A spirit of peace and goodwill breathes through this document, and one too that suggests continuity in the order of the church. Yet it must be remembered that it was written in the reign of Elizabeth, when the Protestant religion had been firmly established by law, and written moreover by a man who had undoubtedly followed the Catholic ritual fifteen years before. His fellow curate too of that date, "preist" Watson, was still alive, surviving him by eight years. There is a Protestant odour about the cassock, and Jackson possessed one; but his wardrobe is distinctly of the old-world, priestly type. It is probable indeed that there was little change made for some time even in the services of the church. The people of the north-western mountains were conservative, and it was they who most stoutly resisted the suppression of the monasteries. There is evidence to show that the new tenets were but slowly adopted in these parts. The church at Crosthwaite was found as late as 1571 to be still in possession of the furniture and pictures that had lent a touch of splendour to the former ritual; and they were then most stringently ordered to be destroyed.[107] [107] Victorian _History of Cumberland_. The people were not likely to welcome changes that brought in their train not only impoverishment of service, but reduction in the number of the clergy; for with the diversion of the tithes, there ceased to be any provision for the salaries of curates. Langdale did without a curate, and not until over 200 years was the township once more blessed with a resident minister, though the chapel was used for services. Ambleside was in different case. Now a thriving little town, equally distant from the two parish churches that claimed it, with fulling mills bringing in wealth, it was able to maintain a curate independently, and did so. James Dugdale the cleric, who witnessed a Rydal deed in 1575, might have been supposed to serve at Ambleside, only that Priest Watson was then alive. Certain it is that in 1584 the townsfolk placed their support of chapel and curate on a solid basis, pledging each man his portion of land thereto. This was immediately before the appointment of John Bell as curate. The pledge was repeated in a deed of the year 1597.