstated as master of Jesus College and soon after was made bishop of Carlisle. With George Griffith, bishop of St Asaph, and Brian Walton, bishop of Chester, he was appointed by Convocation to revise the Prayer Book. In 1664 he was raised to the arch- bishopric of York. He had impoverished Carlisle, and in his new see, according to Burnet (who calls him " a sour ill-tempered man ") , " minded chiefly the enriching of his family." ”

“ It has suffered damage during its migrations in the cathedral; and the feet are broken. This was probably done when it was removed from the choir to the 57 aisle (1856) . Jewels which originally enriched the mitre and the cross on the breast have disappeared.
In the next bay to the east is a small mural brass plate finely engraved in memory of Bishop Robinson (1598-1616.) He was a native of Carlisle, and, entering Queen's College, Oxford, as a "poor serving child," eventually became provost, and proved a great benefactor to that foundation. ”

“ He was brought from India by his widowed mother to Berwick, and there and at Carlisle his early education was conducted. He graduated with honours at Cambridge in 1812, and became a Fellow of Trinity College during the same year. ”

“ It is of richly-carved Caen stone, on a plinth of black Manx marble, and ornamented with carvings in white alabaster, of scenes from the New Testament. In shape it is hexagonal, with shafts at the angles rising into an enriched cornice. The lectern—a brass eagle—was given in memory of the late G.C. Mounsey, sometime diocesan registrar.
In the middle of the choir is a monument to Bishop Bell. On a blue slab under a triple canopy, the centre pediment of which has I.H.S., and its point the Deity and Christ, is a brass figure of a bishop in pontificalibus, mitre and gloves ”

“ CARLISLE CATHEDRAL CHAPTER I HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE HOLY AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY
The details of the founding of the cathedral of Carlisle are very precise and clear.
When William Rufus returned southwards after re-establishing the city of Carlisle, he left as governor a rich Norman priest named Walter. He began at once to build a church to be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was to have in connection with it a college of secular canons. Walter did not, however, live to see the building finished, and Henry I. took it upon himself to complete the good work. ”

“ With a strict painful mind, an understanding small but clear and ready, he grew in favour with official persons, who could foresee in him an excellent man of business, happily quite free from genius. The Bishop, therefore, taking counsel, appoints him Judge of his diocese; and he faithfully does justice to the people: till behold, one day, a culprit comes whose crime merits hanging; and the strict-minded Max must abdicate, for his conscience will not permit the dooming of any son of Adam to die. ”

“ Come, man, sit down, till you see how you'll sink in it.”
“Oh, murdher!” exclaimed Denis, “where am I at all? Docthor dear, am I in sight? Do you see the crown o' my head, good or bad? Oh, may I never sin, but that's great state!—Well, to be sure!”
“Ay,” said the priest, “see what it is to be a bishop in any church! The moment a man becomes a bishop, he fastens tooth and nail upon luxury, as if a mitre was a dispensation for enjoying the world that they have sworn to renounce. Dionysius, look about you! Isn't this worth studying for?” ”

“ Ives and Ely Cathedral, where Oliver two centuries before had called out to the recalcitrant Anglican in the pulpit, "Cease your fooling and come down." In July 1843 Carlyle made a trip to South Wales; to visit first a worthy devotee called Redwood, and then Bishop Thirlwall near Carmarthen. "A right solid simple-hearted robust man, very strangely swathed," is the visitor's meagre estimate of one of our most classic historians. ”

“ At Carlisle there is a noble choir, ending in what is probably the grandest window in England. If that choir only had transepts, nave, and towers to match it, the church of Carlisle would be a splendid church indeed. But the choir is built up against a little paltry transept and central tower, and nothing remains by way of nave but two bays of the original small Norman church, the rest having utterly vanished. Here then is a church which does not form a harmonious whole, a church which remains utterly unfinished, and of which one essential part has been destroyed. ”

“ He has a nice property, and he is Rector of Basing, which is a very good living, and Archdeacon of Stanmore. He has come here to hold a visitation, you know; and they say that if Carlingford was made into a bishopric, he is almost sure to be the first bishop; and you know a bishop, or even an archdeacon, has a very nice position. ”

“ The laboring men of Yorkshire have not the clamorous necessities of pagans; and therefore Lord Carlisle has not assumed the duties of a working missionary. When, by personally coming forward to lecture, he inaugurated a new era of intellectual prospects for the sons of toil, implicitly he promised that he would himself, from time to time, come forward to co-operate with a movement that had owed its birth to his own summons and impulse. ”

“ In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, this Abbot, it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last. He tempers his medicine to the malady, now hot, now cool; prudent though fiery, an eminently practical man. Nay sometimes in his adroit practice there are swift turns almost of a surprising nature! Once, for example, it chanced that Geoffrey Riddell Bishop of Ely, a Prelate rather troublesome to our Abbot, made a request of him for timber from his woods towards certain edifices going on at Glemsford. ”

“ My-doxy is, that an august National Assembly can equalise the extent of Bishopricks; that an equalised Bishop, his Creed and Formularies being left quite as they were, can swear Fidelity to King, Law and Nation, and so become a Constitutional Bishop. Thy-doxy, if thou be Dissident, is that he cannot; but that he must become an accursed thing. Human ill-nature needs but some Homoiousian iota, or even the pretence of one; and will flow copiously through the eye of a needle thus always must mortals go jargoning and fuming. ”

“ Nor, in the midst of affluence and reputation, did he forget the wants of his more humble relatives; to whose necessities, as to those of the poor of his native place, he ministered with a bountiful hand. In Carlisle, also, he contributed toward the various objects of public charity; he was ever anxious to serve those who, in private, applied to him for assistance; and he subscribed liberally toward the erection of the new churches, which were rendered necessary by the large population of the old Border city. ”

“ I do not fear that I shall offend Lord Carlisle, so upright as he has always shown himself, so manly, and so faithful to his own views of truth, by repeating firmly that such a choice in such a situation argues a deep misconception of the true intellectual agencies by which Pope acts as a power in literature, and of the moral relations to general human sensibilities or universal nature which such agencies involve. ”

“ He is the warfaring and battling Priest; who led his people, not to quiet faithful labour as in smooth times, but to faithful valorous conflict, in times all violent, dismembered: a more perilous service, and a more memorable one, be it higher or not. These two men we will account our best Priests, inasmuch as they were our best Reformers. Nay I may ask, Is not every true Reformer, by the nature of him, a Priest first of all? He appeals to Heaven's invisible justice against Earth's visible force; knows that it, the invisible, is strong and alone strong. ”

“ Carlyle's shoulder, which his own head scarcely reached, "I am sometimes at death-beds where the clergyman is sent for in this desperate need to the fleeting spirit, and I am tempted to ask myself what good another man, priest though he be, can do at the twelfth hour, where accounts have not been made up previously?" ”

“ These testimonies are quoted as being those of politicians, and, in the case of Carleton, of a keen opponent. The church historian, whilst not ignoring the faults which the bishop, like other strong natures, possessed, may well go somewhat further than the man of the world. He is fain to recognise the nobleness of the bishop's ideals, the width of his learning, the soundness of his churchmanship, the statesmanlike grasp with which he confronted the difficulties and dangers of an unfamiliar situation. The old autocratic temper still remained, as the Church of New Zealand was yet to realise ”

“ Many of his opinions he would despair of proving in the most patient court of law, and would remain well content that they should be disbelieved there.' In philosophy we shall not be very far wrong if we rank Carlyle as a follower of Bishop Berkeley; for an idealist he undoubtedly was. 'Matter,' says he, 'exists only spiritually, and to represent some idea, and body it forth. Heaven and Earth are but the time-vesture of the Eternal. The Universe is but one vast symbol of God; nay, if thou wilt have it, what is man himself but a symbol of God? ”

“ If you seek frowning gateways, embattled walls, and the like, sufficient to clothe the stirring story of Carlisle, you will be freezing in the cold shade of disappointment, for the streets of Carlisle are wide, many of the houses are modern, and railways are very much to the fore. The Cathedral is obscurely placed, and almost the only picturesque nook is the alley called St. ”